Re: [Evolution] Suggestions on HTML mail/ML-reading

[Ng Oon-Ee <ngoonee gmail com>]

On Fri, 2009-08-28 at 09:34 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-08-28 at 13:39 +0200, Milan Crha wrote:
> > On Fri, 2009-08-28 at 17:01 +0800, Ng Oon-Ee wrote: 
> > > What I'm asking about here isn't HTML's suitability for email, simply
> > > whether I am able to select easily whether I want to view a particular
> > > message in HTML or plain text. Specifically, I want to default to plain
> > > text and have an easily accessible way to show the few mails which are
> > > only generally readable in HTML as HTML.
> >
> >     Hi,
> > for me, on actual master (2.29.1) and gnome-2-28 branch (2.27.92) I have
> > set "Prefer plain", which for messages containing both plain text part
> > and HTML part shows the plain text part, and keeps the HTML part as an
> > attachment, which I can expand and see the content as is written in
> > HTML. For messages which are containing only HTML part, which is kinda
> > their mail application bug, it is showing the HTML part directly,
> > because there is no other option.
>
> It has been this way for at least several versions now, including the
> current stable release (2.26). I have the same settings as you Milan, so
> I don't understand what the OP's problem is with this.
>
> poc

My settings are 'Prefer plain' as well, on 2.26. My issue is that some
of the mail I'm receiving doesn't respond well, for example HTML-only
mail that DOES render okay in plain text gets the HTML shown, while some
mail which doesn't make sense in text (for example, release
announcements from sony.com for new DVDs/movies) shows in PLAIN rather
than HTML, simply because the incoming mails have both.

Its not a problem that is solvable by Evolution, simply because there's
a lot of different mail clients and users who will send various types of
emails. What I'm suggesting is that it be easier to select whether to
show a particular mail in HTML/plain text. So, for example, I may prefer
plain text, and only see the HTML when I want to (loading up
epiphany/firefox just to read an email seems a bit OTT to me though).
Or, I may prefer HTML and only want plain text when I have misbehaving
HTML which can't be read (white text on white background, for example,
since I'm using a dark theme).

'Prefer Plain' addresses the first use-case, but is a bit of a
work-around, using an external web browser. Its of no help in the
second, that is, if the default is 'Show HTML if present', there is no
way to 'show this particular message as plain text'.