Mail , Cursor doesn't move when pressing Space bar

Discussion of bugs in Seamonkey
LowQCab
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Mail , Cursor doesn't move when pressing Space bar

Post by LowQCab »

Hello , and thank you for some excellent software .

I have an oddity that I hope someone can explain ,
6 different searches did not turn up an answer .

Very simply , when typing an E-Mail ,
and coming to the end of a word ,
then pressing the Space Bar ,
the Cursor will not move from the last letter of the word ,
this drives me insane .

Pressing the Space Bar twice will move the Cursor one space ,
but after typing the first letter of the next word , I will have 2 spaces between the words .

Maybe this is something that secretaries love , I don't know ,
but I sure wish I could turn it off ,
and I can't seem to find any way to do that .

Please help , (or tell me I need to learn how to type) .

...................Jim
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raj_bhaskar
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Post by raj_bhaskar »

Is this happening only in SeaMonkey, or in other applications as well? What version and operating system are you using?
LowQCab
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Post by LowQCab »

Thanks for the quick reply ,
Win XP Pro ,
this happens only when creating Mail in SeaMonkey Mail ,
OpenOffice/WordPad/NotePad/your forum/other forums/everything else works perfectly .
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raj_bhaskar
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Post by raj_bhaskar »

I don't use SeaMonkey Mail myself but even when I've used the composer for typing replies to newsgroups I've never seen this. What version of SeaMonkey are you using?

The closest bug that I can find is bug 235223 and that was a trunk bug that was fixed at the end of December last year.
rsx11m
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Post by rsx11m »

As Raj suggests, check that you have the current version by typing "about:" into the address line of the browser. Find the line that contains "Mozilla/5.0 (...)" which should contain a "rv:1.8.1.2" or "rv:1.8.1.3" at the end of the parentheses. Also, are you using any special fonts? Check your message encoding, but since it only occurs in SeaMonkey, font problem may be unlikely.

That the last space typed at the end of the line is not shown while composing an e-mail is normal in both SeaMonkey and Thunderbird, it will wrap into the next line then with the next word. This shouldn't happen within the line.
LowQCab
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Post by LowQCab »

Here is the version :
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070222 SeaMonkey/1.1.1

Using "Tahoma" Font .

Maybe this isn't a "Bug" per-se , can you guys think of any way this could be considered a "feature"
that was intentionally created this way ?
I don't know , I only type when I have to , not professionally .

""That the last space typed at the end of the line is not shown while composing an e-mail is normal in both SeaMonkey and Thunderbird, it will wrap into the next line then with the next word.
This shouldn't happen within the line.""

"Not Shown" does that mean press the space bar and you don't "see" the space ,
ie, the cursor doesn't move from the last letter of the last word ?

BTW , typing here in the forums , I don't have this happening .
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Andy Boze
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Post by Andy Boze »

I found the "no space at the end of a word" behavior to be really irritating, too. I use SeaMonkey 1.5a, and at some point in the last several months the behavior changed so that I now get spaces when composing e-mail. I wouldn't normally recommend using alpha versions of software, but SM 1.5a is generally pretty stable, except for some very noticeable bugs in the last week or so.

EDIT -- On rereading the original message, I probably misinterpreted the OP's message. It sounds like he has to press the space bar twice to get a single space between every word. The problem I used to have was not getting a space at the wrap point at the end of a line.

So, one other thought, is there any chance that the Windows IME is enabled? It's been a while since I used it, but I seem to remember that there are dead keys for certain languages that have to be pressed twice to get a single instance of the character.
Last edited by Andy Boze on May 22nd, 2007, 10:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
But then again, I may be wrong.
rsx11m
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Post by rsx11m »

LowQCab wrote:Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070222 SeaMonkey/1.1.1

That's the latest version as released on the mozilla.org site, not an alpha or beta. And no, I don't think that's a feature.
"Not Shown" does that mean press the space bar and you don't "see" the space , ie, the cursor doesn't move from the last letter of the last word ?

Yes, when you get near the end of the line and type a space, the cursor will not advance if this was the last character before a line break.
BTW , typing here in the forums , I don't have this happening .

I'm only noticing that you have spaces both before and after punctuation, rather than having the comma directly following the word without a space. Is this how you are typing it?
LowQCab
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Post by LowQCab »

"Yes, when you get near the end of the line and type a space,
the cursor will not advance if this was the last character before a line break."

