Comments on: Avoiding the mailto: trap http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/ on programming, usability, and design; by Patrick Dubroy Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:34:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: matt http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-6741 Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:45:31 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-6741 <p>To identify mailto links, I updated my userContent.css file to put a Unicode envelope icon after the link, like this: <code> a[href^="mailto:"]:after { content: " \2709"; } </code></p> <p>Then I saw how useful it was, and I added rules for PDF, Word, Excel, and new window links. <code> a[href$=".pdf"]:after { font-size: smaller; content: " [PDF]"; } a[href$=".doc"]:after,a[href$=".dot"]:after { font-size:smaller; content: " [Word]"; } a[href$=".xls"]:after, a[href$=".xlw"]:after { font-size:smaller; content: " [Excel]"; }</code></p> <p>:link[target="<em>blank"]:after, :visited[target="</em>blank"]:after,:link[target="<em>new"]:after, :visited[target="</em>new"]:after { content: " \2197"; } </p> To identify mailto links, I updated my userContent.css file to put a Unicode envelope icon after the link, like this:

a[href^="mailto:"]:after
{
content: " \2709";
}

Then I saw how useful it was, and I added rules for PDF, Word, Excel, and new window links.

a[href$=".pdf"]:after
{
font-size: smaller;
content: " [PDF]";
}
a[href$=".doc"]:after,a[href$=".dot"]:after
{
font-size:smaller;
content: " [Word]";
}
a[href$=".xls"]:after, a[href$=".xlw"]:after
{
font-size:smaller;
content: " [Excel]";
}

:link[target=”blank”]:after, :visited[target=”blank”]:after,:link[target=”new”]:after, :visited[target=”new”]:after
{
content: ” \2197″;
}

]]> by: Patrick http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-3746 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:24:29 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-3746 <p>Ryan:</p> <p>I agree, I'd be all for disabling mailto support altogether. Whenever I encounter a link that I actually <em>know</em> is a mailto (i.e., the link text is the actual email address), I just use right-click -> "Copy Email Address".</p> Ryan:

I agree, I’d be all for disabling mailto support altogether. Whenever I encounter a link that I actually know is a mailto (i.e., the link text is the actual email address), I just use right-click -> “Copy Email Address”.

]]> by: Ryan Lowe http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-3743 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:17:44 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-3743 <p>FireFox opens Gmail for me when I click a mailto: link. That would be convenient if people actually used mailto: any more. :)</p> <p>I'm in favour of allowing people to <em>disable</em> mailto click support in FireFox to prevent accidental clicks. Then in the rate instance I want to use a mailto: address I can copy and paste it.</p> FireFox opens Gmail for me when I click a mailto: link. That would be convenient if people actually used mailto: any more. :)

I’m in favour of allowing people to disable mailto click support in FireFox to prevent accidental clicks. Then in the rate instance I want to use a mailto: address I can copy and paste it.

]]> by: colin http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-3592 Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:51:19 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-3592 <p>Hey Pat! Keep up the blogging, I enjoy the reading of them.</p> <p>By the way, checkout the website I made for my hockey league ... don't click on my name in the footer, ha! ;-)</p> <p>http://sarsfieldoldtimers.reconfigure.ca/</p> <p>Colin</p> Hey Pat! Keep up the blogging, I enjoy the reading of them.

By the way, checkout the website I made for my hockey league … don’t click on my name in the footer, ha! ;-)

http://sarsfieldoldtimers.reconfigure.ca/

Colin

]]> by: Patrick http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-2862 Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:45:25 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-2862 <p>Yeah, definitely the biggest pain is waiting for the mail client to open.</p> Yeah, definitely the biggest pain is waiting for the mail client to open.

]]> by: anand http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-2834 Mon, 03 Sep 2007 23:25:31 +0000 http://dubroy.com/blog/2007/08/29/avoiding-the-mailto-trap/#comment-2834 <p>I think FF 3 is looking at support for handling mailto: in the browser itself, via firing open your favorite webmail service or other options. I think the biggest pain of the mailto: tag is the huge wait time for bulky email cilents to load up. </p> <p>It's like the difference between opening and email attachment or clicking "View as HTML" that gmail lets you do. So much nicer to keep it in the browser, and keep the load on the big corp's servers. </p> <p>ps, redesign our facebook app man! :P</p> I think FF 3 is looking at support for handling mailto: in the browser itself, via firing open your favorite webmail service or other options. I think the biggest pain of the mailto: tag is the huge wait time for bulky email cilents to load up.

It’s like the difference between opening and email attachment or clicking “View as HTML” that gmail lets you do. So much nicer to keep it in the browser, and keep the load on the big corp’s servers.

ps, redesign our facebook app man! :P

]]>