switch between html and plain text when creating a new message

[Jérôme]

Binary package hint: thunderbird

The current policy for choosing the format of a new message doesn't match my need at all.

Wether my recipient prefers HTML or plain text depends on the content I'm sending. I can't choose a generic rule.

I would prefer:
1. default rule is plain text format (or HTML if prefered)
2. when clicking on "create a new message" we could also select the below alternatives:
  . "create a new HTML message"
  . "create a new plain text message"
3. possibly change the format while writing the message because you may think about the format after writing the message.

Step 3 is a wish.

Step 2 is mandatory for any email client.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Jun 9 12:37:53 2009
Dependencies:

DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: mozilla-thunderbird None [modified: /var/lib/dpkg/info/mozilla-thunderbird.list]
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: thunderbird
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-24-generic x86_64

[Lars Ljung (larslj)]

Step 2 can be accomplished by holding down the shift key when clicking the "write" button, but the user interface could probably be improved.

[Aniruddha Shankar (kream)]

"user interface could probably be improved" is quite a monumental understatement. The only place that this "press shift while clicking write" information can be found is in this very bug. Where in the documentation is this??????

Please fix

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

This isn't really something for Ubuntu to fix. Your best bet is to report it to the Mozilla developers.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.