"Forward This Email" links

is it possibe to simulate the Forward button on an email client?

[chokky]

Hello,
I'm new to this HTML email business, so does anyone know what the syntax is for forwarding an email (without directing the user to a web page) so that the body of the email is also included?

I have tried <a href="mailto:?subject=FW: blah blah blah"> but, as I'm sure you know, it doesn't inlcude the content!

Thanks :)

[oilman]

I'm pretty sure you can't do something like through a basic html link. You need to interact with the mail program and call the forward function. For Outlook clients there is prolly some type of ActiveX control that would do it but as soon as you start embedding ActiveX into emails many clients will tag them as viruses or at least suspicous.

Another way you could do it would be to set it up as a Tell A Friend system where the user clicks on the link and goes to your site and fills out a form and submits the email to a friend that way.

That said, people are used to how email clients work now and reply to and forward are very common buttons. Whether the click on a link in your email or click the forward button it's still one click.

btw - Welcome to WebmasterWorld.:)

[emailtools]

Hi Chokky,

You would have to include a duplicate version of your
complete message in the mailto url if you wanted to
have a link that prepopulates the body with the full
message. Also, the message would end up as text, not
HTML.

I imagine you could do it with a script, but since this
will not work if recipients have their security settings
correctly configured, I don't recommend this method.

All email programmes come with a forward button, so
a much easier solution is just to ask them to forward
your message! (shortcut is CTRL+F in Outlook Express).

Another method would be a form that links to an
autoresponder on your site that would send your HTML
message to the friend's email address.

[chokky]

Thanks for your prompt replies - very helpful.
Sounds like it's best to leave it up to the user being able to hit 'Forward' on their own!

Thanks again... ;)