why doesn't pasting addresses work?

[lemonscented]

When I send email messages, sometimes there are single quotes around the name
of the addressee and the address itself and sometimes the quotes are around
just the name. Why are there quotes sometimes and not others?

When I paste the addresses from a sent email into a new email, sometimes the
addresses work and sometimes they don't. What could be the problem? I
assume that it has something to do with the above questions and/or having the
name and address together. Here are some variations I have seen:
'Mary Smith ([email protected])'
Mary Smith ([email protected])
Mary Smith
'Mary Smith'
'(e-mail address removed)'
I think I have also seen:
Mary Smith <[email protected]>
There may also be other variations.

Which of these variations might cause problems if I paste them from one
email into another and why? What rules can I follow to prevent this problem?

Thanks you.

 

[Pat Willener]

You don't mention where you copied the address from. If you copied the
address from an incoming mail, then the format will be in the format
that the sender's email client has chosen.

When you say "sometimes the addresses work and sometimes they don't" -
what do you mean? Does Outlook not recognize the address (and give you
an error), or does your mail server not recognize the address (and give
you a non-delivery report)?

From your list below

Mary Smith
'Mary Smith'

will definitely "not work", as they are not valid email addresses.
Everything else should work, including

"Mary Smith" <[email protected]>

which is what I would use when using a name+address combination.

 

[lemonscented]

These are names and addresses that I copy from outgoing messages. They are
not addresses that I have received from others.

I am not sure if I receive an error or nondelivery message. As I recall,
the messages I have gotten never tell me what the problem is so that I have
to start all over again.

The main point is that I want to understand the rules for names and
addresses in outgoing messages. If I want to cut and paste addresses from a
sent message into a new message, how can I avoid having problems?

Thank you.

 

[Pat Willener]

If you copied the address(es) from outgoing messages, then you have
created the address(es) originally. Just make sure that the address has
a valid format, i.e.
(e-mail address removed)
or
"Mary Smith" <[email protected]>
plus several other valid formats. There are so many, just use common
sense to judge what is valid and what is not.