763855 - Wrong out message format if no BOLD/ITALIC/BULLETS/LINKS are used

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 414299

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Santiago Romero]

Attachment: bug_images.tar.gz (contained files are attached as testcase 3 in bug 414299, see Comment 8)

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0
Build ID: 20120601225238

Steps to reproduce:


 When I write messages, they are ONLY formatted as HTML if I include special elements such as BOLD/ITALIC/UNDERSCOREd text, or bullet lists, or links.

If not, it is sent as "plain text", ignoring also "fixed width text", cutting lines and so on.




Actual results:


 It is received as "plain text". FIXED WIDTH TEXT dissapears and the lines are wrapped.


Expected results:


The message should be received exactly like I sent it.

Please, see the 2 examples I'm attaching in images. They are self explanatory.

Comment 1

[Hashem Masoud]

(In reply to Santiago Romero from comment #0)
Please see: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Fixed_width_messages

Comment 2

[Santiago Romero]

Sorry, but after reading it I don't understand the relation between that URL and my problem.

Summarizing it better:

I have configured Thunderbird to send HTML messages.

This means that I write messages with a WYSIWYG editor, so I expect to receive the messages exactly like there look when I compose them.

But there are circumstances where I write a message with a given format and receive it as text plain or at least without the "fixed-font" sections and with all the lines wrapped.

*Please* see the images in the tar.gz file I included with the bug request. They are a real-life example.

Sorry if I didn't explain it clear the first time.

Comment 3

[Santiago Romero]

Update:

I've applied temporary a simple workaround that works: creating an HTML signature with <font colour="#000099">my signature</font>, forces the message to be always html and the "bug" does not appear.

Comment 4

[Joe Sabash [:JoeS1]]

Santiago,
TB will only send in html if there is at least 1 html tag in the composition.
(this is intentional behavior and considered lossless)right or wrong.
The easiest way to get around this is to include a default font in Tools>>Options>>Composition>>General.
Another way is to include an html signature in your account settings.

Comment 5

[Santiago Romero]

 Ok.

 I thought that "Compose messages in HTML format" was enough for TB to compose the messages in HTML format ... if not, then that option is ambiguous and should warn the user that a default font selection is required.

 Thanks for the 2 "workarounds". I figured the signature workaround by myself, but it's nice to know that setting a "body font" also works.

 If you think that this is not really a bug, feel free to close it.

 Thanks.

Comment 6

[Joe Sabash [:JoeS1]]

User prefs are very important.
Thanks for filing the bug.

Comment 7

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Joe Sabash from comment #4)
> Santiago,
> TB will only send in html if there is at least 1 html tag in the composition.

That's not entirely true because the source code of "Fixed width" section does have <tt></tt> tags around, and these get removed when sending.

If using "Variable width" and "Fixed width" from formatting toolbar, I get different result from Santiago:
- resulting received msg is plaintext with format=flowed, so long lines of variable width are preserved correctly (different from screenshots in attachment 632169 [details]), BUT
- variable width lines loose nice font and get displayed in monospace font, just like fixed width font, but flowing
- fixed width lines display correctly both short and long

(In reply to Joe Sabash from comment #4)
> The easiest way to get around this is to include a default font in
> Tools>>Options>>Composition>>General.
> Another way is to include an html signature in your account settings.

3rd way, but per-case and thus less convenient, is to force html format when composing msg:
Options > Format > "Rich text (HTML) only" OR
"Plain and Rich (HTML) text"
I'm not aware the default setting (Auto-detect) could be permanently changed.
And I think we are not respecting AB card settings (recipient prefers to receive message as...)

I believe there's a number of bugs for most of these problems already.

Comment 8

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

I have added the screenshots contained in attachment 632169 [details] as attachments on bug 414299:

attachment 634022 [details] - TC3-Screenshot1: Composition (with fixed-width vs. variable-width and long lines)

attachment 634024 [details] - TC3-Screenshot2: Actual Result-received, view:variable (long lines now short with hard breaks)

attachment 634033 [details] - TC3-Screenshot4a: Compose-Workaround (add bold tag)

attachment 634038 [details] - TC3-Screenshot4b: Expected Result-received-view-HTML (with workaround bold)

attachment 634039 [details] - TC3-ScreenshotX1: About (reported against TB13) 

attachment 634047 [details] - TC3-ScreenshotX2: AccountSettings for Account "localhost": Composition&Adressing

Comment 9

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Santiago, I want to find out why you see short lines, but I cannot reproduce.

Can you attach here the test message of your screenshots of attachment 632169 [details] to this bug (ctrl+S on msg, save as .eml)?

Can you report back (in this bug 763855!) your settings for all the settings mentioned in Bug 414299 Comment 68?

Comment 10

[Santiago Romero]

Attachment: Test1.EML (received), composed with variable+fixed width text, without <B> tag

Please, note that the EML file is modified to remove references to my real email and IP addresses...

Comment 11

[Santiago Romero]

Attachment: Test2.EML, composed with variable+fixed width text, with <B> tag (received as expected)

Please, note that the EML file is modified to remove references to my real email and IP addresses...

Comment 12

[Santiago Romero]

Attachment: Tools > Account Settings > YourAccount > Composition and Adressing (SPANISH)

Comment 13

[Santiago Romero]

Attachment: Tools > Options > Composition > Send Options > Text format (SPANISH)

Comment 14

[Santiago Romero]

Attachment: Tools > Options > Display > Advanced > Font Control (SPANISH)

Comment 15

[Santiago Romero]

 Done.

 I hope it's all OK.

 Captures from Spanish locale, but I've named them so that you can recognise easily the info requested.

Comment 16

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Santiago, thanks, that's very helpful.

I hope somebody will find out why you see short lines after sending and receiving (while I don't see them, using same version TB13).

Comment 17

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Comment on attachment 634341 [details]
Test1.EML (received), composed with variable+fixed width text, without <B> tag

From source, test1 seems to be received msg.

When you open Test1.eml from attachment 634341 [details], you see only short lines in msg reader? For me long lines of Test1 are displayed as long lines.

Did you discover any settings which are different compared to the my settings of Bug 414299 Comment 68?