Small Issue - But it is really BUGGING me !!

Question

Small Issue - But it is really BUGGING me !!

When I type in what SHOULD turn into links (letters turn blue with a line under them and allow you to click on it) in either my emails or mainly for me in this situation now its my signature,,, email links seem to work but not actual web addresses.

It kills me and I can't figure it out. I looked for prefernces, searched in forums, etc... no answer.

Let me give you a exact example. In my signature (and also in some emails) I type in my web address and my email (along with name and number too obviously) for contact info and other various reasons. WELL when I either look at the "sent" email I JUST typed and sent, or if I look at it once I get replied back to from the receipiant, I see the EMAIL I typed has turned into a link, BUT the web address hasn't !! ?? It never does, and NONE of them (web address's) do.

WHY ?

I am typing them in the same way I do anywhere else and it works, why not in Mail ?

Also, is this JUST how I AM SEEING IT ? or is this how my receipiants are seeing it too ?

I want them to get the LINKS, not just typed letters.

Ever since I used computers I noticed once you type either a web address or a email, it AUTOMATICALLY turns into a link,,,,,,, So what gives here ?? How can one thing be turning into a link, but the other thing aint ?

Thanks --

G5 Dual 2.7, 4.5Gb Ram, Two 74Gb WD Rapture 10k rpm HD's for Boot Drive & extra Mac OS X (10.4.5) Pro Tools HD 4 Acell, 3 Apogee 16X's, 4 300Gb SCSI Drives in Xpansion Chassis.

Posted on May 6, 2006 2:46 AM

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Answer 1

Kalessin

Level 1

55 points

May 6, 2006 11:17 AM in response to Roulette Records

Here are two things you can try - and they work for me - I just tested them both on two different email accounts and I am not sure from my original post whether I explained fully.

Create a signature using the signature preference found under Mail/Preferences/Signatures. Check "always match my default message font".

The links WON'T be higlighted in blue in the compose window, but they will appear as links to the recipient. Email it to yourself to test.

Secondly, to use the Add Hyperlink function, type your website address as normal, for example www.mycompanyname.com. Highlight the entire address and then go to Add Hyperlink. In the window type in the full normal address including http (the recipients will not see this) and click ok. Your url will now be blue and underlined in the compose window. For this to work the message must be composed in Rich Text not Plain Text. Email it to yourself to test.

Let me know if this helps.

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Answer 2

Kalessin

Level 1

55 points

May 6, 2006 4:04 AM in response to Roulette Records

In Mail.app, the link will not turn blue for either email or web addresses.

Their are a couple of behaviors I have observed:
1) If you type a web address starting "www." it may not display on the recipients computer as a link.
2) If you type it starting "http://www." it will
3) If you add email address and website (beginning www.) as part of a signature in Preferences both will display as web links!

Odd isn't it.

If you with to see the link turn blue when you add it you can go to Edit/Add Hyperlink and enter the website address, again beginning "http://www.,

The best idea for regular emailing for addresses to show as links is to place them both in a signature block in Preferences/Signatures.

Hope this helps

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Answer 3

May 6, 2006 10:49 AM in response to Kalessin

Thanks Kalessin,

Thing is, is , when I do it in my signature, like I said, the email comes up as a link, BUT the web address doesn't.

I don't want the person to see the "http://" because that ruins my signature and makes it look too long and stupid. I NEED to type it "www.whatever.com"(example)..... it just appears more pro that way.

How do we accomplish this ? There has to be a way.
Can I create a hyperlink and pick my word that hyperlinks to be "www.whatever.com" ???

.....actually I just tried that, and it doesn't seem to be a real hyper link. Like, how can I do that HTML thing where I pick a word (any word I want) to be a ink to any URL I want ?? I need to do that for my signature. Can I ?

And why does the email work automatically, but not the web address ?

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Answer 4

May 6, 2006 8:25 PM in response to Kalessin

THAT WAS IT !!

I got it the way I want it now.

Thanks so much Kalessin -- you truly are a Mail Pimp mang !!

Thanks again.... problem solved.

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Answer 5

May 7, 2006 3:51 AM in response to Kalessin

I must be missing something here because this just doesn't make sense to me. Whether a URL appears as a clickable link to the recipient depends entirely on how the recipient's mail application parses the text in the message it receives. It either recognizes the URL as a clickable link or it doesn't. It either requires "http://" to be present or it doesn't. Whether it appears as a clickable link in Mail when you compose the message is utterly irrelevant here.

What happens when you use Edit > Add Hyperlink depends on whether you compose the message as "Rich Text" or as "Plain Text". If as "Plain Text", then that command accomplishes absolutely nothing. The link does appear underlined and clickable in the compose window in Mail indeed, but that's just an illusion. If you send such a message to yourself, you'll see that the link appears as non-clickable in the received message (again, this depends entirely on the particular application used to read the message). If "Rich Text" is used instead, the link does indeed appear as clickable, but that's because you're no longer just typing the URL there, you are inserting a full HTML tag. Look at the raw source of the message after it's been sent to see what am I talking about here.

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Answer 6

Kalessin

Level 1

55 points

May 7, 2006 4:36 AM in response to David Gimeno Gost

David, you are quite correct. In my first response I posted this:

1) If you type a web address starting "www." it may not display on the recipients computer as a link.
2) If you type it starting "http://www." it will.

I didn't think to explain how an individual email application parses text in messages it receives!

RR wanted a solution to ensuring that his url appeared in all circumstances as a clickable link (at the recipients end, {regardless of his composition view}), and composing in Rich Text and entering the complete html tag accomplishes this, and in the post I did state that the message had to be composed in Rich Text for this to work.

In the original post I did also explain that typing in www. was not sufficient to have the url represented as a link in all cases at the recipients end, but that one must type in http://. He was unwilling to do that.

Having said that, your correction about the advice on Signatures IS accurate, and is simply a reflection of observations of my email progam and that of those I send emails to. Hopefully RR will read this and better understand.

I have learned that there is always room in your mouth for your other foot! 🙂

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Answer 7

May 7, 2006 11:20 AM in response to Kalessin

Yeah, I actually understood the part about the receipiant's end being "if'y" at best about seeing the link as a link or not. (all them dang people on PC's are usually the issue here and PC's are ruining the earth !! ha ha) -- ANYWAY,

I was just happy to get what to me IMO is a better fighting chance of a more majority seeing it as a link. If it was coming back to me as no link, then maybe thats how their computer precieved it. IF it comes back as a link, then I figured most likey they saw it that way too. YES I do understand even tht isn't 100% accurate, but to me , the odds seem a little better that way.

SO, as I have been testing what I did so far, it seems to be working. Not only when I email myself it comes up as links (which David pointed out is irealevant and I agree), BUT now lately when they are coming back to me from receipiants that before were NO LINKS, now they are !! So to me that is good news, and yes I know, still not 100% true. BUT the ones I know personally, I asked, and they said YES they are links to them now and wern't before.

SO -- all in all as everyone here on this thread is 100% correct, we STILL accomplished something which is our one and only goal.

David and Kalessin, I appreciate your extremely valuable inputs and advice. It was honestly priceless.

Thank you both -

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