Be Discreet with Your E-mail Mailing Lists
Sun Review April 28, 2001

Has this ever happened to you? You receive a bulk e-mail, an electronic message sent to hundreds of people, and it lists all the other recipients' e-mail addresses. A few days later you start to receive other bulk or junk e-mails because someone else on this massive mail-out list now has your e-mail address.

Mailing lists are a great way to send an e-mail to a large number people with a single click.

If you find yourself sending the same message to business associates, club members, or maybe mailing a monthly update to your relatives, you should consider using a mailing list or group to save time and effort.

If you're using Outlook Express, open your address book and click on New Group. Enter a name for the group in the Group Name box, and then start adding members to your group. You can select people who are already in your Contact list, or you can type in their e-mail address manually.

Once you have finished adding people to your list, click Save Group.

If you ever need to add another contact to your list, just open your Address Book, select the group you want to add to, click Add, enter their address, and click Save Group.

Should you ever need to remove someone from your list, select the group, select the person to remove and click the Remove box. Remember to Save Group again. To delete an entire group, simply select the group you want to delete and click Delete.

If you're as picky about mailing list etiquette as I am, you should use the Blind Carbon Copy option to send your message. When you send a regular e-mail or a carbon copy (CC) of an e-mail, all those to whom the message was sent will be able to see everyone's e-mail addresses.

If you want to ensure that the recipients on your list do not receive this list, you should send a blind carbon copy (BCC). Using BCC, you can copy an e-mail to someone without anyone else ever knowing the e-mail went to that particular person, and you can also hide the e-mail addresses of everyone in your mailing list. If you're using Outlook Express, you can also specify this option when you create a Group or Mailing List.

Questions or comments? E-mail inge@ingenius.bc.ca or visit www.ingenius.bc.ca/webwoman.