How to Add New Contacts in Earthlink Email

Getting a new email account gives you a fresh start on beating back the onslaught of spam. Filling out your contact list can take hours of typing one name, address and email at a time. You can save yourself a lot of time when you add new contacts to your Earthlink email account with the import feature.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Open the email program or address book with the contacts you want to transfer to your Earthlink email account. If you have different contacts in several accounts, you will need to process each account separately.

2. Look for an option allowing you to "export" the contact list in the program you opened. In Outlook and Outlook Express, you find the export function by clicking "File," and then "Import and Export." You need to export the file as a Windows-based list using the "comma separated value," which is noted by a ".csv" extension.

3. Tell the program to save the file on your computer and pay attention to where you save the file. You should have something like "mycontactlist.csv" (you can name the file whatever you like when you save it) saved at "C:\Temp" (or any other location).

4. Open your Earthlink web-based email application (see Resources below).

5. Log into your Earthlink email account by entering your email address and password for the account.

6. Select the "Address Book" feature of your web-based email program.

7. Look for the "Import Address Book" link and click it.

8. Open the ".csv" file in the Earthlink address book to add all of the contacts to your Earthlink account. Type the file location in the white box, and then click the button to open or install the ".csv" file. You may be able to browse (look through your computer) to find the file you need to open.

9. Import the ".csv" file by clicking the button near the box where you listed the file.

Tips & Warnings

• Adding one new contact is simply a matter of clicking "Contact" from the top menu, and then clicking the "Add" button. Fill out the form with the contact person's information, and click the "Add" button.
• Earthlink's built-in address book allows you to store up to 2500 different contacts. If you need to store more contacts, you can upgrade your account. Earthlink's address book will not allow you to add new contacts from a ".csv" file until there are 2,500 contacts or less.
• Set up mail lists if you have groups of people you email the same messages to, like family members. Open all of the contacts individually, and select a group name from the "Category" drop-down menu.

Resources

• Earthlink website for web-based email