Closed Bug 277702 Opened 20 years ago Closed 19 years ago

"Edit As New" has problems - Insert command missing, Links missing

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
Message Compose Window
Platform:
x86
Windows XP
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED EXPIRED

People

(Reporter: gromitsprinkles, Assigned: mscott)

Details

When an exisiting mail message in the Sent folder is re-opened and Message
re-opened (Edit as New), the Insert command menu is missing on the compose page.

This may be two problems.  I originally composed a mail message and inserted a
link.  I sent the email, and everything is OK.  The next day, I go to my Sent
folder, select the message and "Edit as New".

When the compose page comes up, the link on my previous mail message is missing
and the Insert Command menu is also missing.  There is no way to re-insert the
HTML link.
The workaround is to go to the Sent folder, open the message, select ALL,
edit|Copy then start a brand new message and use Edit | Paste to resend the
message again, with all links intact.

-John Anderson
I am not seeing this: if I Edit As New an HTML message containing a normal http: 
link, the link appears as a link in the message; and if I put the caret on the 
link and select   Insert | Link   the insertion dialog comes pre-filled with the 
appropriate values from the message.

xref bug 166644, bug 229025.


The Insert menu may be missing because, when you sent the message, it was 
converted from HTML to plain text for sending.  (However, that isn't consistent 
with comment 1.)  Edit As New always edits the message in whichever mode it was 
created.

In order to ensure the message is sent as HTML, you either have to add some sort 
of formatting to the text (which will cause you to get the prompt asking whether 
and how to convert the message), or to have the recipient (*all* the recipients) 
listed in your address book as "prefers HTML mail".

Links in the HTML should be preserved in the plain text version, altho not in 
the format you entered them.  If you have an HTML text    MOZILLA    with an 
href of    http://mozilla.org    then in the plain text, this will appear as
   MOZILLA <http://mozilla.org>
with the URL spelled out.  Is that different from what you're seeing?
Contact list addresses are set to "Ask Me" for mail type.

I have all compose settings set to html.

When I compose an HTML message from scratch and insert a link, the link will
display correctly and insert menu command is available as usuall, and I send to
another account that is set to receive HTML, and marked as such in contact list.

Mail is sent correctly.

When I open email from sent folder, it is displayed correctly, in HTML, and link
appears as normal.

BUT When I use "Edit Message as New", the INSERT command is missing from the
toolbar, all of the sudden I am composing in plain text, and the HTML link is
not displayed - just the text remains.  When I send the message, the recievr
will get an HTML message with the link appearing, but I don't see it at my end
while I'm re-composing the "Edit as New" message.

The same thing happens if I REPLY to an HTML message.  When I hit reply the
message is redisplayed without HTML and the insert command button is missing.

-John Anderson
(In reply to comment #3)
> Contact list addresses are set to "Ask Me" for mail type.

No such option.  You mean "Unknown"?

> When I open email from sent folder, it is displayed correctly, in HTML, and
> link appears as normal.
>
> BUT When I use "Edit Message as New", the INSERT command is missing from the
> toolbar

You mean from the menu, right?


> all of the sudden I am composing in plain text, and the HTML link is not
> displayed - just the text remains.  When I send the message, the recievr
> will get an HTML message 

The receiver of the original message, or of the version that comes after you 
Edit As New?


Very odd.  I cannot duplicate this.
(In reply to comment #4)
> (In reply to comment #3)
> > Contact list addresses are set to "Ask Me" for mail type.
> 
> No such option.  You mean "Unknown"?

 YES
> 
> > When I open email from sent folder, it is displayed correctly, in HTML, and
> > link appears as normal.
> >
> > BUT When I use "Edit Message as New", the INSERT command is missing from the
> > toolbar
> 
> You mean from the menu, right?


YES

> 
> > all of the sudden I am composing in plain text, and the HTML link is not
> > displayed - just the text remains.  When I send the message, the recievr
> > will get an HTML message 
> 
> The receiver of the original message, or of the version that comes after you 
> Edit As New?

BOTH versions will be received correctly, but when I'm compsing a reply or edit
as new, I will always be in plain text mode, the links won't appear, and Insert
is missing.

> 
> 
> Very odd.  I cannot duplicate this.

That's unbelievable.  I have checked this on five systems running Thunderbird
1.0, 3 of my own and two on outside systems setup by other people, and all
exhibit the same behaviout.

Can I email you some screen shots to show you what I'm talking about??

-John
works for me on Win XP
actually I do see this if I edit as new a plain text message. That's by design.
Insert, Format and the HTML toolbar are all features of HTML compose. 

If you are editing an EXISTING message that only has a plain text part, you get
the plain text editor.

I'm guessing that's what your problem is.




I wonder if we ought to just use the html editor if that's the user's default
editor. This bug bothers me a lot too.
(In reply to comment #7)
> actually I do see this if I edit as new a plain text message. That's by design.
> Insert, Format and the HTML toolbar are all features of HTML compose. 
> 
> If you are editing an EXISTING message that only has a plain text part, you get
> the plain text editor.
> 
> I'm guessing that's what your problem is.
> 
NO!!!

I start out with an HTML message from scratch.  I Insert an HTML link, and
everything is OK.  It is recieved as an HTML message.  All is OK.  When I select
the message from the sent folder, it is displayed as an HTML message.  WHEN I
EDIT AS NEW, all of the sudden I am in plain text mode again (as it is displayed
at my end) w/o insert command, etc.  When I send it from that point (which looks
like a plain text message at my end) it is received as an HTML message again.

