How To Create And Use Mailing Lists In Thunderbird

Creating and Using a Mailing List in Thunderbird.

Guide Overview

The purpose of this guide is to teach you how to create an email Mailing List (or group) in Mozilla Thunderbird and use it to make emailing to multiple addresses easier.
As an example we will assume Ted, Sue, Bob and Alice are members of your Karate club's regional championship winning Kata Team and you are responsible for notifying the team about training times.
To complicate things Alice has told you she does not want any of the other Team members to know her email addres.


Creating a Mailing List

• Open the Thunderbird email client.
• On the "Mail Toolbar" click on the 'Address Book' button, this opens a new Address Book window.
  
  
  
  
• In the new window click on the 'New List' button, this will open a 'Mailing List' dialog box.
  
  
  
  
• Choose to which Address Book you wish to add the mailing list if you have multiple Address Books.
• Type a List name, in our example this will be Kata Team as shown.
• Enter an optional nickname for the list.
• Add a list description if desired.
• Type in email addresses in the spaces provided. In the example shown we have added Ted, Sue and Bob's addresses.
  
  
  
  
• To add addresses already in your Address Book see below.
• Cick 'OK'

The dialog box will close and you will be returned to the 'Adress Book' window. The new Mailing List will appear below 'Personal Address Book' in the 'Address Books' pane.

To keep Alice's email address confidential you will need to create a second Group in the same way, with a name which indicates the email addresses are to remain private. In this example it is called Confidential.

Adding Addresses to a Mailing List

Once the Mailing List is defined you can add names (addresses) to the list from the Address Book by dragging from the Address Book listing in the right hand pane and dropping on the Mailing list.
Double clicking the mailing list will open the 'Mailing List' dialog again so you can check the correct addresses have been entered. Edit or delete any problem entries and click 'OK' to save the mailing list.


Mailing to a Mailing List

• In the main window click the 'Write' button, this opens a 'Compose: (no subject)' window as usual.
• Click in the contacts list and type 'k' and scroll to find the 'Kata Team'entry.
  If the contacts list is not visible click the 'Contacts' button on the Mail Toolbar or click 'View' on the menu bar and tick 'Contacts Sidebar'.
• Highlight the 'Kata Team' entry and click the "Add to To:" button or the "Add to Cc:" button.
  Hint: Double clicking the entry is the same as clicking the "Add to To:" button.
  
  
  
  
• Scroll or search the Contacts list (type "con"in the 'Search For' box) to find the 'Confidential' entry.
• Highlight the 'Confidential' entry and click the "Add to To:" button or the "Add to Cc:" button (it doesn't matter which).
• In the recipients area of the Compose window change the box containing the Confidential list to a "Bcc:" box using the pull down menu.
  
  
  
  
• As with any email, enter a message subject (item ).
• Enter the message to be sent to the Kata Team (item ).
• Click the 'Send' button on the toolbar. (item ).
  
  

The notification for Friday training will be sent to the members of the Kata Team with all members email addresses visible except for Alice's.
If all the team's addresses were to be confidential then the boxes of both Mailing Lists could be changed to "Bcc:". When that email is sent it will appear to be sent "To: undisclosed-recipients".

Edited by Rimmer, 06 February 2006 - 06:05 AM.