The number of email addresses I maintain only slightly exceeds the number of versions of Star Wars that I own. Many of my email addresses, however, are not full-fledged mailboxes, but simply aliases that forward email to a central account (i.e. the Six Colors email listed at the end of every post).
- How To Add Alias To Outlook For Mac
- Can You Create An Alias On Outlook
- Add Outlook Account To Mac
- How To Create An Alias In Outlook
- Add An Alias Email
Click Add an Alias. All of which receive email just as if they were the main address on your account. (I wrote a Mac 911 column recently on how to use an alias to filter incoming email. Add an alias To add a new alias to your primary Outlook.com account, click on the gears icon in the upper right-hand corner and select 'More mail settings.' Under the 'Manage your account' section.
While it’s easy enough to receive messages from all those disparate addresses, when I reply to them from that central mailbox, it exposes that main account–one which I generally don’t want to throw around. However, with a little bit of tweaking, you can set up Mail on OS X and iOS to let you customize the From line of your emails so that you can send from any of those aliases.
- On your Mac, do one of the following: Select the item, then choose File Make Alias. You can create as many aliases for an item as you want, then drag them to other folders or to the desktop. Press Option-Command while you drag the original item to another folder or to the desktop to create an alias and move it in one step.
- Each account you add to Outlook.com is called a connected account. Notes: If you want to create another email address that uses the same inbox, sent, items, and contact list as your existing Outlook.com account, read how to create an email alias.
OS X
On OS X, launch Mail, go to Mail > Preferences, and select the Accounts pane. If you’re using a standard IMAP, POP, or Exchange account, all you should need to do is find the field listed as Email Address, and add a comma followed by the other address.
(Note: If you’re using an iCloud account on OS X Yosemite, you may notice that Email Address is un-editable, showing up as a grayed-out field. Choosing “Custom” from the Alias dropdown above Email Address makes the field editable, but even after adding the aliases, I had no luck sending email from them via iCloud’s outgoing mail server.1 For more on a workaround, see below.)
Now, when you send an email, place the cursor over the From line and choose from the drop-down menu which address you’d like the email to come from. (On OS X, Mail seems to be smart enough that when you reply to a message it automatically sets the From line to the same address the original message was sent to.)
iOS
On iOS, this feature is hidden a little deeper, but it’s still pretty easy to set up. If you’re running a standard IMAP or POP account, you should be able to add additional email addresses with ease.
Open Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars and select an email account. (Note: As above, iCloud–and also Gmail–accounts won’t work in the same way, but I’ll address those below.) In the following screen tap on Account and then tap on Email. You’ll see a screen listing the primary email address and then an entry for Add Another Email. Tap that and enter the email address you want to use, then hit the Return key on the keyboard (make sure you do that, because if you navigate away from the screen in any other way, it won’t save).
When you’ve done that, you should once again see the Add Another Email entry below your new address. Now you can back all the way back out, making sure to hit the Done button in the top right corner of the previous screen.
As on OS X, when you send an email, you should be able to tap the From address in the compose screen to choose your address–you may actually need to tap it twice: once to expand the full list of headers, and again to choose the address. iOS, in my brief tests, doesn’t seem as good about automatically choosing the appropriate email address for replies, so keep that in mind.
iCloud and Gmail accounts
You’ll probably notice if you try to follow the above instructions that you can’t add any aliases to an iCloud account that aren’t for iCloud.com (and you have to go all the way to the iCloud web interface to do even that). Gmail accounts on iOS, meanwhile, don’t appear to let you add aliases at all.
There are a couple options here. One is to instead re-create your Gmail or iCloud account using the generic IMAP configuration rather than the provider-specific options that iOS and OS X offer. For iCloud, you’ll need this support doc for the correct settings2; for Google, you’ll have to wade through this interactive tool, or simply look around for instructions on manual IMAP configuration for Gmail. However, as noted above in the OS X section, those addresses may not
even work after all those perambulations, since Apple’s outgoing iCloud server is apparently very strict about what addresses you use.
even work after all those perambulations, since Apple’s outgoing iCloud server is apparently very strict about what addresses you use.
So, before you go down that bleak path, I’ve found a faster, simpler workaround. If you already have any generic IMAP account set up on your Mac or iOS device, follow the instructions above to add the additional email alias to that account. iOS doesn’t directly link addresses to mailboxes, so when you compose a message or a reply you can choose any address or alias that is set up on your iOS device. It’s way easier and doesn’t require you to go through the hassle of reconfiguring your account.
Alias away!
Armed with those tips, hopefully you’re ready to handle all of your multiple-email-sending needs. I’m constantly trying to make my email setups work a little more efficiently, and this is really just one step in a long line of long-delayed tweaks to my workflow. But each little step helps.
