Let's say your boss gives you a list of contacts and tells you to use the Messenger to send them all a certain text - and many of the these contacts are already listed in your Phonebook.  The long way would be to hunt through the entire Phonebook and one-by-one mark each contact as selected with a single mouse-click.  A much quicker way would be to import the list of Mobile #'s, especially if your boss already gave you the list electronically.  Try it out with just your own Mobile # and see for yourself!

You can use Windows Notepad, WordPad or Microsoft Word to create a Plain Text-Only Document .TXT file (ANSI, Windows, and MS-DOS encoding will all work, but not Unicode on a PC).  If you use TextEdit on a Mac, be sure to go to the Format Menu, and select 'Make Plain Text' so you can save a Plain Text .TXT file (use Unicode UTF-8 or Western-Mac OS Roman encoding).  When creating your list, put the 10-digit Mobile #'s in a vertical column - one Mobile # per line.  All of the Mobile # formats shown in the picture above are OK.  Be sure to SAVE AS a Plain Text-Only Document .TXT file.

You can also use Microsoft Excel (Mac or PC) to create a Comma Separated (delimited) Value file (any .CSV file format will work).  And Google Spreadsheet - downloaded as Comma Separated Values - will work on either a Mac or PC.  If you are using Microsoft Excel or Google Spreadsheet, put one Mobile # per row in the A column.  Be sure to SAVE AS a .CSV formated file.

Set Mark as Selected? to 'YES'

Click the grey TO: button on your Messenger to open the Phonebook.  On the top title bar of the Phonebook is the Import Contacts button (the Up arrow).  Open the Import Contacts box, then turn the Mark as Selected? option to ‘YES.’  It is best to leave the Overwrite Existing? option set to ‘NO’ - since that will overwrite the data in the other columns.  (Now if your list to be Imported actually does contain the most up-to-date First and Last Names for these Mobile #’s, you may actually want to set the Overwrite Existing? option to ‘YES’ - please refer to the Import Contacts User’s Guide article for more details.)  Then click the Browse button to select the file you want to Import, then click Import. You might have to wait a moment - depending on how many rows of data on your list to be Imported.  It takes about 1 minute to import every 1,000 contacts that are on your list.

Use the [ALL] Selected Contacts Button

After the import is done, click the [ALL] button on the Phonebook toolbar.  The Mobile #’s on your original list should now appear Marked as Selected.  Use the contact counter at the bottom of the Phonebook to confirm that the correct number of Selected Contacts are listed.  You can permanently save this list inside the Messenger by creating a new My Group and using your mouse to Drag and Drop the Selected Contacts into the new My Group.  Or you can hit the blue TO: button in the top right corner of the Phonebook to move the Selected Contacts into the TO: address field of the Messenger for immediate texting.  Make sure the total number of contacts displayed just below the grey TO: button in the Messenger is correct - it should match the total number of contacts that were on the original list given to you by your boss. You are now ready to compose your outbound text.