There is a clumsy way to check the star status when a message is opened in a tab or window: select Message/Mark, then Add Star is checked if it is starred. A better method is to right-click the Mail Toolbar when the message is open in a tab or window, Customize, and drag the Mark button onto the toolbar. One click on the Mark drop-down shows the star status.

Of course it's easiest if the Message Pane (F8) is open to view messages and the Threads Pane at the same time.

Thanks for that sfhowes - good workarounds.

It's just a shame it's not on the email itself. Even on my low-tech email browser app on my phone it shows it.

When you action something you expect to see a change or acknowledgement but you get neither and for all you know you hit the wrong key. It's just disappointing to have to check each time that you've done it.

I guess it's a design decision rather than an oversight. In the list, the stars serve to draw your attention to certain messages. Once you have a starred message open, it has your attention, so (arguably) the star has done its job and no longer needs to be displayed.

However, I am speaking as someone who doesn't habitually open multiple messages, so I don't need to differentiate between opened messages, and neither do I use stars. If the designers thought along the same lines as I do, then you could say they overlooked a particular use case.

I recall trying to help someone who used a complicated hierarchy of stars, tags and other means to organise messages. His point was that he needed to keep REALLY important messages open in separate windows so he wouldn't lose them, and was stymied by the failure of Thunderbird to dynamically update the displayed date format in these windows when he started it the next day. Few of us could even imagine such a frenetic workflow, let alone anticipate it and design for it.

I think this user really needed a different tool to manage his workflow and to-do lists. His problem was more about resolving between conflicting demands on his time and resources, and getting priorities honoured. An email client is a poor proxy for this.