I use MS Outlook 2002. I use it for my business.
I do international trade.

Over the years I have created several dozen
Distribution Lists.

Each Distribution List contains e-mail addresses
of people dealing in a particular set of goods,
for example appliances, automotive, computers,
paint, etc.

Over the years I added a lot of e-mail addresses
to the various Distribution Lists.

I bcc to a particular Distribution List whenever
I have goods for sale or on demand.

When I e-mail a Distribution List I get a large
set of returned mail telling me that most of
the members of the Distribution List did not
receive the e-mail because my Distribution List
is too big.

Approximately 50 e-mails get sent out and the
remainder bounce back with the same error message.

So I have decided to look at using other services
to send e-mail to my Distribution Lists. 

In order to do that, I need to extract somehow
the e-mail addresses from each of the Distribution
Lists.

I have tried 2 things which didn't work.

I exported the Contacts List. The result appears
to contain only the e-mail addresses which
are NOT in the Distribution Lists (it contains
only the e-mail addresses of the contacts.

I copied one of the Distribution Lists into a
new Contacts List which I created. I then 
exported that Contacts List. The result did 
not contain any e-mail addresses.

I have no other ideas on how to extract the
e-mail addresses from my Distribution Lists 
except to do it manually, one by one. Since
I have thousands of e-mail addresses, this is
not a good option.

Please help.

---

Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 17 May 2004 08:19 PDT

Hi bizbb,

Try this:

1) Open a distribution list.

- Go to File / Save As / save as a *.txt document.

2) Open MS Excel.

- Go to File / Open / choose Files of type: All Files (*.*). 
- Select your *.txt document that you saved. 

3) Text Import Wizard will open. 

- The default is "Delimited", "Start import at row: 1", and "File
orgin: Windows (ANSI)"
- Press 'Finish' and your document will open.

4) Delete all but one row above the data.
- Name your rows (first row "name", second row "email").
- Save: File / Save As / Save as type: Text(*.txt). 
- It will pop up a warning screen - click "Yes". Close.

5) Go to Outlook / Contacts Folder / add folder.

6) Outlook / File / Import and Export.

7) Import Export Wizard will open.
- Select "Import from another program or file". Click "Next".
- In "Select file type to import from:", scroll to the bottom.
- Highlight "Tab Separated Values (Windows)". Click "Next.
- Browse to your new .txt file. Click "Next".
- Select Destination Folder (the new Contacts Folder). Click Next.
- Click on "Map Custom Fields ...".  
- Click and drag your FROM "email" field (on the left) -> to the TO
field (on the right).

7) Click "Finish". You now should have the only the email addresses in
your Contacts folder.

Please let me know if that works. If not, I can suggest some software
that should be able to help you ($25 or less).

Good luck,
hummer

---

Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 23 May 2004 06:02 PDT

Hi bizbb,

Did my solution work?  If so, please let me know so I can post it as
an answer. If not, let us know that as well and we'll continue to work
on your question.

Thank you,
hummer

---

Clarification of Question by bizbb-ga on 24 May 2004 14:15 PDT

Hummer,

I love your answer, thanks.  I don't know any other way to reach you.

Please tell me a way that I can rate you, since it appears that you're
not the 'official' answerer.  I believe that the rules don't allow me
to leave any clues as to how to reach me. You can probably figure out
a way to get an e-mail to me.  If you do, I'll give you an invitation 
to a GMail account (if you want one).  I love GMail.

I want you to get paid, if you're the 'official' answerer.  If you're
not, I'm going to cancel the question, since you've provided the 
answer.

Dear bizbb,

Terrific news, bizbb, I'm really happy to hear that it worked for you.
Not to worry about contacting me - you've done exactly the right
thing. There is no limit to the number of "clarifications" you can
post, even if they aren't really clarifications but just notes to a
researcher. Alternately, you can post comments too as a way to
communicate.

Thank you for your nice note and for giving me a chance to post this
as an answer, I appreciate it.  Here it is again, to make it official.

1) Open a distribution list.

- Go to File / Save As / save as a *.txt document.

2) Open MS Excel.

- Go to File / Open / choose Files of type: All Files (*.*). 
- Select your *.txt document that you saved. 

3) Text Import Wizard will open. 

- The default is "Delimited", "Start import at row: 1", and "File
orgin: Windows (ANSI)"
- Press 'Finish' and your document will open.

4) Delete all but one row above the data.
- Name your rows (first row "name", second row "email").
- Save: File / Save As / Save as type: Text(*.txt). 
- It will pop up a warning screen - click "Yes". Close.

5) Go to Outlook / Contacts Folder / add folder.

6) Outlook / File / Import and Export.

7) Import Export Wizard will open.
- Select "Import from another program or file". Click "Next".
- In "Select file type to import from:", scroll to the bottom.
- Highlight "Tab Separated Values (Windows)". Click "Next.
- Browse to your new .txt file. Click "Next".
- Select Destination Folder (the new Contacts Folder). Click Next.
- Click on "Map Custom Fields ...".  
- Click and drag your FROM "email" field (on the left) -> to the TO
field (on the right).

8) Click "Finish". You now should have the only the email addresses in
your Contacts folder.

Take care,
hummer
p.s. I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying GMail - I haven't seen it
yet but hope to soon.