Wow 'Em With These Nifty Tricks

You can enhance your "Mailto:" tags to:

Include a Subject
Include multiple addressees
Include one or more cc:'s

Note: Addresses used in the examples below are fictitious.

Subject

In this example, "APEX/EECN 9-5 Q22" will appear in the Subject of Netscape's E-mail form addressed to Milo Minderbinder.

Here's a test: Mail this!

Multiple Addressees

In this example, we've put Milo's address inside of <> and added Dave's address, also in <>, separated by a comma:

<A HREF="mailto:<milo_minderbinder@fishnet.com>,<dave_x_mckeen@fishnet.com>?subject=APEX/EECN 9-5 Q22">Mail this!</A>

Here's a test: Mail this!

Subject, Multiple cc:'s

In this example, "Mailto Procedures" will appear in the subject field. The multiple cc: addressees appear after the "?cc=" string inside of <> separated with commas. Note this neat feature; where the name of the addressee is obscure as in Fred Flintstone's case, a plain text string that looks like his name can be inserted in front of the <> containing his e-mail address for clarity. This works for the "To" field (the main addressee field) as well.

Note: I placed a space before "FredFlintstone" to make the string wrap in the browser. It does not belong there in the HTML code.

<A HREF="mailto:thomas_x_daugherty@fishnet.com?cc=<paxton_x_marks@fishnet.com>, FredFlintstone<fredfl@fishnet.com>&subject=1630 SX PAE Procedures">Mail this!</A>

Here's a test: Mail this!

Summary

Here is a summary of the "mailto" strings:

Note: I placed a space in the string to make it wrap in the browser. It does not belong there in the HTML code.

<A HREF="mailto:<name@where>,<name@where>?cc=<name@where>,<name@where>, <name@where>&subject=Subject Matter">

Notes:

A recognizable name (i.e. FredFlintstone) can be placed in front of the "<" associated with any address.
"<>" can be used around an addresses even when it is a single addresses.
Spaces are allowed in "Subject Matter" even though the subject string is not enclosed in quotation marks.
The "?" always follows the last "To" address. If "cc=" is used it follows the "?". In this case, an "&" is used after the last cc: address followed by "subject=".
If no "cc=" is used, then the "?" follows the last address, followed by "subject=".

Credits:

Thanks to Jerry Mulever and Alan Palmer of CompuServe's Internet Publishing forum (INETPUB) for cluing me in about mailto tricks in June 1997.