Bug#984599: evolution: Cannot set message format (Plain Text vs. HTML) for a single message before forwarding it

[Omer Zak]

Package: evolution
Version: 3.30.5-1.1
Severity: minor
Tags: upstream
Forwarded-To: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/evolution/-/issues/1406

I use the E-mail client Evolution running under Linux (Debian Buster distribution), version 3.30.5-1.1.

Usability problem:

Cannot set message format when forwarding an E-mail message, when one wishes to override the default (Plain Text or HTML) for one message.

Longer description:

Usually I write my E-mail messages in plain text format. So Evolution is configured to use Plain Text, rather than HTML as the default format.

This default caused me to have the following problem.

Sometimes I receive HTML-formatted E-mail messages which include images.

When I forward such a message to someone else, it is forwarded without the images even if I set the format to HTML after clicking on the Forward button.

This happens in all four possible ways of forwarding the message (Forward As Attached, Forward As Inline, Forward As Quoted, Redirect).

Workaround:

The workaround I found is to reconfigure Evolution to default to HTML format before forwarding the message, and return to Plain Text afterwards.

To reconfigure the default message format:
1. Open the "Evolution Preferences" pop up dialog: Edit / Preferences.
2. Select the pop up dialog pane: Composer Preferences / General.
3. Toggle checkmark in Default Behavior / Format messages in HTML.
4. Click on the Close button at bottom right of the dialog.

After defaulting to HTML format, forwarding an HTML-formatted message with images preserves the images, in all four possible ways of forwarding the message.

(Submitted as issue 1406 in gitlab.gnome.org Evolution, URL https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/evolution/-/issues/1406)



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 10.8
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.19.0-14-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_FIRMWARE_WORKAROUND, TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages evolution depends on:
ii  dbus                   1.12.20-0+deb10u1
ii  evolution-common       3.30.5-1.1
ii  evolution-data-server  3.30.5-1+deb10u1
ii  libc6                  2.28-10
ii  libcamel-1.2-62        3.30.5-1+deb10u1
ii  libclutter-gtk-1.0-0   1.8.4-4
ii  libecal-1.2-19         3.30.5-1+deb10u1
ii  libedataserver-1.2-23  3.30.5-1+deb10u1
ii  libevolution           3.30.5-1.1
ii  libglib2.0-0           2.58.3-2+deb10u2
ii  libgtk-3-0             3.24.5-1
ii  libical3               3.0.4-3
ii  libnotify4             0.7.7-4
ii  libsoup2.4-1           2.64.2-2
ii  libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37   2.30.4-1~deb10u1
ii  libxml2                2.9.4+dfsg1-7+deb10u1
ii  psmisc                 23.2-1

Versions of packages evolution recommends:
ii  evolution-plugin-bogofilter  3.30.5-1.1
pn  evolution-plugin-pstimport   <none>
ii  evolution-plugins            3.30.5-1.1
ii  yelp                         3.31.90-1

Versions of packages evolution suggests:
pn  evolution-ews                   <none>
pn  evolution-plugins-experimental  <none>
ii  gnupg                           2.2.12-1+deb10u1
ii  network-manager                 1.14.6-2+deb10u1

-- debconf information excluded