Why do I lose my formatting when I paste text from MS Word into Thunderbird?
When I create text in MS Word and paste it into Thunderbird I lose its formatting. Some of the paragraphs have single line spacing while others have what appears to be double line spacing. At times, the font size may also change. Any thoughts on how to prevent this?
الحل المُختار
Thoughts, yes. Do not use word to compose email. It is a word processing program designed with one primary function. To put words on paper and it does it quite well. What it does in a most appalling way is convert loads of Microsoft proprietary formatting to HTML, using encoded XML blocks that mean nothing to anything but Microsoft products to hold binary data that simply does not belong in HTML at all. Word pastes such things as links to OCX files (Which sends anti virus programs bunta) it atg time treats every word in some circumstances as a paragraph and sends font size family and paragraph spacing and a host of other information in an extremely complex table structure usually that really should never have left word.
I recently had a chap here trying to get a signature to work that he had pasted from word. 10 words and three images were all the signature contained. Over 2000 lines of HTML were in his signature file to do what could have been accomplished in a half a dozen.
Also be particularly aware that email does not send the font, nor does HTML, so if you select a font for mail that the recipient does not have then they will see some sort of substitute that in my experience invariably looks ugly and unprofessional.
If the appearance of the document upon reception is important, there is still no substitute for PDF. It is the only way to guarantee that the recipient sees what you send.
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الحل المُختار
Thoughts, yes. Do not use word to compose email. It is a word processing program designed with one primary function. To put words on paper and it does it quite well. What it does in a most appalling way is convert loads of Microsoft proprietary formatting to HTML, using encoded XML blocks that mean nothing to anything but Microsoft products to hold binary data that simply does not belong in HTML at all. Word pastes such things as links to OCX files (Which sends anti virus programs bunta) it atg time treats every word in some circumstances as a paragraph and sends font size family and paragraph spacing and a host of other information in an extremely complex table structure usually that really should never have left word.
I recently had a chap here trying to get a signature to work that he had pasted from word. 10 words and three images were all the signature contained. Over 2000 lines of HTML were in his signature file to do what could have been accomplished in a half a dozen.
Also be particularly aware that email does not send the font, nor does HTML, so if you select a font for mail that the recipient does not have then they will see some sort of substitute that in my experience invariably looks ugly and unprofessional.
If the appearance of the document upon reception is important, there is still no substitute for PDF. It is the only way to guarantee that the recipient sees what you send.
So the only way to ensure my message looks the way I type it before I send it is to send PDF files since once I type the message in Word and copy and paste it the formatting gets messed up? Are there any Add-ons to make my email all the same size and fonts? Or should I type the message in a different program then copy and paste it?
No there is not. You need to attach either a Word document or PDF if you want the formatting to remain. Thunderbird is an email client and not a word processor that keeps or understand the proprietary formatting that Microsoft uses.
You can type in a program that uses plain text with no formatting and copy and paste that.