Importing Exchange users into distribution list

October 16, 2008 8:30 AM

I need to create a distribution list that includes all 750 people in my company, but I don't want to have to type in each name manually. I have all the user display names in notepad and am looking for a way to import these names. Difficulty: this needs to be a distribution list in Exchange, not simply in my Outlook.

Assuming that I'm the domain/exchange admin, is there an easy way for me to create a distribution list in Exchange and populate it with display names that I have in a text file or in Excel? I can also get the e-mail addresses if need be.

posted by starscream to computers & internet (2 comments total)

Do all of the people have domain accounts? If so, just create a domain distribution group.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:46 AM on October 16, 2008

You could also use a query based distribution list with the query being something along the lines of homemdb is not null. That would catch everyone that has a mailbox.

One note of caution, if this distribution list is to be used frequently, you will not want to use a query based distribution list as it will build the list every time an email is sent to the distribution. If your GC server is on older or slower hardware, this could put quiet a load on it if it was constantly having to expand that DL.
posted by Karmic_Enigma at 9:07 AM on October 16, 2008