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If there’s one thing that will make your life easier, it's sending out emails. But what if you want to send the exact same message to two or three different people at once—without their responses appearing next to each other on your screen? It can be done by adding CC (carbon copy) and BCC (blind carbon copy) addresses into your email. Here are some ways to use these features for more efficient communications when working with colleagues or friends.
In this article we explain how to use CC and BCC fields in Microsoft Outlook as well as how they work so you know exactly how to set up new contacts, add CC and BCC lines to messages, and more.
You could just open up separate tabs in your browser, select all the names, type them in manually, then hit Send. Or you could try something like MailTagger for Chrome, which lets you tag specific words in any text field, including ones inside images. Then, whenever you see those tags in your inbox, MailTagger automatically populates the To/CC/BCC boxes for you. If you have someone’s name in mind, but don't remember their email address, you can even search for it through Google Images.
MailTagger works similarly to Auto Text Expander, another extension available for both Firefox and Chrome. Both extensions let you create shortcuts for common phrases you might need to repeat over and over again while writing emails. For example, say you’re trying to draft an email about the weather forecast, but keep typing “weather” instead of “let me check my weather app…” You can create a shortcut called Weather Alert where you simply type in “Weather Alert!” followed by whatever phrase you actually meant to write. And because you created this shortcut before you started writing anything else, every time you type "Weather" you’ll get autocomplete suggestions based off this shortcut. Since these tools run locally within your browser, they’re also great for individual clients such as Outlook and Gmail since you won’t receive extra notifications from either program.
Auto Text Expander is free, however MailTagger costs $1 per year after the first month. If you often find yourself needing to enter similar information repeatedly throughout the day, consider paying for the premium version. Otherwise, here’s how to use MailTagsger in Chrome:
Type your desired shortcut in the Shortcut box.
Select whether you want the shortcut to expand immediately upon pressing Enter or only when you highlight the entire text input area.
Click Create New Trigger.
Choose Expand On Page Load.
Enter the following code into the Code box. Replace [Your_Shortcut] with whatever you named your shortcut earlier.
Copy & paste your expanded shortcut into the Content box below.
Hit Save Changes.
Now, anytime you click anywhere inside your shortcut content, it should replace whatever placeholder text was already there. Like the above image shows, you can even insert links into your placeholder texts. This method doesn’t integrate particularly well with Outlook though, so we recommend switching to MailTagger if you frequently deal with repetitive tasks inside your client.
This feature has been around forever, but not many users still utilize it properly. While most people probably think of BCC as being synonymous with blind carbon copy, it actually stands for bulk copy. So technically speaking, the term “bulk” is misleading, especially considering how few apps support the function today. That said, there are plenty of reasons why you may want to mail out large amounts of data to certain groups, so here are some methods for doing so:
Use BCC Whenever Possible: As mentioned previously, BCC isn’t really bulk copying. Instead, it means that the recipient cannot see who else received copies of that email. In general, this makes sense, but sometimes it would be nice to include additional details in the body of a group email that aren’t relevant to everyone. Luckily, MSOutlook supports using CC in place of BCC for this purpose. All you need to do is go to File > Options > General tab and under Email options choose Use CC instead of BCC. Now, anyone receiving the email will see who else got copies of it, but none of them will be able to respond directly to the sender. Of course, you can always disable this option later if you ever decide to change it back.
Send Emails Directly From Your Address Book: Another way to organize larger lists of people is by creating folders containing various subsets of your contact list. When composing an email to send to several hundred people, you can easily navigate between them via the folder structure menu. Simply right-click on the folder icon beside the subject line of your current message and select Go To Folder....Then scroll down until you reach the section of your contact list you wish to view. Hit Select...or CTRL + A to select everything. Next, head to Tools " Sort and tick Include Subfolders. Finally, press OK to sort your contacts alphabetically and close Notepad++.
Using the aforementioned methods, you can quickly generate a massive amount of emails to distribute to hundreds of individuals without having to worry about formatting issues.
