Please list some more of the words that trouble you.

I can't think of many words that are used with a particular meaning in Thunderbird. So searching for these words in a more general context is usually appropriate.

For instance: "Body text" is a term that will be familiar to anyone who knows how to use a word processor, so a search of the world wide web ("google is your friend") will throw up articles like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_text

It would not be a good use of sparse resources simply to paraphrase information that is freely available elsewhere.

So, please share with us the material that's giving you concern and we can see if any of it needs particular interpretation.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I wish you had some idea what you are talking about.

Your link has nothing to do with how the option 'Body Text' works in Thunderbird or how it differs from the 'Paragraph' option.

When you are composing an email in Thunderbird, in the upper left just above the composition box and below the Subject text box is a dropdown with several options. One option is 'Body Text'. Another is 'Paragraph'. Etc. Many programs have a help feature that can be accessed by hitting F1 or by clicking a Help tab. Then there is usually a box for a search term and if you do a search for the name of some feature of the program, you get an explanation. That type of help is what I was looking for.

However, I finally did what I should have done in the first place. I created a test email and tried out all of the options. So now I know.

'Body text' upon using return key, will go to next line. 'Paragraph' inserts an additional line. 'Headers' are a form of title used to head sections and are usually in a larger font size. Header 1 being the largest. 'Address' uses italic. Note: Paragraph is usually auto set when a header has been chosen.

If you are someone who regularly likes to insert a clear line instead of going to next line, then Paragraph' mode is a better option.

However, in Thunderbird you can choose which method you use as default. If you want to use 'Body Text' as default: Close any 'Write' window. 'Menu icon' > 'Options' > 'Options' > 'Composition' > 'General' tab uncheck: 'Use paragraph format instead of Body Text bt default' click on OK see image:

If this does not operate when you next click on 'Write' Exit and restart Thunderbird.

Companies who create programs and make a charge such as Microsoft and MSOffice, MSWord etc will be able to pay for the manpower to create such Help articles as you mention.

In Thunderbird and this forum, creating help pages takes time and is done by unpaid volunteers in their own time, just as this forum has unpaid volunteers reponding to questions.

Therefore most help articles are created for the more elaborate tasks and not the most basic which is generally known and intuitive. eg: Most people understand what Bold means. You will find many of the options on the Formatting Bar to have tooltips when you hover over them.

Some useful help pages: http://write.flossmanuals.net/thunderbird/composing-messages/