Text Box around mail reply

Question

Level 1

88 points

Text Box around mail reply

Guys and Girls,

I'm going to repeat this question because I thought I had it solved but It's returned.

Does anyone know how to get rid of that annoying text box with the big X in the upper left hand corner? It's always in the way when you try to modify anything when replying to an eMail.

I was told to select Plain Text in the prefs and it seemed to work but It's back now.

Thanks.

Regards, Phil
Macintosh b'gosh

iMac i5/27/2.66GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.4), 8 Gb Ram, Internal 100Tb, External 250 Gb.

Posted on Oct 2, 2010 8:45 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 16, 2010 3:14 PM in response to Phil Hansen

I hope someone can post a reasonable answer.

The other thread on this topic just said to basically throw away ALL formatting and use plain text.

Apple Mail didn't behave like this before some upgrade.

At least we should have some control of those infernal boxes which sometimes do to allow you to add lines below them or even edit the contents satisfactorily.

What is the deal here?

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Answer 2

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

116,060 points

Oct 16, 2010 4:05 PM in response to Phil Hansen

Does anyone know how to get rid of that annoying text box with the big X in the upper left hand corner?

Format > Make Plain Text

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Answer 3

Phil Hansen Author

Level 1

88 points

Oct 16, 2010 5:33 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Tom,

I tried that -- it does not work.

Regards, Phil
Macintosh b'gosh

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Answer 4

Nov 17, 2010 9:05 AM in response to Phil Hansen

I had the same problem, but only when replying to some emails.

IF and when it happens, I found that by going back to the original email and highlighting either the whole text OR simply the parts I want to have appear in my reply, the annoying box with the X at the top left will NOT show up, and I can reply as usual, with my reply text showing in a different color from the original message.

In other words, treat the email as if you HAD NOT checked the box "Quote the text of the original message" in the "Composing" section of Preferences.

Not sure why the box shows up only on some emails, but this seems to stop it.

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Answer 5

Lisa Q

Level 1

5 points

Nov 17, 2010 10:14 AM in response to Stephen Longworth

This is driving me insane. It creates the box even when I copy and paste the quote back in. I don't know how to respond to emails; I need to be able to respond to them in parts, not all at the top, and if I copy it to TextEdit, then I lose the quotes. I can't fathom why anyone would think this was a good "feature" to add but Mail.app is essentially ruined for me.

Is there any PERMANENT solution to this problem? Not a workaround that requires extra effort, but a way to disable that stupid box entirely?

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Answer 6

Hathaway

Level 1

5 points

Dec 16, 2010 11:45 AM in response to Phil Hansen

Since all the Apple e-mail apps are so tightly integrated, I am going to guess it might be a functional change for some of the new Mobile Me/Pad/Pod systems.

I remember that box format first showing up with the ability to capture and add web content as widgets. Not sure when it showed up in mail, but it had not bothered me 'till today. When I tried to add a "carriage return" within boxed reply text, my cursor was displaced to a new box at the end of the message. If you do Q&A e-mail quoting, productivity is out the window.

Misery in good company,

DH

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Answer 7

Jan 13, 2011 6:31 AM in response to Hathaway

Yes- holy cow this is ********.

I hadn't seen it be so persistent before but now this is happening to me a lot.

I have been forced to use outlook at work. While I could list at least 100 problems with outlook, and none of them very small- my worst pet peeve was that it BEHAVES EXACTLY LIKE THIS. When quoting in outlook, I'm reduced to typing:

Greg> Ok this is my reply line because outlook is too freakin stupid to allow me to get back to zero indent inside your quoted message like Mac Mail.

I mean... like mac mail used to.

-G

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Answer 8

Jan 19, 2011 2:41 PM in response to storkslair

I did come up with *a work around.*
1. Open a blank TEXTEDIT document, from the FORMAT menu select MAKE PLAIN TEXT
2. In your email reply from the EDIT menu -SELECT ALL (OR highlight just the text you need) and select- CUT
3 Click your mouse in the TEXTEDIT doc you already have open, from the EDIT menu- select PASTE
4. To return the text email; In TEXTEDIT: from the EDIT menu SELECT ALL then select CUT
5. Click inside your email document; from the EDIT MENU select PASTE
6.If you need to put the email back into RICH TEXT: EDIT MENU - SELECT ALL and in the FORMAT menu select MAKE RICH TEXT.
7. If you need to distinguish one email from the other (select the appropriate text) FORMAT MENU-QUOTE LEVEL - INCREASE that will put colored line and text along the left margin; different color for each increase in quote level.

