From: Sotir Danailov <sndanailov@gmail.com>

The instructions don't match with the current Thunderbird interface.
Clarification on using external extensions.
New information on how to avoid writing HTML emails.

Signed-off-by: Sotir Danailov <sndanailov@gmail.com>
---
Changelog since v1:
 - better external extensions explanation
 - information on avoiding HTML emails

v1: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-doc/20220713225037.1201-1-sndanailov@gmail.com/

 Documentation/process/email-clients.rst | 64 +++++++++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 43 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst b/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
index 16586f6cc888..229cbde5b62c 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
@@ -278,35 +278,57 @@ Thunderbird is an Outlook clone that likes to mangle text, but there are ways
 to coerce it into behaving.
 
 - Allow use of an external editor:
-  The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use an
-  "external editor" extension and then just use your favorite ``$EDITOR``
-  for reading/merging patches into the body text.  To do this, download
-  and install the extension, then add a button for it using
-  :menuselection:`View-->Toolbars-->Customize...` and finally just click on it
-  when in the :menuselection:`Compose` dialog.
-
-  Please note that "external editor" requires that your editor must not
-  fork, or in other words, the editor must not return before closing.
-  You may have to pass additional flags or change the settings of your
-  editor. Most notably if you are using gvim then you must pass the -f
-  option to gvim by putting ``/usr/bin/gvim -f`` (if the binary is in
-  ``/usr/bin``) to the text editor field in :menuselection:`external editor`
-  settings. If you are using some other editor then please read its manual
-  to find out how to do this.
+
+  The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use extensions
+  which open your favorite external editor.
+
+  Here are some example extensions which are capable of doing this.
+
+  - "External Editor Revived"
+
+    https://github.com/Frederick888/external-editor-revived
+
+    https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-GB/thunderbird/addon/external-editor-revived/
+
+    It requires installing a "native messaging host".
+    Please read the wiki which can be found here:
+    https://github.com/Frederick888/external-editor-revived/wiki
+
+  - "External Editor" (for older versions of Thunderbird)
+
+    https://github.com/exteditor/exteditor
+
+    To do this, download and install the extension, then open the
+    :menuselection:`compose` window, add a button for it using
+    :menuselection:`View-->Toolbars-->Customize...` then
+    just click on the new button when you wish to use the external editor.
+
+    Please note that "External Editor" requires that your editor must not
+    fork, or in other words, the editor must not return before closing.
+    You may have to pass additional flags or change the settings of your
+    editor. Most notably if you are using gvim then you must pass the -f
+    option to gvim by putting ``/usr/bin/gvim --nofork"`` (if the binary is in
+    ``/usr/bin``) to the text editor field in :menuselection:`external editor`
+    settings. If you are using some other editor then please read its manual
+    to find out how to do this.
 
 To beat some sense out of the internal editor, do this:
 
-- Edit your Thunderbird config settings so that it won't use ``format=flowed``.
-  Go to :menuselection:`edit-->preferences-->advanced-->config editor` to bring up
+- Edit your Thunderbird config settings so that it won't use ``format=flowed``!
+  Go to your main window and find the button for your main dropdown menu.
+  :menuselection:`Main Menu-->Preferences-->General-->Config Editor...` to bring up
   the thunderbird's registry editor.
 
-- Set ``mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed`` to ``false``
+  - Set ``mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed`` to ``false``
 
-- Set ``mailnews.wraplength`` from ``72`` to ``0``
+  - Set ``mailnews.wraplength`` from ``72`` to ``0``
 
-- :menuselection:`View-->Message Body As-->Plain Text`
+- Don't write HTML messages! Go to the main window
+  :menuselection:`Main Menu-->Account Settings-->youracc@server.something-->Composition & Addressing`!
+  There you can disable the option "Compose messages in HTML format".
 
-- :menuselection:`View-->Character Encoding-->Unicode (UTF-8)`
+- Open messages only as plain text! Go to the main window
+  :menuselection:`Main Menu-->View-->Message Body As-->Plain Text`!
 
