Do I have to use Edit-add link each time I want to add a URL in Mail?

Question

There has to be another way to add a hyperlink (URL) like http://www.apple.com to a message in Mail- other than going to the menu, EDIT going to LINK and choosing add then typing or pasting in a box??
I mean even in the 15 year old Eudora Program I was using, if I type http://www.whatever.com I get an automatic hyperlink created! Please tell me that there is a way to set Mail to just interpret hyperlinks (URL's) to turn blue, get underlined and work when I just type or paste them in my message.
Thanks!
Best regards,
Steve Schulte
Tuesday 13 October 2009 at 19:28

Answer 1

I am using Apple Mail 3.6 (Leopard) and it has been detecting/converting (or whatever you would like to call it) URL's I enter in the body of the email ever since I started using Mail. Unlike the original post of this message, for me Mail has been doing this almost as I type. Unfortunately, for me, I can't stand it!
I post a lot of files to our web server and then email clients and staff links to these files. The links I type tend to be a bit lengthy, about 60 characters or more - typical for web links. My frustration is that Mail will 'detect/convert' the URL to a link before I even finish typing it! I then have to place my cursor wherever Mail determined the end of the URL was in order to type the rest of the URL. This is because when Mail converts the URL it somehow takes me out of typing mode? I have to click in the body of the email again to resume typing.
Once I have finished typing the URL, I then need to select the URL portion that Mail identified and right-click 'Remove', otherwise the clickable link that gets sent in the email will error out because it is incomplete.
Finally, I have to select the entire URL, copy, right-click 'Link' and paste the URL into the Link popup. Frustratingly, sometimes, if I'm not fast enough, Mail will re-convert the original portion of the URL before I can click <OK> on the Link popup, which makes me have to start the process all over again! Very frustrating!
This detect/convert also occurs with email addresses. If I type an email address into the body of an email, Mail usually lets me finish typing it. However, while I might be a sentence or two after the email address I typed in, Mail will detect/convert the address to a link AND take me all the way back to the BEGINNING of the first email address so that as I am typing, my characters are being inserted in front of the email address!?! Again, very frustrating!
I have searched the web several times trying to find an answer to this. I finally came across a method for disabling 'Data Detectors' in Mail (see below if you want to know how to do this). However, frustratingly enough, this DID NOT disable the detect/convert of the URL and email addresses that I am talking about in this post. It only disables the detection of addresses, dates, names for use with the right-click 'Add to Address Book', etc. type of thing, which I don't mind keeping.
Does anyone know what I am talking about and have a solution for how to stop Mail from doing this? If so, I would be very thankful for a solution or any assistance. Thanks.
Disable Data Detectors
if you don’t like the data detectors that Apple added to Mail in Leopard, you can disable them by opening Terminal and typing...
defaults write com.apple.mail DisableDataDetectors YES
You have to quit Mail and restart it again. But after that, you're data detector free and loving it. Typing or pasting the exact same string, but changing "YES" to "NO," reverses the setting so that they're back on if you decide to change your mind.