{"id":7425,"date":"2021-10-17T06:42:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-17T06:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/max-drake.cc\/?p=7425"},"modified":"2021-10-18T22:04:38","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T22:04:38","slug":"maxlauncher-sending-emails-in-thunderbird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/max-drake.cc\/?p=7425","title":{"rendered":"MaxLauncher & sending emails in Thunderbird with mailto:"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve just spend a few hours trying to figure out a hotkey script to send emails at a touch of a MaxLauncher key to Thunderbird. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My initial objective is to have a DEFAULT sender address, a set TO email ( I can have multiple buttons for different addressee’s if they are common or just a blank one, and then to land in the Subject box so that I could start the email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A later requirement will be to give different signatures to the emails from a selection, maybe different buttons on MaxLauncher <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selecting the FROM email address <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The issue was making sure they all came FROM the same account. In Thunderbird if you have your cursor on a different account (I have multiple accounts in Thunderbird ) and then hit Write button to create a new email, it will send it from the account you have highlighted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to ensure that they all came FROM the same account, so I had a DEFAULT setup and could alter it if I wanted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thunderbird has shortcut keys<\/strong><\/a> but they are fixed and some of them toggle rather than go to a definitive place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first effort was to activate Thunderbird and then on a new email( Ctrl+m) go to FROM and write in the sender address. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New message Shift Tab to FROM – not successful<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As soon as it starts a new email it goes to the TO cell, and it already has a FROM based on which folder account you are in already. So you have to do Shift+Tab to go back 4 times to get to the FROM tab, then CLICK then use UP arrow a few times, to make sure you are in the first email address. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn’t get that to work reliably at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I found I could use Alt+R to get to the From Field, and even with Click and send {up 4} I still couldn’t ensure the correct FROM consistently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start in correct Folder then send message- no joy<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Next, I wanted to go to the Folder column that lists all the accounts and their folders on the left but I could only use a toggle key, so I could be in the top right hand panel, the bottom right hand panel or the right panel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So depending on where you start you’d need to toggle the key a different amount of times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wanted to be on the Left panel and then go to the top and then use the top email address. So I couldn’t get that reliably<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So no success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plugins?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I looked at plugins to Thunderbird that would allow me to alter hotkeys or make ones that would help me in what I was doing. I didn’t want to go down that path initially, as I’d have to configure it for 3 PC’s at least. Also the Thunderbird add-ins sometimes are updated, sometimes not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack’s AutoHotkey Blog<\/a> comes to the rescue<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A “DUH!!!!” moment for me, in his post Send E-Mail Using AutoHotkey-Automating the E-Mail Process Can Make Regular Notifications Easy<\/a><\/strong> he suggests :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Run, Mailto: thisIdiot@aDefinitMoron.com <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One line of code and it does it all. It uses my default email program: Thunderbird , it seems to default to the FROM account at the top of my email folder list: HURRAY, and you can set the TO: ThisIdiot@Stupidity.com and it drops you into the Subject box of the email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It meets all my objectives and is simple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

can you CC & BCC as well? Yes you can <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So there are some emails I send to one person and CC others , to keep them in the loop, you can add the cc in the mailto and add parameters , see this article<\/strong> as well as adding Subject & body info as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll have to explore that to see if I can add emoji’s to it to highlight its come from me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subject & Body and line break<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You can also add subject and body too, and there is a process, using `%0A<\/span><\/strong> (that’s a Tilda key at the front<\/em>) to add a line break in the Text body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally you could add an attachment file but that has been blocked in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So code below for AHK script to put on a MaxLauncher key to launch an email using mailto:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nem1= Blah@trogs.com\nem2= Trala@pir2.com\nem3= SomeoneElse@gmail.com\nSubj= ?\ufe0fthe tree is green\n\n\n\nBod= The message's first paragraph.`%0ASecond paragraph.`%0AThird Paragraph`%0\nRun, mailto:%em1%?to=%em2%&cc=%em2%&cc=%em3%&bcc=%em3%&subject=%Subj%&body=%Bod%       \n\nReturn\n\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
RULES<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
  1. Save SCRIPT File as encoding UTF-8-BOM (for Emojis?\ufe0f) to work<\/li>
  2. Only ONE MAILTO recipient unless you add “to=” for subsequent recipients- mailto:%em1%?to=%em2%<\/li>
  3. CC’s fpr 2nd need to add &cc=%em3% mailto:%em1%?cc=%em2%&cc=%em3%<\/li>
  4. Subject needs &subject=<\/li>
  5. Body needs &body=<\/li>
  6. New line in Body needs `%0A to start new line<\/code> `%0ASecond paragraph.`%0AThird
    (see ;https:\/\/www.autohotkey.com\/board\/topic\/42234-how-to-enter-more-than-one-line-in-text-body\/)<\/li>
  7. attach= C:\/txt.txt ; doesn’t work in later emails (Win 10)<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    Inserting HTML into message<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
    When the message has opened you do have the opportunity to use Alt <\/p>\n\n\n\n
    End comment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    Sometimes I feel so T’ick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Its such an obvious solution. This is a case of not seeing the wood for the trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Thank you Jack for sharing, I’m feeling humble<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    So this allows for an easy setup for sending an email with a script. So a good simple solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
    The next steps are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n