Changes "&" to "&amp:" in emailed links -- why?

When someone emails me a link containing the ampersand character "&"
Entourage changes it to "&"

Apple's Mac Mail doesn't do this, and picking up the link from webmail
maintains the correct URL. This leads me to believe that the problem is a
peculiarity in the way Entourage handles incoming mail.

Anyone know why this is? Or even better, anyone know a fix?

Dave
Tue Apr 13 14:02:45 CDT 2004

On 4/13/04 2:53 AM, in article
0001HW.BCA0DCBB0001883FF03055B0@news-server.hawaii.rr.com, "H. Doug
Matsuoka" <nospam.hdoug@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:

> When someone emails me a link containing the ampersand character "&"
> Entourage changes it to "&amp;"
>
> Apple's Mac Mail doesn't do this, and picking up the link from webmail
> maintains the correct URL. This leads me to believe that the problem is a
> peculiarity in the way Entourage handles incoming mail.
>
> Anyone know why this is? Or even better, anyone know a fix?
>

If the link still works, why does it matter?

H
Wed Apr 14 03:23:06 CDT 2004

Should have mentioned that it's a problem because it breaks the link. In
other words the insertion of "&amp;" for "&" causes the link to be
unopenable.
So, to restate the prob, why does Entourage substitute "&amp;" for "&" in
sent links? And what's the fix or work around?

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 9:02:45 -1000, Dave Cortright wrote
(in message <BCA18765.C8C2%dc@dev.null>):

> On 4/13/04 2:53 AM, in article
> 0001HW.BCA0DCBB0001883FF03055B0@news-server.hawaii.rr.com, "H. Doug
> Matsuoka" <nospam.hdoug@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> When someone emails me a link containing the ampersand character "&"
>> Entourage changes it to "&amp;"
>>
>> Apple's Mac Mail doesn't do this, and picking up the link from webmail
>> maintains the correct URL. This leads me to believe that the problem is a
>> peculiarity in the way Entourage handles incoming mail.
>>
>> Anyone know why this is? Or even better, anyone know a fix?
>>
>
> If the link still works, why does it matter?
>

Tom
Wed Apr 14 07:39:28 CDT 2004

In article <0001HW.BCA218CA00009367F03055B0@news-server.hawaii.rr.com>,
H. Doug Matsuoka <nospam.hdoug@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:

> Should have mentioned that it's a problem because it breaks the link. In
> other words the insertion of "&amp;" for "&" causes the link to be
> unopenable.
> So, to restate the prob, why does Entourage substitute "&amp;" for "&" in
> sent links? And what's the fix or work around?

Since "&amp;" is the named entity for "&", maybe it's your browser
that's broken. There's no need to "fix" Entourage, since it isn't
broken.
>
> On Tue, 13 Apr 2004 9:02:45 -1000, Dave Cortright wrote
> (in message <BCA18765.C8C2%dc@dev.null>):
>
> > On 4/13/04 2:53 AM, in article
> > 0001HW.BCA0DCBB0001883FF03055B0@news-server.hawaii.rr.com, "H. Doug
> > Matsuoka" <nospam.hdoug@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
> >
> >> When someone emails me a link containing the ampersand character "&"
> >> Entourage changes it to "&amp;"
> >>
> >> Apple's Mac Mail doesn't do this, and picking up the link from webmail
> >> maintains the correct URL. This leads me to believe that the problem is a
> >> peculiarity in the way Entourage handles incoming mail.
> >>
> >> Anyone know why this is? Or even better, anyone know a fix?
> >>
> >
> > If the link still works, why does it matter?
> >

--
Tom Stiller

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7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

Support the 2004 Million Mom March on Washington DC
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Mickey
Sat Apr 17 18:48:06 CDT 2004

On 4/13/04 2:02 PM, in article BCA18765.C8C2%dc@dev.null, "Dave Cortright"
<dc@dev.null> wrote:

> On 4/13/04 2:53 AM, in article
> 0001HW.BCA0DCBB0001883FF03055B0@news-server.hawaii.rr.com, "H. Doug
> Matsuoka" <nospam.hdoug@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:
>
>> When someone emails me a link containing the ampersand character "&"
>> Entourage changes it to "&amp;"
>>
>> Apple's Mac Mail doesn't do this, and picking up the link from webmail
>> maintains the correct URL. This leads me to believe that the problem is a
>> peculiarity in the way Entourage handles incoming mail.
>>
>> Anyone know why this is? Or even better, anyone know a fix?
>>
>
> If the link still works, why does it matter?

Even though I've never experienced this problem, it would matter because the
link wouldn't work as expected. For example,
<http://www.google.com/search?&q=Entourage> searches for "Entourage," but
<http://www.google.com/search?&amp;q=Entourage> does not.

--
Mickey Stevens (Microsoft MVP for Office:mac)
PowerPoint FAQ featuring PowerPoint:mac: <http://www.pptfaq.com/>
Entourage Help Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/toc.html>

H
Sat Apr 24 14:59:50 CDT 2004

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 13:48:06 -1000, Mickey Stevens wrote
(in message <BCA72C66.298F1%mickey.stevens@mvps.org>):

Yes, this is precisely the problem. I've opened a service ticket with
Microsoft's $35 per incident support, but no solution yet. How do I keep
Entourage from substituting "&amp;" in URLs of emails received for "&"?
Someone here must know the answer, or at least be experiencing the same prob.

>
> Even though I've never experienced this problem, it would matter because the
> link wouldn't work as expected. For example,
> <http://www.google.com/search?&q=Entourage> searches for "Entourage," but
> <http://www.google.com/search?&amp;q=Entourage> does not.
>
>

Bernard
Sat Apr 24 17:26:10 CDT 2004

H. Doug Matsuoka wrote :

> Yes, this is precisely the problem. I've opened a service ticket with
> Microsoft's $35 per incident support, but no solution yet. How do I keep
> Entourage from substituting "&amp;" in URLs of emails received for "&"?
> Someone here must know the answer, or at least be experiencing the same prob.
>
Could you give an example of the problem you encounter? I never encountered
this, and the first link Mickey sent appears and works normally (I'm using
Entourage 10.1.4, and Mickey too), the second, of course, not:

>> <http://www.google.com/search?&q=Entourage> searches for "Entourage," but
>> <http://www.google.com/search?&amp;q=Entourage> does not.

In fact the only case I found something more or less similar was when a
friend of mine, using AOL's custom tool, sent messages in HTML format. And
it seemed to me that AOL's tool "over coded" the special characters, the
Ampersand being certainly among the ones that were mistreated.

So is this a problem with ALL the messages you receive (is the first url
above modified on your machine)? Is your mail passing through a proxy or so?
Could you send the headings of one of the concerned messages (make the
included addresses unusable first, of course, to avoid spamming)?


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--
Bernard Rey - Toulouse / France
MVP - office:macintosh