HTML Links in Messages and Names

[Lynn Q]

Hi there,

I'm not really sure how you reference this. I have a contact who sends me
links in messages like this, "http://www.abc1234.com"
"<http://www.abc1234.com>". Problem is that Entourage won't open the link
in Safari. I get this error message, " Part of your link is missing. Please
try copy and paste the entire URL from your email to your browser and try
again.". I can copy and paste the first portion into Safari and then it
opens OK.

However, is there a way to prevent the <> portion from appearing at all?
Similarly, is there a way to prevent the <> information (e-mail address)
from showing in outgoing e-mail messages? I'd prefer only the contact's
name to show up, not the contact name followed by <[email protected]>.

Any advice and guidance much appreciated. Thanks so much!

Lynn

 

[Diane Ross]

I'm not really sure how you reference this. I have a contact who sends me
links in messages like this, "http://www.abc1234.com"
"<http://www.abc1234.com>". Problem is that Entourage won't open the link
in Safari. I get this error message, " Part of your link is missing. Please
try copy and paste the entire URL from your email to your browser and try
again.". I can copy and paste the first portion into Safari and then it
opens OK.

I get the double links usually from PC users. Not sure what causes this.
Usually clicking on the link in brackets works. If you are getting an error
then part of the URL is missing. If you reply to the message you can usually
fix the URL by deleting the space. Brackets are supposed to fix broken
links.

However, is there a way to prevent the <> portion from appearing at all?
Similarly, is there a way to prevent the <> information (e-mail address)
from showing in outgoing e-mail messages? I'd prefer only the contact's
name to show up, not the contact name followed by <[email protected]>.

Any advice and guidance much appreciated. Thanks so much!

See blog article ³Insert URLs into a message²

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2007/07/insert_urls_into_a_message.html>

 

[Michel Bintener]

I get the double links usually from PC users. Not sure what causes this.
Usually clicking on the link in brackets works. If you are getting an error
then part of the URL is missing. If you reply to the message you can usually
fix the URL by deleting the space. Brackets are supposed to fix broken
links.

The reason for the double links is Entourage's HTML display mechanism.
Entourage uses its own extremely limited HTML engine to display simple HTML
messages. The engine does not allow the display of hyperlinks; instead, it
shows the original URL text followed by the URL itself, which the engine
then makes clickable. If there were some sort of table in the HTML message,
or any other feature that would make Entourage classify it as a complex HTML
message, Entourage would make use of the Tasman rendering engine (the same
engine used in the now defunct Internet Explorer for Mac) to display the
message. In that case, the link would show up properly, i.e. the original
URL text would be clickable, and there would be no duplicate URLs.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

 

[patrick.m.foster]

The reason for thedouble linksis Entourage's HTML display mechanism.
Entourage uses its own extremely limited HTML engine to display simple HTML
messages. The engine does not allow the display of hyperlinks; instead, it
shows the original URL text followed by the URL itself, which the engine
then makes clickable. If there were some sort of table in the HTML message,
or any other feature that would make Entourage classify it as a complex HTML
message, Entourage would make use of the Tasman rendering engine (the same
engine used in the now defunct Internet Explorer for Mac) to display the
message. In that case, the link would show up properly, i.e. the original
URL text would be clickable, and there would be no duplicate URLs.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

Is there any way to force Entourage to use Tasman on all html email?

 

[Michel Bintener]

On 28/08/2007 0:55, in article
(e-mail address removed),

Is there any way to force Entourage to use Tasman on all html email?

I'm afraid there isn't. The use of the Tasman engine is triggered by complex
HTML elements, such as tables; if an e-mail is not judged sufficiently
complex enough, Entourage will use its own (very, very weak) rendering
engine, and there's no way to force it not to do that.

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

***Always reply to the newsgroup.***

 

[jrn]

Is there any way to "improve" or strengthen Entourage's weak HTML engine in an update?

 

[Mickey Stevens]

The complex HTML rendering engine has been improved with each release of
Entourage. It's the simple HTML composition tools that haven't been
improved. I don't know if they intend to improve them, but my thinking
would be that if they didn't think it was worth improving them in the paid
release, it would seem unlikely they would find it worth their time to
improve them in a free update.

Keep in mind that many recipients do not like receiving complex HTML. It
adds a lot to the size of the message, and does not always render reliably
on all mail systems. I find plain text is usually sufficient for the mail I
send.

If you want to send this as a feature request to Microsoft, be sure to send
feedback. You should indicate instances of where the feature would have
been useful, as I know that data can help them decide whether to implement
the feature.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/suggestions.mspx