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I use OSX 'Mail' to look at my email.

I have received a message whose contents are not 'wrapping'. Usually, when I resize a window the line breaks reformat so that all the message can be seen. In this message the words run off the side of the window, even on full screen.enter image description here

I am running 0S 10.14.5 on a MacBook

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  • Could you post the mail source on an innocuous email. mail > view > message > raw source I suspect something in the html. Commented Jul 12, 2019 at 19:01
  • @historystamp - it's a big (school newsletter) email. Do you need it all? I'm not sure where to post it for you to see...?
    – Dan
    Commented Jul 12, 2019 at 23:03
  • apple.stackexchange.com/questions/113539/…
    – anki
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 8:12
  • @dan post to guest on pastebin.com Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 18:13
  • @dan free HTML formatter. see: freeformatter.com/html-formatter.html Post raw html here or pastebin.com. FIle size doesn't make a difference. Don't post personal information. You might want to edit out school name. I'll bet they are using fixed formatting or <pre>. Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 18:19

2 Answers 2

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Looks like an HTML email has some CSS settings off the mark. Sender's fault. There is a little you can do. Hit altcmdU and see it in an even worse format but at least the text lines would break way before the width ends.

The shortcut corresponds to View menu → Message → Raw Source.

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  • Thanks, but not really any good - the message is thick with formatting info
    – Dan
    Commented Jul 13, 2019 at 18:08
  • My mistake, I posted the comment to the wrong place. Poof. I didn't realize there were two answers. I don't understand your comment about "out < and >". It doesn't seem to me a mail user could implement this. Is there a way to implement. Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 18:16
  • @historystamp I tried writing a simple buggy python code. pastebin.com/qBxwp1h4. But it makes interactive console in VSCode un-interactive when mail message is three pages long. Also, too much for a newsletter.
    – anki
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 18:57
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This is an HTML part of a message formatted with an unprofessionnal client or directly from a software ill programmed (you can read the culprit name within the raw text source with Mail it should be within the header field X-Mailer: unless it is a really very bad software).

Unfortunatly, Mail doesn't provide any method to display such an ill formatted message as plain text. This is a serious problem since many attack E-mail (most notably phishing attacks) are using this technic to steal private information or to make you connect on a booby trapped web server.

If you are worried by the global security problem of displaying E-mail messages as HTML, I would advise you to use a more professionnal E-mail client like Thunderbird:

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/

In this case, you will be very easily able to display any suspicious E-mail as plain text, but not as raw source, i.e. a humain readable plain text:

View > Message Body As > Plain Text

Thunderbird View Message Body drop down menu

Another security function of Thunderbird is worth noting. When you are not sure of the true sender of an E-mail which can very easily be forged, it will enable you to display all headers which will train you to quickly recognize forged From: and To: headers:

View > Headers > All

Most of the time you will even see the IP address and the program used by the attacker.

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