I am working on creating a course and I want to use the interactive button to send an email to one of our facilitators. I have entered the email (its a gmail address) in the "send to" location. When I test the button, it shows that it cannot connect to mail server to send an email.
Any idea why this is happening? Would love to be able to use this feature!
It sounds like you don't have a mail server set up or connected on your computer. Can you try testing that course on another computer that has a connected mail server, like Outlook?
You can easily test a course on another machine using the Share link from the top menu bar.
A mailto: link won't open a web-based email application, Like Gmail, automatically. Instead, you may want to type out the email address so learners can copy the address and paste it in a new Gmail message.
If you were using an email client (such as Outlook) that is an installed application on your device, selecting a button with an email link would automatically open the email client, create a new email message, add the hard coded email address as the recipient, and use the course name as the subject line. This is how it works in our company.
As GMAIL is a web-based email client, it will not respond in this way. You would have to copy the email address as described by Alyssa and then manually create the email message in GMAIL.
I am experiencing the same issue as the others in this thread. My company uses MS Outlook app installed on our computers. When I click on the button, nothing happens. It does not open Outlook or Open a new email message even if Outlook is already open when I click on the button.
This isn't working for me either when I use the button to launch emails. We use MS Outlook as well and RISE will not launch the button to open a new email
I realise I'm in the minority here, but I have a strict 'One copy is enough' policy in our company - and that means we don't have ANY email client apps loaded on ANY of our devices. We send and read business email only in the cloud.
I know that will shock and horrify many - but we just believe that cloud computing means computing in the cloud.
There is only ever one copy of each email and it has transformed our lives!
We don't have any discussions like "Oh I didn't get your email - my phone hasn't been able to synch"
It's more secure - there are no emails on mobile devices if they get lost.
It is more efficient
It is better for the environment (less internet traffic - less storage - lower carbon footprint)
AND - we don't have the problems described above because we don't use the 'send email' trigger as, for us, it wouldn't work!
So what do we do if we need to send an email from our Storyline courses? - well I wrote an article a couple of months ago that explains our approach:
Hello! I am having the same type of issue with the "mailto" option that has been addressed here for years but nothing has worked. My company has Outlook as our sole email client; yet, the mailto option does not work. Your responses to this problem have not been helpful. "Not sure why it's not working for you" is NOT a helpful or useful response; it is a dismissive and condescending shrug!
Why has no update been added to RISE to remedy this situation? Can you at least offer a viable solution to this problem, which should not be a problem in a 21st century application?
So, Articulate 360, what are you going to do about this issue?
Hi Lauren mailto should work on your machine but in some instances will not, because of group policies, browsers not having a default mail client selected, or many many other reasons. If your colleagues all have the same issue I would suspect it is the way your machines are configured.
You can check the javascript console to see if it throws an error, I don't believe anything is broken in Rise for Mail to it is just not working in your configuration.
Okay; thanks. It was still not a particularly helpful comment, but coming from "one of us" makes it more understandable. RISE has some frustrating limitations that should not be part of our experience with it.
Thanks, Phil. When will Articulate do something to make this application more useful to us in every aspect of its existence? There are so many issues that have been discussed for years, but no changes have been made.
16 Replies
Have you tried an email address that is not gmail?
We use the interactive button to send an email without any problems.
Note it is also possible to add mailto:you@gmail.com to any selected text.
Hi Elyse!
It sounds like you don't have a mail server set up or connected on your computer. Can you try testing that course on another computer that has a connected mail server, like Outlook?
You can easily test a course on another machine using the Share link from the top menu bar.
Hi - thank you so much for your response.
My company uses Google as our email platform. Being that that is the case, will we not be able to use that feature?
Thank you in advance!
Hi Elyse!
A mailto: link won't open a web-based email application, Like Gmail, automatically. Instead, you may want to type out the email address so learners can copy the address and paste it in a new Gmail message.
If you were using an email client (such as Outlook) that is an installed application on your device, selecting a button with an email link would automatically open the email client, create a new email message, add the hard coded email address as the recipient, and use the course name as the subject line. This is how it works in our company.
As GMAIL is a web-based email client, it will not respond in this way. You would have to copy the email address as described by Alyssa and then manually create the email message in GMAIL.
I am experiencing the same issue as the others in this thread. My company uses MS Outlook app installed on our computers. When I click on the button, nothing happens. It does not open Outlook or Open a new email message even if Outlook is already open when I click on the button.
HI Kenneth,
I did a quick check of our button blocks, and they do open Outlook, and create a new message.
Not sure why it's not working for you.
Thank You
This isn't working for me either when I use the button to launch emails. We use MS Outlook as well and RISE will not launch the button to open a new email
I realise I'm in the minority here, but I have a strict 'One copy is enough' policy in our company - and that means we don't have ANY email client apps loaded on ANY of our devices. We send and read business email only in the cloud.
I know that will shock and horrify many - but we just believe that cloud computing means computing in the cloud.
There is only ever one copy of each email and it has transformed our lives!
AND - we don't have the problems described above because we don't use the 'send email' trigger as, for us, it wouldn't work!
So what do we do if we need to send an email from our Storyline courses? - well I wrote an article a couple of months ago that explains our approach:
Using an Intermediary service to send email from Storyline - Building Better Courses Discussions - E-Learning Heroes (articulate.com)
It's not for everyone - there is a small cost implication - but for us it is just simpler, and more powerful.
Sorry - this post sounds a bit like a rant - I didn't mean it to be!
Hello! I am having the same type of issue with the "mailto" option that has been addressed here for years but nothing has worked. My company has Outlook as our sole email client; yet, the mailto option does not work. Your responses to this problem have not been helpful. "Not sure why it's not working for you" is NOT a helpful or useful response; it is a dismissive and condescending shrug!
Why has no update been added to RISE to remedy this situation? Can you at least offer a viable solution to this problem, which should not be a problem in a 21st century application?
So, Articulate 360, what are you going to do about this issue?
Hi Lauren,
The comment above "Not sure why it's not working for you" was made by me, another Rise user, and not by Articulate.
Hi Lauren mailto should work on your machine but in some instances will not, because of group policies, browsers not having a default mail client selected, or many many other reasons. If your colleagues all have the same issue I would suspect it is the way your machines are configured.
You can check the javascript console to see if it throws an error, I don't believe anything is broken in Rise for Mail to it is just not working in your configuration.
Okay; thanks. It was still not a particularly helpful comment, but coming from "one of us" makes it more understandable. RISE has some frustrating limitations that should not be part of our experience with it.
Thanks, Phil. When will Articulate do something to make this application more useful to us in every aspect of its existence? There are so many issues that have been discussed for years, but no changes have been made.
I wasn't able to make this work either, so I replaced the "button" and just included the email address in "text" and it worked fine.