I witnessed this on two more ccmputers today, all running Thunderbird 1.0 / XP.

I'll send you a screen shot...
(In reply to comment #8)
> I wonder if we ought to just use the html editor if that's the user's default
> editor. This bug bothers me a lot too.

THANK YOU!!
(In reply to comment #9)
> (In reply to comment #7)
> > actually I do see this if I edit as new a plain text message. That's by design.
> > Insert, Format and the HTML toolbar are all features of HTML compose. 
> > 
> > If you are editing an EXISTING message that only has a plain text part, you get
> > the plain text editor.
> > 
> > I'm guessing that's what your problem is.
> > 
> NO!!!
> 
> I start out with an HTML message from scratch.  I Insert an HTML link, and
> everything is OK.  It is recieved as an HTML message.  All is OK.  When I select
> the message from the sent folder, it is displayed as an HTML message.  WHEN I
> EDIT AS NEW, all of the sudden I am in plain text mode again (as it is displayed
> at my end) w/o insert command, etc.  When I send it from that point (which looks
> like a plain text message at my end) it is received as an HTML message again.
> 
> I witnessed this on two more ccmputers today, all running Thunderbird 1.0 / XP.
> 
> I'll send you a screen shot...



OK I HAVE SENT YOU SERIES OF SCREEN SHOTS.  This is reproducable on any XP
machine with Thunderbird 1.0.

1.  Compose Mesage in HTML with Links, etc. Set format to HTML. 
2. Send it.
3. Open message from Sent folder. Looks OK. Edit as New.
4. Message is now "Auto Detect" format type (Why isn't it HTML????)
5. Send it.
6. Open this latest copy of Message. Link is there but text is now plain text.
7. Edit as New.
8. Complete plain text message now, link is missing, can't change format.
9. Send it.
10. Message is received as HTML message.

Everything goes downhill whenever a message is composed with format set to
Auto-Detect...  This is why Thunderbird is kind of clutzy.

-John Anderson
Bug or Feature? Why shouldn't it be possible to switch from a plaintext message
to a HTML message after choosing "Edit as new..." on a plaintext msg. For me
there is no reason to disable that and I therefore would vote for removing this
restriction, i.e. allowing the user to switch from plaintext to HTML format and
vice versa whenever he wants to.

Kind regards,
Heiko
(In reply to comment #11)
> OK I HAVE SENT YOU SERIES OF SCREEN SHOTS.  This is reproducable on any XP
> machine with Thunderbird 1.0.

First: please stop shouting.  Second: to whom did you send screen shots?


> 1. Compose Mesage in HTML with Links, etc. Set format to HTML.
                                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

OK; this forces a message to be sent as HTML regardless of the recipient's 
existence or "prefers mail as"-setting, in the address book.

> 2. Send it.
> 3. Open message from Sent folder. Looks OK. Edit as New.
> 4. Message is now "Auto Detect" format type

OK, so far so good: the message was sent as HTML, and the Edit As New has opened 
it in the HTML editor.

>   (Why isn't it HTML????)

Because that setting never defaults to "HTML", because Mozilla is aggressive 
about downconverting HTML compositions to plain-text mail for sending.

> 5. Send it.
> 6. Open this latest copy of Message. Link is there but text is now plain text.

Yes, it was sent in plain text, because the 'format' menu item was left as "auto 
detect" and Mozilla detected that the message could be converted to plain 
without loss of information.  You may disagree with that decision, but it is 
expected behavior.

> 7. Edit as New.
> 8. Complete plain text message now, link is missing, can't change format.

When composing a plain text message, URLs are not displayed as links; this 
happens in the plain-text message-display routines, not part of the editor.
Even when composing in HTML, altho the links are displayed, they are not "hot" 
-- you can't click to open them in a browser.

> 9. Send it.
> 10. Message is received as HTML message.

I believe you are misunderstanding what you see here; the message is plain text, 
not HTML, but the URL in the message has been recognized and displayed as a 
link.



(In reply to comment #12)
> Why shouldn't it be possible to switch from a plaintext message
> to a HTML message after choosing "Edit as new..." on a plaintext msg.

That is a separate issue: bug 140800.  The primary reason why it's not possible 
is that it would involve closing one editor and opening a new one, and nobody's 
written the code to make the switch.  A secondary reason is that someone who 
switches from HTML to plain will lose formatting that they might actually want, 
but switching back to HTML won't restore the formatting.
Summary: "Edit As New" has problems - Insert command missing, Links missin → "Edit As New" has problems - Insert command missing, Links missing
(In reply to comment #8)
> I wonder if we ought to just use the html editor if that's the user's default
> editor. This bug bothers me a lot too.

If the user's default editor is plain, would you also want *that* editor when 
Editing-as-New an HTML message?  As I commented in bug 254931, I prefer the 
behavior of following the original message's format for Edit as New (as now) and 
Forward Inline (which it doesn't).

Reporter of this bug was not bitten by the wrong editor being loaded, he was 
bitten by the unexpected downconversion of his original HTML message.
Bug 246758 addresses this somewhat, but won't go anywhere as long as Ben Bucksch 
draws breath.  (A fix for bug 246757 would mitigate the problem somewhat.)
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
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you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
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If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
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Thank you for your help in this matter.

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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.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 19 years ago
Resolution: --- → EXPIRED
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