Make Thunderbird 3 Run Like Outlook

I'm a dedicated PC lover. Since XP, I've loved Windows. I even paid for a completely legit copy of Windows 7, which rules.

I can't stand Macs. Macs "just work," but they just work in the ways Steve Jobs wants you to work. I'm a born tweaker. Without computers, I'd have grown up a greasy mechanic instead of a part-time computer nerd.

One of the big reasons I'm such a fan of Windows is the huge community of software developers creating hundreds of thousands of free, open-source, legal, and extremely useful software programs. Mac-fascists would claim that Jobs provides for all computing needs. That's an easy claim to make when all you need to do is sync your iPod, charge your iPhone, and make a few home movies.

Unfortunately, quality software from Microsoft doesn't come cheap. The standard Office suite is $400. And then you have to make sure you're eligible for upgrades. 

So when my favorite tech blog Lifehacker explained that Mozilla's Thunderbird 2.0 was a reasonable alternative, I ditched Outlook 2000 and joined the new millenium. Since then, Thunderbird has upgraded to 3.0, which offers some big improvements. Still, there are some default settings that bother me. I offer my tweaks here (Take that Apple Mail users!).

First, download Thunderbird and install it. Set up your email accounts. If your email provider offers IMAP, you should use that instead of POP3. POP3 email downloads mail to one device, which can leave other devices with out-of-date copies of your email. IMAP mail syncs your mailbox across multiple computers and smartphones. Gmail and many workplaces offer IMAP while residential ISPs like Comcast offer only POP3 (Here are Gmail's recommended IMAP settings for Thunderbird).

To make these configuration changes, click TOOLS --> OPTIONS --> ADVANCED --> GENERAL --> CONFIG EDITOR. You'll get a warning about voiding the warranty, which is just Mozilla's jokey way of warning you to be careful. The beauty of free software is that if you screw it up, you simply uninstall it, download it again, and re-install it! Agree to be careful and proceed.

To make the various config changes below, copy/paste the bold and italic lines into the about:config filter field. Double-clicking on the result will toggle the values from true to false and back.

To automatically check all IMAP folders for new mail when Thunderbird opens:

mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new 

Set to "true".

To stop showing the "sending progress" window when sending an email:

mailnews.show_send_progress 

Set to "false".

To send emails in the background, behind the Thunderbird screen:

mailnews.sendInBackground 

Set to "true".

Thunderbird offers a view called "threaded view", which sorts emails by conversation or subject line instead of by the sender or time the email was received. Threaded view is a good way to stay on top of a string of emails. 

To show the threaded view even when you've sorted the emails by some other column (like "sender"):

mailnews.thread_pane_column_unthreads

Set to "false".

To change the default column sort order (for example, to set Thunderbird to show emails in descending order that emails were received):

mailnews.default_sort_order

Change from the default of "1" to "2".

One reason Mozilla's Firefox web browser is so popular is the community of add-on pieces of software that make the browser more customizable and useful. Thunderbird also has a wide variety of add-ons. Here are my favorite add-ons:

• Text2Link: If an email shows a full URL but doesn't include a hyperlink, highlight the URL, right-click, and hit "open URL as new tab".
• ReFwdFormatter: Removes the ">" prefix from quoted emails when replying or forwarding. Also removes "[" and "]" from subject lines when forwarding.
• Show More Recipients: This add-on is a patch to fix the annoying default in Thunderbird 3 that shows additional email recipients as "More". This issue will be resolved in a future Tbird update. This problem has been fixed in Thunderbird 3.1.3, though you still have to enable the fix. The very bottom post of this help forum here explains how.
• addressContext: Create new mailing lists from the header of an email with a large group of recipients.
• KeyConfig: Allows you to customize the keyboard shortcuts. One application of this is to reassign the Thunderbird keyboard shortcuts to mimic Microsoft Outlook. (alt+w = forward email, ctrl+r = reply, ctrl+l = reply to all) Once KeyConfig is installed, you access it from Tools --> KeyConfig. The "reply" setting is found in "Reply to Newsgroup". The other settings are pretty obvious.
• And then there's a great add-on for Firefox called Email This! which allows you to right-click on any web page and choose a way to email that page's title and URL via your default email client. 

What are your favorite Thunderbird add ons? I'll update this if I find more add ons I like and watch for a future post on my favorite Firefox add ons.