Cursor placement in a Reply

Question

Something that's always bothered me is how Apple Mail places the cursor directly above the quote line when replying to a new message, as below:
*+(cursor is here)+*
*+On Jan 11, 2011, at 8:49 AM, John Doe wrote:+*
Is there a plist modification that would make the cursor appear with a space below it when replying to a message, as below:
*+(cursor is here)+*
*+On Jan 11, 2011, at 8:49 AM, John Doe wrote:+*
This would automatically provide a space of separation between the quote line and where I begin typing. Most email clients already do this...hoping there's a fix for Apple Mail. Thanks for any suggestions.

Answer 1

Actually there is a way to do this other than the way you've described it, don't be so cocky! I've been using this for years and it does exactly what you are looking for. The only problem is that it no longer works under Lion. If anyone can figure out an update to this solution I'd love to see it! Here it is exactly as I found it worded:
When you reply to a message, Apple Mail quotes the text of the message to which you're replying after a line like "On May 4 2005, at 5:16 PM, John Doe wrote:". For some reason, though, Mail puts a blank line after that line, separating it from the quoted text, and skips putting one before it, so it's right under the cursor and ends up run in with your typed message. It's weird and ugly! To fix this from the Terminal, type this:
sudo vi /System/Library/Frameworks/Message.framework/Versions/\
B/Resources/English.lproj/Delayed.strings
Change the line that reads:
"REPLY_ATTRIBUTION" = "On %1$@, at %2$@, %3$@ wrote:nn";
to this:
"REPLY_ATTRIBUTION" = "\nOn %1$@, at %2$@, %3$@ wrote:\n\n";
Then you'll probably have to restart to clear the system's cache and have the changes take effect.