285422 - Cannot change the "mail.default_html_action" option

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 273561

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Xavier Padullés]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; ca-AD; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041108 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; ca-AD; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041108 Firefox/1.0

 when I try to change the format thunderbird uses to send mail, it never
changes, and always send the mail in plain text format by default. The only way
to write an  html mail is to go to the menu/options/format/ for each mail I write.

 It only happens in some machines with XP O.S. but the users are threatening me
with a change to outlook express.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Go to edit/options/writing options/senging options/
2.Change de default mail format

Actual Results:  
It never change

Expected Results:  
It should change de behaviour of the defoult mail format.

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #0)
> Steps to Reproduce:
> 1.Go to edit/options/writing options/senging options/

Presumably you mean TOOLS | Options | Composition | Send Options

> 2.Change de default mail format

Read the text above the "Text Format" preference:
  When sending messages in HTML format and one or more recipients are
  not listed as being able to receive HTML...

This means that to send an HTML message every recipient of the message *must* be 
listed in the Address Book with a setting of "Prefers to receive ... HTML".

If any recipient is not so listed, then:
 - If the message has any HTML formatting (bold, different text colors, font 
size, etc), the message will be sent according the preference listed above.  
You *can* set this preference to "send as HTML anyway."
 - If the message does not have any HTML formatting, it will be converted to 
plain text without notice.

Unfortunately, certain formatting is not *recognized* as formatting; worst of 
all is when an image is embedded in the message the message will be converted to 
plain text and dropped -- bug 180997 -- but things like background colors are 
ignored as well.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 273561 ***

Comment 2

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to bug 273561 comment #3)
> I was who reported de 285422 bug. I think that it's not exatly the same
> problem.

It's certainly possible I've misunderstood you.


> I've checked that de receiver is not marked with "prefer to receive 
> plain-text"

Does that mean the receiver *is* marked as "prefers to receive HTML"?  If the 
receiver is unlisted, or listed as "unknown", you'll still get the plain-text 
conversion automatically, for mail without formatting.

For mail *with* formatting, the sending behavior depends on the setting of the 
"mail.default_html_action" pref -- IF no recipient "prefers plain" and one or 
more recipients is either unlisted or has an "unknown" receipt preference.


> I've open de prefs.js file and seen that the
> user_pref("mail.default_html_action", 2) option change every time I change it
> in thunderbird, but TB ignores this when composing.

It's not a composition option, it's a sending option.  Is the problem that 
you're not *composing* in HTML?  You need to set that in
  Tools | Account Settings | <account> | Composition & Addressing
   [] Compose messages in HTML format