Macworld: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes ...

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12 Replies Last post: Mar 5, 2007 5:06 AM by seattleda

Macworld.com

1,900 posts since
Feb 6, 2004

Feb 5, 2007 10:30 AM

Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

Too many quote characters mucking up your Mail? Here are two options for cleaning it up. more

TeaEarleGreyHot

247 posts since
Sep 29, 2005

1. Feb 5, 2007 2:23 PM

in response to: Macworld.com

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

Thanks SO much for this tip! I've wanted to remove quote levels many times, but never realized the capacity was built-in to Mac Mail, just by using command-option-apostrophe!

FYI, I found that you can do the reverse (add quote levels) by using command-apostrophe (same as above, but without the option).

imjeffp

44 posts since
Jul 7, 2004

2. Feb 5, 2007 3:49 PM

in response to: TeaEarleGreyHot

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

But can you change the default behavior of putting quoted material at the end of a new message to putting it at the beginning?

manray

4 posts since
Dec 2, 2006

3. Feb 5, 2007 3:52 PM

in response to: Macworld.com

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

What's really sad is that in the previous version of OS X Mail had the Increase/Decrease quote level in the contextual menu. So a control-click on selected text made quick work of formatting. I never understood why they removed that. It is much easier than a cryptic key-command or traveling up to the menu bar.

svp

3 posts since
Feb 5, 2007

4. Feb 5, 2007 4:09 PM

in response to: Macworld.com

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

Quote:<hr />
Too many quote characters mucking up your Mail?

<hr />

Some years ago I created a HyperCard (yes, it still exists!) one card stack that can remove quotes, remove soft end-of-line returns, delete >, insert or delete returns, clean tabs, remove or insert commas, insert tabs and perform other nifty things to text or even undo everything done to it. I use this program every day as I write a lot to the web and email. One day for sure it'll get rewritten to Revolution or SuperCard or both but until then ... Long live HyperCard!

153957

46 posts since
Jul 13, 2006

5. Feb 5, 2007 5:13 PM

in response to: Macworld.com

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

Or just go to the menu!
Format -> Quote Level -> Increase/Decrease ...

Chris Breen

3,595 posts since
Dec 11, 2000

6. Feb 5, 2007 5:38 PM

in response to: 153957

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

Quote:<hr />
Or just go to the menu!
Format -> Quote Level -> Increase/Decrease ...

<hr />

Right, I included the keyboard command for that because it's annoying to have to invoke a menu command several times if you need to get rid of several layers of quotes. It's for this same reason that I don't miss the contextual menu command. If there was a single Remove All Quotes command, great. But otherwise, too much work.

John_Christopher

1 posts since
Feb 5, 2007

7. Feb 5, 2007 8:41 PM

in response to: Macworld.com

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

Chris, my namesake may have a Ph.D. but I've got a BMW!
He goes far, I just go fast.

Thanks for mentioning me (and DriveSavers) here in the forum. (I'll give you the twenty bucks next time I see you).

Cheers:)
The Notorious John Christopher

153957

46 posts since
Jul 13, 2006

8. Feb 6, 2007 2:06 AM

in response to: Chris Breen

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

I just wanted to illustrate that it actually had a menu item, and also one for increasing the quote level.

roger_purves

1 posts since
Feb 6, 2007

9. Feb 6, 2007 2:12 AM

in response to: Macworld.com

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

to Chris:

Do you have any idea if there are technical obstacles to
the following interface in Mail?

(*) Click on a vertical line (quote level) to select it. Then
press the delete key.

A colleague asked me how to get rid of the quote levels
and that is what I tried. It seemed reasonable to me
at the time, and it still does. Someone may ask
me the same question two years from now. I might
remember something like: hmmm, there's some
obscure keys you press--an expert at the Macworld
site posted it. But that's all I will remember,
certainly not the particular keys. On the other
hand, I won't have forgotten (*).

Roger Purves

Fixx

166 posts since
Aug 28, 2004

10. Feb 6, 2007 6:18 AM

in response to: roger_purves

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

Command-option-apostrophe does not work in this system. Maybe in U.S. keyboards it does. Or maybe system has for some reason reserved it for some other use. ADDING quote levels work fine by pressing command-apostrophe.

Of course, it is always possible to copy-paste all text to some text application and back. That roundtrip removes mail specific attributes.

Chris Breen

3,595 posts since
Dec 11, 2000

11. Feb 6, 2007 10:57 AM

in response to: Fixx

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

Fixx: Take a look in the Format menu and see what's listed as the keyboard command for decreasing the quote level.

seattleda

1 posts since
Mar 5, 2007

12. Mar 5, 2007 5:06 AM

in response to: Macworld.com

Re: Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

Is there a way to change Mail so that instead of using the "|" pipe character it uses the ">" greater than character for quotes? I can't stand the way Mail does this, even in "plain text" format. How can it be "plain text" if it has control characters to set off quote levels?

Thanks,

Dave

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Feb 5, 2007 10:30 AM

Mac 911 Weblog: Removing Mail quotes

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