HTML MailTo Options

Overview

• The HTML mailto is a URI or Uniform Resource Identifier scheme that encodes an email address in a Web browser. When a user clicks a "mailto" link, it initiates a new message in the default email program on the user's computer. The new message is addressed to the exact address that appears in the link. A "mailto" is not an independent HTML tag; instead it is entered in a hyperlink tag as its link value along with the email address.
  
  

Syntax

• A "mailto" appears as a value of the "href" attribute in the <a> tag. It is followed by a colon and the email address, the anchor text for the link and the closing <a> tag as shown in the example below. If parameters are added, say to insert a subject title or a carbon copy recipient, the first or sole parameter must be preceded by a question mark while additional parameters are marked with the ampersand.
  
  <a href="/links/?u=mailto:email_address@domain.xxx">Send us feedback!</a>
  
  

Subject

• The most common parameter added to the "mailto" function is the "subject" parameter. Use this when you want email sent through the "mailto" link to have a particular title, say "Feedback." If you want to use blanks in the value, enter "%20" (without quotes) instead of spaces.
  
  Example:
  
  <a href="/links/?u=mailto:someone@domain.xxx?subject="Website%20Feedback">Send feedback here</a>
  
  

Recipients

• You can enter multiple email addresses in a "mailto" link by separating them with commas. Alternatively, you can designate recipients of carbon copies, blind carbon copies or both.
  
  Example 1: Multiple recipients
  
  <a href="/links/?u=mailto:webmaster@site-domain-name.xxx,administrator@site-domain.xxx?subject=Inquiry">Got questions?</a>
  
  Example 2: Carbon copy (CC) and Blind carbon copy
  
  <a href="/links/?u=mailto:editor@yourwebsite.xxx?cc=author@yourwebsite.xxx&bcc=snoop@otherdomain.xxx">Contact us</a>
  
  

Message Body

• If you want the email to have specific text in the message body, use the "body" parameter. To create a new line, insert "%0A" (without quotes) where you want the new line to start. Use two "%0A" to create two blank lines.
  
  Example:
  
  <a href="/links/?u=mailto:helpdesk@domain.xxx?Help&body=Hello,%0AI You have received a new message!">Help Desk</a>