[PATCH v2] Documentation: process: Update email client instructions for Thunderbird

From: sndanailov
Date: Thu Jul 14 2022 - 09:12:08 EST


From: Sotir Danailov <sndanailov@xxxxxxxxx>

The instructions don't match with the current Thunderbird interface.
Clarification on using external extensions.
New information on how to avoid writing HTML emails.

Signed-off-by: Sotir Danailov <sndanailov@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Changelog since v1:
- better external extensions explanation
- information on avoiding HTML emails

v1: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-doc/20220713225037.1201-1-sndanailov@xxxxxxxxx/

Documentation/process/email-clients.rst | 64 +++++++++++++++++--------
1 file changed, 43 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst b/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
index 16586f6cc888..229cbde5b62c 100644
--- a/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
+++ b/Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
@@ -278,35 +278,57 @@ Thunderbird is an Outlook clone that likes to mangle text, but there are ways
to coerce it into behaving.

- Allow use of an external editor:
- The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use an
- "external editor" extension and then just use your favorite ``$EDITOR``
- for reading/merging patches into the body text. To do this, download
- and install the extension, then add a button for it using
- :menuselection:`View-->Toolbars-->Customize...` and finally just click on it
- when in the :menuselection:`Compose` dialog.
-
- Please note that "external editor" requires that your editor must not
- fork, or in other words, the editor must not return before closing.
- You may have to pass additional flags or change the settings of your
- editor. Most notably if you are using gvim then you must pass the -f
- option to gvim by putting ``/usr/bin/gvim -f`` (if the binary is in
- ``/usr/bin``) to the text editor field in :menuselection:`external editor`
- settings. If you are using some other editor then please read its manual
- to find out how to do this.
+
+ The easiest thing to do with Thunderbird and patches is to use extensions
+ which open your favorite external editor.
+
+ Here are some example extensions which are capable of doing this.
+
+ - "External Editor Revived"
+
+ https://github.com/Frederick888/external-editor-revived
+
+ https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-GB/thunderbird/addon/external-editor-revived/
+
+ It requires installing a "native messaging host".
+ Please read the wiki which can be found here:
+ https://github.com/Frederick888/external-editor-revived/wiki
+
+ - "External Editor" (for older versions of Thunderbird)
+
+ https://github.com/exteditor/exteditor
+
+ To do this, download and install the extension, then open the
+ :menuselection:`compose` window, add a button for it using
+ :menuselection:`View-->Toolbars-->Customize...` then
+ just click on the new button when you wish to use the external editor.
+
+ Please note that "External Editor" requires that your editor must not
+ fork, or in other words, the editor must not return before closing.
+ You may have to pass additional flags or change the settings of your
+ editor. Most notably if you are using gvim then you must pass the -f
+ option to gvim by putting ``/usr/bin/gvim --nofork"`` (if the binary is in
+ ``/usr/bin``) to the text editor field in :menuselection:`external editor`
+ settings. If you are using some other editor then please read its manual
+ to find out how to do this.

To beat some sense out of the internal editor, do this:

-- Edit your Thunderbird config settings so that it won't use ``format=flowed``.
- Go to :menuselection:`edit-->preferences-->advanced-->config editor` to bring up
+- Edit your Thunderbird config settings so that it won't use ``format=flowed``!
+ Go to your main window and find the button for your main dropdown menu.
+ :menuselection:`Main Menu-->Preferences-->General-->Config Editor...` to bring up
the thunderbird's registry editor.

-- Set ``mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed`` to ``false``
+ - Set ``mailnews.send_plaintext_flowed`` to ``false``

-- Set ``mailnews.wraplength`` from ``72`` to ``0``
+ - Set ``mailnews.wraplength`` from ``72`` to ``0``

-- :menuselection:`View-->Message Body As-->Plain Text`
+- Don't write HTML messages! Go to the main window
+ :menuselection:`Main Menu-->Account Settings-->youracc@server.something-->Composition & Addressing`!
+ There you can disable the option "Compose messages in HTML format".

-- :menuselection:`View-->Character Encoding-->Unicode (UTF-8)`
+- Open messages only as plain text! Go to the main window
+ :menuselection:`Main Menu-->View-->Message Body As-->Plain Text`!

TkRat (GUI)
***********
--
2.37.0