"Send Mail Message With Subject" Action Is Creating "Rich Text" Emails (Should Be Plain Text)?

Hi,

The Send Mail Message with Subject action seems to always generate message bodies that are Rich Text. I'd like to have the choice to set them as Plain Text.

The text that's added looks plain, in that it takes on the default styling that I've chosen. But when I check in the Format menu Make Plain Text is the option at the bottom (which I'm using as the indicator that the message has been setup or converted to Rich Text; am I wrong?).

  • I have Apple Mail set to default to Plain Text. And it does for emails I create from within Mail.
  • I've typed and pasted plain text into the Body field in the action.
  • Looked in the gear icon/action settings menu for a corresponding option.
  • OS: 10.11.6
  • KM: 8.2.2

Funny enough, I found this in the docs:

:!: Note that this Keyboard Maestro form field supports only plain-text. If you want to enter rich-text, you will need to do so after you run this action.

https://wiki.keyboardmaestro.com/action/Send_Mail_Message#Email_Body

If I'm mistaken, then why does Apple Mail indicate that the messages, created by this action, are currently in Rich Text?

If I have this right, then:

Is there an option I'm missing or is this a Feature Request (i.e.: Be able to specify Plain Text or Rich Text specifically)?

Thanks.

1 Like

I am having the same problem. I want to send plain text email, but Keyboard Maestro defaults to rich text. I used to have the workaround of having the macro type SHIFT-COMMAND-T. But as of November 2022, Apple Mail's response to that command has changed to quote the whole message.

What version of macOS?

Does Mail not still have a plain-text command? Sometimes Apple fiddles around with the keyboard shortcuts, but the commands tend to still be available.

Yes it does. It's still SHIFT-COMMAND-T. But now it has the side effect of quoting the whole message, i.e. treating the whole message as if it were the original text of a reply.

macOS Ventura 13.0 (22A380).

Work around is to leave the body blank, change to plain text (with the keyboard shortcut above), then tab into the body of the email and paste the desired text. But then there's another problem, probably warranting another thread.

That's asinine... Shame Apple, shame!

Mail has always had an unquote command – usually Cmd-Opt-'

See quote level in the format menu.

I'm still using Mojave, so I can't verify this in Ventura.

1 Like

It's not KM, it's Mail -- scripted "new outgoing message" always makes a rich text email, ignoring client settings and the fact you've only provided plain text...

Can also confirm that ventura's "Make Plain Text" is broken. Grrr!

Simplest solution is probably to

  1. Make the message with the KM action, as usual
  2. Make the message active
  3. "Type a Keystroke: ⌘⇧T" to make the message plain text
  4. "Type a Keystroke: ⇧⇥" (Shift-Tab) to go from the "To" field to the message body
  5. "Type a Keystroke: ⌘A" to select the entire body
  6. "Type a Keystroke: ⌘⌥'" (Command-Option-') to remove the quote format

...then whatever keystrokes you need to get you ready for the next stage in your macro.

A total faff -- and totally down to Apple. Double-Grrr!

2 Likes