are the emails you are replying to plain text and therefore inherently have no font information of their own. does the quoted text have > before it, or |

Thank you Matt for your willingness to help. I know so little about formatting that I am not sure how to answer your question. When you say “the quoted text” what do you mean? A text which somebody quoted to me in their email? I do not see any of these signs (> or |). To explain further. I have just switched from Windows Mail. When using Mail I got an email from a person, this email would be in a certain font type, font size and font color. When I answered, the Mail system would create my email in my font type/size/color, without changing anything which I received. When I kept corresponding with this person, exchanging emails and leaving all answers without deleting them, the Mail would not change anything what was written to this point. I am therefore assuming that these emails which I have been receiving from all these people were not in plain text. Back to Thunderbird. I am corresponding with the same people. When I hit the Reply button, Thunderbird changes the color of everything (including the email to which I am replying to, their address/name, etc.) and sometimes it changes the font type to mine and sometimes it does not. Is this helpful?

I have just realized what you mean by the two signs. All the emails I am writing about have the | sign in front of them. Thunderbird always changes the color of their font to my setup (navy). It also changes the font type, but in a various ways: 1. sometimes to the one I use (Times) and other times from Times (if I received their email in Times) to a different font type.

OK.

The following is the quoted text from an email I received today after I clicked reply.

This is a HTML reply and has the vertical line beside the quoted text.

This is a plain text email version of the same email (I held shift to force plain text when I clicked reply) note the use of the > beside the quoted text.

If you messages are plain text then they contain no font information, so everything is in one font. If they are HTML then there is scope to have a font included.

Thank you, Matt. You must have missed my second reply in which I let you know that I had realized what your question was all about. All the emails I am concerned about are HTML emails, with the | sign in front of each line. Again, Thunderbird always changes the color of their font to my setup (navy). It also changes the font type, but in various ways: 1. sometimes to the one I use (Times) and other times from Times (if I received their email in Times) to a different font type. The changes are made also for the header (their email address, name, etc.)

I have just received a forwarded message. All the formatting in this message was intact when I was replying to it.

I have the very same problem halinahlad described. I think it's Thunderbird's inherent flaw. It's pretty annoying one I should say. I have my template email which has certain background color as well as font type, font type size, color, etc. When a receiver replies to it, it retains all the initial formatting, but when I reply or forward this very same email again, it loses background color, and the new text, I'm about to write, all the preset formatting (for example by default it set Calibri, but when I reply on my previously sent email Thunderbird changes it to Times New Roman). Does anybody know how to solve this problem or reported Thunderbird developers of it?

taavim said

I have the very same problem halinahlad described. I think it's Thunderbird's inherent flaw. It's pretty annoying one I should say. I have my template email which has certain background color as well as font type, font type size, color, etc. When a receiver replies to it, it retains all the initial formatting, but when I reply or forward this very same email again, it loses background color, and the new text, I'm about to write, all the preset formatting (for example by default it set Calibri, but when I reply on my previously sent email Thunderbird changes it to Times New Roman). Does anybody know how to solve this problem or reported Thunderbird developers of it?

Getting a reply from someone using outlook is the primary cause of what you are describing. Unfortunately Microsoft outlook is NOT RFC compliant and the developers decided many years ago that they were not patching bugs in outlook.

I appreciate Matt your time and knowledge and that you finally answered also my question, even though indirectly. Unfortunately, what you answered to taavim may be partially true, but not always. For example, I created a file in MS Word with different font styles and colors. I cut and pasted it to the TB email and sent it to myself. Outlook had nothing to do with this at all. At least 50% of fonts came back in a different style and also in a different color. Randomly. Definitely I agree with taavim that there is an inherent flow with TB and the designer(s) are not taking any responsibility for it. If I did not use MS Live Mail before then, perhaps, I would have not known any difference. However, the formatting in MS Live Mail worked every single time. There is not even a comparison to the quality between these two software packages.

Yeah, I agree with halinahlad. I'm not a developer but from just a logical standpoint I'm pretty sure that this behavior is not caused by recipient's email program as when I receive my previously sent email, it has all the formatting I set, including respondent's text in the format as he put it. Strange things starting to happen only then when I reply to it again or send it forward. Furthermore, a recipient email program has no influence on emails in my sent items folder, but when I choose an email there to forward it to another recipient, it also loses original email's background color.

I have more examples of what taavim is conveying. When I add to my email a text composed in MS Word and I do not use my signature (yes, which had to be composed in HTML as though all of us email users should be programmers) then immediately, before I send this email, Thunderbird adds a <Return> function (that is how we called it long time ago; a link break – go to next link?) after every single paragraph. That has nothing to do with Outlook, either. Of course, my original question was about TB changing the font colors of the email I reply to - to my default color, regardless in what email software this email I reply to was created. There are more examples of extremely bad design of TB. Sometimes I feel I am living in a TB nightmare. (I do have Outlook and am thinking I need to switch. However, it sometimes deletes emails in the Inbox and there are several possible and extensive fixes. I am not sure which one is worse.)

Any email that has html css coding inputted via using a mso product can expect the possibility of that mso html coding to influence that email and also any 'replies' using that email.

Without knowing what is in the source code view of that email, it is not so easy to explain what is going on. Save as draft, open the draft, click on 'More'> 'View Source'. If you can post an image showing the css in the email, then it may be easier to explain what is occuring in that email.

