Why Won't An Email To A Group Send?

[Rafael Montserrat]

Entourage 11.4.0
Ibook G4
OS 10.4.11

Hi,

This is the first time I've done anything with 'Groups' in my address book.
I created a folder for a New Group in Contacts
I placed 74 contacts as addressees on an email
Before sending, I saved the email
Then I went to: Tools-and I "Link To Existing Group"
I opened the Group window in Contacts
The window had no addresses.
I clicked "Save"
I got the message "The Group contains no recipients. Please add one or more
recipients."
I added my address.
Clicked 'Save'
No error message.
Closed Group Contact Window.
I 'Sent' the email.
I got the Error Message: "Syntax Error In Arguments 17099 Mail Could Not Be
Sent Account "my account"
Also I tried
I opened the Group contact window
There, I clicked Link>Message> My email (Now In Outbox)
Same result: I got the message "The Group contains no recipients. Please add
one or more recipients."

1. How is an email with 74 recipients sent?

2. Having added individually each of those 74 recipients, how do I create
them as a group from the email they're on, and not have to just go to the
address book and create a group from scratch and have to pick each recipient
again individually?

3. How do I get the email I've created to send, regardless of whether or not
I create a group contact at this time?

Thanks,

Rafael

 

[Barry_Wainwright_[MVP]]

On 2010-05-14 16:57:16 +0100, Rafael Montserrat said:

Hi, please see my responses in-line - i think you have completely
misunderstood how to use groups.

Hi,

This is the first time I've done anything with 'Groups' in my address book.
I created a folder for a New Group in Contacts

By this, I presume you have created a new group in the contact address
book, not a folder in the address book (exchange accounts can have
sub-folders in the address book). To create a new group, choose 'group'
from the drop down menu that appears when you hold the mouse button
down on the 'new contact' icon in the tool bar when the address book is
the focus of the main window.

I placed 74 contacts as addressees on an email

This isn't the way it works - place your 74 contacts in the new Group
window, not in the email. You then put the group name in the email -
inheritance works from the group to the email, not the other way round

Before sending, I saved the email
Then I went to: Tools-and I "Link To Existing Group"

'linking' is an internal mechanism in Entourage to provide easy
navigation between related object - it will not cause the email
addresses to be added to the group, which is what I suspect you
expected it to do.

I opened the Group window in Contacts
The window had no addresses.
I clicked "Save"
I got the message "The Group contains no recipients. Please add one or more
recipients."

This happens because Entourage is trying to make a link between your
outgoing message and each member of the group - but your group hasn't
got any members yet, because you didn't add any.

I added my address.
Clicked 'Save'
No error message.

No error message because Entourage has now 'linked' the message to the
group's contacts - i.e. you!

Closed Group Contact Window.
I 'Sent' the email.
I got the Error Message: "Syntax Error In Arguments 17099 Mail Could Not Be
Sent Account "my account"

This is a different error. This usually gets thrown up because there is
a typing mistake in one of the email addresses in the recipients -
usually a comma instead of a dot, or an extra space where there
shouldn't be one. Go back through the list of message recipients and
check your typing carefully.

This is where using a group is so much easier (once you have set it up
correctly) - you only need to get the contacts in there correctly once,
then you only need to address an email to the name you have given your
group, not to a whole list of emails.

Also I tried
I opened the Group contact window
There, I clicked Link>Message> My email (Now In Outbox)
Same result: I got the message "The Group contains no recipients. Please add
one or more recipients."

Similar error to before - 'linking' is not what you want.

1. How is an email with 74 recipients sent?

As I described. However, be aware of a couple of issues you may encounter:

1. Whilst Entourage has no limit on the number of recipients that an
email can have, some ISPs do limit the number of recipients in an email
that they will accept (they do this as an anti-spam measure). 50 is
often used as the upper limit. Try to send with your 74, but if you get
a bounce message from the ISP, try sending the message with less than
50 recipients.

2. When sending to that many recipients, it is better to put _your_
email address in the 'To' field and the 74 recipients in the 'BCC'
field. That way, each recipient sees only your email address, and you
don't make pulic the email addresses of the other 73 recipients to
everyone - this is a privacy issue for many people. Here groups can
help tremendously - you can set a group up so that the email adresses
of the group members are hidden when addressing an email - all that
appears in the recipient's received mail is the group name (so choose
that name carefully!)

2. Having added individually each of those 74 recipients, how do I create
them as a group from the email they're on, and not have to just go to the
address book and create a group from scratch and have to pick each recipient
again individually?

Open the address field, select all the addresses and copy them. Paste
this into the 'members' area of the group window.

Howver, it is better to add people to a group by dragging their contact
icons into the group field. Then, if you ever make a change to the
contact card, it will automatically be updated in all groups that
contact is a member of. If you just add the address to the group, there
is no link between the contact and the group.

3. How do I get the email I've created to send, regardless of whether or not
I create a group contact at this time?

Just make sure all the addresses are formatted & typed correctly.

--
Barry Wainwright
Microsoft MVP
(see http://mvp.support.microsoft.com for more information)
Like most MVPs, I am responding to your query through the public
newsgroup channel (NNTP). Microsoft is planning to close the public
newsgroups which would effectively disable this channel and may affect
the number of answers that are given. Please post any concerns you have
about these plans in this newsgroup so we can forward them on to
Microsoft.