Q: Why are recipients not in alphabetical (or any other) order?

I can't tell you why that happens. May be a flaw in Mail or Address Book. However, inasmuch as Mail is going to send the same message to everyone on the To: list does it make any difference how the names are ordered?

That would be a task. As far as I know neither Address Book nor Mail can do that. Of course even were you able to list the recipients in such an order, the order would have no impact on the delivery order.

"when I select the group for the To: box, the names just appear in random order".

I created a group and put it into the To: box. I then clicked the group name and chose 'Expand Group'. I assume this is the ordered list that you are concerned about. The order of my list was consistent (the same every time), not random, and is the order that the names were added to my address book, with the person longest in the Address Book first. Can you check that yours are consistent and the same order?

If you want to change this order, you could remove people from your address book (use Export vcard, then delete the card), then add them back in the order you want. If you do this, make sure you make a back up first!

Andrew

But that is not a satisfactory resolution. The names should be added in the sort order of the Address Book or any order of the user's choosing. I have a small address book of only 140 or so names. If I needed to use that as a group I would have to remove and re-add 140 names in alphabetical order. Then each time a name is added or removed I would have to do this again? No, that's not a satisfactory approach.

I've sent in a bug report to Apple. Perhaps this will be fixed some time in the future.

How do I get Mail to list the names in the "To" box in the order I prefer?

Do it manually, by adding the addresses 1 at a time. Or after you add the group, expand it (Ctrl-click the group name) and reorganize them however you want.

Or, since it doesn't make a difference, except maybe if you want to see them in order in the Sent folder, add them all as a group and don't worry about the order.

Will a recipient's relative interest in the Mail usually agree with its alphabetical position within the group?

Well, you could do what you want with an Applescript.

If I was going to rank the names of people on a To: list, it wouldn't be by alphabetical order. Unless Apple receives many reports that people think this is the wrong way, I don't expect that they'll change it soon.

Every one to his/her own.

Andrew

I would agree with you in principle. Frankly, I wouldn't really care what order they are in. But I can understand someone preferring an order. It would also seem "logical" to order the addressees in alphabetical order if no other order were available. Ordering them in the order of "date of entry" doesn't seem to make any sense. I suppose that if an order were important then the user should be able to designate what that order might be in Address Book. Mail should then "cooperate" with that ordering. I would consider this to be a "normal" expectation.

Regardless, I've reported this as a bug. If Apple deems it worthy of attention it may get fixed in the next Tiger update.

Open Address Book & select your Group.

Then in the Menu under Address Book, select Preferences. In the General pane that opens, you have several options. One is to Sort by First or Last Name. Simple as that.

 Cheers, Tom

In the mean time, you can do it fairly quickly from within Mail without going into the Address Book:

In a new blank message, click on the Address button to bring up the Addresses window.

Click on the name of the group you want to send to (All if its everyone in your Address Book). The list on the right will be sorted in the order you require.

Select the first person in the list, press and hold the Shift key down, then use the down arrow key on the keyboard to go down the list until all the names are selected. This puts them onto the clipboard in the order you want.

Let go of the Shift key, and click the To: or Cc: button.

Hey Presto, you have your sorted list.

Andrew

PowerMac G4 MDD   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

Unfortunately that doesn't work when you then paste the group into a Mail To: field. The list will not appear in that order. Exactly what the OP was complaining about to start with.

Well, it worked before I posted the suggestion, and I've just tried again and it works now. Did you try it out?

You don't actually paste (or copy). You are simply using the group to define the list of addresses. By selecting in the right hand pane and then clicking To:, you are selectng the individuals, not the group. You get a list if names in the To: field of the new email, rather than the group name.

Andrew

No. The original experiment was using the Address icon in Mail's toolbar.

The address icon in Mail's toolbar is what I am referring to. It brings up a window titled Addresses. Select the group in the left hand pane to only show the names you require in the right hand pane. Then use the shift select method to select all of the names in that right hand pane, then click To;.

It works.

The only thing is that if you select them in any order, say from the bottom up rather than the top down, or at random, then they always appear in the same order as going down the righthand pane!

Andrew