TOPIC: Question About Email Links

I am researching something for a client, and have not been able to find an answer either in the docs, or by browsing this forum.

The emails sent to users have some pretty big URLs in them. Can we use PHP (or some other method) to either replace those convoluted URLs with something more friendly, or is it possible to only have a 'Click Here to Confirm' button in the email, thereby hiding the link entirely?

Which extension are we talking about?

CMandrill for Joomla

Create an html template (read the docs) and send a mail using that template. Is it better? Can you live with those links

I saw the docs regarding the email templates. However, the email links appear to be created independent of the templates. Is there anywhere that provides an example of how to do this? Thanks!