Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Need mailto: links in Word docs to open both *in Gmail* and *IN FIREFOX* how?

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by WebKat

more options

I have several "how to" documents at work that I've created to help make remembering the details of certain tasks easier. For several of these, I've got a mailto: link to some contact person which also has a subject line pre-filled with our account number so that I (or whoever uses the document) doesn't have to copy/paste all that stuff. So the link is in a WORD DOC not in a web page.

I keep two browsers open at work: Chrome, which is logged into my personal Gmail account, and Firefox, which is logged into my work email (which uses Gmail). It is critical that when I sent a work email (say, by clicking the mailto: link in the Word doc file) that it opens in FIREFOX so that it's coming from my work account.

What currently happens is that I right click the link and click "Open Hyperlink" and it launches a CHROME window, loads Gmail, and prefills the to: and subject: fields. *sigh*

I've set Firefox as my default browser through its settings. I also shut down Firefox entirely and followed the directions here which say:

If Firefox already thinks that it is default, exit Firefox completely, go to "Start Menu -> Run" and enter this into the text box:

firefox.exe -silent -setDefaultBrowser

I've done both of those things, and it still opens the mailto: link in Chrome. Could someone please help me?

I have several "how to" documents at work that I've created to help make remembering the details of certain tasks easier. For several of these, I've got a mailto: link to some contact person which also has a subject line pre-filled with our account number so that I (or whoever uses the document) doesn't have to copy/paste all that stuff. So the link is in a WORD DOC not in a web page. I keep two browsers open at work: Chrome, which is logged into my personal Gmail account, and Firefox, which is logged into my work email (which uses Gmail). It is critical that when I sent a work email (say, by clicking the mailto: link in the Word doc file) that it opens in FIREFOX so that it's coming from my work account. What currently happens is that I right click the link and click "Open Hyperlink" and it launches a CHROME window, loads Gmail, and prefills the to: and subject: fields. *sigh* I've set Firefox as my default browser through its settings. I also shut down Firefox entirely and followed the directions [http://kb.mozillazine.org/Setting_Your_Default_Browser#Force_Firefox_to_make_itself_the_default here] which say: ''If Firefox already thinks that it is default, exit Firefox completely, go to "Start Menu -> Run" and enter this into the text box: '''firefox.exe -silent -setDefaultBrowser''''' I've done both of those things, and it still opens the mailto: link in Chrome. Could someone please help me?

All Replies (3)

more options

That is the default browser setting.
You need to change the default mail client.

more options

Firefox already opens email links on web pages in Gmail, so I'm pretty sure Gmail is already the default email client.

more options

Well now I'm a bit miffed. Gmail was already set as the default Firefox mail client. Firefox is set as the default browser. But when I followed the directions here: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Changing%20the%20e-mail%20program%20used%20by%20Firefox#w_windows-7-and-vista for how to set the mailto: protocol default program in Windows 7 it only offered me 4 programs to choose from, and no way to add a new one or choose something different. Google Chrome was the only one that was a web browser, so it's the only one I could use for Gmail (unless someone knows a way to set up something else to send gmail email from?)... how LAME!