Question about Outlook

[[AK]Kidd]

Hey folks,

I have a question and perhaps challenge for anyone bored enough to comply.

I am hoping to make a template for outlook emails.

Here's my problem.

I would like to send out an invitation to all of my sub-contractors to bid certain jobs. I would like to add a hyperlink to the email that, when clicked, will automatically generate a response to my email address.

The theory is simple, create less work for them and they may actually do it.

so, any ideas?

[[AK]Swae]

You just want them to send a "Yes" or "No" response?

Under Options, you can add Voting Buttons. Problem is, people not using outlook won't see them.

[[AK]The Beast]

In Outlook 2007, just type your text, highlight it, right click, and select "Hyperlink..." from the pop-up menu. In the dialog box that appears, one of the link types is e-mail address.

[[AK]Kidd]

You just want them to send a "Yes" or "No" response?

Under Options, you can add Voting Buttons. Problem is, people not using outlook won't see them.

Yes, I would like just a simple yes or no. Problem is that not everyone uses outlook

"In Outlook 2007, just type your text, highlight it, right click, and select "Hyperlink..." from the pop-up menu. In the dialog box that appears, one of the link types is e-mail address."

I have no problem making this work, I'm just hoping to generate a fool proof system in which the person receiving my email simply clicks "yes" or "no", and I get an automatic message. The outlook invitation works great for this, and we use it within our company, but some of these people I request quotes from are barely able to run a fax machine.

[[AK]The Beast]

Ah, OK. Missed the automatic message part. Not sure you can do that without some sort of scripting, and I don't know that there's a one-size-fits-all that would work for every client (to say nothing of those who turn off HTML/scripts in their mail client, though that sounds a bit above the skill set of those whom you describe.) Your best bet may be to manually create a hyperlink to either a) a webpage with a simple PHP script that sends you a "yes" or "no" message (but that could easily be circumvented by a more-secure mail client that doesn't allow e-mail content to open web browsers), or b) edit the mailto: link to include a "yes" or "no" subject line or body in the message that is opened. Here's a link to the syntax. Of course, that requires them to push the "send" button on their mail clients when they're done, and to have it properly configured (if they only use web-based mail, it won't work right for them).

[[AK]Kidd]

Thanks Beast!
I'll play around with that.

Next issue we've discovered....

We have set up categories of our contacts (suppliers, sub-contractors, engineers, etc). We would like to email particular people from each category without sorting through the TO>> button.
Essentially, we like to "Cherry Pick" our favorite contacts with in the categories for negotiated contracts.

Gmail (hell, even Yahoo) allows you to check a box for your recipients. I would like to do this within the contacts field, but I am struggling to make it work. shift/control click is an accident waiting to happen, not to mention once I get this working I must train a few monkeys how to do it.

hate to be a bother, but I haven't seen a post from Nuts all day, so I figured yall were lonely

[[AK]The Beast]

Still in Outlook? This one's easy. Under Contacts, create a distribution list for every category you want. "Favorite drywallers", "favorite tinknockers", "favorite plumbers", and so on. Then when you want to invite them to a bid, just right-click on the distribution list you want to send to, and select "new message to contact". Makes it easy to add and delete names as the subcontractors fall in and out of favor, too.

[[AK]Kidd]

your the only person outside on Montana that I've seen refer to my beloved profession as "Tinknockers"!!

yup, I'm a licensed Tinknocker, and proud of it



Thanks for the advise. I am setting up a distribution list right now

[[AK]Rocks]

Outside of Montana, meaning Canada I am sure... and on the outlook front it appears that Beast is the resident expert.

[[AK]The Beast]

I have the Microsoft logo tattooed on my ass. Actually, every version, going back to the days of Windows 3.1.



So there's no confusion: no, not really.