Lay My Hat

I create and send an email via my software with links for my website, facebook page and booking form.

When a guest has a hotmail account I now always forward a copy with the links removed. I just click remove hyperlink in Outlook before resending.

A guest has received the email with links removed and didn't know what to do with it. I told her to copy and paste the link but I'm not sure she understood. I went to my copy in my sent email and see all the links are live. Is that just my Outlook making the links live again? I'm slightly confused!

Yes, its the email client at the receiving end that makes links "live". Not just Outlook, but many (most?) others as well.

So is what I'm doing working for hotmail then? Will hotmail accounts be receiving the email I send with links removed?

I don't know enough about Outlook to answer, but you're welcome to test by sending an email with "hyperlinks removed" to:

[edit] email address removed. Silly me had intended to send a pm [/edit]

I only use that account for testing.

Thanks will send one over.

So we've tested and find that it was received in hotmail with live links even though I'd sent it with links removed.

I can view it in Outlook and the links are live, but when I view it on my iphone the links are still removed. Any other geeks out there with any bright ideas?

I think it's just a case that most email clients are being "clever". They recognise something like an email address as something that can be clicked on, even if the format is plain text. It doesn't matter whether you make it a hyperlink or not.

Even when composing an email in outlook, it will turn things like an email address into a hyperlink as soon as you type in the text. same applies too www addresses.

Right so back to the drawing board then when sending "plain emails". We need to fool the "clients" into thinking they are not links, so putting spaces etc. I'm not sure whether it's worth it, but unfortunately I do seem to have an awful lot of enquiries from guests with hotmail addresses.