Fast way to create an e-mail distribution list

 I have a large e-mail list of business contacts in an Excel spreadsheet. When I send some of them an e-mail, I really don’t want to copy and paste each one into Outlook’s To … box. Is there some easy way to plug them into a list?

 There are several ways, but by far the easiest was suggested by a colleague, Stephanie M. Bryant, CPA, Ph.D., a professor of accounting at the University of South Florida, Tampa.

Format the list so it’s in a single column in the spreadsheet. Highlight the column and press Ctrl+C to copy it. Then open a new worksheet and select Edit , Paste Special and check the Transpose box at the bottom of the screen to transpose them from a column into a row.

If the cell width is so narrow you can’t see all the addresses, select Format , Column , AutoFit .

Now you’ll need a semicolon separator between each e-mail address. To do this, highlight the row and press Ctrl+F to do a Find and Replace . Find all the address endings (such as com) and add a semicolon (com;) as a replacement.

Finally, copy (Ctrl+C) all the addresses, open your e-mail application, and paste them in the block after To …