How do I set Thunderbird to work in plain text as default ?

I want to compose/display messages in plain text by default. Is there an option to set this ?

 

Try this (taken from here: http://www.expita.com/nomime.html#mozilla05):

Mozilla Thunderbird

1. Select "Tools" then click on "Account Settings..."
2. Under an account, select "Addressing & Composition" in the left pane
3. In the "Composition" section, uncheck "Compose messages in HTML format"
4. Repeat the above 2 steps for each account you have set up in Thunderbird
5. Click on "OK"
6. Select "Tools" then click on "Options"
7. Click on "Composition" in left pane
8. In the "Forwarding Messages" section, change the "Forward messages:" to Inline
9. In the "Composing Messages" section, uncheck the box in front of "For messages that contain 8-bit characters..."
10. In the "Send Options" section, click "Send Options"
11. In the "Text Options" section, select "Ask me what to do..." from the dropdown
12. Click on "OK"

If you have followed the instruction above, your e-mail should now always be sent as "Plain Text". If you would like to send a message in HTML format, then hold down the Shift key while clicking on the Compose or Reply button and the current e-mail message will be in HTML edit format.

Let me know if this helps.

 

Awesome, thatnks !!!!

 

No problem. I, too, prefer text mode by default.

 

Ugh, how do I set it to also display in text mode ?

 

You mean even if you receive an HTML message, you want TB to be able to render it as text? I don't think Thunderbird has an option to turn off HTML rendering on received emails ;-(

 

Yes, thats what I meant.
Dissapointed that thunderbird doesnt have a text mode for displayig messages

 

It seems to be on the TODO list, though: http://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird:Collected_User_Requests#HTML.2FText.2FSource

 

Awl right !!