Windows From the Keyboard Tips, Outlook – Distribution Emails and the BCC Field, June 24, 2020

Hello. This is Gerry Chevalier from the GTT Edmonton Chapter. This weekly blog provides tips that I find useful as a keyboard user of Windows. The information is for Windows10 and Office 365, although many tips still apply to older versions. The tips do not require a screen reader unless specifically noted. Thus, the tips apply whether you are a keyboard user or low vision mouse user. Here is this week’s tip.
Outlook – Distribution Emails and the BCC Field
What is the purpose of the BCC field in Outlook emails? BCC stands for blind carbon copy. The recipients you put in the BCC field will receive your email, but they will not see the names of the other BCC recipients. If any recipient uses the Reply All feature their email will only be sent to people listed in the To and CC fields. None of the BCC recipients will receive the reply.
Using the BCC field is a handy way to send an email to a group of people without the members of the group seeing each other’s email address. You may wish to put a copy of your own email address in the “To” field, so you receive a copy of the group email. Maintaining the group members’ privacy is considered good email etiquette.
If you expect to send frequent emails to the same group, then after filling in all their email addresses, press Control+A while in the BCC field to select all the names you typed and then press Control+C to copy those names to the clipboard. Send your email and then open a new Word document and press Control+V to save those addresses for later use. Save the Word document which now functions as your distribution list.
When you next need to send an email to the group, open the Word document, press Control+A to select all the text i.e., all the email addresses, then press Control+C to copy them to the clipboard. Open your new email and focus on the BCC field and then press Control+V to paste all the names to the BCC field.
Note: Outlook supports a more formal way of creating distribution lists using group contacts and the Control+Shift+L shortcut to use the Group Contact as the distribution list for an email. You can learn more by reading this Microsoft support article.
Note also that the BCC field is not enabled by default in Outlook. The next tip will explain how to enable the BCC field.
That’s it for this tip. Until next Wednesday, happy computing.