Re: Manual line breaks in emails

Eli Schwartz <[email protected]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 22:53:57 -0400

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.gentoo.user
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

On 3/24/26 10:14 PM, Dale wrote:

> I like the way your email looks, as I received it anyway.  I'm not sure
> what Thunderbird may do to it when I hit send.  It's narrow enough that
> I only have to move my eyes but not my head.  When you have a limited
> range of motion due to arthritis, those things get to be important. 
> That said, I can't find a setting in Thunderbird to wrap at 80 or
> anything else for that matter.  As I type in a reply, it is a LONG
> line.  I suspect it will be long when the list gets the email as well
> unless your email client forces it to wrap on your end.  Maybe someone
> can tell me if it wraps before sending.  I can't tell if it does here or
> not but suspect it doesn't.  When I check my sent folder, it is as wide
> as the pane will allow.


Also in my inbox. :)


> Anyone know how to tell Thunderbird to wrap?  If so, is 80 a good
> number?  I have also looked for a way to tell Thunderbird to send text
> only to gentoo.org addresses, this list for example.  Seamonkey has that
> but I can't find it in Thunderbird, yet.


Settings -> Composition (tab) -> Sending format (4th section) -> Only
Plain Text

Account Settings -> specific email address -> Composition and Addressing
-> "Compose messages in HTML format" (uncheck)

Settings -> General -> Config Editor (bottom) ->
mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed = false

Also, mailnews.wraplength defaults to 72 which is < 80, but you can
tweak it.

Per recipient settings for "prefer sending plaintext" were removed in
2022: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1758460


-- 
Eli Schwartz

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