Use of & in email address

[Guest]

Hi All,
Does anyone know if it's Ok to use the & symbol in an email address?
It seems like it should be Ok because there are loads of companies with & in
their name. eg Smith&Jones

An email address could be John@Smith&Jones.com

My problem is that when you use the & symbol in a Mailto: entry, none of the
email address past the & symbol shows up.

To test this, in Outlook (We're using 2003) open a new message - in the
Message Body area type Mailto:Test@Smith&Jones.com then press enter.
Use your mouse to click the Mailto: link and a new email should open with
the above email address in the To field.

When we do this, the email address shows as Test@Smith - ie anything after
the & is ignored...

Does anyone know anything about this? - is there a solution? (Other than
removing the & symbol)

Cheers
Trent

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I know of no workaround or solution. & is a reserved character in the mailto: protocol, used to add additional terms for setting the subject, etc.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[Joe Grover]

It is possible to use an ampersand in the user portion of the address (see
http://www.wu-ftpd.org/rfc/rfc2368.html for more information). Historically
I've advised folks against it as I've seen some mail servers reject mail
thinking it is an invalid character, but much of the time it works fine
(provided you are aware of the HTML considerations with mailto links).

It is not however possible to use an ampersand in a domain name. So you
could have me&[email protected], but not me&you@smith&jones.com.


Joe

 

[Guest]

Hi Joe,
Thanks for that...

If that's the case, why doesn't it work in Outlook?
Why does Outlook ignore anything after the & symbol?
Is it a bug? or does MS not support the use of the & Symbol?

Cheers
Trent

 

[Guest]

Sorry - I just read in the link that you posted that the & is a reserved
symbol and cannot be used in a Mailto: field.

I guess that explains it then...

 

[Guest]

Woops... Sorry. Just read in the link you posted that the & symbol can't be
used in a Mailto: address.

I guess that answers my question...

 

[Guest]

Sue,

I have a problem that is an extention of the "use of & in email address".

I have a colleague that receives a "file not found message" when I send an
email with the & in the subject and in the attachment.

Do you know if there is a setting he can use to read the message and the
associated attachment?

 

[Gordon]

Sue,

I have a problem that is an extention of the "use of & in email address".

I have a colleague that receives a "file not found message" when I send an
email with the & in the subject and in the attachment.

Do you know if there is a setting he can use to read the message and the
associated attachment?

No, but re-send the message WITHOUT using the "&" character.....

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Are you using the mailto: protocol to generate the message? If not, your issue is not related to the current discussion topic, and I would, therefore, suggest that you start a new discussion with more details, such as your Outlook version and exactly when the colleague is seeing such a File Not Found message.

If you are using mailto:, then post your link.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54