You can change the default setting of mailnews.wraplength from 72 in config editor

Config editor is at settings>general scroll to bottom to see the config editor button.

Hi David,

Thanks for the reply.

Re; - mailnews.wraplength: 72

I tried that, it does not do anything that i can see. I experimented with different setting values also. It occurred to me that maybe the program needed reboot, to save the values, but doing so did not affect anything tangible that I recognized.

David, I suspect that you are a community member and that you are a volunteer helping-out, and that you may not have anything to do with the programming of ThunderBird or programming policy, so please don't take the following as a complaint wrt to your kind reply.

I desire, that as I type in the WRITE editor, that the text line will break at 72 or whatever the setting value I set. Instead, text just continues to the edge of the screen, at which it LineWraps. What does the setting actually do? It doesn't break lines in received e-mail either. So what does it do? If I break received e-mail line length with the <RETURN> key, the editor inserts multiple line-feeds, depending on PARAGRAP/BODY configuration. Editor inserts either 2x LineFeeds or 4x LineFeeds. I want to control text formatting, for my convenience, not the programmer's.

Do not think for us. Ya can please some of the folks some of the time, and the remainder of the folks the remainder of the time, but ya can't please all of the folks all of the time, so don't try to think for us. Leave the edit formatting to us.

How about presenting a char counter in a status bar at the bottom of the window, now that would be useful. Or how about a semi-translucent configurable vertical line break point indicator in the viewport? To indcate where to break the long line.

I prefer that long lines NOT WRAP at window edge, but wrap for ALL text, outgoing and incomming, at around 60 chars or what ever I deem convenient.

There is also another problem which is somehow related, in that, breaking the lines using the <RETURN> key, to manually shorten looooooong lines, such as URLs, etc., cause the following:

Long line text:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx manually broken with <CR> key: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<CR> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<CR>

Reader sees xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx

And the reader can't reformat it as it is hard coded. I receive e-mail that looks that all the time. It drives me phuking crazy!!

The above should never happen.

Then if I quote the above type fong'd text, for rebuttal e-mail, it is hard coded, and not reformattable!! If I break one of the short lines, ThunderBird inserts either 2 LineFeeds or 4 LineFeeds, depending upon Paragraph/Body configuration settings.  ?? Why? I know if I want a paragraph I do not want the program thinking for me because it is a robot and it is a stupid robot. Don't think for us. It is not convenient in the long term. There is also a mismatch in that area as well, its as though the settings flag isn't being updated properly between window dialogs?

Sorry about the bi.tching.

Fractal_One

Note that the mailnews.wraplength setting applies to plain text composed messages only. The setting can be 72 or 80 or..., or 0 to wrap to the window width.

I think I know what you mean about this. It would be a good feature to have added to Thunderbird. I think you mean when viewing HTML formatted e-mails, to be able to get it to wrap at a shorter length, rather than only wrapping when it gets to the end of the window. It is possible to get it to wrap by making the window smaller, but it is a bit of a pain to have to do that each time. Reading very long lines is just not natural (and same with writing them). I tried sending plain text messages to people but then if they were on a smart phone then it is harder to read the lines when they are a fixed length, so that person/recipient complained that it was hard to read.

Another person explained the 72 line for plain text. As far as the <CR> goes, use shift-enter for a soft break. I agree to part of your complaint, but Thunderbird has its idiosyncrasies; it was designed to serve a large audience, and it has been successful in that. For persons desiring significant control of formatting, there may be other email clients more suited to that task. I also have used TheBat, and that may be more to your liking. Thanks for sharing your concerns.