Populating a group

john4ns · 10 Jun 2017, 06:55 PM

I frequently find myself wishing I could find a convenient way to add all the recipients of an email to a group. However, the only approach I've found is to laboriously open each recipient one of a time in the address book and add membership in that group to their entry.

There has to be an easier way to do this. A drag and drop or copy and paste into the group? I hope I've been missing some neat, slick way to do this.

n5bb · 2 Jul 2017, 10:29 AM

Sorry my reply is delayed so long - I just noticed your post.

When you say "recipients of an email", do you mean an email you have received from someone else, an email you composed in the past and is in your Sent folder, or an email you are in the process of composing?

If it's an incoming email, you can click each email address and open the contact in your address book to add them to the group (or add the contact to the address book). But if there are many addresses this can take a while, and you might have a situation where you have 3 addresses for someone in the address book and the new message uses one of those addresses but not the default address. ,

There are a lot of possibilities, and I'm not sure if it makes sense for Fastmail to support one use case which won't work for other circumstances. But I agree, it would be nice to somehow drag a set of addresses into a group directly from the email viewing page.

Bill

john4ns · 2 Jul 2017, 01:19 PM

Bill,

Thanks. I had not thought of the multiple address problem but I don't think it is insurmountable. I do use multiple addresses for specific purposes but they all bounce to my main fastmail account where they get sorted into appropriate folders.

Most of the cases where I would love to have this drag and drop feature are where I am initiating a multiple party conversation. But it would be useful at times to use it on incoming mail.

John

n5bb · 2 Jul 2017, 01:29 PM

Now I think I completely misunderstand what you meant, John. I was talking about the multiple addresses for a particular contact in the Address Book, with only one of them specified as the default. The default address is used when you send an email to that address book group.

But you now are speaking about your aliases (incoming addresses which reach you). So I'm completely confused.

If you are initiating a conversation with multiple people, you can just enter the address book group name in any addressing field (To, Cc, or Bcc) in the Compose screen.

Bill

john4ns · 2 Jul 2017, 02:40 PM

Bill,

Sorry, sometimes my thought processes even confuse me.

Here's what I want to do is to be able when I have written an email to multiple recipients: to be able to quickly create a group for that set of addresses. For example, when I am teaching a class, I would like an easy way to create a group, e,g, "Wed 9 AM" Ideally, select all in the To: field of an email and drag that set to the Wed 9 AM group. Or a similar process.

The recipient's default address doesn't matter since I would always use the address they have supplied for that course.

Is this better?

John

n5bb · 2 Jul 2017, 02:59 PM

I can't see any way to do this automatically. I think the easiest work flow is to create the address book group first, then add contacts to that group, then enter the group name in the To field to send to that group.

Bill

john4ns · 2 Jul 2017, 08:48 PM

The only problem is getting a very ingrained order of doing something changed from A then B to B then A. I wonder how long that is going to take.

Thanks for the suggestion.

10 Jun 2017, 06:55 PM	#1
john4ns Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: USA Posts: 24	Populating a group I frequently find myself wishing I could find a convenient way to add all the recipients of an email to a group. However, the only approach I've found is to laboriously open each recipient one of a time in the address book and add membership in that group to their entry. There has to be an easier way to do this. A drag and drop or copy and paste into the group? I hope I've been missing some neat, slick way to do this.

2 Jul 2017, 01:19 PM	#3
john4ns Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: USA Posts: 24	Thanks Bill, Thanks. I had not thought of the multiple address problem but I don't think it is insurmountable. I do use multiple addresses for specific purposes but they all bounce to my main fastmail account where they get sorted into appropriate folders. Most of the cases where I would love to have this drag and drop feature are where I am initiating a multiple party conversation. But it would be useful at times to use it on incoming mail. John

2 Jul 2017, 02:40 PM	#5
john4ns Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: USA Posts: 24	Try again Bill, Sorry, sometimes my thought processes even confuse me. Here's what I want to do is to be able when I have written an email to multiple recipients: to be able to quickly create a group for that set of addresses. For example, when I am teaching a class, I would like an easy way to create a group, e,g, "Wed 9 AM" Ideally, select all in the To: field of an email and drag that set to the Wed 9 AM group. Or a similar process. The recipient's default address doesn't matter since I would always use the address they have supplied for that course. Is this better? John

2 Jul 2017, 08:48 PM	#7
john4ns Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: USA Posts: 24	Too simple! The only problem is getting a very ingrained order of doing something changed from A then B to B then A. I wonder how long that is going to take. Thanks for the suggestion.

2 Jul 2017, 10:29 AM	#2
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,926	Sorry my reply is delayed so long - I just noticed your post. When you say "recipients of an email", do you mean an email you have received from someone else, an email you composed in the past and is in your Sent folder, or an email you are in the process of composing? If it's an incoming email, you can click each email address and open the contact in your address book to add them to the group (or add the contact to the address book). But if there are many addresses this can take a while, and you might have a situation where you have 3 addresses for someone in the address book and the new message uses one of those addresses but not the default address. , There are a lot of possibilities, and I'm not sure if it makes sense for Fastmail to support one use case which won't work for other circumstances. But I agree, it would be nice to somehow drag a set of addresses into a group directly from the email viewing page. Bill

2 Jul 2017, 01:29 PM	#4
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,926	Now I think I completely misunderstand what you meant, John. I was talking about the multiple addresses for a particular contact in the Address Book, with only one of them specified as the default. The default address is used when you send an email to that address book group. But you now are speaking about your aliases (incoming addresses which reach you). So I'm completely confused. If you are initiating a conversation with multiple people, you can just enter the address book group name in any addressing field (To, Cc, or Bcc) in the Compose screen. Bill

2 Jul 2017, 02:59 PM	#6
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,926	I can't see any way to do this automatically. I think the easiest work flow is to create the address book group first, then add contacts to that group, then enter the group name in the To field to send to that group. Bill