Problem with left margins

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Al_H
Posts: 344
Joined: November 6th, 2006, 5:39 am

Problem with left margins

Post by Al_H »

Hi, I don´t know if I did something, but for the last two days, every new message that I write (compose) a message, it appears without left margin, and they start literally at the edge of the screen.

I have been looking for a setting in options & accounts settings with no success. Any idea of what I did to have it like that and/or a way to put it back to "normal"

Thanks
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Problem with left margins

Post by tanstaafl »

I've never had a noticeable left margin when composing messages. Did you create this using HTML/CSS and save it in a template? If so, you need to double click on the template to compose a message instead of using the Write button.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/doc ... argin-left

See if "help -> restart with add-ons disabled" has any effect. You might be running into a side effect of an updated add-on that doesn't play nicely with the latest version of Thunderbird.
Skyzoomer
Posts: 97
Joined: September 12th, 2007, 12:56 pm

Re: Problem with left margins

Post by Skyzoomer »

I know this thread was started in Nov 2017 but I'm having the same problem in Thunderbird on both my Tower PC and my laptop. Both are running Windows 10 Home. (In case this info is needed, my tower PC has a 2560 x 1440 res screen and my laptop has a 1920 x 1080 res screen.) Thunder bird updates are current as of today, 12/15/18.

For either the read or compose screens, the text is right up against the left side of the window. For the read screen, that's OK (though a bit uncomfortable), since all of the text is readable. But when I'm composing a response to an email, I have a hard time locating the cursor if its at the left margin.

Is there any way to have at least a one character left margin for the read and compose screens?
(Tbird 9.0.1 running on Win7 (x64) on Intel i5 system.) (Tbird 9.0.1 running on Vista on Dell Core 2 Duo T6400 laptop.)
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tanstaafl
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Re: Problem with left margins

Post by tanstaafl »

Does this problem occur in safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled)? The obvious culprits are an add-on (a extension or theme), something in the optional chrome\userChrome.css file, or CSS commands in the message you are replying to (quoted reply) to remove the default margins.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1206582 talks about a complete theme not honoring CSS border margins. In that case the user was trying to change the margins to something different using CSS. Your problem is the opposite case, but could also be due to a buggy theme. Are you using the default theme?

A very old but similar thread is http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=2135093 . In that case the problem also occurred in safe mode and the workaround appears to have been to set mail.wrap_long_lines false. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plain_text_e- ... d#Advanced
Skyzoomer
Posts: 97
Joined: September 12th, 2007, 12:56 pm

Re: Problem with left margins

Post by Skyzoomer »

tanstaafl wrote:Does this problem occur in safe mode (help -> restart with add-ons disabled)? The obvious culprits are an add-on (a extension or theme), something in the optional chrome\userChrome.css file, or CSS commands in the message you are replying to (quoted reply) to remove the default margins.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1206582 talks about a complete theme not honoring CSS border margins. In that case the user was trying to change the margins to something different using CSS. Your problem is the opposite case, but could also be due to a buggy theme. Are you using the default theme?

A very old but similar thread is http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=2135093 . In that case the problem also occurred in safe mode and the workaround appears to have been to set mail.wrap_long_lines false. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plain_text_e- ... d#Advanced
Hi tanstaafl,

Thanks for your quick response.

After further investigation, I discovered that emails that I received from two of my friends starting from 12/10/18 to yesterday have the zero left margin problem. Emails from them prior to that have a 1 character left margin for both the read and reply/compose screens. Both friends are using the same email provider that are not gmail accounts.

When I send test emails to myself from my other gmail accounts or from my hotmail account, the text has a 1 character left margin and if I reply to those emails, the compose screen also has a 1 character left margin. Which is good.

So I've asked both friends to send me test emails to see if the zero left margin problem persists in emails from them. Will post the results.

