Hi I've been discussing the mailto link with other designers on LinkedIn and wonder what the opinions of other standards based designers are.
The original question had to do with the contact form. I suggested that many people don't like contact forms and prefer to email directly from their mail client. One response was that an email link follow through to a contact form as some users will be disconcerted when their default mail client opens unexpectedly. The point being that the savvy user will know to copy the email address and paste it in their client if they don't want to use the form. I use Gmail and tend to copy the email but I'm not copying the visible link I'm using the browser's option of copying the actual link. My argument is that I don't expect an email link to take me to another page and I instinctively feel I'm being led by the nose to do what the web designer wants not what I expect to happen. My rule of thumb is that a web page should do what's expected rather than what's expedient. Its not my job to cater for people's inadequacies, that's the browser's job. Another suggestion was that we should cater to the desires of the client. Unfortunately this could be likened to having a car designed by the salesman rather than the car manufacturer. I don't think there is a simple way to get the mailto link to open in a web based client (though there may be browser specific options). Chris.Price @Choctaw.co.uk <http:\\choctaw.co.uk> 0777 629 0227 Design is my native language Choctaw Media Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales (04627649) ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org *******************************************************************
