Open Bug 925273 Opened 11 years ago Updated 2 years ago

can't change font color

Categories

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
Message Compose Window
Version:
24 Branch
Platform:
x86
Windows XP
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
UNCONFIRMED

People

(Reporter: jhadlow, Unassigned, NeedInfo)

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/24.0 (Beta/Release)
Build ID: 20130910160258

Steps to reproduce:

Hello, I just upgraded from v17.8 to v24.

I used to be able to change the color of text I inserted within the body of an email. Now the color picker refuses to change the color of the text I wrote.

So for example:

Dear Mr Smith

This is my reply to you re your repairs.
This is text written by me in response. < (This is text that will not change color.)

This is more text written by the emailer.
This is text written by me again in response. < (This is text that will not change color.)

This is text written by the emailer to me.
This is text written by me again in response. < (This is text that will not change color.)

Yours,
blah, blah

Etc Etc.


Actual results:

Cannot change color of type.


Expected results:

As in previous version, color of font should change when color is changed with color picker.
I initially had the same impression in version 24.0 of Thunderbird on my Ubuntu 12.04 system BUT, examining the HTML of the message AFTER the color change is applied (select all; Insert -> HTML) reveals that the HTML <font color ...> tag has been inserted correctly.  However, the altered HTML is not properly rendered, i.e. the text color change is not apparent.
Further investigation reveals that the Thunderbird message display window also ignores the font tag around specific text, rendering that text as black.  Yet, if the HTML of the composed message is saved as a file and opened in Firefox for rendering, the text is rendered in the applied color.
(In reply to Jules Smith from comment #0)
> User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:24.0) Gecko/20100101
> Firefox/24.0 (Beta/Release)
> Build ID: 20130910160258
> 
> Steps to reproduce:
> 
> Hello, I just upgraded from v17.8 to v24.
> 
> I used to be able to change the color of text I inserted within the body of
> an email. Now the color picker refuses to change the color of the text I
> wrote.
> 
> So for example:
> 
> Dear Mr Smith
> 
> This is my reply to you re your repairs.
> This is text written by me in response. < (This is text that will not change
> color.)
> 
> This is more text written by the emailer.
> This is text written by me again in response. < (This is text that will not
> change color.)
> 
> This is text written by the emailer to me.
> This is text written by me again in response. < (This is text that will not
> change color.)
> 
> Yours,
> blah, blah
> 
> Etc Etc.
> 
> 
> Actual results:
> 
> Cannot change color of type.
> 
> 
> Expected results:
> 
> As in previous version, color of font should change when color is changed
> with color picker.

On 2 of my computers the color picker wont even pop up using the icon,  If I use the format, text color the color picker pops open.
This is happening to me to, in v24.1.0.  The font-picker does not show up.  There are 5 more people in my organization that this is happening to.  Does anyone have any ideas as to how to fix it?
All of these computers are Windows 7 Pro, FYI
Same problem (no font color picker pops up) on Win7 V24 except that it only seems to occur on Replies !
Yes, I have the same experience as Jack, only on replies.  For now I am using Format..Text Color...
I've run into the same problem - clicking on either the foreground or the background colour picker on the editing toolbar is failing to bring up the dialog. Nothing happens. Using Format > Text Color is working however.
I've the same OS, the same version, the same problem and, for now, the same solution!
I think we're talking about the same thing over at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=883540
From the original description up to comment 2 (but from different reporters), this does NOT look like bug 883540.

The report here says the color is included in the message source (font tags) but is not rendered properly. So it is not a problem of color palette not displaying.

Please move to bug 883540 if you have a problem that the color paletter does not come up when clicking the text color or background color icon.
(In reply to Ray Piziali from comment #1)
> I initially had the same impression in version 24.0 of Thunderbird on my
> Ubuntu 12.04 system BUT, examining the HTML of the message AFTER the color
> change is applied (select all; Insert -> HTML) reveals that the HTML <font
> color ...> tag has been inserted correctly.  However, the altered HTML is
> not properly rendered, i.e. the text color change is not apparent.

I had this exact problem om Windows 7. 

