creating a distribution list

Create a group in Contacts and add the desired contacts to it. Then just send the message to that group.

Select All Contacts tab, drag contacts over the list you wish to add them

You can also create Smart Groups based on certain criteria.

Address Book File menu, New Smart Group

You have to add them to Contacts for that to work. If the addresses in question are not addresses that you want in Contacts, then you'll have to find another solution. You could keep a spreadsheet in Excel or Numbers, for example, and copy the addresses from there into Mail.

RB: Did you ever find an answer to your question. I have the same problem. I have list of over 300 e-mail addresses to which I wanted to (relatively) quickly send a single e-mail. I did not have the time or inclination to create a new card for each, transfer each bit of information to the card, and move each of the 300+ cards into the group.

WTH?

I cannot believe that Apple Mail provides no way to either create a "group" or stored distribution list in batch or allow me to reliably copy the 300+ e-mails into the "to", "cc", or "bcc" distribution lists from a speadsheet.

I don't think you can send over 100 email addresses in Mail, and most, if not all, ISP's probably do not allow it either.

If you have a "list of over 300 e-mail addresses," just drag that list to the To field.

I don't know how much text you can fit in a Text Clipping, but you can drag the selected "list of emails" to the Desktop and it will create a Text Clipping. You can then drag that text clipping to the address fields in Mail.

This is a ridiculous oversight in Mail/Contacts. I could do this so easily in Eudora -- years ago. Just choose a group of addressees and create a group . . .

I agree - it's amazing that Apple can't figure out a way to support something this simple.

Sorry I have only just seen this. I was hoping for a better solution than the one I have, but I am now thinking mine is better than any of the above. What I have done is create STATIONERY inside mail - you can put any number of email addresses into the TO, CC or BCC boxes there, and save as stationery. Then whenever the list changes, you can open a new mail, use stationery, choose custom, pick yours, change the TO list as required, then save as stationery and overwrite the old one. This way you don't have to have the email addresses linked in any way to contacts.

Sorry I have only just seen this. I was hoping for a better solution than the one I have, but I am now thinking mine is better than any of the above. What I have done is create STATIONERY inside mail - you can put any number of email addresses into the TO, CC or BCC boxes there, and save as stationery. Then whenever the list changes, you can open a new mail, use stationery, choose custom, pick yours, change the TO list as required, then save as stationery and overwrite the old one. This way you don't have to have the email addresses linked in any way to contacts.