There are several ways you can achieve this, depending on the number of people involved and the type of response you're looking for. The easiest way to handle this task is by selecting the Reply button and hitting Ctrl+N to start a new email. Once you've written your reply, append a new email to your original with Shift + Alt + N. Now, all you have to do is forward this message to the appropriate person(s). However, this approach presents its own problems. First, you must ensure that no one replies to the initial message. Second, forwarding the email triggers a notification alert in the original author’s mailbox, forcing them to take notice of the forwarded correspondence. Lastly, you shouldn't rely solely on Outlook to manage your workflow. There's nothing wrong with forwarding important messages, but you should also assign deadlines to your projects so you don't end up wasting valuable time waiting for responses.
To avoid these pitfalls, we suggest taking advantage of Office 365 Groups. They allow you to collaborate with others online through simple messaging channels. Unlike traditional email threads, Group Chats appear alongside conversations rather than interrupting existing discussions. Plus, if you give members permission, they can share files with their fellow team members. Best of all, Group Chat allows you to schedule meetings with co-workers and track progress via Gantt charts. By default, it limits chats to 25 participants, but you can switch to Unlimited if necessary.
Group Chat is included with Office 365 subscriptions starting at $6 per user, per month. Alternatively, you can opt for 1GB of OneDrive storage space for free through a 30-day trial period. Just visit office.live.com/out365 to sign up. Afterward, log in to Office 365 Groups, click My Stuff, and pick Add/Change Teams. You'll now see your company listed among other organizations. Click Get Started and follow the prompts to begin customizing your workspace.
Yes, you absolutely can. Whether you're dealing with a small business or a personal relationship, CC and BCC functions come in handy for distributing identical updates, invitations, or memos to multiple parties. With this guide, hopefully you learned how to use them correctly.
If you're like most people, you probably have some folks on your contact list that you want to keep separate from others. Maybe it's family members or coworkers with whom you share everything but one specific person. Or maybe you just think they'd be better off getting different messages than everyone else. Whatever reason there is for sending an email out to more than one recipient, here are three ways to make sure those extra contacts don't see who else gets included along with them.
\tThis post was originally published January 7th 2016. We've updated it with new screenshots and information as well as added additional steps for later versions of Microsoft Office.
\tWe'll start by explaining how this works in Google Mail (the company-wide service) so we can take advantage of its built-in features rather than relying on third party apps. Then we'll cover what exactly happens when you use these settings in Outlook 2007 through 2021. If you need help setting up any version of Office beyond 2003, check our guide on adding mailboxes to Outlook 2010.
\tFirst, let's talk about why you might want to do this. The easiest way to explain is via example—we'll show you how to hide someone from certain groups within a single message body while still including them in others. For instance, if you wanted to give two copies to your boss but not to your coworker, you could simply add both their names to CC/BCC before hitting Send.
\tLet's say you work at a big firm where your boss has access to every document you create. She also needs to review many documents sent over internally. But your colleague doesn't really need to know anything about sensitive internal reports because she isn't privy to those kinds of files. You can set things up so only her name shows up anywhere inside your organization, but your boss will always get automatic notification whenever something important arrives. To accomplish this, follow these instructions:
Go into Settings & Accounts " Email Options. Under Advanced tab, scroll down until you find BCC field options. Click Add button next to Hide From This List. Type in your coworker's address under Name Field(s). Select Yes below Hide Message When Sending It. Now, hit Save Changes.
Next time you compose a long email, click File menu then select Print Preview. Your coworker should now appear as BCC instead of being part of CC list. Since he won't receive preview notifications either, you can safely print this message without worrying that his eyes will catch sight of your boss' name.
