A simple web form works better than a mailto tag for many viewers

The <a href="mailto:someone@ups.edu"></a> tag is widely used on campus and everywhere else on the web. As you will know if you ever have clicked on one, the mailto link causes an email program to start up, so that the email address contained in the mailto may be sent a message. It's pretty simple stuff and works well for most of us on campus since we tend to click on these mailto links when we're in front of our own computer using our email program, Eudora or Outlook, say, and everything is just great in this controlled environment. So, what's the problem?

Many folks from off campus who view our website and then want to send us email messages may have their primary email address hosted on a web-based system such as Yahoo! or hotmail.com. For these viewers, having an email program respond to the mailto link is simply not part of their Internet experience. Many high school and college students use these web-based email systems so that they can use their email from anywhere. This also is true for people who travel a lot and for people who use public computers (such as those in a public library) to connect to the Internet. All of these folks cannot send you an email from the mailto links in your web pages. What is the solution that reaches every one of your website viewers?

A simple web email form

If you use a simple web form, instead of the mailto: link, to provide email access to you from your web pages, all viewers of your website will be able to reach you. It's simple and it works. Here's an example. Feel free to try it out--I've put in a line that tells me to ignore the message, so fire away!

Here's the source of this page: /web/content/sample_email_form_src.htm Feel free to copy and modify it for your own use. (I'm now using this approach on the Web Development Reources website, by the way.)

Finally, here's some information on our new form processor.

These resources are provided for the University of Puget Sound community.
Website contact: Jean Huskamp, x3773