233412 - Prompt before converting HTML original to plain text on Reply, Forward Inline

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(MailNews Core :: Composition, enhancement)

Description

[Heiko Adams]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040206 Firebird/0.7+

If I want to reply or forward an html formated mail with option "compose message
in html format" disabled, the mail is converted to plain text.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.Disable option "compose message in HTML format"
2.Get an HTML formated mail
3.Press the reply or forward button

Actual Results:  
Mail is converted to text format

Expected Results:  
Mail should stay in html format or mailnews should ask if the mail should be
converted to plain text.

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Heiko Adams: there are ways to get what you want with the current program.

When replying to an HTML message and you want the reply to be HTML, hold down 
the shift button when you click the Reply button.  (If your default composition 
mode is HTML, holding down the shift will open the reply in plain text.)

When forwarding an HTML message, use Forward As Attachment.  (Anything you add 
to the message will be in a regular plain-text body.)

If instead you want to be able to edit the content of the forwarded message, use 
Edit As New (which always edits the message in its original format).


The program is working as designed.  I am changing this bug over to be a 
request-for-enhancement for this point in the original report:

> mailnews should ask if the mail should be converted to plain text.

This seems like a reasonable request.


See also bug 229117.

Comment 2

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

> Mail should stay in html format

Impossible, because you disabled HTML composition. IMO, a prompt would be
useless, too, because the user chose against HTML.

Note: You *do* get a prompt on Send time with the default settings (for mail).

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #2)
> > Mail should stay in html format
> 
> Impossible, because you disabled HTML composition. IMO, a prompt would be
> useless, too, because the user chose against HTML.

Where do you come up with this "impossible"?  I can *easily* get an HTML- 
formatted reply, despite my setting for Compose As Plain, simply by holding the 
Shift while clicking Reply -- so "disabl[ing] HTML composition" is obviously 
not, in and of itself, a barrier.  (But that's not so easy for Forward Inline, 
due to bug 254931.)

Further, I seriously doubt that it is "impossible" to get Mozilla to check the 
display-mode of the message before initiating the compose window with the reply 
or inline-forward -- after all, that's exactly what happens with Edit As New.

As for its usefulness, such a feature would be a step towards preventing the 
problem seen in bug 2903 -- altho fixing bug 180997 would be even better.


> Note: You *do* get a prompt on Send time with the default settings (for mail).

Are you talking about the prompt for "some recipient not listed as Prefers HTML, 
so what do I do now?" ?  That has nothing to do with this request.

Comment 4

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

> I can *easily* get an HTML-formatted reply, despite my setting for
> Compose As Plain, simply by holding the Shift while clicking Reply

Sure, but then you explicitly circumvent your own choice of preference. This
trick is a mainly a debugging feature. If the user says "plaintext editor", then
the assume is the user wants only that, no matter what the sender chose.

> Are you talking about the prompt for "some recipient not listed as
> Prefers HTML, so what do I do now?" ?

I did. If you don't change the defaults, we usually send plaintext, but ask to
send HTML, if there is a reason, and forwarding an HTML mail is such a reason.
In other words, we already satisfy the summary ("Prompt before converting HTML
original to plain text on Reply, Forward Inline") - unless of course the user
explicitly chose otherwise by setting a pref, which is what this user did.

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
reproduction information if you have it.

If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
changed in any way in the next two weeks, it will be automatically resolved.
Thank you for your help in this matter.

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Seamonkey:   http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Comment 6

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.

Comment 7

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

*** Bug 325322 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 8

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

Confirming this based on the dupe.  However, see bug 216132 comment 30 & 31, which I think is a better approach.  Also, the comment prior to that points 
to an extension which apparently provides a prompt.

Comment 9

[Eric Moore]

The original problem still occurs with Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 and 2.0 under XP Pro SP2. If you're configured to compose plain text messages but want to forward inline a HTML message there is no way to preserve both the HTML and the headers. Holding down the shift key while pressing forward hasn't worked for ages. Your only option is edit as new, which loses the headers, and most users don't consider forwarding.

The bug is marked as an enhancement. I don't believe thats accurate since that reclassification was based on holding down the shift key working. Should I file a separate bug report complaining that the shift key has no effect on forwarding? My impression from the mozillaZine forums is that whats important is that you be able to forward HTML, not whether you get asked would you like that converted to plain text. 

I always compose new messages using plain text messages but receive some HTML messages (such as newsletters) which I read as HTML messages. From my viewpoint I lose data if I forward them and they're converted to plain text. I don't consider not losing data to be an enhancement. 

Comment 10

[(not reading, please use [e-mail] instead)]

sorry for the spam.  making bugzilla reflect reality as I'm not working on these bugs.  filter on FOOBARCHEESE to remove these in bulk.

Comment 11

[Serge Gautherie (:sgautherie)]

Filter on "Nobody_NScomTLD_20080620"

Comment 12

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Heiko, please leave the summary at "Prompt before converting HTML original to plain text on Reply, Forward Inline".

Comment 13

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Bug 306303, albeit somewhat fuzzy, might be interesting in this context, too.

Comment 14

[David]

Seems that the bug has been re-introduced in 2.22 !!!

Comment 15

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

This bug makes as requested makes no sense. If the user specifically chose the plaintext email editor, then we shouldn't override or even second-guess his choice just because he received and replies to an HTML email. HTML emails are very frequent these days. If you want the HTML editor, then don't disable it.

WONTFIX

Please note that the HTML editor can send plaintext emails, and you can switch the choice while you edit. The plaintext editor inherently (!) can't do that.

If you use the plaintext editor, then you're typically an advanced user. If you want it for some mails and not others, then use the trick of holding SHIFT while clicking Reply or Write.

Comment 16

[David]

I used to use the Shift+ but with the latest 2.2x versions, that no longer works. 
If it could be re-instated, that would solve the problem.