email question

[covoxer]

Steve, I can't find what I changed but don't understand why whichever email client you were using would not open up to send the email.

Because it is configurable in both browser and e-mail client. Browser does not send e-mail on it's own, it has to open correct e-mail client on your machine, and correctly transfer all the necessary data to make it automatically create new e-mail message for you. This may fail in browser either because it is simply disabled (many users find it a good practice to disable auto e-mail because some pages may contain scripts that can misuse this feature) or because it is not configured properly, it may fail in OS not allowing browser to use e-mail agent correctly and it may fail in e-mail agent by configuration reasons. It works only with local e-mail agents, it can't work with online e-mail front ends (like gmail). As you see, the sources of problem with not opening e-mail are numerous, so you can't rely on it. On the other hand, if you had put your e-mail in the WD page as Sledger describes, even if it doesn't work on click, user can simply right click, select Copy URL, and then paste it to his e-mail program.

[jeb]

It's their problem, not yours.

I understand that and did so before I posted here.

What I am looking for is when someone contacts me and says they can't make it work, what do I tell them to get it to work on their machine - realizing it will be different for different email clients or browsers or whatever it is that is the reason it doesn't work.

Take care - jb

[steve.ledger]

what do I tell them to get it to work on their machine - realizing it will be different for different email clients or browsers or whatever it is that is the reason it doesn't work.

You will need to familiarize yourself with the different browsers and their configuration settings and also know similarly about the various email clients that people might choose to use.
Once you ascertain which browser and/or email client the person uses, simply step them through the settings required to ensure that their software is configured correctly to work with email links on a webpage .

[covoxer]

What I am looking for is when someone contacts me and says they can't make it work, what do I tell them to get it to work on their machine

Tell them to right click on the link, select Copy URL form the menu and then paste it into their email. And remove "mailto:".

[jeb]

Tks guys - appreciate it. - jb

[PyroBrit]

Having helped a number of home users with their broadband problems, there are a number of people who have never setup an email client on their computer.

These users all tend to use a webmail package such as hotmail or yahoo mail which will not react when a "mailto:" link is clicked on in a web browser.

It's got me thinking about my own use of mailto: on my websites. perhaps I should be using a mail form.

Regards

Nick.W

[zaphodeist]

...Most people have no problem but some say they can not get it to work...

I'm still having trouble with this. Can't get it to work in FF 3.0.8. Link works in IE8 and even in the FF IE Tab add-on. Posted in FF forum but only response gives the answer most common when Googling the problem - go to TOOLS>>OPTIONS>>APPLICATIONS and check the 'mailto' settings. But, as I say, it wont work for me.

NB It's not an XWD problem, my FF ignores these links universally.

[zaphodeist]

Got a fix for the FF mailto links problem thanks to cor-el in the FF forum:

" You can look at the {PREF()}network.protocol-handler.external.mailto{PREF} prefs on the about:config page.
If {PREF()}network.protocol-handler.external.mailto{PREF} prefs are user set then right-click and ''Reset'' them to the default value."

He/she also added another fix - which I haven't tried because I didn't need to :

"You can also try to change the {PREF()}network.protocol-handler.warn-external.mailto{PREF} pref to 'true' "