Hack 26. Send a Message to a Group of Users

Do you have a group of people you'd like to communicate with regularly? Here are some tips for sending email or peer-to-peer (PIN) messages to several addresses.

If you use distribution lists (DLs) to address email in the enterprise, you can use those same DLs to address email to groups of people from your BlackBerry.

Also, it is pretty simple to create and send a PIN message to a person [Hack #27]. You can also include the PINs of several people, if you'd like the same message to go to multiple recipients. That works for an occasional message, but if you have a particular group of people to which you would like to send PIN messages frequently, you'll find yourself getting tired of adding the individual recipients each time you create a message. You cannot use an Address Book group to send PIN messages, but you can still accomplish the task in other ways!

2.6.1. Use Distribution Lists

Any distribution list can be added to your Outlook Contacts in the same manner you would add any other entry from your enterprise Global Address List (GAL). Simply select the name in the GAL or email message, right-click, and select Add to Contacts. When your contacts are synchronized with the Address Book on the handheld, those entries will be copied to your handheld, and therefore can be used to address email from the handheld. Alternatively, if you have a message that was addressed to a distribution list, that has been received on the BlackBerry handheld, you can also use that to save it in your Address Book for future use. Here's how:

1. Open the messages list.

2. Open a message that has been addressed to one of the distribution lists you would like to add to your Address Book.

3. Scroll up to the To line that contains the distribution list.

4. Click the trackwheel and select Add to Address Book.

5. The Address Book will open and display the new entry with the email address of the DL prepopulated.

6. Complete the remaining fields and select a name for the entry so that you can easily identify the DL in your Address Book.

7. Click the trackwheel and select Save.

Now you can use this DL in the To line of any message you address!

2.6.2. Create a Boilerplate PIN Message

Next, you need to create a sample PIN message and address it to a group of users. But don't send it just yet!

1. Open the Messages application on the handheld.

2. Click the trackwheel and select Compose PIN. The Address Book application screen appears. Select the first user you would like to include in this PIN message, click the trackwheel, and select PIN username. The Message screen appears. Enter a subject line such as "TEST PIN" for now.

3. Click the trackwheel and select Add To for each additional recipient of this message. A sample message addressed to several PINs is displayed in Figure 2-8.

4. Now that your message is properly addressed, click the trackwheel and select Send. The Messages screen appears, and you can see your message with a checkmark to the left indicating that it has been sent.

5. Select the sample message, click the trackwheel, and select Save. This will move your sample message to the Saved Messages application.

If your handheld decides that it needs to delete messages to free memory, it will not delete saved messages.

Figure 2-8. Sample PIN message addressed to three recipients

2.6.3. Use Your Saved Message to Send a PIN Message

Now you have a saved message in your saved messages application that you can use over and over to send a message to the users who were added as recipients. Simply open the Saved Messages application and locate your sample message.

Then follow these steps:

1. Click the trackwheel and select Open. The sample message opens.

2. Click the trackwheel to select Reply to All.

3. Click the trackwheel once again to select Delete Original Text.

4. Once the message is open, modify the Subject line so that it is appropriate, and enter the body of the message you are composing.

5. Once you are satisfied with the subject and body of your message, click the trackwheel and select Send.

You can use this sample message over and over again. You can also modify this message to add or remove recipients at any time, or to change the PIN of a recipient.

Shari Kornberg