Office 365: Create a Non-departmental Distribution List in Outlook on the Web

Penn State faculty, staff, students, and affiliates.

A distribution list (sometimes called a distribution group) is one of the many tools you can use to email the same group of people again and again. Other tools include Office 365 Groups and Listservs. To determine which tool suits your needs best, see A Comparison of Communication and Collaboration Features in Outlook, Office 365, UMGs, and Listservs at Penn State.

IMPORTANT: When you create a list using the steps below, you become the owner of the list. To create a list for use by a department (or other University unit), submit a request using this form instead. The Office 365 Team will create it for you, which will enable the department or unit to own the list.

1. Sign in to the Outlook Web App using your Office 365 credentials.
2. Click the Settings icon in the upper right corner.
   
3. Click in the search box under Settings and type "distribution".
   
4. Under the search box, click Distribution groups.
   
   Note: It may take several seconds for the Distribution groups information to appear.
5. Under Distribution groups I own, click the plus sign.
   
6. Enter a display name, alias, and email address for the group. For the email domain, to the right of the @ symbol, choose psu.edu.
   
7. To add recipients to your distribution list, scroll to the bottom of the window and click the plus sign under Members.
   
8. Do one of the following:
   • Use the search to find people, and click the plus sign to add them.
     
   • Enter one or more email addresses next to Members. End each email address with a semicolon (;).
     
9. Click Save to add the selected members.
10. Click Save again to save the new distribution list.

To change or review the settings for a group

1. Follow steps 1 through 4 above to return to the Distribution groups screen.
2. Under Distribution groups I own, select the group and click the pencil icon.
   

For additional information about managing distribution lists, see Microsoft's article, Distribution groups.

• Penn State’s Office 365 Homepage
• Office 365: Applications
• Office 365: Training
• Frequently Asked Questions:
  • Office 365: FAQs--General
  • Office 365: FAQs--Migrating to Office 365
  • Office 365: FAQs--Outlook (Email and Calendar)
  • Office 365: FAQs--Applications and Security