- In the El Capitan beta that I am currently running, there is no longer a Custom option at all, so it seems like Apple is cracking down on people sending emails from addresses that are not their own. Good for spam, likely, but annoying for people with lots of addresses. ↩
- If you have two-factor authentication on your iCloud account, you’ll need to generate an app-specific password to use when logging into the mail servers. ↩
[Dan Moren is the official Dan of Six Colors. You can find him on Twitter at @dmoren or reach him by email at [email protected]. His latest novel, The Aleph Extraction, is out now and available in fine book stores everywhere, so be sure to pick up a copy.]
If you appreciate articles like this one, support us by becoming a Six Colors subscriber. Subscribers get access to an exclusive podcast, members-only stories, and a special community.
More than 10 million people rely on Groups in Outlook every month to work together and get things done. Groups is proving useful to our customers. And for that, we couldn’t be more thankful. Groups in Outlook offers huge improvements over traditional distribution lists, with a shared space for group conversations, calendars, files and notebooks, the convenience of self-service membership and much more.
Today, we’re pleased to announce Groups is now rolling out to Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android. Groups is already available in Outlook for Windows and on the web—so now you can access your group conversations and content no matter which platform you use.
Microsoft Outlook
Connect. Organize. Get things done.
Get OutlookWith these updates, you can:
- View your group list.
- Read and reply to group conversations.
- Add group events to your personal calendar.
- View unread messages sent to the group.
- View group details within the group card (Outlook for iOS and Android only).
There is more to come as we continue to work on making Groups better in response to your input, so stay tuned.
Recently released updates for Groups in Outlook
In addition to bringing groups to more Outlook apps, we’ve released several new features for Groups in Outlook on other platforms, too.
Give guest access—Last fall, we updated Outlook on the web to give you the ability to set up guest access for people outside your organization, set group classification as defined by Office 365 admins, and view usage guidelines. Now, these same capabilities are available in Outlook for Windows.
Invite people to join—One of our most requested improvements was an easier way to invite multiple people to join a group. We’ve released the Invite to join feature to Outlook on the web, which lets you create invitation links and share them with others via email or other channels, giving them a quick way to join the group.
Multi-delete conversations—Group owners can now multi-select conversations and delete them from the group conversations space in Outlook for Windows.
Send email as a group—Office 365 admins can grant send-as and send-on-behalf-of permissions to members of a group using the Exchange admin center. Group members who have these permissions can then send emails as the group, or on behalf of the group, from Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web.
What’s next
We’re always listening to your feedback as we deliver new Groups capabilities to Outlook. Here are a few of your key requests we are going to tackle next:
- Add appointments to a group calendar in Outlook for Windows—When adding an event to a group calendar, you will have the option to do so without sending an invite to everyone in the group.
- Addition of Mail Contacts as guests—You will be able to easily add Mail Contacts in your company’s directory as a guest in a group.
Thanks for the feedback, and please keep it coming via our UserVoice site.
—The Outlook team
Frequently asked questions
How To Add Alias To Outlook For Mac
Q. Now that Groups support is being added to Outlook for iOS and Android, what happens to the standalone Outlook Groups app?
A. Inkscape direct for mac 10.11. Customers gave us feedback that they wanted Groups available directly in Outlook for iOS and Android. The Outlook Groups app will still be available while we continue to enhance Groups experiences in Outlook, such as adding support for group files, calendar and notebooks.
Q. Why am I not seeing Groups yet?
A. Groups is rolling out to Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android and will be available for eligible users in the coming weeks. Even if you are using the latest build of Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android, Groups will only be available to those who have joined or been added to a group. Once we add the ability to create and join groups on Mac, iOS and Android, every Office 365 user will see Groups in Outlook.
Q. Is Groups available to Outlook.com users?
A. Groups is for commercial users of Office 365 and is not available for Outlook.com.
Q. Why am I not seeing all my groups in Outlook for Mac?
A. Outlook for Mac currently shows the top 10 most active groups in Outlook for Mac. We’re working on making all groups visible in a future update.
Q. What about Outlook for Windows 10 Mobile?
A. We’re working on the best way to integrate Groups in Outlook for Windows 10 Mobile. In the meantime, the Outlook Groups app for Windows 10 Mobile helps customers stay on top of all group activities, including conversations, files, calendar and notebook.
Can You Create An Alias On Outlook
Q. Where can I find more about managing Groups in Outlook for my organization?
Add Outlook Account To Mac
A. If you are responsible for managing and supporting Outlook for your company, take a look at our IT pro documentation and check out our recently released improvements for administering Groups.
How To Create An Alias In Outlook
Q. What is coming next for Groups?
Add An Alias Email
A. Stay tuned to the Office 365 Roadmap to see what is on the way.