Thunderbird removing all line breaks - why?

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Xorr
Posts: 133
Joined: July 15th, 2004, 11:40 am

Thunderbird removing all line breaks - why?

Post by Xorr »

I've noticed a problem with Thunderbird lately. It is removing all line breaks. So now if I send an email with 4 paragraphs, all separated by line breaks, Thunderbird sends it out as one giant paragraph with no line breaks at all. So instead of the email looking how I typed it:

"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx."

it looks like:

"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx."


Is there any reason why it's doing this, and if so, how do I fix it? I'm using Thunderbird 1.5.0.5.
User avatar
Rod Whiteley
Posts: 11480
Joined: December 6th, 2004, 3:41 am
Location: UK

Post by Rod Whiteley »

Thunderbird has a bug that affects plain text messages when you type a space at the end of a paragraph. Is this the problem you are seeing?
Rod
Xorr
Posts: 133
Joined: July 15th, 2004, 11:40 am

Post by Xorr »

How am I supposed to know? I'm asking the question. I showed what it's doing, I'm looking for the answer.
User avatar
Rod Whiteley
Posts: 11480
Joined: December 6th, 2004, 3:41 am
Location: UK

Post by Rod Whiteley »

Select the message in your Sent folder but do not open it. Choose View – Message Source, copy the source, and paste it here in your reply. Before you submit your reply, type Xs over any e-mail addresses in the message source.
Rod
thunderbird_user
Guest

Re: Thunderbird removing all line breaks - why?

Post by thunderbird_user »

Has anyone ever fixed this? We are having the same issue.
rsx11m
Moderator
Posts: 14404
Joined: May 3rd, 2007, 7:40 am
Location: US

Re: Thunderbird removing all line breaks - why?

Post by rsx11m »

Trailing spaces in plain-text e-mails tell the mailing application that those are "soft" line breaks and the lines can be connected to form a paragraph. In Thunderbird 2.0, this problem should be solved for text you copy-paste or type yourself if there is just a single trailing space (it should be solved for multiple trailing spaces in the upcoming Thunderbird 3.0 version). It's different when you reply to a message which is not following this standard (yes, it's a standard, and same e-mail programs = Outlook, Lotus Notes, some webmail clients, etc. - chose to ignore it), which may connect lines in the quote which were previously separate.

If this "flowed format" bothers you and presents more a problem than a useful feature for the type of e-mails you receive or write, you can switch it off by going into the Tools > Options > Advanced > General tab, copy-pasting mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed into the searchbar, and double-click on the entry which remains to set it to "false". This will send all lines as you see and entered them during composition, including all line breaks being "hard" ones.
newperson
Guest

Re: Thunderbird removing all line breaks - why?

Post by newperson »

If you are a mac user and you wish to switch off the "flowed format" go into the Thunderbird>Preferences>Advanced>General tab and click the button for Config.Editor and then type (or copy and paste) 'mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed' into the Filter bar, and double click on the entry to set the boolean value from "true" to "false"
macpersonFriendofWindowsperson
Guest

Re: Thunderbird removing all line breaks - why?

Post by macpersonFriendofWindowsperson »

If you are a windows users, I have a slight correction to the path for switching off the "flowed format"." Go into Tools > Options > Advanced > General tab and click the Config Editor button and then type or (copy and paste) 'mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed' into the searchbar, and double-click on the entry which remains to set it to "false".
rsx11m
Moderator
Posts: 14404
Joined: May 3rd, 2007, 7:40 am
Location: US

Re: Thunderbird removing all line breaks - why?

Post by rsx11m »

The menu differences between platforms are also explained in
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Menu_differen ... x,_and_Mac
pdx_kid
Guest

Re: Thunderbird removing all line breaks - why?

Post by pdx_kid »

Thank gosh someone has finally identified this issue and found a solution. The issue was making me look as though I didn't know how to write properly formed English.
barywp
Guest

Re: Thunderbird removing all line breaks - why?

Post by barywp »

I'm a Win 7 user, with Thunderbird 3. I have used the Config Editor to change mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed to false, and it has NOT solved this problem. I also have attempted to change the column at which wrapping occurs when outputing in HTML to values both higher and lower than the default and it seems to have no effect.

No matter what I have tried, when using HTML as the output format for News, wrapping occurs in the emitted HTML and words are concatenated in the resulting output when viewed from non-Thunderbird environments.

What, precisely, should I try next? Please respond here with a cc to: ** e-mail address removed by moderator **

THANKS!
Last edited by Dartman on January 16th, 2010, 9:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Removed email address-See forum rules.
rsx11m
Moderator
Posts: 14404
Joined: May 3rd, 2007, 7:40 am
Location: US

Re: Thunderbird removing all line breaks - why?

Post by rsx11m »

Flowed format applies to plain-text e-mails only, it doesn't have any effect on HTML messages. To retain a given format there, you'd have to change the style from Body Text or Paragraph to Preformat.
jiggerjuice
Guest

Re: Thunderbird removing all line breaks - why?

