Bug 263291

Summary: Kmail renders asterisk bracketed text as bolded text, garbling the message.
Product: [Applications] kmail Reporter: Sam Jones <sdj1914>
Component: generalAssignee: kdepim bugs <kdepim-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED    
Severity: normal    
Priority: NOR    
Version: 1.13.5   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: openSUSE   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:

Description Sam Jones 2011-01-16 05:44:48 UTC
Version:           1.13.5 (using KDE 4.4.4) 
OS:                Linux

Kmail reformats asterisk bracketed text into bolded text. There is no
way to turn this "feature" off. I needed to send instructions to
people to get in on a conference call. People are prompted for
the room number and they need to dial:

   *5556253*

Kmail can no longer render 'plain text' emails. This destroys the 
intent of the message if the asterisks are not meant to signify
bold text. Sometimes they are meant to be asterisks.

I should at least be able to turn this off. I use "plain text" email
for a reason. The reason is that I want plain text.



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
In a message, bracket some text in asterisks. Check your sent mail
to see what you sent. 

Actual Results:  
It the sent message, the asterisks were invisible and the text was bolded.
Not what I intended.

Expected Results:  
The asterisks should remain in the message as intended. They
should only mean bold if I intend them to mean bold. As it is,
the software destroys my ability to communicate in plain text.

I have to resort to long explanations about what I intended to
communicate because the software misinterprets my intent and
garbles the message. This is a bug.

Can we no longer have plain text email? Do you really expect
us to start putting everything in attachments so the software
does not garble it all up? 

Please at least allow us to turn it off. I do not want plain
text modified in any way.
Comment 1 Laurent Montel 2015-04-12 10:01:16 UTC
Thank you for taking the time to file a bug report.

KMail2 was released in 2011, and the entire code base went through significant changes. We are currently in the process of porting to Qt5 and KF5. It is unlikely that these bugs are still valid in KMail2.

We welcome you to try out KMail 2 with the KDE 4.14 release and give your feedback.