I copied a Thunderbird email that I sent that had multiple colored fonts before I upgraded to V 24, which after V 24 showed as black fonts. I then pasted it into an Outlook email, I could see the colored fonts. 

I fixed the issue by the following option setup In Thunderbird: 

Tools->Options->Display->Colors..->Check the box that says "Allow content to choose its own colors, instead of my selections above"

Then clicked OK to close that window, then ok again.

I now can see and change the font colors.
In reply to no font color in Thunderbird 31.7.0 ...that should help explain my lengthy frustration (since v24.0 it looks like.)

I could not change my font colors for over a year and thought that I had better resign myself to the fact that my whole world would be seen in black-and-white and there was nothing I could do about it! Well... that is until I found this thread anyway. I have looked everywhere for a solution to this problem and always came up empty. I really don't know how I came upon this thread. A click here, a click there, and voila... I was reading that someone else besides me was having the same problem. Could it be... YES! Not only the same problem, but an actual, working "fix"? YES, I finally found an answer that worked on my machine.

<snip> Tools->Options->Display->Colors..->Check the box that says "Allow content to choose its own colors, instead of my selections above" <end snip>

I just wanted to write to say Thank You for that seemingly easy "fix"! I sincerely appreciate it!
Rainer, does this (the color picker) work for you?
Component: Untriaged → Message Compose Window
Flags: needinfo?(RainerBielefeldNG)
(In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk, NI for questions) from comment #14)
> Rainer, does this (the color picker) work for you?

I don't know, all color change tests with SM 2.48 (WIN7) HTML email composition were successful. But when I sent that email to an other account color was lost, and also mail copy in sent folder was only black (Content-Type: text/plain;)

But I don't understand the circumstances how to reproduce the problem and whether my observations are related to reporter's problem. . "... I inserted within the body ..." means what? It seems that only particular paragraphs in an email are affected? 
And I still don't know what the problem might be:
 - Does the color change fail, email source without color tag?
 - Will the color be changed, but become lost during send?
 - or, as some commenters tell, does even the color picker not appear?

We need a better step by step instruction as described in  <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/QA/Bug_writing_guidelines>

@Jules Smith:
Is the issue still reproducible for you?
Flags: needinfo?(RainerBielefeldNG) → needinfo?(jhadlow)
Summary: can't change font color in v24 → can't change font color
<http://shortlinks.de/ip89> shows some possible DUPs
(In reply to Rainer Bielefeld from comment #15)
I doubt that my observations hae to do with original report. My problem with  official en-US SeaMonkey 2.48a1  (NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:51.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/51.0 Build 20160804000913  (Default Classic Theme) on German WIN7 64bit
currently is that SM resists to compose HTML emails. Any related preference I found is "compose send HTML", at already when I save my HTML email with colored text as Draft the HTML formatting will become lost.

No problems at al in mail composition window to add color to characters.
(In reply to Rainer Bielefeld from comment #15)
> (In reply to Wayne Mery (:wsmwk, NI for questions) from comment #14)
> > Rainer, does this (the color picker) work for you?
> 
> I don't know, all color change tests with SM 2.48 (WIN7) HTML email
> composition were successful. But when I sent that email to an other account
> color was lost, and also mail copy in sent folder was only black
> (Content-Type: text/plain;)
> 
> But I don't understand the circumstances how to reproduce the problem and
> whether my observations are related to reporter's problem. . "... I inserted
> within the body ..." means what? It seems that only particular paragraphs in
> an email are affected? 
> And I still don't know what the problem might be:
>  - Does the color change fail, email source without color tag?
>  - Will the color be changed, but become lost during send?
>  - or, as some commenters tell, does even the color picker not appear?
> 
> We need a better step by step instruction as described in 
> <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/QA/Bug_writing_guidelines>
> 
> @Jules Smith:
> Is the issue still reproducible for you?
@Rainer Bielefeld Here is a quote from your message: "But when I sent that email to an other account
> color was lost". I have exactly same issue. How to change this? When I create an outgoing email I see the font color I need; the text of the message in the Sent folder has that color too, but once the message gets to the recipient the color is gone, it is now pure black and white. Is there a way around it?
Severity: normal → S3
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