Reporting corrections on Windows via Gmail

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Hi ya,

 

I'm describing this here because I had some difficulty getting it working and I am perhaps not the only one.

 

Below is what I did on Windows 7 SP 1. Something similar should be possible in 8 I would think but I don't have a machine to try it on.

 

In modules when you select some content and then right click and select "Report a Correction" Accordance produces a mailto: directive to the OS with attached fields containing their corrections email address, a subject line indicating the module and version and the body containing the selected text and a prompt for comments from the user.

 

First a problem you may not have but if you do here's how to fix it. For ages I have had the Windows Essentials Email client pop up and then I have cut and pasted elements from it to a GMail composition window. This is a pain. It should be simple to set up so that this is automatic. Well it turns out that if Windows Essentials Email client is installed it is the email client of choice and you cannot change that But you can uninstall that email client without uninstalling the rest of the suite by going to the Windows Control Panel -> Uninstall Programs. When you attempt to uninstall it you are prompt to uninstall pieces of the suite and so you can just remove the email client. This is a must for the following to work.

 

Next as you need your browser to respond to the mailto: command you need to set up Windows to forward the command to the correct piece of software. In my case that is Firefox. To do this use the regedit tool to edit the registry and set the value of this key :

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\mailto\shell\open\command

 

to the value

 

firefox "%1"

 

Note, that the quotes around the %1 are essential. Without them you will open many browser tabs when you attempt to submit a correction.

You set the value by double clicking on the "(Default)" Name and a dialog box appears which will accept the value.

 

Save that and close regedit. Incidentally you should be able to change firefox to something else if you use a different browser.

 

Now this will get the browser to receive the mailto: command but that is not quite enough. The browser needs to know where direct the command. To get it to go to Gmail then you need to tweak some browser configuration. In Firefox then, go to Tools -> Options and and select the Applications tab. Look in the Content Type column for mailto. There will be a pull down menu in the Action column. Select Use Gmail.

 

At this point select some text in an Accordance module and right click and select "Report a Correction" and it should all work nicely.

 

 

Thx

D