Fred Stluka on 30 Sep 2018 15:09:01 -0700


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Re: [PLUG] Thunderbird questions 

Alan,
This will, I hope, go to all Plug people, seeing that there seems to be interest. 



Yes, seems to have gone to the whole list.  Did you make the
change I suggested with the Config Editor?  Or use the "Reply List"
button that Charlie and Brent suggested?  Other?  In any case, it
worked fine.



I continue to
be very grateful to Fred, who is taking time and energy to "hold me by the hand" and guide my
feeble steps toward true Thunderbirdism.  Note that I still can't get rid of double-spacing.
Fred, I have no "Options" in the upper RH corner menu.  Of course I've searched other menu 

entries, but can find nothing to help.



You'll have to find the Options/Preferences area of Linux TBird.
On Mac, it's in the menu under Thunderbird | Preferences.  On
windows, it's probably Tools | Options or something like that.
If you've set any options in Linux TBird, it will be in that same
place.  Otherwise, Google it, I guess.

Once you find the Options/Preferences section, the rest of the
instructions should apply.  I think TBird uses the same layout of
options on all platforms.  Look for:
- Composition | General
and then:
no = When using paragraph format, the Enter key creates a new paragraph
or:
no = Use Paragraph format instead of Body Text by default


NB:  I get single spacing when I go under the "On . . Fred
Stiuka wrote" and start commenting.  I've said it before and say it again: *Thunderbird is weird!!* 



Yeah, if a mail message is formatted as HTML, not just plain text,
there are different sections that are in different formats. Inserting
text into the section I types continues with the format I was using.

It can be a real pain when you cut/paste between sections.  You'll
find that pasting via Ctrl-V typically preserves the formatting of the
pasted text.  But pasting via Shift-Ctrl-V pastes w/o formatting, so
the pasted text takes on the formatting of the section you pasted
it into.  So, you can do it either way, if you're aware of both shortcut
keys.  For mouse users, there's also an explicit "Paste Without
Formatting" menu item in the Edit menu.

Most WYSIWYG formatted text editors (word processors, email
clients, etc.) have these same issues.



(Sorry for the passionate outburst!!)


No problem.  Bold is allowed.  At least you didn't go ALL CAPS on
me!  :-)
          Yes, but you must admit that £ and ± and º  and a bunch of other 'extra' symbols can           be very useful in many circumstances.  I maintain a flourishing correspondence in           German with some old friends there, and it is a real PITA to have to write e.g. 'schoen'           instead of the properly umlauted word for 'beautiful'. Again: I want to make this 
          crazy TB editor as emacsy as possible.


Of course!  Use them as you like.  But I suggest always using
them via HTML entities, or via standard Unicode chars.  Try to
avoid using special chars in Microsoft-specific ways, which is
what MS Word/Excel/PowerPoint encourage you to do.
          I'll go further: if one could persuade the Feds to insist that no M$ be used on any           gov't computer, the number of successful cyber attacks would go down by 90%. 
          I expect that I'll find some agreement here!<G>


Yeah, but 90% is way too conservative.  I'd say 99% at least!



No, I don't use TeX.
         What do you use when you want to write an 'official' letter to e.g. the IRS, or to          the official at some organization.  I have used TeX ever since it came out, and          my copy of 'The TeXbook' is falling apart.  (But I wander off-topic) 

Do you send them electronic copies of documents that they need
TeX to be able to read?  Or do you print it out and mail it to them?

I create such letters in HTML and either send them the HTML which
anyone anywhere can read with any browser, or a link to the HTML
document stored at my Web site, or something.  Or I print the HTML
and mail them a paper copy.

--Fred
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred Stluka -- Bristle Software, Inc. -- http://bristle.com
#DontBeATrump -- Make America Honorable Again!
Register online to Vote: http://bristle.com/Vote
------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 9/30/18 4:23 PM, Alan McConnell wrote:
This will, I hope, go to all Plug people, seeing that there seems to be interest.  I continue to
be very grateful to Fred, who is taking time and energy to "hold me by the hand" and guide my
feeble steps toward true Thunderbirdism.  Note that I still can't get rid of double-spacing.
Fred, I have no "Options" in the upper RH corner menu.  Of course I've searched other menu
entries, but can find nothing to help.  NB:  I get single spacing when I go under the "On . . Fred
Stiuka wrote" and start commenting.  I've said it before and say it again: *Thunderbird is weird!!* 

(Sorry for the passionate outburst!!)

On 09/30/2018 02:06 PM, Fred Stluka wrote:

Alan,


One wants
          to be able to read anything one gets, and to have everyone able to read anything one           sends.  The latter goal is helped by sending only ASCII stuff(remember EBCIDC?<G>) 

amazing the number of foolish Windows users who allow
MS products to insert the special MS-only "smart quotes",
"em dashes", "single char ellipsis" chars, etc, into their
otherwise valid ASCII and Unicode docs.
          Yes, but you must admit that £ and ± and º  and a bunch of other 'extra' symbols can           be very useful in many circumstances.  I maintain a flourishing correspondence in           German with some old friends there, and it is a real PITA to have to write e.g. 'schoen'           instead of the properly umlauted word for 'beautiful'. Again: I want to make this 
          crazy TB editor as emacsy as possible.


Based on the efforts I've seen on my software projects and
those of various colleagues, the industry must spend hundreds
of millions of dollars every year cleaning up data from MS
sources that looks wrong or causes errors in the rest of the
world.
          I'll go further: if one could persuade the Feds to insist that no M$ be used on any           gov't computer, the number of successful cyber attacks would go down by 90%. 
          I expect that I'll find some agreement here!<G>
         Thanks.  I've found my own work-around: use the select font entry.  I think that is what 
         I did; at any rate, I am now single-spaced.
                       Only because I'm inside Fred's message, commenting.   Aaaarrrrgggghhhh!! 



No, I don't use TeX.
         What do you use when you want to write an 'official' letter to e.g. the IRS, or to          the official at some organization.  I have used TeX ever since it came out, and          my copy of 'The TeXbook' is falling apart.  (But I wander off-topic)
Best greetings to all.  Again thanks to Fred, and I urge others with knowledge or good 
intuition to jump in.

Alan

--
Alan McConnell :http://globaltap.com/~alan/
     No one minds what Jeffreys says . . it is not more than a week ago
     that I heard him speak disrespectfully of the Equator.(Sydney Smith)


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___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug