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Options and Miscellaneous Features
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To choose columns, click on the icon which appears at the right edge of the column headings. You'll be shown a drop-down menu of columns; the headings with checkmarks are the ones that are currently shown in your mail folders. Select an unchecked heading to add it to the display or select a checked heading to remove it from the display. To reorder the columns, just drag a column heading to the desired location. A similar icon is available in your address book and while doing searches. |
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Checking for messages comes in two flavors: manual and automatic.
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To check for new messages manually, click the Get Mail icon in the toolbar or, from Thunderbird's File menu, select Get New Messages. |
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To set the options for automatic checking, from Thunderbird's Tools menu select Account Settings. In the account list on the left, select Server Settings for the account you want to configure. In the Server Settings section on the right you'll find two checkboxes. The first determines whether Thunderbird will check for new messages when you start it. The second determines how often Thunderbird will check. |
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You can choose whether Thunderbird will send your messages as plain text or allow you to format them with fonts, colors, links, images, etc. Two cautionary notes:
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To set the options for formatting, from Thunderbird's Tools menu select Account Settings. In the account list on the left, select Composition & Addressing for the account you want to configure. The first checkbox on the right determines whether the messages you create can contain HTML formatting, or can be only plain text. |
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If you choose HTML formatting, you will see a formatting toolbar in the message window as you compose outgoing messages.
If you choose plain text, your signature file (if you use one) must not use HTML formatting codes.
When you receive a message that includes an attachment, Thunderbird stores the attachment as part of the mail message, not as a separate file. See our Thunderbird Attachments page for more information.
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To set the options for formatting, from Thunderbird's Tools menu select Options. (Macintosh users: from the Thunderbird menu select Preferences) Click on the Attachments icon. If you select the first radio button, Thunderbird will ask you where you want each attachments saved. If you select the second radio button, you can specify where you want attachments saved.
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Regardless of which of these choices you select, Thunderbird will not save your attachments as separate files until you specifically ask it to for a particular message and file.
The message pane (sometimes called the message preview area) is found at the lower-right section of the Thunderbird window (if you are using the default layout. (What's a layout?) When you highlight an individual message in the message list (which is normally the upper-right section of the Thunderbird window), the headers and first few lines of that message will be displayed in the message pane. To view the message in its entirety, double-click its entry in the message list.
You can remove the message pane entirely: from Thunderbird's View menu, select Layout, then select Message Pane. This will remove the checkmark and the message pane will disappear. Follow these same steps again to restore the checkmark and the message pane.
From Thunderbird's Tools menu choose Account Settings. In the Account Settings dialog box, on the left, choose Composition & Addressing (under your account name). On the left, put a checkmark next to Automatically quote the original message when replying to include the original text in your reply. In the drop-down box next to Then, choose whether you want your reply to appear above or below the quote. |
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As delivered, Thunderbird will quote the original message in its entirety. There is an extension called QuickQuote that allows you to customize the quoting process. Please visit our Thunderbird Extensions page for more information.
Last updated: May 23, 2007