Even if their initial emails have the zero left margin problem, why would Thunderbird's reply compose screen also have a zero left margin problem? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Skyzoomer
(Tbird 9.0.1 running on Win7 (x64) on Intel i5 system.) (Tbird 9.0.1 running on Vista on Dell Core 2 Duo T6400 laptop.)
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Problem with left margins

Post by tanstaafl »

"Even if their initial emails have the zero left margin problem, why would Thunderbird's reply compose screen also have a zero left margin problem? Any ideas?"

If you are doing a quoted reply you can inherit the HTML/CSS code that causes no margin. If you do a non-quoted reply whats in the message you are replying to should have no effect (because you don't have a copy of any of it in your reply).

One possible workaround would be to hold down the shift key when replying to toggle from HTML to plain text. If you are sending a plain text reply there shouldn't be any CSS code in the message to worry about.
Skyzoomer
Posts: 97
Joined: September 12th, 2007, 12:56 pm

Re: Problem with left margins

Post by Skyzoomer »

tanstaafl wrote:"Even if their initial emails have the zero left margin problem, why would Thunderbird's reply compose screen also have a zero left margin problem? Any ideas?"

If you are doing a quoted reply you can inherit the HTML/CSS code that causes no margin. If you do a non-quoted reply whats in the message you are replying to should have no effect (because you don't have a copy of any of it in your reply).

One possible workaround would be to hold down the shift key when replying to toggle from HTML to plain text. If you are sending a plain text reply there shouldn't be any CSS code in the message to worry about.
Hi tanstaafl,

Excellent! If I do a non-quoted reply, then the zero left margin problem does not happen. So my quoted reply (which I always do so the recipient knows what I'm replying to) is inheriting the problem.

So it looks like somehow my two friends' internet provider is somehow mucking up their emails to me.
For your info, both of those friends are running Thunderbird that I set up for them when they bought their Dell PCs.
I have not received a test email from either of them yet so can't report any results yet.

Thanks,
Skyzoomer
(Tbird 9.0.1 running on Win7 (x64) on Intel i5 system.) (Tbird 9.0.1 running on Vista on Dell Core 2 Duo T6400 laptop.)
Skyzoomer
Posts: 97
Joined: September 12th, 2007, 12:56 pm

Re: Problem with left margins

Post by Skyzoomer »

Skyzoomer wrote:
tanstaafl wrote:"Even if their initial emails have the zero left margin problem, why would Thunderbird's reply compose screen also have a zero left margin problem? Any ideas?"

If you are doing a quoted reply you can inherit the HTML/CSS code that causes no margin. If you do a non-quoted reply whats in the message you are replying to should have no effect (because you don't have a copy of any of it in your reply).

One possible workaround would be to hold down the shift key when replying to toggle from HTML to plain text. If you are sending a plain text reply there shouldn't be any CSS code in the message to worry about.
Hi tanstaafl,

Excellent! If I do a non-quoted reply, then the zero left margin problem does not happen. So my quoted reply (which I always do so the recipient knows what I'm replying to) is inheriting the problem.

So it looks like somehow my two friends' internet provider is somehow mucking up their emails to me.
For your info, both of those friends are running Thunderbird that I set up for them when they bought their Dell PCs.
I have not received a test email from either of them yet so can't report any results yet.

Thanks,
Skyzoomer
I got a test message from one of my two friends and it's normal now. I'm pretty sure that the problem was their common internet provider mucking up their emails during 12/10/18 to 12/14/14.

I'll mark the appropriate post from you as the answer.
EDIT: I couldn't find a way to mark a post as the answer, so that won't happen.

Thanks!
Skyzoomer
Last edited by Skyzoomer on December 15th, 2018, 3:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
(Tbird 9.0.1 running on Win7 (x64) on Intel i5 system.) (Tbird 9.0.1 running on Vista on Dell Core 2 Duo T6400 laptop.)
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Problem with left margins

Post by tanstaafl »

Glad you solved the problem.
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