How to turn off the word-wrapping fetish of Thunderbird?

[Steve Hayes]

Why can't I permenantly (like forever!) turn off Thunderbird word wrap?

Thunderbird (31.6.0) has the toggle_word_wrap xpi file loaded, but I just
want TB to *default* to *not* word wrap, forever!

Every time I set it, and save a message, and then open up the message in
my drafts folder, it is wrapped again.

Every *new* message I send after starting TB is wrapped again.

Worse yet, if I simply revisit a sent message, when I revisit it,
Thunderbird insists on this word-wrapping fetish!

I just want to *permanently* (and forever!) turn off TB word wrapping!
How?

Is there a way to make Thunderbird *always* default to *not* wrapping?
And, why do we still bother with word wrapping anyway?
(aren't almost all MUAs smart by now?)

[David E. Ross]

On the other hand, it is quite annoying to reply or forward a message
and find that an entire paragraph is a single line. This happens when
wrapping is disabled.

--
David E. Ross

Is Kim Davis a hero or a villain? See my
<http://www.rossde.com/KimDavis.html>.

[Linux User]

On 11/10/15 03:16, David E. Ross wrote:

>>
> On the other hand, it is quite annoying to reply or forward a message
> and find that an entire paragraph is a single line. This happens when
> wrapping is disabled.
>

You mean like this:
<quote>

On the other hand, it is quite annoying to reply or forward a message and find that an entire paragraph is a single line. This happens when wrapping is disabled.

</quote>

[Chris Ilias]

1. Go to Tools-->Options-->Advanced-->General, and click on [Config Editor].
2. Click [I'll be careful, I Promise!]
3. Search for the preference:
mail.compose.wrap_to_window_width
4. Double-click on the preference, which should toggle the value to true.


--
Chris Ilias <http://ilias.ca>
Mailing list/Newsgroup moderator

[Steve Hayes]

On Sat, 10 Oct 2015 19:16:05 -0700, David E. Ross wrote:

> On the other hand, it is quite annoying to reply or forward a message
> and find that an entire paragraph is a single line. This happens when
> wrapping is disabled.

That makes no sense.

Why would YOUR MUA not wrap if YOU want it to wrap?
The wrapping should happen on YOUR machine, not mine.

If I send you a non-wrapped message body, you should
be the one to decide whether you want to see it wrapped.

Not me.
Right?

[Steve Hayes]

On Sun, 11 Oct 2015 04:24:31 +0100, Linux User wrote:

> You mean like this:
> <quote>
> On the other hand, it is quite annoying to reply or forward a
> message and find that an entire paragraph is a single line.
> This happens when wrapping is disabled.
> </quote>

The wrapping, it seems to me, should be decided by the RECIPIENT.
Not the sender.

So, you sent that, presumably unwrapped, but, my settings on my
nntp client automagically wrapped it, according to MY settings.

Isn't that how it's supposed to work?
If not, it should.
That would make sense.

[Big Al]

His original 'quote' did not wrap yet your reply wrapped his original long line as well as your reply on my machine.
And I have wrap off.

So my viewpoint is that your destroyed his composition in favor of your own, and I think TB should have left the quote
alone and just performed your preferred wrap on your text only.

IMHO.

[Steve Hayes]

On Fri, 23 Oct 2015 04:31:38 -0400, Big Al wrote:

> His original 'quote' did not wrap yet your reply wrapped his
> original long line as well as your reply on my machine.
> And I have wrap off.
>
> So my viewpoint is that your destroyed his composition in favor
> of your own, and I think TB should have left the quote
> alone and just performed your preferred wrap on your text only.

But that's *exactly* how it *should* work.
It is no longer "his" composition, once I sent it out.
It may be his quote, his words, his idea - but - it was "my" composition
once I sent it out.

So, it worked perfectly, but it wasn't thunderbird.
It was my nntp/Usenet client that did things correctly.

[Steve Hayes]

On Sun, 11 Oct 2015 00:01:14 -0400, Chris Ilias wrote:

> 1. Go to Tools-->Options-->Advanced-->General, and click on [Config Editor].
> 2. Click [I'll be careful, I Promise!]
> 3. Search for the preference:
> mail.compose.wrap_to_window_width
> 4. Double-click on the preference, which should toggle the value to true.

I think that did the trick, since now, TB temporarily wraps to the window size,
but, the end results to the recipient is not wrapped (it seems).

Here's what I did (which is almost exactly what you suggested):
0. Press alt + t to get a menu in Thunderbird
1. Go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General > Config Editor
2. Click [I'll be careful, I Promise!] if necessary (I didn't need to)

3. Search for the preference: mail.compose.wrap_to_window_width

Mine was set to: mail.compose.wrap_to_window_width;false

4. Double-click on the preference, which should toggle the value to true.

Mine is now set to: mail.compose.wrap_to_window_width;true

Thanks for the help and advice.
I'll let the *recipient* decide how to wrap it on his side, like God
himself intended mail to work! :)

[Steve Hayes]

On Sun, 11 Oct 2015 00:01:14 -0400, Chris Ilias wrote:

> 1. Go to Tools-->Options-->Advanced-->General, and click on [Config Editor].
> 2. Click [I'll be careful, I Promise!]
> 3. Search for the preference:
> mail.compose.wrap_to_window_width
> 4. Double-click on the preference, which should toggle the value to true.

Here are the TB wrap settings I have currently that seem to work.
mail.compose.wrap_to_window_width;true
mail.wrap_long_lines;false
mailnews.wraplength;72
plain_text.wrap_long_lines;false
view_source.wrap_long_lines;false

I have no idea what happens on the recipient side though.
I presume they can autowrap or not what they receive, depending on the
settings of their MUA.

[Wolf K.]

Mail from iPads never wraps. It's annoying to have to scroll rightward
in order to read it.

Have a good day,
--
Best,
Wolf K.
kirkwood40.blogspot.ca

[g...@gtirloni.com]

I've tried everything that was suggested in a dozen different posts and nothing works. Thunderbird keeps adding the line breaks even though I'm using flowed format, wrap to window width and not wrapping long lines.

The only way to work around this issue was to set mailnews.wraplength to '9999' and hope for the best.