From Excel to Outlook: creating a distribution list via Blackboard. James McCalip The Academy October 24, 2006

1. Click on Tool 2. Click on Shared Workbook Not Shared workspace

Click in box to activate Click okay

Save on the DESKTOP or in a folder where you can Easily locate the file Name the worksheet with a significant name

The categories of information you want go into the first row.

Populate the names box so each student has a distinct line. A cut and paste from Gradespeed or Blackboard will do.

Click on Control Panel

Click on Assignments

Click on drop down arrow then Click Assignments Click on Go button

Name assignment Add instructions

Click Browse button

Select excel file You may have to scroll to find the file File name will appear here

Make sure the assignment is available And then click submit

Click on Gradebook

Click on the title of the assignment

Click on item download

Click Select All at top or check Individual boxes then click Submit

Click Download assignments now.

Put file into folder with original excel spreadsheet Click SAVE Put file into folder with original excel spreadsheet

Open original excel On Tools menu, click Compare and Merge Workbooks

Select Files to Merge into Current Workbook by holdind down CTRL or SHIFT and click the file names, and then click OK.

New Data will populate automatically

Review: merge the workbooks Make sure the copies of the shared workbook that you want to merge are all stored in the same folder as your original. To do this, you must give each copy a different name. Open the copy into which you want to merge changes. On the Tools menu, click Compare and Merge Workbooks. If prompted, save the workbook. In the Select Files to Merge into Current Workbook dialog box, click a copy that has changes to be merged, and then click OK. To merge more than one copy at the same time, hold down CTRL or SHIFT and click the file names, and then click OK.

Save merged file as a CSV file Confirm that the file has only the headers you need and data (i.e. there is nothing above the column labels to throw off the data transfer sequence)

Click Save As, name the file, from the Save as type select CSV.

Now on to creating a distribution list Open Outlook > Contacts > File > Import and Export

If Import from another program is highlighted Click Next

Select Comma Separated Values (Windows), Next

Browse and chose the file with your data. Select the appropriate button when updating.

Select contacts and then next

Click on Custom Map fields

Open up Name field, drag First name from Value box into Mapped column. Continue to drag over the values you want to the appropriate field. Then Click OK.

You will be returned to this box, Click finished

Now click the drop down triangle by the New box and select distribution list

Name the list then click on select Members

You will now open your merged file, highlight the email addresses and paste them into the Members box Click OK.

Now you can see who is in your distribution list. Verify that you have everyone you want, close list and you’re ready to send emails.