Problems with VBA to update Distribution Lists automatically

[Max Zobel]

Hello!
I have about 200 contacts and 25 distribution lists in my outlook 2003.
Now the problem is, that whenever I alter the email-address in one
of my contacts the entry in the linked distribution lists does not update
automatically. So my question is, is there a possibility to somehow
automate the process of updating the distribution-list using vba / macros?
I already discovered the DisList... object but there is no such method as
"update now".... any other way to solve that problem with VBA???

Can anybody help?

thx, Max

 

[Charles W Davis]

You could establish categories. A contact may be in more than one category.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Post in a programming group. I suspect you will discover there that DL's are
so dysfunctional that no one uses them or would even attempt to program for
them. Let us know what you find.

 

[Charles W Davis]

Russ, Let me introduce myself, I am "Nobody." I have used distribution lists
(DL) since 1997. With 3,012 contacts, my current DLs range in size all over
the place. 15 recipients for current Board of Trustees (most of which use
DLs). 10 recipients for Computer Club Board of Directors, 25 recipients for
fellow retirees that I keep in contact with, and multiple DLs for anywhere
from 21 to 300 recipients (my ISPs daytime max) for newsletter recipients.
Others for City Council members, County Commisioners, relatives.

The only "dysfunctional" aspect that I have found, is that following
upgrading to a new Version, manual requests for updates to a list will not
work. If the DL is created after the installation of a new Version, the
manual request for update works.

With Outlook 2007, the programmers spent a lot of time changing the DL task
bar to look "pretty," removing function, ie, the Ctrl+W (update) and Ctrl+S
(close and save). The programmers could have spent a little time checking
for DL update when a contact's e-mail address changed.

BTW, no offence taken, just wanting you to know that folks do use DLs.

Thanks,
Charles "Nobody" Davis

Post in a programming group. I suspect you will discover there that DL's
are so dysfunctional that no one uses them or would even attempt to
program for them. Let us know what you find.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Hello!
I have about 200 contacts and 25 distribution lists in my outlook 2003.
Now the problem is, that whenever I alter the email-address in one
of my contacts the entry in the linked distribution lists does not update
automatically. So my question is, is there a possibility to somehow
automate the process of updating the distribution-list using vba /
macros?
I already discovered the DisList... object but there is no such method as
"update now".... any other way to solve that problem with VBA???

Can anybody help?

thx, Max

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

The overwhelming experience among users of this group is one of great
frustration with DL's. Obviously, that information is skewed somewhat
because people who find a feature working well do not post to say so.
Nevertheless, a quick search will pull up scores of users who have found
their DL's become corrupt and unusable for no apparent reason, cannot be
updated, and cannot be transported one installation to another. They also
get deleted completely with a toolbar action that should simply remove a
member of the DL, not the entire DL.

No real development has gone into DL's since they first appeared in Outlook
2000 to try to make them more reliable. The only changes made have been to
the GUI. That's a shame because they would be a truly useful feature if they
could be made reliable and robust. Since they haven't, many users have
migrated away from their use.

I hope you continue to have good luck with them. If you were using DL's in
1997 then you are obviously talking about the Active Directory in Exchange,
not DL's in a PST file, which are the subject of most posts here.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ, Let me introduce myself, I am "Nobody." I have used distribution
lists (DL) since 1997. With 3,012 contacts, my current DLs range in size
all over the place. 15 recipients for current Board of Trustees (most of
which use DLs). 10 recipients for Computer Club Board of Directors, 25
recipients for fellow retirees that I keep in contact with, and multiple
DLs for anywhere from 21 to 300 recipients (my ISPs daytime max) for
newsletter recipients. Others for City Council members, County
Commisioners, relatives.

The only "dysfunctional" aspect that I have found, is that following
upgrading to a new Version, manual requests for updates to a list will not
work. If the DL is created after the installation of a new Version, the
manual request for update works.

With Outlook 2007, the programmers spent a lot of time changing the DL
task bar to look "pretty," removing function, ie, the Ctrl+W (update) and
Ctrl+S (close and save). The programmers could have spent a little time
checking for DL update when a contact's e-mail address changed.

BTW, no offence taken, just wanting you to know that folks do use DLs.

Thanks,
Charles "Nobody" Davis

Post in a programming group. I suspect you will discover there that DL's
are so dysfunctional that no one uses them or would even attempt to
program for them. Let us know what you find.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Hello!
I have about 200 contacts and 25 distribution lists in my outlook 2003.
Now the problem is, that whenever I alter the email-address in one
of my contacts the entry in the linked distribution lists does not
update
automatically. So my question is, is there a possibility to somehow
automate the process of updating the distribution-list using vba /
macros?
I already discovered the DisList... object but there is no such method
as
"update now".... any other way to solve that problem with VBA???

Can anybody help?

thx, Max

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Blast from the past: For Outlook 97 and 98, personal DL support was provided by the Personal Address Book provider.

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

Yes. I remember. But not in PST files. It seemed to me that the attempt to
implement DL's in PST files was the start of their downfall.

 

[Charles W Davis]

I also had the problem with the delete deleting the DL, until I remembered
prior versions used the Remove function. It is there in plain sight! It was
easy to move the DL back from the Deleted Items folder.
I still resent the removal of the keyboard shortcuts.

Thanks for listening.

