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Creating Distribution Lists Using Thunderbird
Creating Distribution List
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What is a Distribution List?
A "Distribution List" is a collection of contacts that provides an easy way of sending messages to a group of users, by sending one message to a special address.
A message sent to a distribution list goes to all recipients listed in the list without the need of typing each individual email address. You can use distribution list to:
- Assignments
- Projects
- Announcements
Thunderbird’s Address Book is where you store all your students contact information. This is where the "List" is created.
How do I collect my student’s email addresses?
Ask them to send you an email that they will be using during the semester. They can be either:
- RCC Email
- Personal Email
*Make sure that they include which course and section they are in especially if you are teaching multiple courses.
Once you have received your student's email, you can start adding them to your address book:
1. Right click on the email address and choose Add to Address Book
2. The New Card window will pop up. You will notice that the email address of the student is already added to the card, you just need to add the student’s first and last name and other information that you want to gather from your student. Once you are done, click OK
3. You have just added an email address to your Address Book.
Once you have gathered all the email address:
1. Open Address Book by either clicking the Address Book Icon 
or going to Tools – Address Book
2. You should have your address book in front of your screen now.
3. To create the distribution list, click on the New List icon. This will open Mailing List window
4. Type in the List Name, Nickname and Description of the List.
5. There are two ways to add email address into your mailing list.
- The first way is to start typing the names of your students into the Type email addresses to add them to the mailing list. When you start typing, thunderbird has the ability to recognize the name as you type.
- Another way is to drag the names from your address book to the list. Once you created the list, click ok and the list will show under your Personal Address Book. To verify that you added the names, just click on the Email List.
6. You have just created your Email List. To use it, just open your compose window and type in the name of the list.
