|
DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
June 8,
2008
Q.
I want to send a friend a list of some of
the email addresses in my Outlook Express
address book. How can I do this without
physically typing each one?
A.
There is no way to just select and then
print out some of the names in the Outlook
Express address book, but there are a couple
of ways that will allow creating the list
much easier than manually copying each
address.
You can
export the address book as a Windows Address
Book (WAB) type file. This is
especially handy if you are moving your
addresses to another computer. To do this,
open Outlook Express, and click on the
address book icon to open the address book.
Click on File, Export, then Address Book (WAB).
Choose a place to save the file, and give it
a name that is easy to recognize. Be sure
you note where you saved it and its name so
you can easily find it.
Now,
click Save, and unless your address book is
very large, the process will complete very
fast. This new file can now be given to
whomever and they can open it to see all the
information.
However,
if you want to send an actual list of only
some of the addresses, and not any other
information in your address book, there is a
better way. You can export any of the data
in a Comma Separated Value (CSV) type file
that can then be open in any number of
programs to edit it. A Spreadsheet like
Excel is probably the best for this. In your
case, where you want just a readable list,
this is the method you should use. Here's
how to do it.
Open
Outlook Express, click File, Export, then
Address book. You will be given a couple of
choices and one of them is Text file (Comma
Separated Values). Highlight it and click
the Export button. Click the Browse button
to select the location to save the file. My
Documents will be the default, but you can
choose any other location. After the
location is selected, give the file a name
that you can remember and click Save. You
will be returned to the CSV Export dialog
and the name you choose will be displayed in
the space to the left of the Browse button.
Click
Next, and you will be given a list of all
the items you can include or exclude from
the list you are creating. Any field in your
address book that has an entry will be
checked by default. Since all you want are
the actual email address, uncheck all the
boxes but that one. You will have to scroll
down to see all the fields. Click the Finish
button, and then close all the dialogs. For
clarity and identification, you may also
wish to include the name along with the
email address.
Open the
program you want to view this new file in.
I'll use Excel as it is probably the most
likely one that you will use. The free
program Open Office Calc also works well.
Start Excel, click Open and locate the
folder in which you saved the file. In the
"Files of Type" space choose All files.
Click on the file you created, and it will
open and display all your email addresses in
a column, probably column "A". Click the
vertical bar between the letters "A" and "B"
and drag it to the right to expand it enough
so that the full names fit into it without
overlapping the next column.
There are
several ways to edit this list so that it
contains only the names you wish to send.
Which one you use depends on how familiar
you are with using Excel. If you are
familiar with Excel, you can go down the
list and place any character, like an X, in
the "B" column of all you want to include or
exclude depending on which is the largest.
Then sort by the "B" column and all those
you selected, or did not select will be
together and can be deleted all at once.
Then delete the 'B' column, and you have
your list.
If you
are not familiar with Excel, then the best
way is to go down the list and Right click
on the number to the left of the name to
highlight it, then press the "D" key to
delete it. If you just highlight it and use
the keyboard's Delete key, only the text
will be deleted, and you will have a blank
space.
When all
the editing is done by any method click
File, SendTo, and "Mail Recipient (as
attachment)". Enter the person's name and a
brief note as to what the list is. Save the
modified file under a different name before
closing Excel, should you need to reference
it later. |
