Stop removing white spaces
When I copy / past in a plain text message, Thunderbird removes multiple white spaces which I have added on purpose.
Example:
Hello
Hello
Hello Hello
becomes:
Hello Hello Hello Hello
after copy/pasting the 3 lines it.
How can I stop Thunderbird to remove the white spaces?
All Replies (14)
I guess this would depend on what you are copying. If the text you copied had formatting of any kind, which your example seems to indicate by the two text types, the formatting is removed in plain text. That is why it is called Plain Text.
The text I am copying has multiple white spaces between words. Are multiple spaces not allowed in plain text? Thunderbird did not remove them until recently.
As stated above, it depends on how the spaces at place. If using the space bar then they should stay. If using a word processor like Word with their proprietary formatting or a web page with HTML formatting, then no.
It is not from a word processor. I am typing a plain text message in the Thunderbird message editor (Write window). I do type multiple spaces between words for various reasons by hitting the space bar multiple times. If I later copy/past this text to another part in the message, all multiple spaces are reduced to one.
This behaviour is new. It was introduced with one of the Thunderbird updates in the last 1 or 2 months.
I composed a message just like your example and was able to copy and paste without losing the spaces or carriage returns just fine using version 31.6.
What version Thunderbird are you using?
I am using version 38.2.0.
I repeat my example, because previoiusly, it was changed when posting it:
Hello wwwHello HellowwwHello
after copy/pasting the 3 lines becomes:
Hello Hello HellowHello
where 'w' stands for one white space.
I am not sure what the difference between version would be. I was able to composed this example in both HTML and Plain Text with the spaces and line returns intact.
You might go into Tools-Options-Composition and see if there is a new setting there that would make this change. I see nothing in my version to cause or correct it.
Thank you for your help. But I have already tried to solve the problem by setting options/preferences but I did not find anything that would stop the deletion of the white spaces.
For me, it works in a HTML message. But the white spaces are removed in the plain text message.
I will message one of the senior mods and see if he has an idea. He is running the new version. It has too many bugs for me to make the jump so far.
I don't have time tonight to reinstall TB38.2, but I am unable to reproduce this in the Daily build of V43 I am using to test for bugs. I will try the release version tomorrow.
In the mean time I suggest you try restarting Thunderbird with add-ons disabled (Thunderbird Safe Mode). On the Help menu, click on "Restart with Add-ons Disabled". If Thunderbird works like normal, there is an Add-on or Theme interfering with normal operations. You will need to re-enable add-ons one at a time until you locate the offender.
It would also be helpful if you added the troubleshooting information to your post To find the Troubleshooting information:
- Open Help (or click on three-line-icon and select Help)
- Choose Troubleshooting Information
- Use the button Copy to clipboard to select all. Do not check box "Include account names"!
- Paste this in your post.
Ok. I have restarted Thunderbird in safe mode and the problem is still there.
The Throubleshouting infromation is:
Application Basics
Name: Thunderbird Version: 38.2.0 User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.2.0 Profile Folder: Show Folder
(Local drive) Application Build ID: 20150813074416 Enabled Plugins: about:plugins Build Configuration: about:buildconfig Memory Use: about:memory
Mail and News Accounts
account1:
INCOMING: account1, , (pop3) pop.bluewin.ch:110, plain, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: smtpauths.bluewin.ch:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account2:
INCOMING: account2, , (none) Local Folders, plain, passwordCleartext
account4:
INCOMING: account4, , (imap) imap.gmail.com:993, SSL, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account6:
INCOMING: account6, , (pop3) pop.gmail.com:995, SSL, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: smtp.gmail.com:465, SSL, passwordCleartext, true
account8:
INCOMING: account8, , (imap) mail.fokusprodukt.ch:143, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext
OUTGOING: mail.fokusprodukt.ch:587, alwaysSTARTTLS, passwordCleartext, true
Crash Reports http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-251b6e25-f021-49f0-8485-786f92150814 (14.08.2015) http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-9c4645ac-cef2-45d6-9995-236732150730 (30.07.2015) http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-5e30a7c6-e275-4c29-9497-08a7c2150226 (26.02.2015) http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-2f296bd1-ad2a-41e1-9e18-6e1c62140123 (23.01.2014) http://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/bp-9c1126d5-347b-4cc6-83f3-478a72140110 (10.01.2014)
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Continued (because it was more than 10'000 chars):
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I've tested this in 38.2.0 using Plain Text and can confirm that I get the same results.
However, if I copy the original section with loads of spaces into Notepad all spaces are retained and then copy/paste back from Notepad the spaces are still retained. So this would be, at present, a workaround should you need to copy paste a similar situation.
spaces are retained after sending/receiving email.
So the copy/paste within Thunderbird seems to remove all additional spacing and only retaining a space if separating two words. This also occurs regardless of using 'space' or 'tab'.
As the copy and paste worked when putting it into Notepad, it could possibly be the paste functionality which may be the culprit.
I also note that if I select all the text; both the original with spaces and the copy pasted altered section, then use 'Edit' > 'Rewrap', then all additional spaces are removed. So, is the 'paste' function performing an unintended rewrap..Maybe?
Modified by Toad-Hall