The overwhelming experience among users of this group is one of great
frustration with DL's. Obviously, that information is skewed somewhat
because people who find a feature working well do not post to say so.
Nevertheless, a quick search will pull up scores of users who have found
their DL's become corrupt and unusable for no apparent reason, cannot be
updated, and cannot be transported one installation to another. They also
get deleted completely with a toolbar action that should simply remove a
member of the DL, not the entire DL.

No real development has gone into DL's since they first appeared in
Outlook 2000 to try to make them more reliable. The only changes made have
been to the GUI. That's a shame because they would be a truly useful
feature if they could be made reliable and robust. Since they haven't,
many users have migrated away from their use.

I hope you continue to have good luck with them. If you were using DL's in
1997 then you are obviously talking about the Active Directory in
Exchange, not DL's in a PST file, which are the subject of most posts
here.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ, Let me introduce myself, I am "Nobody." I have used distribution
lists (DL) since 1997. With 3,012 contacts, my current DLs range in size
all over the place. 15 recipients for current Board of Trustees (most of
which use DLs). 10 recipients for Computer Club Board of Directors, 25
recipients for fellow retirees that I keep in contact with, and multiple
DLs for anywhere from 21 to 300 recipients (my ISPs daytime max) for
newsletter recipients. Others for City Council members, County
Commisioners, relatives.

The only "dysfunctional" aspect that I have found, is that following
upgrading to a new Version, manual requests for updates to a list will
not work. If the DL is created after the installation of a new Version,
the manual request for update works.

With Outlook 2007, the programmers spent a lot of time changing the DL
task bar to look "pretty," removing function, ie, the Ctrl+W (update) and
Ctrl+S (close and save). The programmers could have spent a little time
checking for DL update when a contact's e-mail address changed.

BTW, no offence taken, just wanting you to know that folks do use DLs.

Thanks,
Charles "Nobody" Davis

Post in a programming group. I suspect you will discover there that DL's
are so dysfunctional that no one uses them or would even attempt to
program for them. Let us know what you find.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Hello!
I have about 200 contacts and 25 distribution lists in my outlook 2003.
Now the problem is, that whenever I alter the email-address in one
of my contacts the entry in the linked distribution lists does not
update
automatically. So my question is, is there a possibility to somehow
automate the process of updating the distribution-list using vba /
macros?
I already discovered the DisList... object but there is no such method
as
"update now".... any other way to solve that problem with VBA???

Can anybody help?

thx, Max

 

[Russ Valentine [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm sure it won't surprise you, however, that many users lose their entire
DL's because they don't realize they deleted it before they empty their
Deleted Items Folder. Invariably, they are the same users who do not back up
their data.
The removal of keyboard shortcuts is a mystery to me. I'd like to think it
was an oversight rather than deliberate, except I know it takes more work to
remove a feature than just to carry it over from one version to the next.
Odd. It's bad enough that they didn't improve DL's, but they didn't have to
make them worse.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

I also had the problem with the delete deleting the DL, until I remembered
prior versions used the Remove function. It is there in plain sight! It was
easy to move the DL back from the Deleted Items folder.
I still resent the removal of the keyboard shortcuts.

Thanks for listening.

The overwhelming experience among users of this group is one of great
frustration with DL's. Obviously, that information is skewed somewhat
because people who find a feature working well do not post to say so.
Nevertheless, a quick search will pull up scores of users who have found
their DL's become corrupt and unusable for no apparent reason, cannot be
updated, and cannot be transported one installation to another. They also
get deleted completely with a toolbar action that should simply remove a
member of the DL, not the entire DL.

No real development has gone into DL's since they first appeared in
Outlook 2000 to try to make them more reliable. The only changes made
have been to the GUI. That's a shame because they would be a truly useful
feature if they could be made reliable and robust. Since they haven't,
many users have migrated away from their use.

I hope you continue to have good luck with them. If you were using DL's
in 1997 then you are obviously talking about the Active Directory in
Exchange, not DL's in a PST file, which are the subject of most posts
here.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]

Russ, Let me introduce myself, I am "Nobody." I have used distribution
lists (DL) since 1997. With 3,012 contacts, my current DLs range in size
all over the place. 15 recipients for current Board of Trustees (most of
which use DLs). 10 recipients for Computer Club Board of Directors, 25
recipients for fellow retirees that I keep in contact with, and multiple
DLs for anywhere from 21 to 300 recipients (my ISPs daytime max) for
newsletter recipients. Others for City Council members, County
Commisioners, relatives.

The only "dysfunctional" aspect that I have found, is that following
upgrading to a new Version, manual requests for updates to a list will
not work. If the DL is created after the installation of a new Version,
the manual request for update works.

With Outlook 2007, the programmers spent a lot of time changing the DL
task bar to look "pretty," removing function, ie, the Ctrl+W (update)
and Ctrl+S (close and save). The programmers could have spent a little
time checking for DL update when a contact's e-mail address changed.

BTW, no offence taken, just wanting you to know that folks do use DLs.

Thanks,
Charles "Nobody" Davis
Post in a programming group. I suspect you will discover there that
DL's are so dysfunctional that no one uses them or would even attempt
to program for them. Let us know what you find.
--
Russ Valentine
[MVP-Outlook]
Hello!
I have about 200 contacts and 25 distribution lists in my outlook
2003.
Now the problem is, that whenever I alter the email-address in one
of my contacts the entry in the linked distribution lists does not
update
automatically. So my question is, is there a possibility to somehow
automate the process of updating the distribution-list using vba /
macros?
I already discovered the DisList... object but there is no such method
as
"update now".... any other way to solve that problem with VBA???

Can anybody help?

thx, Max