How to manage contact lists in Outlook

If you have many contacts, you may find it helpful to organize them into separate Outlook contact lists, such as a Family list, Business list, or Classmates list. In this article, we’ll show you how to create and edit contact lists. 

Note: Contact lists are different from contact groups. Before we show you how to create and manage contacts Outlook contact lists, let’s look at the difference between contacts lists and groups. 

  • Contact lists – Contact lists are a way of organizing contacts to make them easier to find.
  • Contact groups – Contact groups are used to send emails to all group members at once. Contact groups used to be called distribution lists.

To learn more about Outlook contact groups, check out our Knowledge Base article How to create and use contact groups in Outlook.

How to create an Outlook contact list

  1. Click People on the Navigation bar.
  2. Click New Contact List. Note: If using Outlook.com, you will need to select this from the drop-down menu. 
  3. Enter a Name for the contact list. 
  4. Add the email addresses for the contacts you would like to add to the contact list.
  5. Click Create.

How to add contacts to an Outlook contact list

To add an existing contact to a contact list, select and drag it to the contact list folder.

To create a new contact in your contact list, click the Home tab and select the contact folder in the Navigation Pane. Next, click New Contact and add the contact details. When you’re done entering the contact details, click Save & Close.

How to create folder groups

You can add another layer of organization by creating folder groups for your contacts. For example, we could create a folder group called Personal to include the Family contact list and another list called Friends.

  1. Right-click My Contacts.
  2. Select New Folder Group.
  3. Enter a name for the group. 
  4. Select and drag the contact list from the default My Contacts group to the new group.

How to send an email to a contact in a contact list

  1. Click Mail on the Navigation bar.
  2. Click Home > New Email.
  3. Select the contact list in the Address Book drop-down list. 
  4. Select the contact, then click To
  5. Click OK.

More information

For more information about Outlook contacts, check out the following articles in the HostPapa knowledge base:

If you need help with your HostPapa account, please open a support ticket from your dashboard.

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