Unsightly line breaks in email

[John Dough]

Almost always when I send someone a mail message and I get a reply that
includes the original message, I can see that where the lines break for the
person receiving the message is a LOT different than how I composed the
message.

To check this out, I just sent myself a message. When I received it and
opened it there were all sorts of line breaks that did not coincide with how
the message looked when I composed it.

Why doesn't the text just wrap at the RECEIVING end the way it does when one
is composing the message?

And if this is not possible, why isn't there some sort of preference where I
could perhaps limit the line length to something like 60 chars, to minimize
the possibility of this kind of problem for whoever receives my
message??????

Using Entourage X under Panther.

 

[matt neuburg]

Almost always when I send someone a mail message and I get a reply that
includes the original message, I can see that where the lines break for the
person receiving the message is a LOT different than how I composed the
message.

To check this out, I just sent myself a message. When I received it and
opened it there were all sorts of line breaks that did not coincide with how
the message looked when I composed it.

Why doesn't the text just wrap at the RECEIVING end the way it does when one
is composing the message?

And if this is not possible, why isn't there some sort of preference where I
could perhaps limit the line length to something like 60 chars, to minimize
the possibility of this kind of problem for whoever receives my
message??????

I agree that this setting should exist. One of the things I liked about
Mailsmith was that it let the user set the wrapping. What I typically do
now, if I'm concerned about this, is pass the text through TextWrangler
(which is essentially the same text engine as Mailsmith) and have it
rewrap. m.

 

[Barry Wainwright]

I agree that this setting should exist. One of the things I liked about
Mailsmith was that it let the user set the wrapping. What I typically do
now, if I'm concerned about this, is pass the text through TextWrangler
(which is essentially the same text engine as Mailsmith) and have it
rewrap. m.

Better still, would be support in entourage for format=flowed. Many people
have requested this time and time again.

 

[matt neuburg]

Better still, would be support in entourage for format=flowed.

Yes and no. I'm not a great fan of format=flowed. It's not a standard;
it's basically something Eudora simply introduced, challenging others to
follow suit. Mailsmith doesn't support it, but that was never a problem.
m.

 

[Chris Ridd]

Yes and no. I'm not a great fan of format=flowed. It's not a standard;

It is defined in RFC 2646, which is standards track. You can't get much
closer to being a standard, and since vendors already claim non-standards
track RFCs are "standards" format=flowed can quite reasonably claimed to be
a standard.

it's basically something Eudora simply introduced, challenging others to
follow suit. Mailsmith doesn't support it, but that was never a problem.

There are multiple implementations of it, so it isn't just a Qualcomm thing.
A quick google suggests that Thunderbird and Mulberry both support it, as
does (this may be where we came in) Mail.app.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[Chris Ridd]

That just means that the Eudora folks would *like* it to be a standard.
I think we're all willing to stipulate *that*!

No, it means the IETF would like it to be a standard.

Cheers,

Chris