To create a link on your Web site that opens an email window, you simply use a "mailto:" link. For example:
<a href="mailto:html.guide@about.com">Send email to your HTML Guide</a>
But what if you want to send email to more than one address? If you just want to send it To: multiple people, simply separate the email addresses with a comma. For example:
<a href="mailto:email1@about.com, email2@about.com">
But there's more, you can also set up your mail link with a cc, bcc, and subject. Treat these elements as if they were arguments on a CGI. First you put the To address as above. Follow this with a question mark (?) and then the following:
- cc=emailaddress for a Cc
- bcc=emailaddress for a Bcc
- subject=subject text for a Subject
If you want multiple elements, separate each with an ampersand (&). For example:
<a href="mailto:html.guide@about.com? »
bcc=gethelp@about.com »
&subject=testing">
But using mailto links can lead to "spam". Many spam programs are out there that surf Web sites harvesting email addresses. In fact, that's one of the most common ways that spammers get email addresses. And even if you don't get a lot of spam, or have a good filter, you might still get more email than you can handle. I know that some of the About.com Guides get more than 100 non-spam email messages a day.
In this situation, it can be helpful to pre-sort the email with a Web form. Using a form also has the advantage of not (always) printing an email address on the Web page for spammers to harvest.
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