Tips & Tricks
This page contains various tips and tricks for Thunderbird. Most of these tips involve editing of text files on your hard drive and is not recommended if you're not familiar with basic file and folder usage.
Contents
Program Appearance
Use different Quote Level Colors
This tip is very useful because it adds different colors of both the text and background of different quote levels in messages. This makes it much easier to follow a long discussion in newsgroups for example, where the level of reply quotes can go very deep.
Of course, you can customize the colors in the code below to your own liking. Add the following code to your userContent.css file:
/* Quote Levels Colors */
blockquote[type=cite] {
color: navy !important; background-color: RGB(245,245,245) !important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote {
color: maroon !important; background-color: RGB(235,235,235) !important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote {
color: green !important; background-color: RGB(225,225,225) !important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote {
color: purple !important; background-color: RGB(215,215,215) !important;
}
blockquote[type=cite] blockquote blockquote blockquote blockquote {
color: teal !important; background-color: RGB(205,205,205) !important;
}
Make newsgroup names appear expanded, not abbreviated
The newsgroup server names appear abbreviated in the folder pane. Add the following code to your user.js file to display the full name instead:
// Don't abbreviate newsgroup names:
user_pref("mail.server.default.abbreviate", false);
Display HTML messages as plain text
Rich text (HTML) mail messages can be both annoying and a security risk. Add the following code to your user.js file to force these messages to be displayed as plain text:
// HTML messages display (0 - HTML, 1 - plain text):
user_pref("mailnews.display.html_as", 1);
Program Behavior
Download mail from all accounts on startup
Thunderbird can download mail from all accounts when you start the program. Just add the following code to your user.js file:
// Download mail from all accounts on startup
user_pref("mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new", true);
Don't use the sending progress window
You can choose to hide the progress window that appears when sending a message by adding the following code to your user.js file:
// Turn off extra sending window
user_pref("mailnews.show_send_progress", false);
Change the reply header
The standard reply header [author] wrote:
can be changed to virtually anything, so make your e-mails more personalized. Add and modify the following code to your user.js file, instructions are in the comments:
// Change the reply header
// 0 - No Reply-Text
// 1 - "[Author] wrote:"
// 2 - "On [date] [author] wrote:"
// 3 - User-defined reply header. Use the prefs below in conjuction with this:
user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_type", 3);
// If you set 3 for the pref above then you may set the following prefs.
user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_authorwrote", "%s said the following");
user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_ondate", "on %s");
user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_separator", " ");
user_pref("mailnews.reply_header_colon", ":");
// The end result will be [authorwrote][separator][ondate][colon]
Remember news server states in folder pane
In order to prevent stress on news servers, Thunderbird collapses news servers by default at startup so that it doesn't check for new messages. You can enable the persistance of newsgroups by adding the following code to your user.js file:
// Remember news server states in folder pane:
user_pref("news.persist_server_open_state_in_folderpane", true);
Open mail links in new windows or tabs
If you're using Mozilla Firebird as your browser, you can have mail links open in new browser tabs (or windows) instead of reusing existing browser windows. To do this, follow the instructions at the Mozilla Firebird Help site.
Change the throbber URL
When you click on the throbber, you are directed to www.mozilla.org. This can be changed to any URL by adding the following code to your user.js file:
// Click on throbber to go to Thunderbird Help:
user_pref("messenger.throbber.url", "http://texturizer.net/thunderbird/");
Specify the time to display the new mail notification
When new mail arrives, a small notification pops up at the bottom-right edge of the screen. With this tip, you can specify the time to display this alert. Add the following code to your user.js file:
// Specify the time to display new mail alert (in milliseconds):
user_pref("alerts.totalOpenTime", 4000);