Post by jiggerjuice »

This sounds similar to the problem I am having. I am sending newsgroup replies in HTML format, to the University of Phoenix, and it is putting &nbsp codes in the reply. I understand this is the code for 'non-breaking space' (I could be wrong, and this is what is being discussed here, but this occurs in plain text replies also.) I will attempt to send in plain text with the aforementioned send_plaintext_flowed set to false. I do seem to recall if I send HTML replies in the preformatted style it does correct the spacing. Upon examining the message source, the first line of the reply (not counting the header) is mostly html format codes, can the HTML code be customized at all? Here are two message sources:

Created online using the forums--

From: xxxxxxxx <xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Week 1 - DQ 2 - Due Thursday
Newsgroups: aacj.01-25.aaaf0myyb1-com150
Content-Type: text/html; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Message-ID: <47284821@afm101.phoenix.edu>
References: <47222544@afm101.phoenix.edu>
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:12:01 -0700

<span style=3D"font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;">
<p><span style=3D"font-size: medium;"><font>No problem!&nbsp; I have always=
been ardent in regards to words and their definitions.&nbsp; I thoroughly =
enjoy word games and puzzles.&nbsp; The one realm that surpasses my enjoyme=
nt of words is (you may even call this an addiction) numbers.&nbsp; This is=
the key attribute that allows me to excel at computers and mathematics. </=
font></span></p>
<br />
<div class=3D"signature"><hr />

<p><strong><span style=3D"color: rgb(0, 153, 0);"><span style=3D"background=
-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style=3D"font-family: Arial;"><span styl=
e=3D"font-size: medium;">xxxxxxxxxxxx<br />
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<br />
MST</span></span></span></span></strong></p>
</div>
</span>


Here is the same message composed in Thunderbird 3.0.1 -- (Okay, the &nbsp are now replaced with =A0 .....weird)

From: xxxxxxx <xxxxx@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Week 1 - DQ 2 - Due Thursday
Newsgroups: aacj.01-25.aaaf0myyb1-com150
Content-Type: text/html; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Message-ID: <47339952@afm101.phoenix.edu>
References: <47222544@afm101.phoenix.edu>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.7)
Gecko/20100111 Thunderbird/3.0.1 ThunderBrowse/3.2.8.1
In-Reply-To: <47222544@afm101.phoenix.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 22:31:31 -0700

<div id=3D"jive-html-wrapper-div">

<font face=3D"Times New Roman, Times, serif">No problem!=A0 I have always
been ardent in regards to words and their definitions.=A0 I thoroughly
enjoy word games and puzzles.=A0 The one realm that surpasses my
enjoyment of words is (you may even call this an addiction) numbers.=A0
This is the key attribute that allows me to excel at computers and
mathematics. <br>
</font>
<div class=3D"moz-signature"><font color=3D"#000099"
face=3D"Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">=A0--- <br>
Clint Menzies<br>
<a class=3D"moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href=3D"mailto:xxxx@xxxxxxxx">xxxxx@xxxxxxxx.=
edu</a><br>
MST
</font></div>

</div>

And here is how the Thunderbird composed message is displayed using the online forum (University Of Phoenix)

No problem! I have alwaysbeen ardent in regards to words and their definitions. I thoroughlyenjoy word games and puzzles. The one realm that surpasses myenjoyment of words is (you may even call this an addiction) numbers. This is the key attribute that allows me to excel at computers andmathematics.

Okay, I found an old one that contains the &nbsp--

From: me <me@x>
Subject: Re: Feedback is Current
Newsgroups: aahcamr.11-09.aagr0life8-gen105
Content-Type: text/html; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Message-ID: <43500549@afm101.phoenix.edu>
References: <43488228@afm101.phoenix.edu>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.7)
Gecko/20100111 Thunderbird/3.0.1 ThunderBrowse/3.2.8.1
In-Reply-To: <43488228@afm101.phoenix.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:34:52 -0700

<div id=3D"jive-html-wrapper-div">

Okay, I read in the KB that the courses are only accessible for two
weeks after the end of the course, at which time they are removed for
future courses.&nbsp; Just thought I would pass the word on.&nbsp; Thank yo=
u.<br>
<br>
On 1/26/2010 5:27 PM, Rebecca Baiges wrote:
<blockquote cite=3D"mid:43488228@afm101.phoenix.edu" type=3D"cite"><span
style=3D"font-size: medium; font-family: Times New Roman;">Dear Clint,<br>
<br>
The forums remain accessible for several months after the course end
date, but you should no longer post to them because the course is
over.&nbsp; You can check back at the end of the week to see your
feedback/grades :-)<br>
<br>
<div class=3D"signature">
<div class=3D"signature">Rebecca Baiges, Faculty <br>
University of Phoenix <br>

<a class=3D"moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href=3D"mailto:xxxx@xxxx.=
edu">x@xix.edu</a> <br>
<a class=3D"moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href=3D"mailto:x@x.com">xx=
xxx@x.com</a> <br>
Telephone: 000000</div>
</div>
</span>
</blockquote>
<br>
<div class=3D"moz-signature">-- <br>
<br>
<b><font face=3D"Arial"><br>

</font></b><br>
<font color=3D"#000099" face=3D"Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">&nbsp;--- <br=
>
xxxxxx<br>
<a class=3D"moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href=3D"mailto:xxx@xxxxoenix.xxx">xxx@xxx.=
edu</a><br>
MST
</font></div>

</div>

I hope this message is not too long. I am just contributing my experience. Hope this helps someone.
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