MacOS – Making changes to a Smart Group’s distribution list persistent

contactsmacos

Is there a way to make changes to a Smart Group's distribution list persistent?

Problem Description

In Address Book, I right-click on a Smart Group and select "Edit Distribution List".

Smart Group in Address Book

I then select a work address for a contact that has multiple email addresses.

Edit Distribution List

If I close the the "Edit Distribution List" menu and then go back into it, my change from home/other to work for that particular user did not persist.

The problem is that when I send an email using a smart group, I cannot ensure that everyone will receive the email to their work email address.

Any thoughts?

Best Answer

Distribution lists are not persisted for smart groups. On Lion, if you search Address Book help for "distribution list", you will see a page called "Select addresses for group members". Below step 2 is this piece of bad news: "You can't choose smart groups."

Some versions of OS X show smart groups in the Edit Distribution List window, but as of Lion, this is simply the user interface being misleading.

Speaking of Lion, users who use iCloud for contacts will see the Edit Distribution List menu item disabled, because this feature is not yet available with iCloud.

Related Question