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How to create an E-Mail Shortcut


In this manual:

What is E-Mail Shortcut?

Do you have certain people you are always sending e-mail to? If so, try making an e-mail shortcut with a stylized icon on your desktop or Quick Launch toolbar. Next time you need to send that person an e-mail, just double-click the shortcut and your default e-mail client will open with a new message started - already addressed. Here is an example of shortcuts created with Icon Constructor:

Note: that this will not work for everyone. If you have a web-based e-mail account, chances are this isn't going to work out too well. If you're using a regular e-mail program (Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozzilla Thunderbird, Netscape, Eudora, Opera, Pegasus, Pocomail, The Bat, etc.) this should work just fine.

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What is default e-mail client?

As it was mentioned aboveclicking on an email shortcut will open your default e-mail client. Windows always assumes some e-mail client a default one. Most of the programs, when started, ask user whether he wants to make that program a default e-mail client. For example, these are the examples of how it looks for a few of the most popular programs:

Outlook Express E-Mail Client

The Bat! E-Mail Client

Mozilla Thunderbird E-Mail Client

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How to set up default e-mail client?

If a default E-Mail Client for your computer is already set, and you would like to set your e-mail program as default e-mail client - please read this article by Microsoft:

How To Change Default Email Client: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555566/en-us

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Selecting E-Mail Shortcut Mode

Icon Constructor offers a great number of ways to create and use icons. Since we are going to create an icon and then make it an E-Mail Shortcut, we will need to select the E-Mail Shortcut ( ) mode in the Select Mode dialog on startup.

Besides using the startup dialog, you can also switch mode in the program's main dialog. For that purpose, use the Mode drop-down list in the bottom-right corner of the main window. Clicking on the drop-down list will open the menu with all available modes. To create an icon and attach it to folder, we will need to select the E-Mail Shortcut ( ) item on the menu:

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Creating E-Mail Shortcut icon

Icon constructor allows converting both photographs and images with transparent areas to icons. Before creating a new E-Mail Shortcut, we will need to set the appearance of the icon. The icon creation and customization technique has been covered in these articles:

How to convert Photo to Icon

How to create Icon with transparent background

Following these directions, you will need to create and customize your icon and then continue to the next step.

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Saving E-Mail Shortcut

To save E-Mail Shortcut:

1) In the bottom-right corner of the main window, click Create E-Mail Shortcut ().

2) In the dialog that appears, enter the Name() and E-Mail Address() values.

Where E-mail address is the e-mail address you want to mail to (for example, if you wanted to have our support address handy, you would put iconconstructor@sibental.com ).

If you want to save your shortcut to Desktop, select the Save to Desktop() checkbox; if you fail to do that, the program will ask you where save the shortcut after you click the OK() button:

By default, the shortcut name will be set to the recipient name that you enter in the dialog in paragraph 2. However, you can also give the shortcut an appropriate custom name, like "E-Mail Mom” or something.

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