How can I adjust the width of typing area
It used to be called moving the tab width. How can I make the length of each line of typing longer in Monzilla Thunderbird
Modified by lighthouse1
Chosen solution
This line starts with a space, deliberately, and I hope it demonstrates a known problem. Now, I really would like to see one of these systems that does what you describe. I think you'll realise that the absence of ready "do this" replies means that none of the regular helpers here has witnessed or suffered this problem and we're all at a bit of a loss as to what causes it.
A recent poster to this forum was creating odd-looking postings, and the notification mails about his postings were also affected, displaying (like your typing perhaps) as a long line that went off outside the frame. In his case, he was using a somewhat old fashioned style of indenting the first line of his paragraphs. A life-long habit, no doubt, and he saw no reason to stop doing it.
Other odd postings in email seem to relate to the which email client was in use to generate the message. I don't know what they inserted into the message to break things, but again long lines were the result.
The point of these ramblings is that you may be doing something which feels perfectly ordinary to you, but wasn't anticipated by the designers of the software. My mum, bless her, was trained as a shorthand typist and could never get her head round the idea that a computer will (ordinarily) put in linefeeds for you; she could not resist pressing return at the right hand margin. Clearly, you are NOT doing this, but I don't think any of us know what's happening nor how to fix it.
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Does your text not flow up to the window's edge and automatically fold to the next line?
If this is the case for you, you may be composing in plain text, which can be set to limit the lines to a fixed length, typically around 72 characters, and this practice dates back to when we used 80-column screens and teletypes.
When composing, do you see the toolbar shown in the attached picture?
Modified by Zenos
No there is no tool bar showing like above
OK I have changed from portrait to landscape. This enabled me to get to type for the full screen but the typing keeps going on past the end of the screen now. How can I get to type to the edge of the screen and then return and start on the next line instead of keep going past the edge of the screen
lighthouse1 said
OK I have changed settings to either portrait or landscape. This enabled me to get to type for the full screen but the typing keeps going on past the end of the screen now in both settings. How can I get to type to the edge of the screen and then return and start on the next line instead of keep going past the edge of the screen
It would probably help if you were typing in HTML rather than plain text.
Tools menu > account settings > composition and addressing and select compose in HTML.
If you remember setting the tabs on a typewriter, you may also recall that IBM mainframe terminals were 80 columns and that the 3270 brought color. Thunderbird wraps text at 74 columns so there are no buffer overruns on that mainframe terminal. HTML being a little more modern wraps at the edge of the display/compose area.
Please in HTML use enter only on paragraphs and use tables to align columns not spaces or tabs
I went to tools, accounts settings, composition and changed to HTML and checked and it is stilling typing out past the screen width.
How do I stop it from doing this and return to the next line before it goes out past the edge of the screen
Regards
Chosen Solution
This line starts with a space, deliberately, and I hope it demonstrates a known problem. Now, I really would like to see one of these systems that does what you describe. I think you'll realise that the absence of ready "do this" replies means that none of the regular helpers here has witnessed or suffered this problem and we're all at a bit of a loss as to what causes it.
A recent poster to this forum was creating odd-looking postings, and the notification mails about his postings were also affected, displaying (like your typing perhaps) as a long line that went off outside the frame. In his case, he was using a somewhat old fashioned style of indenting the first line of his paragraphs. A life-long habit, no doubt, and he saw no reason to stop doing it.
Other odd postings in email seem to relate to the which email client was in use to generate the message. I don't know what they inserted into the message to break things, but again long lines were the result.
The point of these ramblings is that you may be doing something which feels perfectly ordinary to you, but wasn't anticipated by the designers of the software. My mum, bless her, was trained as a shorthand typist and could never get her head round the idea that a computer will (ordinarily) put in linefeeds for you; she could not resist pressing return at the right hand margin. Clearly, you are NOT doing this, but I don't think any of us know what's happening nor how to fix it.
Modified by Zenos
All fixed.......I reloaded the program. Thanks for the suggestions.