Pages: 1
RSS
HTML vs Text and How to reply to Text with HTML
 
TB v9.2.2

I typically receive emails in which the text merely goes to the edge of the view area and then automatically wraps onto the next lines as needed, thereby forming a nicely readable format like the following (Assume the edge of the view area is adjacent to the longest line in this example):

This is test text to demonstrate how the text in received emails
typically looks.  It extends all the way to the edge of the viewing
area then automatically wraps on to the next lines as needed.  If
the view window is resized the text lines wrap or unwrap
automatically.

When I reply to some of those emails the original text is still displayed in the reply editor the same way as shown above, but with a blue vertical line on the left to indicate it is the original text I am replying to.  However, in other cases the original text is reformatted onto more much shorter lines, with each line preceded by a greater-than character and a space as shown below:

> This is test text to demonstrate
> how the text in received emails
> typically looks.  It extends all the
> way to the edge of the viewing
> area then automatically wraps on
> to the next lines as needed.  If
> the view window is resized the
> text lines wrap or unwrap
> automatically.

My three questions are these:
1. Why does the reply editor display differently with different emails even though the original emails look the same?
2. If the answer to my first question is that the first case is because the original email contained HTML and the second was just text, then how can I tell by simply viewing the original email which it is if the body only contains text?
3. How can I force the reply editor to always use the same "wrapping" blue vertical line format illustrated in my first example?

My current Viewer/Editor settings are:
  View plain text messages using: Rich Text/HTML Viewer
  View HTML messages using: HTML only
  View messages with an alternative layout as: HTML only
  Default editor for text: HTML with an alternative plain text part


Thank you :-)
 
First, let me say it isn't always obvious. You may receive an HTML message that has no font specifications, typically fr om Thunderbird, allowing the recipient (you) to use your default font specifications (n my opinion, ALL editors, including TB!, should do that). In that case, clicking between the HTML and Text tabs shows the same content. And replying is partly dependent on your setting on whether you reply to HTML in plain text or not. Plain text responses will show the '>' character, while HTML responses will show the vertical line. And those replies with shortened lines? Those generally happen because the sender's email client inserted line breaks there that comply with an older requirement that text lines should wrap at approx 72 characters (I've forgotten the actual spec, but it was done back when computer terminals used fixed fonts). Thunderbird ignores that and wraps to screen width, but TB! honors it.


I suggest you change your 'view HTML' setting and 'alternative setting' to use both HTML and text. That will provide tabs at bottom of message to let you see both versions of message.


To my knowledge, you cannot force the vert line because it doesn't apply to text messages.  


As an aside, dealing with email often touches on the 'sins' of the sender. For example, I write in plain text, but I often receive replies wh ere the sender's email client converted my text to HTML Times Roman. Some things you just can't fix...

Good luck.

david
Edited: david kirk - 12 August 2020 14:57:20
 
David, thanks for all the good information and I did change the settings as you indicated.  What I've been doing in cases where the original email text wraps properly but the reply editor displays all of the > symbols at the beginning of the shortened lines, is to copy the original email onto the clipboard, then delete the undesirable reply editor formatting and paste the clipboard copy in place of it.  That copy then displays properly and auto-wraps as expected.  It seems like TB should have some setting that would provide the option to ignore those 72-column line breaks and display in the wrap mode without having to go through this copy and paste process manually :-)
 
Quote
For example, I write in plain text, but I often receive replies wh ere the sender's email client converted my text to HTML Times Roman.

That often happens to my writings, too! I wonder if we should switch to HTML and specify 12pt Courier type...?  :-)
I volunteer as a moderator to help keep the forum tidy. I do not work for Ritlabs SRL.
 
Ray, you're welcome. My suggestion is to just let it go - and by reformatting the response, you may be preventing your recipient fr om distinguishing responses - just my two cents. Thunderbird does exactly what you want: vertical bar is consistent and preformatted wrap text is allowed to flow to end of line. However, even with Thunderbird you would not be in control, as the recipient's email client may show the '>', since that is not embedded into the email but inserted into message by recipient's email client.  See also my comment below to Daniel.


Hi, Daniel. Most likely, that cannibalizing of your email is because sender was using Microsoft Outlook. That seems to be wh ere most responses to my messages return as HTML and in Times Roman. Since I can't fix it, I just grit my teeth and ignore it. Life is too short to undo all the stuff that Outlook inserts into a message.  

regards,
david
 
Gmail also only sends HTML.

The Bat could do better, for example:

-- When I put the cursor in the middle of quoted text (not HTML) and hit Enter, TB correctly breaks the quote and adds a ">" (so that I can intersperse my reply). However, it does not insert any blank lines (it should insert three) and leaves the cursor after the added "> ". (Eudora did this correctly over 20 years ago.)


-- When I put the cursor in the middle of quoted HTML text and hit Enter, TB does a bit better -- inserts a blank line and places the cursor there. However, it should insert three blank lines so that there's spacing when the message is read. (The receiving email client *could* add spacing before and after quoted text as a matter of style. Neither Gmail-web nor TB does so.)


-- Paste as Quotation always pastes the text-style (fixed lines preceded by ">"), even if the message is being composed in HTML.

-- Changing composition text<->HTML does not change quotes already in the message. (This admittedly is more complex.)

-- There's no way to say "reply to this text message in HTML", in order to get the HTML-style quoting.


I have not created tickets for any of these, though someday I might. At the moment I see higher priorities. Also, the one problem I've submitted on quotes (treating new text as quotation, apparently an artifact of my specific combination of options) has not been fixed.


Edward
Pages: 1