How to Add Members to a Distribution List in Outlook

Use new addresses or existing contacts

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by Heinz Tschabitscher
An independent writer who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997.
Updated October 06, 2018

You can add members to an existing distribution list (contact group) in Microsoft Outlook if you would like to include more people. Such contact groups allow you to email all of them easily at once. 

You can add contacts to your list in two ways: Import contacts that you already have set up in your address book, or add members to the list by their email addresses. The latter option is useful if they don't need to be in any other contact list but this one.

If you don't have the distribution list yet, see how to make a distribution list in Outlook for easy instructions.

How to Add Members to an Existing Outlook Distribution List

  1. Open Address Book from the Home tab. If you're using an older version of Outlook, look instead in the Go > Contacts menu.

  2. Double-click (or double-tap) the distribution list to open it for editing.

  3. Select the Add Members or Select Members button. Depending on whether they're already a contact, you also might have to select a sub-menu option like From Address Book, Add New, or New E-Mail Contact.

  4. Select all the contacts you want to add to the distribution list (hold down Ctrl to get more than one at once) and then click/tap Members to copy them down to the Members text box. If you're adding a new contact, type a name and email address in the text fields provided, or just type the email addresses in the Members text box. If you're typing in more than one new contact, separate them by semicolons.

  5. Click/tap OK on any prompts to add the new member, who will now show up in the distribution list.

  6. You can now send an email to the distribution list to email all of the members at once.