Title: Additional Headers Syntax Error
Last modified: September 1, 2016

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# Additional Headers Syntax Error

 *  [aharvard](https://wordpress.org/support/users/aharvard/)
 * (@aharvard)
 * [9 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/additional-headers-syntax-error/)
 * I keep getting a syntax error in my Additional Headers field. I’m not sure why
   since the only thing in that field is: `Reply-To: [your-name] <[your-email]>`
 * I’ve read over the Contact 7 documentation a dozen times and I’m not sure why
   I’m getting the error message. Everything else in my contact form is configured
   correctly as far as I can tell. I also use the Postman SMTP plugin – but this
   Additional Headers syntax error existed before I installed/configured Postman.
 * Anyone have an idea of what the issue is? I’m banging my head against the wall
   trying to figure this out! Thanks in advance for helping me out!
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7/)

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

 *  [barnez](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/)
 * (@pidengmor)
 * [9 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/additional-headers-syntax-error/#post-7525453)
 * Try making those form-tags required(*). e.g.
 *     ```
       [text* your-name]
       [email* your-email]
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [aharvard](https://wordpress.org/support/users/aharvard/)
 * (@aharvard)
 * [9 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/additional-headers-syntax-error/#post-7525461)
 * Thanks for replying. But those form-tags are marked as required in my form. Are
   you saying that I should mark them as required in the Additional Headers field
   too???
 *  [barnez](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/)
 * (@pidengmor)
 * [9 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/additional-headers-syntax-error/#post-7525479)
 * No, they can only be set as required in the form-tags. What happens if you change
   the syntax? e.g.
 *     ```
       FORM
       [text* name-256]
       [email* email-145]
   
       MAIL
       Additional Headers: Reply-To: [name-256] <[email-145]>
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [aharvard](https://wordpress.org/support/users/aharvard/)
 * (@aharvard)
 * [9 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/additional-headers-syntax-error/#post-7525488)
 * Are those just random numbers? Does it matter which numbers I use? Sorry for 
   all the questions, for whatever reason Contact Form 7 is a little confusing for
   me!
 *  [barnez](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/)
 * (@pidengmor)
 * [9 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/additional-headers-syntax-error/#post-7525535)
 * Yes, they are just random numbers. You can use pretty much any word/two-word/
   word-number combination, but they have to correspond between the form-tag and
   mail-tag. My suggestion here is because sometimes there is a minor syntax disagreement
   that the user doesn’t notice, but which is resolved when a different tag name
   is used.
 *  Thread Starter [aharvard](https://wordpress.org/support/users/aharvard/)
 * (@aharvard)
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/additional-headers-syntax-error/#post-7525695)
 * Thanks for that! I’ll try to make this my last question (sorry for so many!).
   Given what you just told me, do you think that my issue could be because my form-
   tags include placeholder text? They look like this:
 *     ```
       [text* your-name placeholder "name"]
       [text* your-email placeholder "email"]
       ```
   
 * My form looks better with placeholder text rather than using name and email labels
   above the field boxes on my site, so I want to keep the placeholders if at all
   possible. Thanks!
 *  [barnez](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/)
 * (@pidengmor)
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/additional-headers-syntax-error/#post-7525699)
 * No, that won’t make any difference at all. Those placeholders look absolutely
   fine. Provided that you set up the form-tags as per the [plugin guidance](http://contactform7.com/tag-syntax/),
   then you just have to make sure that the form-tag name corresponds exactly to
   the mail-tag:
 * >  [text* your-name placeholder “name”] –>> [your-name]
   >  [text* subject-475 placeholder“
   > your subject”] –>> [subject-475] [email* your-email] –>> [your-email]

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

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## Tags

 * [additional headers](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/additional-headers/)
 * [configuration error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/configuration-error/)
 * [syntax error](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/syntax-error/)

 * 7 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [barnez](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pidengmor/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/additional-headers-syntax-error/#post-7525699)
 * Status: not resolved