[OPLINTECH] Gattach and Yattach Set Default mail in Windows

[JKENZIG]

Here is a solution to the Mail a web page from the browser(or adobe) problem that libraries may face where Patrons may want to mail a page they are on to themselves for future reference.  Rather then having to allow them to send mail from your own server you can set the default mail client in Windows to be Yahoo or Gmail with the below two utilities from Chris Wood. Then instruct your users to use their gmail or yahoo account (whichever utility you choose to install) to send mail from.   I picked up the tip on this from a twitter from Paul Thurrot.

The download and information page from Yattach to use Yahoo as the default mail client is:
http://chris.wood.name/yAttach/

For Google Gmail it is:
http://chris.wood.name/gAttach/

The Yattach and Gattach add-ons allow you to send email via either Yahoo or Gmail directly from
Explorer
Microsoft Office
Adobe Acrobat
Windows Photo Gallery
Internet Explorer 
Firefox and more

This allows you to remove any local email programs like Outlook and Outlook Express to prevent users from saving and receiving emails directly to your workstations.  

Drawback of course is that you have to encourage patrons to open a Yahoo or Gmail account depending on which plug-in you load, meaning your library has to commit to one or the other but it will reduce spam coming into your domain if you do this. I tend to prefer Gmail over Yahoo because it opens more types of attachments and lets you even view them as a webpage if you like. I believe that Google has finally removed the requirement to have a cell phone to sign up for a Gmail account making it that much easier and having a Google ID allows you access to all of the other Google Apps(writer, spreadsheet, etc) that your users will benefit from anyways.  

Regards,
Jim Kenzig
Network Manager
Cuyahoga County Public Library
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