Albert

Managing Contacts in Google Mail

By: Jenna Cooper, Edited by: Carol Sabbar, Lizz ZItron, Abbi Brown (5/3/12)

Whether you often email a specific group of users or you want to keep track of e-mail addresses you often use, the Google Apps Contacts feature provides this capability.  Note that Google will automatically add any e-mail address to which you send a message to your Contacts.  Google does NOT add addresses from messages that you receive, to which you do not reply.  If you send e-mail to an incorrect e-mail address, it will remain in your contacts until you delete it.  Once in your contacts, matching addresses will pop up as you begin typing in the To: field of a message.

You can create contacts manually, and you can create contact groups to use as a personal mailing list.  Contact groups are also useful when scheduling meetings in Google calendar and sharing documents in Google Docs.  You must have an address in your Contacts before you can add it into a contact group.

To access your contacts, click the small triangle beside the mail icon and select CONTACTS from the drop-down menu.

Creating contacts

To create an individual contact:

1. Click Contacts along the left side of the Google Apps e-mail screen. (If you do not see the Contacts link, click the Mail drop-down at the upper left, then click Contacts.)
   
2. Click the New Contact button in the top-left corner of the Contact Manager.
   Enter your contact's information in the appropriate fields.  The only field that is necessary is the e-mail address field, but you should include the contact name as well.
3. Click Save to add your contact.

Editing contacts

To edit or delete a contact, open your contacts as described above, then:

1. Select the contact from your contacts list by clicking on it
2. Click Edit at the top of the page
3. Make your changes
4. Click Save at the top of the page

Creating and Managing a Contact Group

To create a group:

1. Click the New Group button in the left-hand column 
2. Type in the name of your group and click OK
3. If the box where you type the name does not appear, check in your browser’s information bar for a warning message and click on it to allow pop-ups.  This is VERY common.

Once you have your contact group set up, adding people to it is a bit counter-intuitive.  Instead of opening the group and trying to add people, you must go to the individual contact and select them, then add them to a group, as follows. Multiple contacts may be added at the same time by clicking in multiple boxes in your contact list.

1. Select the contact in the Contacts list by checking box next to name or names you want
2. Click the Groups drop-down menu alongside the top menu
3. Under Add to..., select the group you'd like to add the contact to, or select New group to create a new group

To remove a contact from a contact group:

1. Select the contact in the Contacts list as explained above
2. Click the Groups drop-down menu
3. Uncheck the group you want to remove the contact from.

Deleting a Contact or Group

If a contact is no longer needed or incorrect, delete them from your contacts as follows:

1. Select the contact in the Contacts list
2. Click "more" at the top of the page.
3. Click More Actions
4. Select "Delete contacts"
   The same method works for groups, except that the button will say Delete Group.