Reply Quote Text Format

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Thunderbird
DaCypher
Posts: 198
Joined: January 11th, 2004, 10:21 pm

Reply Quote Text Format

Post by DaCypher »

I've been struggling with TB's font/message layout ever since I switched from Outlook. Currently, I use Arial font for my HTML messages and I have modified my HTML signature to match this. However, my main complaint is when I reply to a message, the text "<author> wrote:" (where <author> is the actual name of the person that wrote the email) is inserted before the rest of the quoted email. This presents a problem because this text is outside of the <font> tags that TB inserts to define my preferred font and therefore this text sticks out (ethetically) from the rest of the message. Is there any way to modify this behavior?

I have tried using the extension Reset Quote Header, however, I could not, for the life of me, get it to work (it had absolutely no effect on my replies, even after messing with all the options/templates).

What do you guys do for your replies? Just let the recipient's client display the message how it wants? I wish there was a way to explicitly define the format of an email message (i.e. simple HTML that works across all web browsers/email clients; essentially just <font> and <br> tags)...
Jim D
Posts: 1611
Joined: December 29th, 2004, 10:56 am

Post by Jim D »

You should be sending mail as text. HTML is a bad practice. Let the reader's client decide how to format it.

-jim
DaCypher
Posts: 198
Joined: January 11th, 2004, 10:21 pm

Post by DaCypher »

Thanks for the quick reply, but that doesn't solve my problem. Even if I were to use plain text emails, I still don't have a way to modify the quoted text format (without changing it manually each time I reply to an email).
User avatar
Teddy
Posts: 440
Joined: August 19th, 2003, 9:24 am
Location: Canada!

Post by Teddy »

How would you have it formatted in plain text?

If the font is the only problem, then using plain text would solve that problem.
DaCypher
Posts: 198
Joined: January 11th, 2004, 10:21 pm

Post by DaCypher »

Well, the formatting that I was referring to is that actual text that is displayed for plain text messages ("<author> wrote:", from/to/subject, etc; obviously not the font).

I think my point is being missed here. What I would like to do is have control over the font that is displayed in my outgoing messages (using plain text obviously doesn't give this control). Any ideas?
Jim D
Posts: 1611
Joined: December 29th, 2004, 10:56 am

Post by Jim D »

Do you want to change the quoted text format, or the font?

For the quoted text, see

http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderb ... eplyheader

For font, use plain text.

-Jim
DaCypher
Posts: 198
Joined: January 11th, 2004, 10:21 pm

Post by DaCypher »

Well, idealy I would like to be able to change both, the font and the quoted text. Using plain text does not allow me to change the font, it leaves it up to the recipient's email client.

Thanks for that link, it looks like I might be able to insert some HTML into those options and get it to look how I want. Thanks for the help.
Old Ausdilecce
Posts: 0
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 5:00 pm

Post by Old Ausdilecce »

DaCypher,

The only way to do what you want is to use the ResetQuoteHeader extension ...
To get it to work, you need to
1) extract the two txt files from the xpi and put them on your hard drive *somewhere* ( an xpi is simply a zip file )

2) in the ResetQuoteHeader extension preferences ( double click on the ResetQuoteHeader item in tools...extensions ), point to those two txt files with the browse buttons next to 'Text quote header template filename' and 'HTML quote Header template filename'

3) in'type what your old header looks like' put in the one word that *always* appears in your current quote header..
In the default TB setup, this would be :
<code>
wrote
</code>

Hope that helps (if not, post here again )
DaCypher
Posts: 198
Joined: January 11th, 2004, 10:21 pm

Post by DaCypher »

ausdilecce,

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately I am still unable to get the extension to have any apparent effect on my replies (even when replying from TB's main window, and not a separate email window).
dtobias
Posts: 2098
Joined: November 9th, 2002, 3:35 pm
Location: Boca Raton, FL
Contact:

Post by dtobias »

DaCypher wrote:Using plain text does not allow me to change the font, it leaves it up to the recipient's email client.


That's the idea... it means that the recipient gets to read it in the font/size/color he or she prefers, instead of having something (often something awful, ugly, and unreadable) forced by the sender.
Dan's Web Tips: http://webtips.dan.info/
Dan's Domain Site: http://domains.dan.info/
Dan's Mail Format Site: http://mailformat.dan.info/
DaCypher
Posts: 198
Joined: January 11th, 2004, 10:21 pm

Post by DaCypher »

The same could be said for every webpage in existance. There should be no font tags or CSS that allows you to control the font face or size. Just let everyone's browser render it how they want?

Regardless, I can see where you're coming from, but I would like the ability to control what I send...

BTW, I just noticed that you're from Boca Raton. I live there (here) also... small world. :)
dtobias
Posts: 2098
Joined: November 9th, 2002, 3:35 pm
Location: Boca Raton, FL
Contact:

Post by dtobias »

More discussion of HTML vs. plain text e-mail:
http://mailformat.dan.info/body/html.html
Dan's Web Tips: http://webtips.dan.info/
Dan's Domain Site: http://domains.dan.info/
Dan's Mail Format Site: http://mailformat.dan.info/
DaCypher
Posts: 198
Joined: January 11th, 2004, 10:21 pm

Post by DaCypher »

Again, I can appreciate your desire for standards compliance and your disapproval of sloppy HTML based email messages, I still need to use it. Unfortunately in the business world, the recipient is often foolishly disgusted by plain text emails so it is much easier to simply spoon feed such users with emails that are formatted with HTML.

And that brings me back to my desire to have full control over what TB sends in an HTML email (modifying the source manually for each message does not seem like a valid option to me).
CurtC
Posts: 212
Joined: November 27th, 2003, 8:19 am

Post by CurtC »

DaCypher wrote:Unfortunately in the business world, the recipient is often foolishly disgusted by plain text emails...
I'm not going to argue with you if you want to send out HTML. I prefer not to - that's my choice. But when have you seen anyone disgusted by plain text? I send plain text everyday in the business world, and religiously un-HTML my replies and forwards. I've never heard a complaint.
DaCypher
Posts: 198
Joined: January 11th, 2004, 10:21 pm

Post by DaCypher »

I've had users confused and frustrated by the fact that when they replied to my plain text email their HTML signature "got all messed up". They apparently had to manually modify their signature when their email client (didn't bother to check which) replied in plain text to my plain text email, but their signature had "funny symbals in it" (I assume they meant HTML tags).

I'm not sure why this became an HTML vs plain text email discussion. TB supports HTML emails, yet people act as if HTML in email is as bad as ActiveX.

I would simply like to modify what TB sends in its outgoing messages, please.
Post Reply