From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:0.9.6+) Gecko/20011215 BuildID: 2001121508 From bug 99738 and bug 47140 This is a controversial bug, some people want html mail, some people want plain text mail as default. Those in favor of html are going to say "most people use html", but i think that's not the point. The point is that mozilla is a standards browser, and even if there is no rfc telling that mail should be sent as plain text, we know that plain text is readable by anyone. Mozilla supports lots of platforms, lots of people use terminals when away from their computers, so they use pine or any other method where graphics aren't involved. Someone suggested asking the user at installer time, which wasn't a very bad idea, but the place was not the proper one. The correct place for it is the mailnews wizard when creating a new account. This bug is for implementing UI in the wizard that sets the "compose mail as html) current pref when creating a new account. Please don't mark this as a dupe, or if you are going to make this wontfix too, please don't do it because of statistics, because the wizard would have to be updated, etc. Again, this bug is about letting the user choose at account creation time what they want for mail compose as default . This bug is _not_ about defaulting to a format over the other. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.n/a 2. 3. Actual Results: Mail is default to html without asking the user. Expected Results: Option in the mailnews wizard to set this up

Mozilla sends mail as plain text unless you manually make a section bold or reply to an html mail. Even then, it usually pops up a dialog encouraging you to let Mozilla convert your formatting to plain text. I don't think it's necessary to make the "default mail type" pref this visible.

I happen to agree with Jesse. Also, what do you mean with "default to plaintext"? (1) Default to the plaintext composer or (2) default to HTML composer, but sending as plaintext? If (1), I disagree, because the plaintext composer is in some ways inherently inferior to the HTML one, even for composing plaintext (wrapping of quotes for example) If (2), then this means that we will *always* send out HTML, even if not necessary, because we don't yet have a way to persist the choice the user can make in the dialog (send HTML only if there is formatting). In other words, if the user chooses HTML in the wizard, we made matters even much *worse* for plaintext users than they are today. I can see a slight slot for this bug, if we have the ability to persist the choices in the askSendFormat dialog (required anyways for bug 44494). But I don't really see the point. With bug 44494, the user is being asked the question when it rweally comes up and when he has some context / real-world case, which should make the decision easier for him. Then he could let his choice persist or not. Why bother the user during Mail account creation, if he can bother later, if at all? Recommending WONTFIX, despite good intention.

The problem with the html composer is that it's not a plain text composer. I don't want to send html mail by default, I want to send plain text mail. And in my experience, I have a better chance of creating a plain text email in the format I want with the plain text composer. So I want a plain text composer by default. At the moment, in Mozilla, I can't get that. I get proportional width fonts and some bizarre quoting mechanism that doesn't use a ">" anywhere. For people who want this, fine, but I don't. Why do I have to repeatedly change the settings on every single email message that I send? I've just upgraded my email laptop, so I can now run Mozilla instead of Netscape 4.7 as my primary MUA. I'm starting to regret that change. I have been composing text-only email for the last 12 years and I see no good reason to change that now. It should be user-definable option, but it should at least be an option. Please.

crh@outpost.co.nz: you're confused. edit>mail account settings>{account-top level} [ ] Compose messages in HTML format Reporter (or anyone who actually wants this feature): where in the wizard would you stick it?

Lots of places to put this in. Right below the smtp setting could be one Right below the "account name" just before the congratulations dialog. Any of those 2 would be a logical place for me, and i'm up for the first one mentioned. Just remember guys: Mozilla is an open-source web browser and toolkit, designed for --->standards compliance<--- Sure, html is a standard, but not for email. Standard is something everyone can use, and plain text is just what the doctor ordered for email. Using html as default is good for Netscape, but not for us.

Hmm, obviously I am. :) I thought I'd scoured the earth for it as well. You could argue (or I will at least) that it should be under edit>preferences>mail & newsgroups>composition in the "Composing Messages" section, because that's where I was expecting to find it, although I can understand an argument for it's current location.

Ok, let's explain what this bug is intended for. The current location of the pref is fine. This bug is about setting that _same_ pref in the wizard at account creation time. The default for that pref [1] is "compose mail in html format" checked on. The wizard should say the same exact thing: Choose your smtp server: _____________ [] Compose mail in html format by default If this is checked, then going into edit->preferences should show [1] turned on, and if this is not checked, then off. I think this would make comment #2 happy. But now that i read comment #1 better, i have a question. What happens if [1] is off and i reply to an html mail? Will the reply be html or text? If [1] is on, mozilla should never send mail as html, no matter what. This is useful when you are on a mailing list and someone posts as html and you reply, so mail would send as text instead of html

Most users don't even have a clue what plaintext or HTML is and even less about what the right choice is. The account wizard is designed to let users create an account *easily*. If they want more advanced choices, they are supposed to go to the account settings dialog or the prefs dialog. Given that most users don't know which choice to make (and are likely to pick the wrong one), I think this can be called an advanced setting which we should not bother users with.

Since when mozilla is an end-user product? That's what netscape is for. Type-ahead find seems pretty advanced for me, for example

Mozilla is the *base* for end-user products, so they are who we're developing for *eventually*.

mass re-assign.

(In reply to comment #8) > Most users don't even have a clue what plaintext or HTML is and even less about > what the right choice is. The account wizard is designed to let users create an > account *easily*. If they want more advanced choices, they are supposed to go to > the account settings dialog or the prefs dialog. Given that most users don't > know which choice to make (and are likely to pick the wrong one), I think this > can be called an advanced setting which we should not bother users with. That's why I think plaintext should always be the default. If someone wants to send HTML email, then we should expect them to figure out how. Every single time I create a new account in Thunderbird, I have to turn off HTML for that account. If you want to keep this at the account level, which I can understand, then why don't you also include a global switch in Options | Composition so I can tell it I *never* want to send an HTML email. Perhaps the Moz developers think that HTML mail is "the right choice," but I can assure you that many others of us out here think that's the wrong choice, and certainly the wrong choice for a default.

> That's why I think plaintext should always be the default. This bug is not about the default choice. That's a very old and controversive discussion. We have a compromise right now. > so I can tell it I *never* want to send an HTML email. You can: Prefs|Mailnews|Send Format|Convert the message to plaintext That's exactly what you asked for. I know it's not what you *meant*, but you can't have the app always do what you want *by default*, that's what prefs are for.