Using Groups and name order

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Level 1

17 points

Using Groups and name order

I have groups in my contact list [contacts.app] that I use for email [mail.app]. I have them sorted in alphabetical order (which is a must: some people get PO'd because they're not listed 'first.' Dumb, I know. Alpha order is neutral and mitigates that problem.) When I use the group name to address a message, however, the names appear in some other order, not really random because it's always the same, but it's not alphabetical.

Does anyone know of a way to control this? I do need to have all names show, so that group members know who is getting the email.

Right now I have to rely on small text files with the names and e-addresses listed in alpha order that I can copy and paste into each message "To" field, but it's cumbersome. I'd love to have the contacts appear in the message in the same order that they appear in the group list.

Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

MacBook Air (13-inch Late 2010), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Jul 21, 2016 10:55 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 21, 2016 11:20 AM in response to Joe Wolf Dee

AFAICT, the groups are ordered alphabetically by last name.

The problem may be with the way the names are entered into the contacts: for example,

if you have a person called

John Alan Smith

it may be that "John Alan" is the first name, and "Smith" the last, or maybe "Alan" is the middle name, or may it is all entered in one piece as first, or last name. This affects how it will be sorted.

(John)(Alan)(Smith)

will came later than

(John)()(Albert Smith)

because for last names we have "Smith" alphabetically later than "Albert Smith" (even though, of course, it seems wrong if you just look at the full names

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Answer 2

Joe Wolf Dee Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 20, 2016 7:22 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks again for the suggestion, but no change with that. I even tried emptying out one of the smaller groups and re-entering them in alpha order, but got the same odd result: the first name to appear is from about the middle of the group.

I can still use my copy-and-paste method, but this is one of those things that you figure "I MUST be able to get this to work!"

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