Create Pre-Addressed Email Shortcuts on the Desktop

If you often need to send email to the same people, you can create handy email shortcuts that might make the job a little quicker.

Clicking on one of your email shortcuts will open your default email program with a new email already addressed to your chosen recipient (or recipients). You can even expand the functionality of your shortcuts by including an email subject, part of the message body and more.

Here's how:

Right-click an open area of the Windows desktop and select "New".
In the "New" submenu, click on "Shortcut". The "Create Shortcut" window will appear.
In the field labelled "Type the location of the item", enter "mailto:" immediately followed by the email address you would like to use. The following screen shot displays an example.
Click "Next" and give your new shortcut a suitable name:
Click "Finish".

The shortcut should now appear on your desktop. Clicking the shortcut should open up your email program with a new email already addressed to your chosen recipient. For even faster access, you can drag the shortcut to the Quick Launch bar.

The above instructions describe how to create a basic email shortcut. However, you can also add more to your mailto: line in order to expand the functionality of your email shortcuts:

Multiple recipients:
Separate the email addresses with commas like this -
mailto:example@example.com,example2@example.com,tester@xample.com.au

Add a Subject:
You can set the email subject line for your shortcut like this -
mailto:example@example.com?subject=Today's Joke

Add Text to the body:
You can add text to the body of the email like this:
mailto: example@example.com?subject=Today's Joke &body=Here is today's joke!

Use "%0A" to add lines between paragraphs in your body.

Use Carbon Copy or Blind Carbon Copy by adding "?&cc=" or "?&bcc=" to the shortcut.

You can try different combinations of the above to suit your requirements. Only one question mark is required after the email address even if several options are used.

Notes:
If you want to modify an existing email shortcut, simply right-click the shortcut icon and select "Properties".

The basic mailto: shortcut should work with most common email clients on Windows Operating Systems. However, results for some of the more advanced shortcut options may vary depending on the email client used and other factors.

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