Create a New Public Group

Topic Last Modified: 2009-09-28

You can create public groups for your organization that are available in the shared address book. Use public groups, also called a distribution group, to keep users organized and encourage collaboration.

For example, if many people are working on a project researching genetics, create a group called "Genetic Research" and populate it with the appropriate members. This group will appear in the shared address book, and the members can send e-mail to the "Genetic Research" group, instead of having select individual recipients for the message.

It's a good idea to use groups to send messages to a lot of users at once so you don't exceed the maximum recipient limit per message.

Need a way to manage groups whose membership changes frequently? See Dynamic Distribution Groups.

Create a group, assign owners, and set membership approval

Select My Organization > Users & Groups > Public Groups > New.
Enter the following information:
General This section provides basic information about the group, which is displayed in the shared address book and in the Myself > Public Groups page to help users decide whether they want to join the group.
- * Display name This name appears in the address book, on the To: line when e-mail is sent to this group, and in the Groups list. The display name is required and should be user-friendly so people recognize what it is. It also has to be unique in your domain.
- * E-mail address Type the name portion of the e-mail address that appears to the left of the @ symbol. It has to be unique in your domain and it can't contain any spaces. It is also required. The domain is the portion of the e-mail address to the right of the @ symbol. Select a domain name from the drop-down list. Together they make up the e-mail address, as in drama101@contoso.edu. When a user types the name in the To: line of an e-mail, it resolves to the group's display name.
- Description Use this field to describe the group so people know what the purpose of the group is.
Ownership Use this section to assign group owners. The group owner can add members to the group, approve or reject requests to join the group, and approve or reject messages sent to the group.
- * Owners By default, the person who creates a group is the owner. All groups must have at least one owner. You can add owners by clicking Add.
Membership Use this section to add members. Group owners don't have to be members of the group. Use "Add group owners as members" to add or remove the owners as members.
- Members To add users, select a user or other group and click Add. When you are finished adding members, click OK to return to New Group.
Membership Approval Use this section to specify whether approval is required for people to join or leave the group.
- Choose whether owner approval is required to join the group   These settings apply to membership. Select one of the following settings:
  • Open: Anyone can join this group without being approved by the group owners   This is the default setting.
  • Closed: Members can be added only by the group owners. All requests to join will be rejected automatically.
  • Owner Approval: All requests are manually approved or rejected by the group owners.   If you select this option, the group owner or owners receive an e-mail requesting approval to join the group.
- Choose whether the group is open to leave   Select one of the following settings:
  • Open: Anyone can leave this group without being approved by the group owners   This is the default setting.
  • Closed: Members can be removed only by the group owners. All requests to leave will be rejected automatically   If you select this option, the group owner or owners receive an e-mail requesting approval to leave the group.
When you're finished, click Save to keep your changes and create the new group. If you don't want to create the group, click Cancel to close the dialog box.

After you click Save, the new group appears in the Groups list.

What's next?

After a group is created, the owner or owners can modify these details and additional Delivery Management and Message Approval details by selecting the group from the Groups list, and clicking Details. For more information, see Change Group Properties.

Learn more

To learn more about recipient limits and broadcast messages, see Spam Filtering with Outlook Live and Send Broadcast Messages to All Students.