You might get some suggestions if you post a specific situation, including all keystrokes. Thank you

Thanks for your response. I'm going to withdraw. I use the keyboard much more than the mouse. But clearly over the years, CONTROL+Q was replaced by CONTROL+SHIFT+O, and it's easy to miss the menu that flashes by.

All very embarrassing and I feel I should delete the post, unless you think my befuddlement has some instructive value.

I admire your humility. It's actually a good question because there are three paste options in Thunderbird. And, even with those, there are times when it's 'cleaner' to paste to notepad first and then to thunderbird, depending on how much embedded control characters are present.

Clearly, I've stumbled across a gentleman and a scholar. So I take it that I should not delete the post?

And I even learned something if transferring to plain text before pasting is sometimes going to be needed (i.e., not my fault).

Thanks.

You flatter me. :) Now that we've agreed the post has merit, a specific example will prove useful. Having such ensures that responses will be focused for you. I also have difficulties and periodically find that I must experiment with the options because I don't post text frequently. And I confess to not knowing keystrokes, being a mouse user.

It's hard for me to give an example. All I can report is that I use CONTROL+C to copy selected text and then CONTROL+SHIFT+O to paste-as-quotation -- now! But, at least for some time, I'd been using the wrong key combination to paste.

If/when I run into trouble again, I'll do the paste-in-Notepad-and-then-move-it-to-TBird routine. But I will definitely be alert to why/how the selected text is unusual enough that it might cause the pasting to fail. I have no personal experience with this and don't think it has been a factor for me so far.

Anything else you think I can add that could be helpful?

First, pasting as quotation creates a special quotation block, and any following text is embedded within the quote. So, extricating the following text is a troublesome task. That happens if you are writing in HTML, which is the default. if you post quotation in plain text, it is merged with other text to recipient. Pasting without formatting gives generally consistent results. You mentioned that sometimes you can't paste at all. What text causes that? That is, DOCs work fine, and even xls (spreadsheets) are doable, so knowing what type of content fails on pasting may help.

Actually, I usually am working with HTML because some formatting is nice to have, but I rarely need anything more sophisticated, like a table. I did a ton of HTML tagging in the 1990s and the early years of this millenium by hand in plain old Notepad. Naturally, typing an e-mail in TBird doesn't feel anything like that so it's easy to lose sight of the fact that, indeed, there's HTML under the hood.

But I'm generally pasting from the same e-mail or another e-mail within TBird. OMIGOSH THE LIGHTBULB JUST WENT ON: So I guess that means I'm pasting HTML without giving it much thought. And conceivably, that explains why sometimes I cannot paste at all (even CONTROL+V) and why dragging the text into Notepad and back again solves the problem (even if I then add [back] a very tiny bit of formatting). What a mess that tagging could be at times. It's a wonder that sometimes the pasting does work.

On another of your points: I always start by entering a few "carriage returns" to keep the quote separate from what is already typed or what I will type below the quote because I have seen the pasted text run together with the pre-existing text. So that's not a factor here.

I so appreciate your staying with the conversation. I think you actually have solved it now.

Many many many thanks, Jeanne

I've enjoyed the discussion, Jeanne. Yes, lightbulbs are essential to removing the darkness. :) And, since I grasp that you are conversant with HTML, I encourage you to consider installing my favorite addon, ThunderHTMLedit, from https://betterbird.eu/addons/ To me, this is a must-have addon. It adds a little tab in compose window and, with a simple click, you can see what is being created - and you can edit as desired to tweak if needed. The addon isn't on the official page for political reasons, but it is superb. Just do it. :) And, in seeing the code, that may alleviate the need for multiple carriage-returns. All the best. Oh, I forgot - You're most welcome.

Thanks yet again.

-)