Loading the ALLOW List

--VQ-- · Site Admin Joined: 06 Jan 2003 Posts: 480

Here are different ways to load your Allow List with addresses of friends and colleagues (and to save the Allow and Domain lists to your desktop). Most users will never need to explore so many ways of achieving the same goal, but occasionally, circumstances arise that make one method preferable over another:

1. Quick Import (for Outlook & Outlook Express users)
From the Tray Assistant - or from vqME.com or vqNOW.com Tools menu, choose Auto Address Import. A pop-up displays the names of compatible email programs on your PC. Click on an address book and follow directions. You can return to this window later and import additional address books.

If your email program is not detected, proceed to another method below.

2. Paste To Allow List (for MAC, Thunderbird, Eudora, The Bat etc..)
Click Here to view your Allow List. Type or paste as many addresses as you wish into the entry box at the top. If you have more than a few, gather them into a text file using one of the following tips and then paste them into your Allow List all at once.

Thunderbird users, click here.
Most email programs can export the address book to a comma-separated text file (called a "CSV" file). For example, in Netscape and Thunderbird click, Address Book, then click Tools » Export. Then save the file as filetype CSV to your desktop.
Don't use an address book? Some programs, including Outlook & Outlook Express let you export any address you mailed in the past. You can even choose the class of recipients: To / Cc / Bcc.
With many other Microsoft based email programs (excluding Outlook & Outlook Express) you can build a list of email addresses from any file or folder with ContactBuilder, a nifty tool created by a Vanquish user. This tool is also great for gathering addresses from all of your saved mail folders!
For Mac or Apple download free Address Book Exporter 2.1.2. Run Address Book Exporter, selecting email addresses and save the list to a text file.

Open the CSV or text file with Excel, Word or any plain text viewer. Then Press Ctrl-A to select the entire document and Ctrl-C to copy it onto your clipboard. (Note: You may also wish to import it into your web mail address book.)

Don't worry about the exact format. It is not necessary to place each address on a separate line. They can be separated by space, comma, semicolon or tab.
It is OK if the file contains extraneous data such as phone numbers or comments. Your vq account can still find the valid email addresses.

3. Subject Intercept (for any email program)
It may be easier to transfer your entire address book using this alternate technique...

Send mail with Subject: vq--add-users-to-allow-list--vq . This special subject tells the vqME mail server to intercept your message without sending it. Although you can place your list of addresses in any field: To, Cc or Bcc, we recommend using Bcc. In the event that you make an error in the Subject syntax, you won't send your entire address book to everyone on your list.

Loading of your Allow List will not send addresses out of your PC. However, with this method, your mail application begins an SMTP session with a remote server and therefore, you must be online. Additionally, it is possible that your service provider will not allow a large address list to be 'staged' in this fashion (i.e. this technique tricks the server at your ISP into thinking that a large email is about to be sent. Even though no message ensues, the success of this method is dependent upon your email provider accepting the preparation stage of a mailing apparently destined to a large group.

4. Outlook SentItems or Autocomplete
You can import the addresses in your Sent Items folder or any other folder. [Details]. You can even nab the addresses logged by the Outlook AutoComplete feature! It is stored in a hidden file, but it is easy to find. The list requires a little manipulation before pasting it into Vanquish. [Details].

5. Smart Maintenance (for any email program)
You may be surprised how quickly the typical user will build their list of Allowed addresses by simply enabling Automatically add senders to Allow list from within their configuration Preferences. This feature is enabled by default and causes Vanquish to automatically add addresses to your Allow list whenever you send to a new address or whenever senders solve your request for confirmation. When messages arrives from these senders, you will always have an opportunity to make an exception and exclude the sender from your Allow list.

Finally, to back up your Allow list or any other list, save the entire HTML page to your desktop. If you wish to save just an ordered list of email addresses (without other columns of data), open the HTML file with Excel or Word and copy or cut just the address column into a text file.