Hank Presutti called to ask about setting up an address book in Outlook Express for sending a newsletter to several hundred people. My first suggestion was to create his name list using a word processing program or a spreadsheet, rather than using Outlook Express's built-in Address Book.

There are several advantages to having your list in a separate program. First, it's much easier to add and remove contacts. The data can also be more easily edited, sorted, and broken into different groups when needed. Finally, groups of addresses can be quickly copied and pasted into the BCC (blind carbon copy) field of an outgoing email.

As an example, I maintain my newsletter mail-out list in a single-column MSWord document. I then highlight a target group, do Edit>Copy (Ctrl+C), click inside the Outlook Express BCC field and do Edit>Paste (Ctrl+V). Outlook Express automatically converts the stacked list into a single line and appends a semi-colon (;) to each address.

With some email programs the semi-colon must be appended to each address before being pasted into the BCC field, while some require you to convert the stacked list into a linear list before it can be pasted in.

A list is stacked when you press ENTER after each item is typed. You can then use "Find & Replace" to substitute a semi-colon for each instance of ENTER, thus converting all entries into a single line.

In all Microsoft programs Ctrl+H initiates Find & Replace. In the Find field type ^p. This is a carat (Shift+6) followed by a lower case p. In the Replace With field type a semi-colon (;). Finally, click Replace All. The resulting single line can then be copied and pasted as needed.

No matter how the addresses are inserted, there will likely be limitations on how many recipients can receive a given email. These limitations may be set by your email program and/or your ISP, and are there to discourage the propagation of spam. For instance, I can send out 100 emails using Outlook Express, but Gmail (Google Mail) lets me send out 350 at a time. Check with your own ISP for specific information on bulk mail limitations.

The reason multiple addresses are put in the BCC field rather than the CC field is that each recipient will see only his/her email address on an incoming message. Using the CC field lets all recipients see the addresses of all the others, which can make everyone's information more easily found by spammers. No, your friends would never give your address to a spammer, but with that many copies of it floating around, you can't be sure who sees it.

If your contact list contains information other than an email address, (such as a physical address, a phone or fax number, etc.) it's better to use a spreadsheet to put the data into separate columns. You can then select the address column, copy it, and paste it into the BCC field as described above. Or you can first paste it into a word processing file to convert the stacked entries into a single line.

Alternatively, you can use a word processing program's Table functions just like a spreadsheet.

Another advantage to a contact list outside your email program is that it works with all email programs. This is much is easier than trying to move Address Book lists from one email program to another.