Re: [Evolution] Email fonts and formatting and displays Oh, My!

[Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam whitemice org>]

On Mon, 2012-03-19 at 11:59 -0500, Dan Saint-Andre wrote:
> On Mon, 2012-03-19 at 15:25 +0000, evolution-list-request gnome org
> wrote:
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:13:52 +0000
> > From: Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>
> > To: evolution-list gnome org
> > Subject: Re: [Evolution] How to display an email in a fixed-width
> >         font?
> > Message-ID: <1332166432 15685 33 camel snoopy chem ox ac uk>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> {snip}
> > The fixed width font is used to display plain text emails - i.e.
> > those
> > with either no content type or a content type of text/plain.  HTML
> > emails (i.e. those with a content type of text/html) will be
> > displayed
> > using the proportional font (unless the HTML says otherwise).
> >
> > If you have multipart/alternative encoding, then by default the most
> > content rich version possible will be displayed.
> > There is a plugin called "Prefer Plain Text" - if this is enabled,
> > then
> > with a multipart/alternative email the text/plain version, if it
> > exists,
> > will be chosen in preference to the text/html version.
> > As far as I know though, there is no way of choosing the version
> > displayed on a per-message basis, nor is there a way of forcing the
> > displayed text to be fixed-pitch.

Preferences -> Mail Preferences -> HTML Messages
You can select "Show suppressed HTML parts as attachments" under "Plain
Text Mode".  Provided you have "HTML MOde" --> "Show plain text if
present"

> With the above posting as a backdrop, can someone tell me where to
> find a discussion
> of the whole email file format, content display, "envelop" and related
> family of issues?

No, there is no such thing.  At best there is a long string of related
RFCs.

> I routinely have troubles with email sent through various clients or
> servers -- typically MAC or
> Win-dose but there are others -- where I cannot see attachments or a
> "conversation" of
> messages [aka, {message} {reply}...{reply}...
> {quoted}...{forward}...ad lib] is only
> partially readable if at all.

Can you more precisely describe your problem?  I haven't encountered an
unreadable message in a long time - at least not unreadable via
Evolution.

Sometimes threading gets broken by idjits who still don't know how to
use e-mail; but there is nothing the client can do about that. 

> I know that "rich text" and "web page" formatting adds lumps and
> wrinkles to how things
> work, but I'm hoping that someone has read all of the gnarly bits
> (sic) and written
> a summary for mortals to learn from.

-- 
System & Network Administrator [ LPI & NCLA ]
<http://www.whitemiceconsulting.com>
OpenGroupware Developer <http://www.opengroupware.us>
Adam Tauno Williams