\tFor another scenario, imagine you work at a small business that sends out weekly newsletters to customers. Sometimes you include items like sales records for special deals going on right away, but sometimes you wait several weeks before doing that kind of thing. In addition to keeping track of which customers didn't respond yet, you may wish to include non-customers in general announcements too. Here's how to handle that situation:
Open Up A New Window By clicking View Menu At Top Of Screen And Choose Other Windows. Go to Tools Tab On Right Side Panel, Double Click Address Book Entry With @ symbol In Front Of Its Name. Hit OK.
Right-click on top entry and choose Rename. Change its name to Sale_Emails. Next, go back to original window and double-click the second entry again. Do the same thing this time and change its name to Announcements.
Now open up the first newsletter item you want to announce. After composing it, look for Insert > Quick Parts section on ribbon bar. Find AutoFormat dropdown box and pick Newsletter Item. Check the Customize... box and type in Sale_Emails@yourcompanydomainname.com. Finally, click Apply All followed by OK.
\tThe above method will automatically insert your announcement into every future newsletter item you write. So even if you forget to manually put someone's name in the CC field, their address will still come up correctly. The downside? Anyone who reads the entire newsletter will see your coworker's full address. There's no hiding that info at all.
\tSo we've shown you how to achieve similar results in Google Mail, but what happens in Microsoft Word? Turns out, nothing much changes between the two services. Both platforms allow users to customize the distribution lists available in outgoing messages, but whether or not the default ones actually show depends upon the sender's preferences.
\tTo avoid confusion, we recommend disabling the Show Recipients pane option whenever possible. Otherwise, anyone viewing your conversation log will be able to tell who else got included unless you explicitly mark them yourself after hitting Send.
\tIf you aren't comfortable editing incoming messages, head straight to Account Settings -" General Preferences. Scroll down to Distribution Lists and uncheck Show Recipient Names. However, since this makes it harder for you to identify individual entries during conversations, we highly suggest leaving it enabled for ease of reference. Just remember to disable it whenever you're done working!
\tThat said, you can turn on Show Recipient Names and filter out unwanted entries by pasting text directly onto the Messages screen. Open up your latest email thread and highlight the text you wish to exclude. Press Ctrl + V to paste it somewhere safe, such as desktop background. Once finished, return to the main inbox view by pressing Alt+Tab.
\tThen, switch back to regular mode by pressing F11 and navigate to Edit | Current Conversation. Look underneath the header of your current email and search for Recipient Filter. Right-click on it and choose Properties. Switch to Filters tab and tick Enabled radio buttons next to Include and Exclude. Confirm you want Include checked, and type in your keyword phrase into the Text Box located beneath the Action column.
\tFinally, repeat the process for excluded texts. Instead of filtering out words, enter phrases like [BAD CONTENT] or [SPAM], making sure to place them alongside respective actions.
\tIn case you're wondering, the difference between BCC and blind carbon copy (or bcc) comes down to privacy levels. Blind means that only intended recipients will ever learn the contents of your message, whereas Carbon Copy allows others to see who else received it. In essence, the latter refers to standard practice in corporate communications.
\tYou'll notice that the above screenshot references Outlook 2007 through 2011. Unfortunately, we couldn't locate a comparable feature in newer releases. Our best guess would be to try creating filters based on keywords, though we haven't had success testing this ourselves. As far as alternatives go, Mac OS X users can rely on Apple Mail's ability to block direct messages between particular parties.
\tWhat methods have worked for you to manage distribution lists in Outlook? Have you found any easy solutions to the problem mentioned above? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
You want your colleagues, family members, or friends to know about an event but you don't want them all to see one another. Or maybe you're sending out an important message that's not meant for everyone on your contact list. Either way, it can be difficult to select who will receive a particular email while ensuring no one else knows their recipient.
Thankfully, most modern email clients have built-in tools designed specifically for this purpose — known as "carbon copy" (Cc) and "blind carbon copy" (Bcc). These functions allow users to specify certain contacts they wish to remain unaware of any correspondence they may receive via email. In short, if someone is added under "To," then those listed under "CC" won't get the email at all unless they manually click through from the original message. This makes sharing sensitive information between people much easier than before. Here are some ways you can use these features in Microsoft Outlook 2007 and later.
