Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 18

Thread: Email groups: need tech help

  1. #1
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Always logged in
    Posts
    25,378

    Email groups: need tech help

    I need a better way to manage my group emails then when I am now doing. Right now I keep email addresses in an MS Word file, each one separated by a comma.

    That has been problematic for a long time because every character has to be in exactly the right place and there can be no spaces in the wrong place and etc. it is too damn persnickity.


    Is there a good simple application that will work on 1) my IPADs 2) my HP unit 3) my MAC. You were going to ask me what email programs I use and this is annoying because I don’t know! I use what my email provider gives me! I can’t see that there is an option for a group management. Maybe I’m wrong.


    I communicate with five groups, the smallest is five people the largest is 50 people, and I need their emails gathered together ins a clean, organized, and consistently workable way.


    Help please.

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Posts
    124
    Maybe you should use an online service like feedburner or similar? Do one final manual mailing with the subscription link and use the service from there on. People can manage their own subscribe/unsubscribe. You can get the list of emails from the service if you ever need to.

  3. #3
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Saint Paul, Minnesota
    Posts
    6,618
    Tough to know what your options are without knowing what mail service you're using, but we'll try.

    Just to get the quickie address out of the way, have you thought about keeping your list of addresses in Excel rather than Word, and doing a comma-separated export to your email apps (or using that CSV file for the cut-and-paste; let the machine do the formatting)?

    I can't think of a single email client that runs on IOS, macOS, and Windows (did a quick Web search; nothing tickled my brain), so driving the address list from one application's address book doesn't look like it's going to happen. There are apps, however, which will sync their own address books to either the OS's Contacts/Address Book list or to some common format kept somewhere else in your computer kingdom. Is it a requirement that an update on one platform somehow updates them all? Or is that a nice-to-have-something-I-wouldn't-spend-money-for? Is there a huge issue with keeping those email addresses in Contacts or Windows' address book, tagged to belong to the respective groups?
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  4. #4
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Always logged in
    Posts
    25,378
    Steve, I was hoping you would chime in.


    OK – the first suggestion in your second paragraph is very useful because I do keep the largest groups in Excel anyway. I keep them there along with all contact information for each person. I Do not know how to do that export but the fact that it is possible to produce a perfectly formatted file is worth me looking into it. Let me think on that for a while.
    Last edited by iris lilies; 2-13-19 at 10:46am.

  5. #5
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Always logged in
    Posts
    25,378
    Quote Originally Posted by merince View Post
    Maybe you should use an online service like feedburner or similar? Do one final manual mailing with the subscription link and use the service from there on. People can manage their own subscribe/unsubscribe. You can get the list of emails from the service if you ever need to.
    That is interesting, but I do not want to give these members an option of unsubscribing without me knowing. These are member groups they have agreed to be part of. If they want to drop out of the group they need to contact me directly and they know that. I also don’t want someone unsubscribing themselves mistakenly, and then complaining later, months later, that they never get any information.

  6. #6
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Saint Paul, Minnesota
    Posts
    6,618
    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    I Do not know how to do that export but the fact that it is possible to produce a perfectly formatted file is worth me looking into it. Let me think on that for a while.
    I wouldn't bet next month's mortgage money that Excel will produce a perfect file , but it should provide a CSV that needs very little tweaking, if any. I think I can guide you through the export if you don't figure it out for yourself.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  7. #7
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Vermont
    Posts
    14,635
    Maybe I'm being too simplistic, but doesn't your mail server allow you to create groups? i.e. Outlook: File>New>Group


    For MAC Mail it says:

    If you create groups in the Contacts app—say for a book club or cycling team—you can send messages to everybody in the group at once.

    Type the name of a group in the address field of your message.

    Either the group or individual contacts are shown. If the group is shown but you want to see individual contacts instead, click the arrow next to the group name, then choose Expand Group.

    I checked out Contacts on my Mac and it's really, really easy to create a group.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

  8. #8
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Always logged in
    Posts
    25,378
    Quote Originally Posted by catherine View Post
    Maybe I'm being too simplistic, but doesn't your mail server allow you to create groups? i.e. Outlook: File>New>Group


    For MAC Mail it says:
    If you create groups in the Contacts app—say for a book club or cycling team—you can send messages to everybody in the group at once.

    Type the name of a group in the address field of your message.

    Either the group or individual contacts are shown. If the group is shown but you want to see individual contacts instead, click the arrow next to the group name, then choose Expand Group.



    I checked out Contacts on my Mac and it's really, really easy to create a group.
    l havent touched the Mac for more than a year, but
    I couldnt see a Groups function in the email program when I used it. It may be there.
    I remember how annoyed I was because it seemed certain Apple would provide that.

    When using “contacts” on my IPAD the heading “Groups” keeps appearing yet there are no prompts as to how to execute a group.

    right now,
    I need to send emails out to groups from both my IPAD and my Hewlett Packd machine, but maybe, for the moment, just using the Groups function on one of them woild be ok.

    I will poke around with all of these suggestions..

    WAIT: I distinctly remember emember looking up the possibility of formulating email “ groups” on the MAC and the source
    i found said it was NOT possible.

  9. #9
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Saint Paul, Minnesota
    Posts
    6,618
    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    WAIT: I distinctly remember emember looking up the possibility of formulating email “ groups” on the MAC and the source
    i found said it was NOT possible.
    That must have been quite a while ago. I have a couple of email groups/mailing lists on my Mac and they've worked flawlessly -- some of them for years. They are driven off the Contacts app (used to be Address Book) but they work fine, even on an email app that's not Apple's (Thunderbird). If you do not anticipate using your Mac for this task, though, that makes it a bit easier to get this done.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  10. #10
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Vermont
    Posts
    14,635
    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    l havent touched the Mac for more than a year, but
    I couldnt see a Groups function in the email program when I used it. It may be there.
    I remember how annoyed I was because it seemed certain Apple would provide that.

    When using “contacts” on my IPAD the heading “Groups” keeps appearing yet there are no prompts as to how to execute a group.

    right now,
    I need to send emails out to groups from both my IPAD and my Hewlett Packd machine, but maybe, for the moment, just using the Groups function on one of them woild be ok.

    I will poke around with all of these suggestions..

    WAIT: I distinctly remember emember looking up the possibility of formulating email “ groups” on the MAC and the source
    i found said it was NOT possible.
    How old is your Mac? I have a Mac Air 2015 Sierra, and I can do what Steve said--form a group in Contacts and then use it in my emails.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •