Creating Email Distribution Lists from Class Rosters

The easiest way for Faculty and AI’s to create an email distribution list for a class is to use the web site http://libertas.ucs.indiana.edu/~www2fac/roster.pl (this link will open a new window)

  • Type in your username at the first window

  • Pick the appropriate semester

  • Click on Get My Sections.

  • Select the section from the next window

  • Type in your password in the second field (must be done each time you request a list)

  • Under the Roster Formatting Options choose "Mail" which will provide a list of students in the class with only their username in the format: username@indiana.edu.

  • This list can then be copied off of the screen and pasted into Word or WordPerfect where you can examine it for errors, such as "no email address listed for xxx" and change it as necessary.

  • This page can also be customized to request other specific information for a class list, such as grades by picking "custom" from the Roster Formatting Options and picking the desired fields from the lower portion of the screen.

USING THE EMAIL LIST IN PINE OR WEB MAIL

An email distribution list for Pine and Web Mail requires a comma between each name. Web Mail requires that there be no line breaks (hard returns) between each name, a format that is also acceptable to Pine. So for both of these systems you may do a Find and Replace on the list, looking for the line break which in Word is represented in the Find field by ^p (the carot sign) and in WordPerfect use Find and Replace and in the Find field use the menu, Match, Codes, and choose "HRt" (For Hard Return: NOTE: you cannot just type in HRt ). In the replace field of either program enter a comma. When you’re finished be sure to look at the end of the list which should also have a comma after it, add one if there is none.

Your list will look like this:
name1@indiana.edu,name2@indiana.edu,name3@indiana.edu,

Web Mail

  • Copy the email addresses from the word processor file.

  • Go to your web browser with web mail open.

  • Click on Address Book

  • Click on New Address

  • Enter a name for the list.

  • Paste the names in the email address field with Ctrl+V or right click and choose paste.

Pine

  • Copy the email addresses from the word processor file.

  • Go to the Telnet with your Pine email account open (iago, lear, ariel or whatever)

  • Choose A for Address Book

  • Choose A for Addnew (address)

  • Enter a nickname if desired, then a Full name for the list.

  • Move down to the Addresses line and paste in the names with Ctrl+V or right click and choose paste.

  • Press Ctrl+X to exit and save.

USING THE EMAIL LIST IN OUTLOOK

An email distribution list for Outlook does not require the comma and can be pasted straight into a distribution list. There is a limitation in Outlook distribution lists of 173 names (no I don’t know why), so for classes larger than this you must decide between several options which we’ll discuss shortly.

  • First copy the list of email addresses.

  • Then go to Outlook and select the Contact List

  • Choose New, Distribution List

  • Fill in the name of the list in the name field

  • Choose Select Members

  • Click on the Right hand box titled "Add to distribution list" and paste the names in with either Ctrl+V or right click the mouse in the Add to box and choose Paste.

  • Click OK, then Save and Close.

Creating Distribution Lists Larger than 173 names

There are several options to get around the Outlook distribution list size limitation.

  • Break the list into two or more distribution lists and include them all in the blind copy (BCC) field of the message.

  • Send the messages from your Shakespeare account using Pine.

  • Use the I.U. Distribution Server which is made to send large mailings. Go to the following link to apply for a DDS account and learn how to use it.
    http://www.indiana.edu/~msgteam/dds/  (this link will open a new window)

It is straightforward to use after applying for your account.

Just send a message to the DDS server (Dynamic Distribution System) at  dds@indiana.edu  with the subject line the same one that you want included in the sent message and the body of the message must be formatted as in the following example. The list of student email addresses  is one column with no commas just as it comes from the Roster page above. So, all you have to do is paste the email addresses from the Roster web page into the space below the heading ADDR in the message. Try putting your own name in the ADDR space, and send a copy to me if you'd like at econhelp@indiana.edu just so you can get comfortable with the process.

TO: dds@indiana.edu
SUBJECT: This is what you want the subject line to say in your message

AUTH
Your_username  your_dds_password (which is required to be different than your other passwords)

ADDR
listofnames@indiana.edu
student1@indiana.edu
student2@indiana.edu
etc

BODY
This is the message you want to send to the list above.

Professor Smith