 TkRat (GUI)
 ***********
-- 
2.37.0

Hi,

On 7/14/22 06:11, sndanailov@gmail.com wrote:
> From: Sotir Danailov <sndanailov@gmail.com>
> 
> The instructions don't match with the current Thunderbird interface.
> Clarification on using external extensions.
> New information on how to avoid writing HTML emails.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Sotir Danailov <sndanailov@gmail.com>
> ---
> Changelog since v1:
>  - better external extensions explanation
>  - information on avoiding HTML emails
> 
> v1: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-doc/20220713225037.1201-1-sndanailov@gmail.com/
> 
>  Documentation/process/email-clients.rst | 64 +++++++++++++++++--------
>  1 file changed, 43 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst b/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
> index 16586f6cc888..229cbde5b62c 100644
> --- a/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
> @@ -278,35 +278,57 @@ Thunderbird is an Outlook clone that likes to mangle text, but there are ways
>  to coerce it into behaving.
>  
>  - Allow use of an external editor:
> -  The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use an
> -  "external editor" extension and then just use your favorite ``$EDITOR``
> -  for reading/merging patches into the body text.  To do this, download
> -  and install the extension, then add a button for it using
> -  :menuselection:`View-->Toolbars-->Customize...` and finally just click on it
> -  when in the :menuselection:`Compose` dialog.
> -
> -  Please note that "external editor" requires that your editor must not
> -  fork, or in other words, the editor must not return before closing.
> -  You may have to pass additional flags or change the settings of your
> -  editor. Most notably if you are using gvim then you must pass the -f
> -  option to gvim by putting ``/usr/bin/gvim -f`` (if the binary is in
> -  ``/usr/bin``) to the text editor field in :menuselection:`external editor`
> -  settings. If you are using some other editor then please read its manual
> -  to find out how to do this.
> +
> +  The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use extensions
> +  which open your favorite external editor.
> +
> +  Here are some example extensions which are capable of doing this.
> +
> +  - "External Editor Revived"
> +
> +    https://github.com/Frederick888/external-editor-revived
> +
> +    https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-GB/thunderbird/addon/external-editor-revived/
> +
> +    It requires installing a "native messaging host".
> +    Please read the wiki which can be found here:
> +    https://github.com/Frederick888/external-editor-revived/wiki

Does thunderbird v91.11.0 qualify as newer or older?

I tried to use the external-editor-revived yesterday with v1 of the patch..
no success.

v2 of the patch has more useful info (about native-messaging), so I installed
that and still not happy.
After pressing "External Editor" in a tbird reply window, nothing happens.

Wait -- hold everything!  Exiting tbird and reloading it
fixed all problems. :)

Thanks for all of the updates. (says the file's original author)

Tested-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Acked-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>


-- 
~Randy

Thank you for taking the time!
I didn't expect the original author to participate. :D
I probably should've sent a cc to you and others as well, sorry about that!
Didn't do my research good enough I guess.

On Fri 15 07 2022 01:18, Randy Dunlap wrote:
> 
> Does thunderbird v91.11.0 qualify as newer or older?
> 
> I tried to use the external-editor-revived yesterday with v1 of the patch..
> no success.

Do you think that the whole section about the
old "External Editor" extension should be removed?

> v2 of the patch has more useful info (about native-messaging), so I installed
> that and still not happy.
> After pressing "External Editor" in a tbird reply window, nothing happens.
> 
> Wait -- hold everything!  Exiting tbird and reloading it
> fixed all problems. :)

I probably should add in the document that the user should
restart Thunderbird after all modifications, just to be sure.

On 7/15/22 01:11, Sotir Danailov wrote:
> Thank you for taking the time!
> I didn't expect the original author to participate. :D
> I probably should've sent a cc to you and others as well, sorry about that!
> Didn't do my research good enough I guess.
> 
> On Fri 15 07 2022 01:18, Randy Dunlap wrote:
>>
>> Does thunderbird v91.11.0 qualify as newer or older?
>>
>> I tried to use the external-editor-revived yesterday with v1 of the patch..
>> no success.
> 
> Do you think that the whole section about the
> old "External Editor" extension should be removed?

No, I don't. It's useful IMO.

>> v2 of the patch has more useful info (about native-messaging), so I installed
>> that and still not happy.
>> After pressing "External Editor" in a tbird reply window, nothing happens.
>>
>> Wait -- hold everything!  Exiting tbird and reloading it
>> fixed all problems. :)
> 
> I probably should add in the document that the user should
> restart Thunderbird after all modifications, just to be sure.

Please.

Thanks.

-- 
~Randy