Creating Address Lists

Creating Address Lists

Creating Address Lists
(c)janes-place

There are a lot of reasons to keep address lists. Here are some of them:

A-Keep a list of your contacts, so that you can use them for contacting later.

B-Keep a list of your customers and put them into categories. For instance, I keep a list of my customers that advertise with me. That way when I run a special, I can mail directly to them since they have bought advertising from me in the past, I let them know of any specials first.

C-Christmas Card list

D-It's easy to update friend's and family's new addresses when they move or to update names. You could make a list for family and a list for friends.

E-Let's say you forget someones last name. You know their first name is John, but you can't remember their last name. You can search for John and get his information.

You can create an address list in Microsoft works or Outlook.

With Microsoft Works, using the 'Address Book TaskWizard makes this chore a lot easier. Got to Start, Programs, Microsoft Works. Double-click on Adress Book. Click Yes in the run TaskWizard box to run the TaskWizard.

You will have different options in the next screen--Business, Personal... Choose the one you want to create, then click next

You will then see a screen letting you know the fields the address book will contain. You can change these later. For right now, click Next, then Create Document. When you click on Create Document, you will be asked if you want this Address Book to be the one that opens through the Address Book toolbar button. Choose yes or no.

Your Address Book Database will appear on the screen. The first thing you want to do is go to the file menu and click on Save As. Give it a name--Family and click Save. This is called the Form View.

Tip: to move quickly through the different fields of the Address Book, use the Tab key on your keyboard. To move back to a field, press the Shift and Tab key simultaneously. Start entering your data. When you get to the last field, click the Tab key to go back to the first entry.

If you want to remove a field, click on the Form Design tool bar button [the last button to the right on the tool bar.]. Click on the field to be removed and go to the Edit menu-click Delete Selection. You will be asked to confirm the deletion. Click ok.

If you want to add a field, click on the Form Design toolbar button and place the cursor where you want the field to appear. Go to the Insert menu and click on Field. Give the field a name [Fax]. Make sure General is selected in the Format box. Click ok.

If you want to rearrange the order of the fields or reduce or increase the spacing between them, while in Form Design, click on a field to change and keep the mouse button pressed down and drag it to the new position.

The date of your entry will be set-up automatically. It will probably show a series of symbols. If you increase the column width, by dragging the corner of the box to the desired width, after highlighting the box, you will see the day, month and year. You can change the format of the date by going to the Format menu and choosing Field. Choose the style you want from the box that appears. Click ok.

Save your list. Click on the List View button. It's on the top toolbar and is the second button from the right side. From here you can adjust the width of a column by placing the cursor on the right-hand edge of the gray column header and drag it to the width you want.

It would be easier to work with the address book if it was in alphabetical order. To do this, go to the Record menu and click on Sort Records. Click on the first drop down button and find Last Name. Click on it. In the second box, find the First Name. Click on it. Make sure Ascending Order [A to Z] or Descending Order [Z to A], has a dot next to it in the top selection. Click ok.

Want to bold the Last Name so that you can see it better? Click on the Last Name column header. This will highlight the column. Click on bold on the toolbar.

About the Author

Jane Fulton is the owner of 5 sites and has been helping people since 2000. Sign-up for SOS Newsletter at http://janes-place.com to receive these type of articles twice a month and to get your special mailing of interviews with some of the greatest Marketing minds!