[MlMt] HTML format of messages

[Benny Kjær Nielsen]

On 14 Dec 2014, at 13:59, AC-Martin wrote:

> I'm trying to get a handle on predicting my HTML formatting output.

As in HTML generated from Markdown?

> At times when I reply using nested quoting, the quoted text is 
> indented without a blue bar on some occasions, while on other 
> occasions, the blue bar is there.

This depends on the receiving email client. MailMate only generates HTML 
when needed which means that when it's not needed then the receiving 
email client is likely to, e.g., show a blue bar. If HTML is generated 
then it is more unpredictable. MailMate would have a default styling 
(blue bar), but some email clients have no default and would just indent 
the text. The latter is one of the reasons that I'll be allowing styling 
outgoing HTML messages at some point (it's partly implemented). In 
principle, I hate that this is necessary, but HTML in emails is already 
a horribly broken concept and this is just yet another workaround.

> Additionally, the font types and sizes used vary with message reply.  
> I suspect this adjusts to the font type and size in the message being 
> replied?

No, currently MailMate does not do any styling of outgoing HTML 
messages. The font used in the Composer is only for your eyes and it 
should always be the same font/size (you can change it via Format ▸ 
Show Fonts).

> Finally, at times, the blank line between quoted paragraphs disappear 
> with it being difficult to tell where one paragraph started and ended. 
>  If it's a reply to my message, then my own comments will be mixed up 
> in there making it tedious to separate things.

This sounds like a specific problem between MailMate and some other 
email client. Hard to say who is to blame, but if you send me an example 
then I might be able to tell you :-) MailMate bases its reply on the 
plain text body part of the received email. You can switch to this body 
part using “View ▸ Message Body Parts” to see what MailMate uses 
as input for the generated reply.

-- 
Benny