The TEXTEDIT page will remain PLAIN TEXT unless you change it, (or open a new document), so you can copy and past to and from it several times.

It's not as bad as it sounds, once you learn the key strokes it goes very quickly.(BTW: I couldn't figure out how to get the key stroke symbols in this post) I have my desktop set up so a blank TEXTEDIT page is a mouse click away.

I may be just trading one aggravation for another, but for now it works . If someone finds a simpler way, I'm all for it.

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Answer 9

Jan 24, 2011 8:27 AM in response to Phil Hansen

It seems this annoying text box thing does NOT happen is when the original message was sent from a Windoze machine or from a Mac using Plain Text?

Anyway, to get rid of them, reply as usual, then convert the entire message to Plain Text by hitting Command/Shift/T (⌘⇧T).
You don't have to highlight anything.
You can't then change it BACK to RIch Text, but who cares?

Unfortunately, this also removes ALL formatting from the original message, including quote levels.
*It also removes the imbedded links, so if there is web address to click, it doesn't work anymore.*
Can't have it all, I guess!

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Answer 10

Feb 28, 2011 3:29 AM in response to Greg Cowman

Thanks Greg - this is the simplest way around this annoying thing. On my setup, at least with this particular message where I was having the PITA text box trouble, it solved the problem and maintained the quote level. I was able to split copy/paste from the original email and reply to each question as normal.

Thanks to all who contributed here - much appreciated!

The continuing bitter-sweet affair with Apple continues..... hehehe...

🙂

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Answer 11

Aug 2, 2011 11:42 AM in response to Phil Hansen

Just found another workaround. In the EDIT MENU there's a command called "Paste and Match Style" .

If you are working with Notes as I often do, and have pasted something that has the annoying text box with the X, you can instead paste it using the paste and match style. If the rest of your note is in plain text, it'll just get rid of that awful box.

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Answer 12

Sep 15, 2011 8:55 AM in response to Phil Hansen

Another workaround that retains the original formatting...

Change the text quoting preference to: Include selected text, if any; otherwise...

If you do a "select all" then reply (i.e. cmd-a, cmd-r) you will get the entire contents without the annoying text box. Just have to make sure the focus is in the message and not in the message list ;-)

Your results may vary, but this is working consistently for me :-))

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Answer 13

Jun 8, 2012 2:17 AM in response to stubbsonic

Thanks, stubbsonic, this worked easily for me.

Any updates on how to disable this feature entirely would be appreciated.

Does anyone know what the annoying black box is meant to acheive, anyway ??

thanks ! : )

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Answer 14

Jun 8, 2012 7:08 AM in response to Sporemami

Not that I've tried very hard, but I haven't yet found out what this particular type of formatting is even called.

It seems to preserve an entire block of text as a unit-- presumably to help with moving or deleting it as an intact block. But as is the case with some "advancements" it takes what WAS a simple process, and adds a layer of complication by assuming we want something that maybe we don't.

I usually don't mind it as long as they include some pref to disable it. But until we know what this new thing is called... Perhaps someone can tell us. Then we can find the right thread.

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Answer 15

Auricom

Level 1

10 points

Jun 17, 2012 10:29 PM in response to Phil Hansen

To paste in plain text and/or to match the style you currently have in mail, and to subsequently get rid of that dreadful box, there are TWO ways:

(I actually have to employ the same trick here since I pasted this from another website and get rid of the formatting)

ONE: (Temporary, only pastes formatless when you do this combo)

COPY the text as usual, and when pasting, press Shift + Option + Command + V

TWO: (Permanently pastes formatless, matching the format to the field it's being pasted on)

Open 'System Preferences'
Select 'Keyboard'
Select tab 'Keyboard Shortcuts'
Select 'Application Shortcuts' from the left listbox
Click '+' below right listbox
Select 'All Applications' for 'Application' input box
Type exactly (without the ') 'Paste and Match Style' into the 'Menu Title' input box
In the 'Keyboard Shortcut' input box, press command + V
Click add.

Hope this helps.

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