Email SHORTCUTS

Make a shortcut to send a new email message.  The first shortcut just opens a blank email message in your default email client.  Right click on the desktop and choose NEW | Shortcut.  Enter mailto: and click on Next.  Enter a name for the shortcut and click on Finish.  Double click on the new shortcut to make sure it correctly opens a new, blank email.

Now we'll expand on this.  Right click on the shortcut you must made.  Choose Properties from the menu and edit the URL field.  Add two email addresses, separated by a command and click on OK. 

Example:  mailto:bill@gates.com,steve@microsloth.com.  Launch the shortcut and check whether your email works  If it doesn't work, change the COMMA between the names to a SEMICOLON.  Outlook requires a semicolon, for example. Thunderbird works fine with a comma between email addresses.

Next, you can add other fields to the URL.  The first field must be preceded by a question mark, and any addition fields must be preceded by an ampersand (&).  The cc= and bcc= fields can be used to add recipients.  The subject= field defines the subject of your email and you can include a little text with the body=field.  The subject= and body= fields are a little tricky.  Special characters must be encoded.  Every space has to be replaced by %20, and new lines in the message BODY are represented by %0D%0A.

Here is a sample that uses everything described.  It creates an email with a subject and body and sends it to several recipients.

mailto:mrclaus@northpole;boss@work.com?cc=rudolph@northpole.com&subject=This%20Chirstmas&body=Been%20a%20good%20boy.%0D%0AReally%20I%20have!

Try this with your email client for email you send often.