Mailto Encoder

Advanced Mailto Encoder

Rumkin.com >> Web-Based Tools >> Mailto Encoder

Below is one of the most flexible email address encoders available on the web. You are allowed to pick from several options, to select things you want to do and things that you don't, and to finally see the end results.

There is also a much simpler version of this web page, and you can go back to the main page of the mailto encoding tools.

Please make sure your email link works! To test it, use the popup window link. Some of the options are incompatible with each other. I tried to make warnings appear when conflicts occur, but I may not have caught them all.

Step 1: Email Address

Please enter your email address here. You can feel safe about typing it in here because all of the processing is done on your computer and it does not relay any information to any other computer.

Email Address:		Mandatory

Step 2: Additional Information

If you want any other specific information in the email message, you should enter it here. This may or may not be supported by the browser + mail program combination. The user can most likely edit the information supplied here. It just populates the fields to get the email ready for the user.

CC:		Who else the message should be sent to
BCC:		People listed here should get a copy but their names won't be on the email message.
Subject:		The subject line of the outgoing message.
Body:		Text that should appear in the message.

Step 3: The Link

This section describes how the link should look like. (The "link" is the "<A HREF=...>" thing.)

	Do not make a link for me. This skips making the <A HREF=...> tag.
	Make a standard mailto: link in HTML. This option works great with JavaScript encoding, an option displayed below.
	Use HTML hex codes (e.g. "u") and URL encoded characters (e.g. "%75") when writing the HTML. Better if you do not plan on using JavaScript encoding. Chance a letter will be encoded: % Chance the encoding method will be HTML-style: %
	Encode the address in a table. It looks like a normal address, but HTML table tags are breaking it up. A link can not be made with this method. Also, the items from Step 2 are ignored.

Step 4: What Is Displayed

Usually, if you make a link on your web page, you want the user to be able to see your link. This provides various ways of displaying your email address.

	Do not make anything visible for me. This will make any link impossible to click, since there won't be anything for the user to click upon.
	Normal -- just display the email address plainly. Use this with JavaScript encoding, otherwise your email address will be harvested by spambots.
	Use this text instead of another option. Be careful with HTML characters such as &, <, and >. Use & instead of &, etc.
	Show address as an image. I have "image.jpg" on my server to show you an example of what this will look like. Change it to whatever name you want right before you copy the generated code to your page. Filename: Alt text: Additional image parameters:
	Use some sort of silly notation -- user (at) host [dot] com
	Insert extra words into the email address, using various methods. This is more common in places that you can not enter a link and must enter your email address in plain text. Use lowercase
	Reverse the email address. Again, not very common, but might be fun to look at. (e.g. moc.tsoh@resu)
	Use HTML character encoding (e.g. "u") on some or all of the letters. Chance a letter is encoded: %

Step 5: Additional Options

	Encode everything in JavaScript. The Double-Escaped code may not work properly with Opera 5, but might in newer versions. I tried to make sure that the generated code is pretty small, especially when compared to a couple of the larger JavaScript encoding functions out there. Encoding Strength:
	Use an image instead of the @ symbol. Filename: Alt text:

Step 6: Generate HTML

Press this button to generate the code that you will copy into your web page's source.

Your final HTML code is:

... View the code in a popup window.

If you want a new email image or the '@' symbol as an image, you should visit CoolText.com and it can make them for you. It's free and web-based.

Please don't steal this script and say that you wrote it. It took me forever to make this little bugger. You can copy it and use it on your web site or whatever. Just please give me credit by mentioning my name (Tyler Akins) and provide a link to my site (http://rumkin.com/tools/mailto_encoder).

No blood (real or fake) was used in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – they couldn't afford it. Instead, the killing scenes were performed behind screens and off-camera.

Tyler Akins <>
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