What is the definition of "end of the line" .

"when you get near the end of the line" ,
the problem I'm describing , happens at the end of any word ,
not just when getting close to a Tab/word-wrap/"end of the line"


"the cursor will not advance if this was the last character before a line break."

What is the definition of "before a Line Break" , is this an automatic word wrap or a carriage return ?
I was under the impression that no characters of any kind existed until they were typed in ,
and the last character typed in was a space .
Are you saying that other characters exist , (a line break) ,
by default , that would already be in placed after the space ?

I sounds like you are saying that the problem I am describing is normal ,
if it's normal what is the purpose of this "normal behavior" , and can I turn it off ?

...................Jim
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rsx11m
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Post by rsx11m »

Sorry, it wasn't my intention to confuse you - the problem you are describing is certainly not normal.

When typing in a message, you usually have 72 characters that fit into each line, that you will see it wrapping into the next line. If the last (visible) character was the 72nd of a line, and you type a space then, the cursor will stay where it is. With the next character, it would start a new line then.

What you are describing is different, since it should echo every space you are writing within the text exactly when you are typing it in, with the one exception for the end of the line.

Another guess: Go into the configuration editor (about:config) and look up an element "mailnews.send_plain_text_flowed" which configures the mail composition behavior to be flowed or not (i.e., with false, you are creating hard line breaks). I may be completely on the wrong track, but perhaps it's related to the soft-wrapping of lines.
LowQCab
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Post by LowQCab »

That was it !!!

Thank you very much !!

Should this be enabled by default ?

...................Jim
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rsx11m
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Post by rsx11m »

Interesting, I have it set to "false" on my Linux SeaMonkey to have correct line breaks, and it works without any problems here. On the Windows SeaMonkey, I have it "true" which I believe is the default, and I don't have the space problem there either. I was only considering it as a possibility since the flowed line wrap has been in discussion for some white-space bugs (e.g., #363624).

Anyway, the main thing is that it solved the problem! :D
markinboone
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more than just SeaMonkey

Post by markinboone »

I experience this same behavior with Thunderbird 2.0.0.9 (20071031) and have had others report its happening with Word 2007. This is the only post I found that describes this precisely. The configuration file setting (mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed) for my TB is set to True already. Has anyone else discovered and reported this? Anyone found a solution? Here's something to consider... I have an alternate keyboard set up for Windows (Spanish), though I believe I saw this behavior long before I installed it.
markinboone
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Phenomenon demystified

Post by markinboone »

I discovered the reason for the cursor arbitrarily not advancing with the spacebar in my emails (Thunderbird). I use HTML (Rich Text) formatting by default. When I am typing where there is already a space to the right of my cursor (a typical result when editing as I go, especially in a reply msg), the space I type is actually one of two spaces side by side with the cursor in between them. HTML does not display more than one space, no matter how many are typed, so while I have typed a space, the editor is hiding it since there is already a visible space on the screen (the one to the right of the cursor, even though I can't see it). If I type 3, 4, 5, or more spaces consecutively, Thunderbird starts inserting fixed spaces:   which are visible.

I found this with the Edit HTML plugin that lets me see the generated HTML code for a formatted msg.

When the email message is set for Text Only, the phenomenon doesn't happen, which may be why it seemed to be "fixed" above.

So if there's a "fix" to be made, it would be for the Mozilla message editors to not process the second space to the right of the cursor; or to insert a nonbreaking space for the second space, instead of waiting for the third one (of course this defeats the purpose of HTML "eliminating" double spaces). The editor for entering this post does not produce the phenomenon, and I assume it's generating HTML (since I haven't selected the Disable HTML option).

I cannot reproduce this phenomenon in Word 2007, as one of my users claims, but I haven't tested it in 2003 with an HTML document...
Frank62
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Post by Frank62 »

I have the same problem with SeaMonkey Composer (v. 1.1.8) - when pressing the space bar, the cursor sometimes does not move, but stays glued to the last typed letter. Another character then has to be typed for it to jump.

I have had the same problem with Netscape Composer (v.7), so SeaMonkey inherited it. I must say, though, that it seems to be less often occurring in SeaMonkey (but I would have to use it for a couple of days in a row to be sure; it's been a while).

I would like to know if there is a solution for Composer, too? Of the same sort as the about:congif setting for the mail client?

Thanks a lot in advance.

- Frank
<br><b>Frank</b>
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