Regardless which email client you are using, when you need to compose an email, you always need to switch to your email client and click the “Compose” button. Lifehacker shared a quick and neat way to compose a new email directly from your browser.
In your browser, all you have to do is to go to the address bar, type mailto: (don’t forget the colon behind the “mailto”) and press “Enter”.
Your default email client will automatically launch with a Compose window.
Here are more things you can do with it:
1. Type mailto:recipient@emailaddress.com and the”To” field will be auto-populated with the recipient’s email address.
2. To send to multiple recipients, use the syntax mailto:recipient1@emailaddress.com,recipient2@emailaddress.com,recipient3@emailaddress.com
3. Type mailto:recipient@emailaddress.com?subject=Enter Subject Here to insert the subject into the Compose window.
The above trick will work with all mailto syntax, but I doubt you will want to type a long text in the address bar.
Note: The shortcut key to access the address bar for most browsers is “Ctrl + L”. This means you can just press “Ctrl + L” and type “mailto:” to quickly open a compose window.
Taking it further
To take it further, you can even create a bookmark with “mailto:” in the URL/location field. When you click the bookmark, the Compose window will automatically open.
Note: In Android, the trick works in Firefox mobile browser. It doesn’t work in mobile Chrome. In iOS, it works in the mobile Safari as well.
Compose a New Email in Any Client with a Few Keystrokes
Image credit: Browser Mail Concept Illustration Design by BigStockPhoto
Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.
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