I receive emails from people using Outlook and it can cause no end of issues when replying because the sender hardcoded the email with all kinds of css nonsense. Some Outlook users have to be educated to switch off TNEF as it is only of use to other Outlook users with TNEF enabled.

Products such as MS Office are primarilly developed to be used for creating various complex documentation with extensive options way beyond the scope of emails. When you copy paste from these types of products you will be copy pasting all the hidden css coding which goes on in the background. You may not even be aware of the extent of what you are copy pasting. Much of this css coding is extraneous; it may not be supported in non-MS products for obvious reasons and it will bloat your emails. You cannot guarrantee what you copied will look the same. Just because it looks ok on your computer does not mean it will look ok on your recipients' computer.

It is much better to include the documentation as an attachment so the recipient has the option to detach it from the email, save as a file and use the appropriate software to view the content as the original sender created it.

If you must copy paste as sometimes is the case, then use the option 'Edit' > 'Paste with Formatting'.

Recommend you not compose emails in MS Word when you can compose them using the correct tool in Thunderbird Write window.

Strongly recommend you do not force fonts and sizes by hardcoding them into your emails as you may not know what OS is being used by the recipient nor what fonts are available to them on their computer nor what screen resolution they use or perhaps what reading issues they have to negotiate.

You can choose the format of what you see when you are composing emails as this is your choice and preference, but suggest you use 'Variable Width' and 'Medium' font as default Composition settings.

Regarding Signatures: Advise is to Create signatures using Thunderbird Write window and Formatting Bar. Save file as html file then choose that html file in the Account Settings window for the mail account to act as the default signature. More info below.

When choosing a font in signatures, it is recommended you use ones that are most likely to be available in all OS.

re : I do not use my signature (yes, which had to be composed in HTML as though all of us email users should be programmers This comment implies you do not understand or are perhaps not aware that knowing, understanding or writing html is not required and perhaps do not know that you can set up any mail account to auto compose messages in HTML format.

• right click on mail account name in Folder Pane and select 'Settings'
• Select 'Composition & Addressing'
• Select checkbox 'Compose messages in HTML format'
• click on 'OK'

When you click on 'Write', a window opens allowing you to create emails. It should auto display a 'Formatting Bar', but if you do not see a Formatting Bar then you can enabled it.

• 'View' > 'Toolbars' > select 'Formatting Bar'

When creating a signature: Clear all current signature from Write window. It does not matter what is auto set by default, you must select all the required formatting for the signature. Create signature. If you require more complex control and positioning, then use a table as it will have cells and rows to facilitate this. When finished: 'File' > 'Save as' > File and choose file type as 'HTML' and save to a suitable folder on computer.

More useful info on creating and using html files:

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/signatures#w_signatures-stored-in-files

You are living in a nightmare created by your use of Microsoft Word. Use Libre office, Use Thundebird composer, paste usining Ctrl+Shift+V so you only get text.

But unless you want trouble don't paste from word.

Just a quick example. type the words "the quick brown dog jumped over the lazy fox" 9 words. Now copy and paste from word and explain why the information pasted is 38 thousand characters. Once you have figured out just how complex and email gets when you add around 500 characters to it per word and you copy a few times you might understand my horror every time someone comes out with formatting issues related to Word.

Why are you pasting from word. It is entirely not even close to an acceptable product for generating HTML.

ALL mail other than plain text are conveyed across the internet in HTML format, The exception is poorly configured outlook clients which arrive with a proprietary Microsoft TNEF formated body which appear in other mail clients as a winmail.dat attachment. This format was not supposed to escape the confines of the Micrisift Exchange corporate environment. But there is no escaping that professionals think they know.

Thunderbird does offer a shortcut to add HTML directly into a box for use as a signature, but it also offer to attach a file and the mail composer when you use File save as offers to save what you have written in HTML. So you have the best of both worlds.

Thanks for the suggestions, Taod-Hall! I did as you suggested and made all my email signatures in Thunderbird as HTML files. Also, I deleted all former signatures made in Note. Overall I achieved better looking and better manageable signatures in terms of formatting, but I'm not sure about the email behavior on replying. I tried with an email reply sent to my initial email. It still provides Times New Roman for the font. Maybe it's due to recipient email program which included some additional CSS to the email as you described. When I reply or forward to an email from sent items emails, it preserves my default font though. So, thanks for your explanation guys! I think I'm a bit wiser about Thunderbird and mailing programs in general now. There is one thing in Thunderbird which I wonder haven't implemented - specifically, you can't set any color for default background color but have to choose from limited choice (color table). Also, I haven't figured out how can I set different default formatting (font, background color, etc.) for different accounts?

taavim said

There is one thing in Thunderbird which I wonder haven't implemented - specifically, you can't set any color for default background color but have to choose from limited choice (color table). Also, I haven't figured out how can I set different default formatting (font, background color, etc.) for different accounts?

The default background color for composed messages can be set in Tools/Options/Advanced/General/Config. editor by right-clicking the preference msgcompose.background_color, Modify, and entering the code for the desired color, OK to close Options.

Default formatting for different accounts can be achieved by creating templates for each account. This works for new messages, and to extend it to replies and forwards requires add-ons such as Stationery and SmartTemplate.

In addition to helpful info by sfhowes...........If you are looking for the accounts/thread pane to have different colours - not background for messages you compose. Try: https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/account-colors/