Re: [Evolution] HDU stop reply response lines from being prefixed by '>'

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

On Tue, 2008-09-16 at 23:31 -0400, Rick Berger wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-09-16 at 21:22 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> > On Tue, 2008-09-16 at 20:40 -0400, Rick Berger wrote:
> > > Sometimes when I reply to an email Evolution treats the original as a
> > > single object and quotes it that way. This means any response text I
> > > insert in it is automatically quoited making it look like part of the
> > > sender's message. How do I stop this so my response line aren't prefixed
> > > with '> '? 
> >
> > I've seen this happen sometimes when the message being replied to is
> > formatted with rich text (possibly when the text is right-justified). It
> > can be detected because when the cursor is in certain positions the
> > quoted material has a box of dotted lines round it. Trying to add lines
> > at the bottom doesn't help since the '> ' prefix is inserted
> > automatically.
> >
> > What seems to work is to move the cursor to the right of the block of
> > quoted text (as if it were a single object) and then hit return. It
> > might make a difference if you select Preformat vs Normal in the format
> > box (or vice versa).
>
> I just tried this in both format modes and it just kept quoiting.
> Something I've noticed, and I don't know if it's related, is in the
> source of original message the body seems to be duplicated in a
> compacted HTML section. In it everything is embedded in a HTML table,
> could Evolution be using this version in it's reply? 

Yes, it seems to be related to the original being in an HTML table - so
when you hit return to insert a reply, the text you type is still
(according to the editor) in the table and so is prefixed by "> ".  As
Patrick said, if you look at the dotted lines around the text you can
see the blocks of text that are kept together, and avoiding replying in
the middle of a block will help.

Unfortunately I am often forced to resort to top/bottom posting some
replies because I can't find a gap in the HTML to insert my reply.  That
is definitely sub-optimal and should be considered a bug rather than an
enhancement!

Also, I seem to remember that the more recent Evo versions use a
different editor, has that made a difference?   Is there any scope for
an option to convert all replies to plain text before editing rather
than maintaining the HTML structure imposed by less sophisticated email
clients that other people use?

P.