Text styling (italics, bold, underline) often doesn't work

[herrpoetry@…]

[Running OS X 10.4.7]

I've discovered the following:

1. Open a new draft. Select italics or bold, and type: the typed text comes out in italics or bold. The same is true for underlining, but when, after completing the underlined text, I move the cursor or type anything else, some or all of the previously typed underlining vanishes.

2. Open a new draft. Type some plain text. Move the cursor to some point earlier in the text (i.e. so that now there's text in *front* of the cursor), select italics or bold or underline, and type, and only plain text comes out.

3. When replying (with preferences set to quote selection or entire message in the reply draft), selecting italics or bold or underline, has no effect on subsequently typed text, which just comes out plain.

4. In any of the above scenarios, first highlighting text and then selecting italics or bold, works consistently (so far). But underlining still suffers the problem mentioned above: moving the cursor after underlining some text obliterates some or all of the underlining.