How to fix email QR codes in InDesign that do not auto-fill fields in the email program?

Report · May 04, 2023

When I create an Email QR Code in InDesign, it links to the mail program, but the fields in the email do not get auto filled as they should (To email address, subject line, body). Instead all of the information is entered as text in the body of the email. Is there something I can do to have the proper information loaded onto the correct field?

Report · May 04, 2023

What type of mobile device? My iphone reads qr code, launches mail app, and subject and message are pre-populated.

Report · May 04, 2023

Like many of these things, success depends on more than one factor. The code is just a string of information, and even if it's encoded without a fault, each code reader (and more importantly, the 'back end' of that reader) will read it differently. The reader might misread the code; it might read the code and then try to open the information using a buggy method.

Double check the information and if necessary generate a new code, then test it with more than one device, especially at least one Android and one iOS device if you have each at hand. If all or most give the faulty response, it's the code; if some read and parse it correctly, it's the readers and their variations.

You can also directly encode the information using the Plain Text mode; here's the template for email:

MATMSG:
TO:<email address>;
SUB:<subject line>;
BODY:<message body>;;

And here's an example:

MATMSG:
TO:joe@null.com;
SUB:Automating email barcodes;
BODY:Hope you got the lunch invite.;;

You can also use the web 'mailto' protocol with this method (google 'mailto' for the format). That might work more reliably.

Complete details here, if you need more: https://nitrosyncretic.com/DPR/dpr_qrcodes.php

Report · May 05, 2023

I'll throw in my $0.02 here and suggest that you stop doing this. Mailto has long outlived its usefulness.

Link to a contact form and be done with it. Live email links anywhere are going to try to launch an email program which might or might not be the right one. Or, they could get a popup asking them which of the multitude of apps are installed on a device, again resulting in confusion.

Report · May 05, 2023

I don't disagree at all that there are better approaches to the need, but I'll mildly argue that neither technique is actually obsolete, and it was a matter of answering the question as asked. Yes, an email link should be something more reliable and controlled than a generated message that is then processed however the scanning/receiving system chooses (with or without malfeasance). But an email form has to be established by the web manager, can't be imposed by any third party user, requires direct entry of all that information (sans any applicable and up to date form-entry helpers), and this is not everything that a QR email code is (or should be). (I also hate web forms, but we'll leave that aside.)

Some of the folks who need help here don't have control of the projects and are trying to conform to limitations of the channels, website, clients or employers... who, yes, no question, would benefit from a more modern technique.

Report · May 05, 2023

Well, I admit, I enjoy designing forms, but that's a discussion for another day.

I've always felt that if someone is going to pay me to do a job, I'm going to offer them the best way to accomplish it. But I will dispute your point about having to enter all of the content in a web form. Any information that can be jammed into a QR Code, can easily be pre-populated in a web form.

Bonus: nobody gets the email address it's going to.

Report · May 05, 2023

Bonus: nobody gets the email address it's going to.

By @BobLevine

And that's the best part 😉

Plus, if for some reason you need to use different email address - different person / department, new domain, etc. - QR code will still be valid.

Report · May 05, 2023

No disagreement on any point; there are many, many ways to handle initial incoming, and email isn't even the best of them any more, no matter how it's used.

All of that assumes, however, that the designer-godling has control over the contact chain. I would never use a QR email code if I had web and email access, or at least permissions... but I can create one to delivery any message to any email address with no permissions at all. While that's probably more of a harassment/annoyance/security problem than any advantage (at least, these days), it does add a tool to the rack for situations where a project does not have IT-level cooperation.

And of the reasons I dislike web forms, the completely blind nature of the contact, with no accountability or identification, is probably the first 50% of them. I think it is rude, and often completely dismissive, when companies have no contact method beyond "stick a note on our door and maybe we'll get back to you."

Because, after all, in 2023, any posted email address should be a disposable one that can be discarded ten times a day if needed. There's no reason to hide "crap.from.web.visitors @ bloated.co" behind layers of web armor. And no public email link of any kind should be going directly to <president's name here> @bigcorp.com. So I don't find any additional reasons to admire or use web form contacts beyond being the simplest, maintenance-free form of "stick a note on the door."