Sometimes I have questions which really take me back to the basics.
Today I had a question from someone who is excellent at what they do, but not terribly literate when it comes to computers. And that’s ok, they don’t have to be, that’s why they have me to help them out :) Anyway, they simply wanted to manage a small (under 25 names) sub-group of their address book for sending once a month emails and not interested in a lot of fuss and not really keen to learn something new and potentially confusing. OK, well I know how I manage groups of that size – I make up a group in my Apple Address book and drop in whatever names I need – it takes 2 minutes. When I send I send to the group name and all the addresses pop into the “To” line. EZ as pie.
On the other side of the coin, some of my clients send to hundreds / thousands of targets. For that I use php scripted database driven lists through our server. So coming back to this small under 25 management – it was a challenge to get my thinking back to small & ultimately simple. Kind of refreshing actually!
So, the easiest / most basic way I could think of is simply to write the email addresses into a document (like a “Word” or “Publisher” or any text document), save that document, and then copy and paste the addresses into the “To” line of a new email when you want to go to send it.
This is very primiative, but simple and effective method.
Your text document with the email list would look like this:
Jane Doe <nowhere@yahoo.com>, Clyde Lovett <clyde@notarealdomain.com>, Charlie Brown <charlie.brown@fakecompany.com>, John Doe <john.doe@madeupname.com>
and so on, with each address entry separated by commas.
When you want to send an email and you you need the address just copy the whole kit and caboodle into the “To” line and off you go.
The email program will recognize the stuff in between the < > as the email address and the other name info is for your reference.
I can take people to any level of sophistication they want with this, but this is the most basic, easy method to manage a group :)
Let me know if you need more / different / more sophisticated or if this answers your question.
Cheers,
Clyde