The easiest method for adding multiple recipients is by selecting Add People... from the main menu bar. Once inside this window, simply type each person's name into the To field and hit Enter after every entry. You'll need to keep entering new names until you reach the maximum number of recipients allowed per message. Note that you can also include additional CCs by typing their full address into the respective text box instead of just their first initial.
When finished, go ahead and check off the boxes next to the addresses you'd like to mail to, making sure only those selected appear in the Message Recipients section. Hit Send when ready and wait for delivery!
This approach works well because there's little chance anyone outside of your organization will ever notice how many people were included in the mailing since they weren't individually addressed. However, if you're worried your intended audience might stumble across the names themselves, try setting up several BCC lines instead. We cover more advanced options below.
If you'd rather avoid including every single user yourself, importing lists containing thousands of contacts is possible. Simply open File & Open & Address Book.... Then navigate to Tools and Select All followed by OK. Now head back to the previous screen where you entered the names of your recipients. Instead of clicking OK right away, highlight the column header for Name and press Ctrl + A to select everything within it. Next, choose Edit & Copy from the ribbon menu. Finally, return to the Address Book dialog and paste the copied data by pressing Ctrl+V.
Once complete, select View Menu " Options " Mail Setup " Import/Export Settings, which should now show a few extra tabs along the top. Click Export Email Rules and follow the prompts to save your settings locally. When done, close the tab. Back at the Address Book window, highlight the Name column again and choose Edit & Paste from the ribbon menu once more. This time, browse to the location where you saved the exported rules file and select Choose Files. Find the.emlx file associated with the pasted entries, double-click it, and continue following the wizard's instructions. After the process completes, delete the files you've downloaded and restart Outlook so changes take effect.
Now whenever you create a new email, you can select the desired recipients straight from the New Item dialogue. If you prefer, you can repeat the above steps to import existing contacts into Outlook instead.
While we covered exporting entire contact lists earlier, this option doesn't work if you simply want to send out a large group of messages to individuals with differing preferences. Instead, you can export contact info directly from the Names panel located to the left side of the Home tab. Just scroll down until you find Contacts and click Show all columns. From here, look for the column labeled FirstName and expand its contents to reveal the rest of the details needed to set up a rule.
Next, head to Rules " Create Rule Wizard and choose either Event based on action(s), Change detection, or Time trigger. For our purposes, pick Event based on action(s) and make sure the criteria includes Is equal to Yes. Next, enter something similar into the Set variable field and select Application Data from the dropdown menu beneath it. Lastly, leave the Display form field blank and input a unique ID identifying the incoming email. This value must match what you previously recorded for the corresponding variables.
Use the remaining steps to customize your rule however you see fit. Make sure to enable the Run whether user opens email or saves draft option, otherwise your system won't update automatically. That said, the workflow probably isn't worth running on a regular basis due to its complexity. Still, it's ideal for times such as when you have a lot of emails to sort through. Repeat this procedure for any additional groups you intend to filter separately.
If you still need access to individual contact info aside from a filtered view, you can always employ the classic workaround of creating separate folders containing subgroups of contacts. By doing so, you can assign specific labels to each folder's contents and apply different filters accordingly. The downside is that you'll end up sorting through endless folders to locate relevant details. Alternatively, you could use VBA scripts to automate the filtering process entirely.
For example, say you wanted to send an email welcoming employees back to school. You would label separate subsets of recipients according to class year ("freshman", "sophomore", etc.) and place a blanket ban on older students receiving the email. Of course, this solution requires quite a bit of planning and forethought if you hope to achieve anything approaching efficiency. It also means people outside of your domain will likely miss out on updates altogether. Nevertheless, it's certainly faster and less laborious than searching through hundreds of contacts.
That being said, you shouldn't rely solely on outdated methods to manage your inbox. Learn more tactics for keeping Outlook clean and stay organized today.
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