How can I switch to HTML composition?
If I click on a "mailto:" style link on a website, or if I use "Edit as New Message" within Thunderbird, I get a composition window that doesn't allow me to do HTML formatting: Change font, insert links, etc.
Another thread on this said to press Shift before clicking on "Edit as New Message" but that didn't work for me. And it doesn't address the similar problem when clicking on a "mailto" link in a website.
I went through my Tools/Account Settings/Composition & Addressing panel; the accounts in question are marked to "Compose messages in HTML format."
Seems to me there ought to be an easy way to switch back and forth between text mode and HTML mode, but I haven't been able to find it.
What am I missing?
All Replies (6)
The default preference in the account setting might be overridden by the Contact's entry in your Address Book. Have you checked those too?
For the first message I checked (where I was using "Edit as new message"), the recipient is in my address book with message preference as Unknown.
I found some messages that, when opened with Edit as new message did open with the HTML formatter. I then found two messages I had written to the same recipient. He is in my address book, message preference "Unknown." On one of the messages I opened with Control-E, I got the plain text formatter; on the other, I got the HTML formatter. The most obvious difference (to me) was that my first message to him was all text; the second had embedded photographs. "Aha!" I thought: If the original message contains HTML, then Thunderbird is giving me the HTML formatter. Unfortunately, there are other messages that have HTML features (a quoted previous message body) in them, and those still open with the text formatter.
Also, it's highly likely that any time I click a "mailto" link in a website, that e-mail address is not going to be in my address book. So how can I get to the HTML message editor in that instance?
My preference would be for Thunderbird to handle "Edit as new message" and "Mailto:" links the same way it handles writing new messages: Default to the HTML editor. Then, when the message is sent, prompt the user to declare HTML, text, or both.
Barring that, I'd like an easy way to switch back and forth from the composition window.
holding shift forces the composer window to default to something other that your stated preference. But it sounds like you have not set compose in HTML in the account settings.
Right click the account in the folder pane and select settings. in Account settings in Composition and addressing select compose in HTML.
Matt, as I noted in the original question, I do have composition set to HTML.
Photoworx said
Matt, as I noted in the original question, I do have composition set to HTML.
For all accounts? The "default" is used for most mail to links. (this is usually the first account listed in the list of accounts in account settings.)
Go to Tools|Options|Composition|General→Send Options and look over the options there. You might be able to set it to use HTML regardless, and also check that you haven't somehow added any of the domains of interest as "plain text only" correspondents.
But if you have indeed set the default to be HTML, I am puzzled as to what else might be overriding your preference.
There are some add-ons here: https://nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/index-en.html (look at Quote And Compose Manager and Change Quote And Reply Format) that are useful to allow you to reply to a plain text message using HTML; normally Thunderbird will reply in a mode consistent with the original message, and that seems fair enough. If someone has deliberately chosen to compose using plain text, we might infer that HTML in a reply would be unwelcome.