Create or add contacts in Hotmail
HotmailUniversity
When you first create a Hotmail account, it will have an empty address book: you can then import contacts from a CSV / text file, but one of the most seamless ways of populating your contact list is to add contacts and/or create them manually as needed. In this tutorial, we will show you how to add a contact from email messages you send or receive, and how to manually create contacts in your address book.
Add contact from an email message
Start by going to your inbox:
- Open an email whose sender you'd like to add to your address book: when the message loads, Hotmail will display the "email headers", which will include sender, recipient, and subject line: click on the "Add to contacts" link.
- Within a second or so, Hotmail will change that link and display instead "Edit contact" - this is your confirmation that this person was successfully added to your contact list, and clicking the list will allow you to enter additional information or change the one automatically added (usually a name and email address).
- That's how you add contacts from emails you receive: you can also add a contact from a message you send. When you send an email to a person not currently in your address book, Hotmail will show you this confirmation screen:
Optionally enter a first and last name, and click on the "Add to contacts" button: Hotmail will create a new contact using that name and email address, and bring you back to your inbox: to edit that person's information, click on the "Contacts" link in the bottom left corner of the page to load your address book.
Tip: if you do not see the sent message confirmation screen pictured above, click on "Options" (near top right corner of inbox page), and select "More options". Then, click "Sent message confirmations" under "Writing email" - choose "Show me the sent message confirmation page after I send an e-mail" in the next screen, and click "Save".
Manually create a contact in your address book ("contact list")
But you can at any point manually create a contact, without having to send or receive an email message from that person: just click on the "Contacts" link in the bottom left corner of the page (when your inbox is loaded). Once your "contact list" opens, click on the "New" link above the listing: the form that opens allows you to enter as much or as little information as you want - Hotmail will need at least one piece of information to create a contact. Once you are done, click on the "Save" button at the bottom, and you've added a new contact!