An easy way to add contacts to your Messenger List is to import them from other applications. With a few clicks, you can import contacts from your Yahoo! Address Book or from Microsoft Outlook.

Just open the "Contacts" menu and click "Import Contacts." Follow the instructions.

If you import contacts from Microsoft Outlook, depending on your security settings, a pop-up message may appear warning you that a program is trying to access email addresses stored in Outlook and asking your permission to allow it. If this message appears, click the checkbox "Allow access for," leaving the default time of 1 minute, and click "Yes."

Yahoo! Messenger will then present you with a dialogue box containing two lists, one of people who already use Yahoo! Messenger and another of people you can invite to join you on Yahoo! Messenger. A checkbox next to each name lets you to choose whom you would like to add to your Messenger List.