My opinion: you're using the wrong tool. A document in review is best done with a word-processor. Thunderbird, like other email clients, sees the interaction as a conversation and that is why the vertical lines with colors. My suggestion: if you prefer to continue using thunderbird, use the 'edit as new message' menu option each time you modify it. That's really what you're doing.

David:

TB is a perfectly fine editor and it's nice to be able to edit and send in the same program -- but for the bleeding lines. I use 'edit as new message' already, but it can't remove existing lines. Where can I find actual stored messages? Maybe I can edit away the '>' characters there.

David: TB is a perfectly fine editor and it's nice to be able to edit and send in the same program -- but for the bleeding lines. I use 'edit as new message' already, but it can't remove existing lines. Where can I find actual stored messages? Maybe I can edit away the '>' characters there.

Yet you want to remove the message quoting because it is not a perfectly fine editor. I think David is correct. You want to modify your tool because the tool is not suitable for the purpose.

I just installed the ReplyWithHeader if it is not working for you, I would have to guess you do not have write access to the relevant folder in your profile. But I seriously do not see what the addon is going to do for you.

It offers to clean up, not remove quoting. What that really means I have no idea, but I doubt it is good as far as you are concerned. All I can see it doing is reducing the depth of the indent for each "quote" block.

Appropriate tools would be;

• Online collaboration tools in most word processors or even online suites like google offering where the file is stored in the cloud and universally accessed.
• Attach a word processing or text file to the email to send back and forth, but you can not edit those in place so are less useful than a cloud stored file and word processor collaboration.

If you click this link you can collaborate on a document stored in my Google account. No quotes, no messing around with back and forth emails, concurrent updates and importantly is is a fairly good document editor.

Fundamentally if the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Move beyond the analogy and at least look at using modern tools that do what you are doing, without requiring modification.

> Yet you want to remove the message quoting because it is not a perfectly fine editor. I think David is correct. You want to modify your tool because the tool is not suitable for the purpose.

To belabor the point, it's a perfectly fine editor *except* that it would be nice to be able to turn off the lines on occasion. It would seem like a very simple thing to implement.

> I just installed the ReplyWithHeader if it is not working for you, I would have to guess you do not have write access to the relevant folder in your profile.

Unlikely to be a permissions thing since I run as root. Dunno, but it won't install. I'd like to give it a try and see if it would solve my issue -- or not.

> If you click this link you can collaborate on a document stored in my Google account.

There could be merit to that, I've never tried any 'cloud' anything. Meanwhile simple email correspondence is fast and simple and under close control so I like it ... but I wish I could turn off the lines. BTW, *only* for this! I love the lines for normal correspondence, however Windows email clients seem not to do it at all. Seems to me it should be a setup option.