Email links are increasingly pervasive in online content, as they conveniently help users to contact a relevant person with a single click. When you are citing emails in a text, there are a few formatting issues to watch out for. The options will vary, depending on whether you are writing a text for print or onscreen reading.
Generally use lower case for all email addresses, even where they involve a person's name. This is the simplest and increasingly the most common approach. And you can integrate it within a sentence without adding an instructional references such as 'Mail to:'.
Use live hyperlinks for email addresses in content that will be read online.
Format your links consistently so they are immediately clear to your site users. Underlining is the most common practice as it makes links stand out on screen and aligns with web accessibility principles. You can also use colour, but don’t use colour on its own.
In most cases, it is best to display the email address itself, rather than hiding the link embedded in other text. That way it will be clear that it relates to an email address rather than a web page or other document link.
While underlining is common for onscreen hyperlinks, it can clutter the page in a print document where readers have no way of clicking on the link. It is cleaner and clearer in print documents to reproduce an email address without underlining.
Unfortunately, it remains MS Word’s default hyperlink style to underline an email address. Don’t accept the Word default. Within a sentence, integrate an email address without formatting. Where you list it separately (such as on a letterhead) or you want to highlight it, use bold, colour or icons.
