But you enter each address, one per line. How would you know in advance how many of each (To:/Cc:/Bcc:) you'll need? Or are you forcing Thunderbird to take multiple addresses in a single box? If so, you're defeating some valuable address validity checking.

Here's how I do it.

Type your first To: address. When you hit return it generates another To: box, so continue doing all the To: addresses.

Now you enter the first Cc: address, select Cc:, hit return and the next will "inherit" Cc: as well. So carry on with the Cc: addresses.

Finally, repeat as above for the Bcc: addresses.

Or use the Contacts Sidebar (F9) and use "Add to..." as appropriate, or right click and "Add to...". You can of course multi-select and add many at once.

Zenos: I do sincerely appreciate you taking the time to reply.

From my perch, however, at the end of the day -- it's very "clunky" to have to select from a drop down box every (single) email to CC, BCC, (or of course, "To") in addressing an email.

I love most all of what I have seen of Thunderbird so far, clearly one of the better Open Source tools I've ever used.

That said, a much better design (that I've seen in pretty much any of the email programs I've used in the past) would be have a preset TO, CC, and BCC field, in which you select whom you address via you contact list into the existing field.

Again, thank you though for taking time to respond.

Scott

When I have more than one recipient I tend to use the contact pane to select my recipients. That way I can click on 1 or 21 from the list and click on the add to CC or Add to BCC button to add them all at once. but then I only see two addressing lines as well. So there would be no room for a TO CC and BCC line.

It's six of one, half a dozen of the other. Yes, most email clients allow you to add multiple names to the To: box. So, you've added Dave into the To: box along with 5 others. It's looking pretty unwieldy already, right? Hard to scroll left and right to see all those addresses? Now you rethink and decide that Dave should be in the Cc: list instead. How do you move him? Does your email client make it easy to pick him out, select him and then drag-and-drop onto the Cc: list? When dropping onto the Cc: list, is it easy to avoid dropping Dave right into the middle of Charles? (Can you do any of this without use of the mouse?) Or do you have to delete Dave from To: then re-enter him as a Cc:? Does your client show his full email address, or just an abbreviated form such as "Dave"? Which of the several instances of Dave in your Address Book is this one?

In Thunderbird you just change his To: to a Cc:. And you can see the whole of his email address. And Matt and I have shown you that is not necessary to individually select To:/Cc:/Bcc: for each addressee. And unlike the all in one line methodology, it's dead easy in Thunderbird to expand the addressing space to see as much of the addresses box as you want. Just grab and drag the top edge of the message text pane down or up.

Matt/Zenos:

Thank you both for your time, sharing, and input.

Like anything else, no doubt it's what you get used to. I've been used to the other approach for years and I'll get used to this approach over time.

Thanks again,

Scott

This is the strangest system I could imagine. Look at Outlook Express please. when you create an email and select recipients your address book opens up with three lines next to it  : TO: CC: and BCC:

You select each recipient - or with the Control multiple recipients - and just click on the line you want them to appear on. Fast, simple and intuitive.

Please consider this

troutmalt said

This is the strangest system I could imagine. Look at Outlook Express please. when you create an email and select recipients your address book opens up with three lines next to it  : TO: CC: and BCC:

DO YOU HAVE THE CONTACT PANE ENABLED (f9)

It sounds to me like you just do not have that with it's add to CC, BCC and recipient buttons. Sure it is different, but you get used to it. I have not looked back to an Outlook "Express feature with longing for years now.

You select each recipient - or with the Control multiple recipients - and just click on the line you want them to appear on. Fast, simple and intuitive.

You do exactly the same in the contact pane and press a button. Hardly very different really.

Actually there is a plug-in that does what the OP wants. Check out 'MRC Compose' at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/mrc-compose

It's a breeze to use this. You begin typing an address in the To, CC, or Bcc field and a drop-down appears with matching addresses, from which you choose the one you want.

Mutaupi, Thank you!!! I have been looking for this mrc-compose add-on for a long time. Finally, I can add 'cc' and bcc' recipients from the keyboard without having to touch my mouse! Thank you!

Matt said

troutmalt said

This is the strangest system I could imagine. Look at Outlook Express please. when you create an email and select recipients your address book opens up with three lines next to it  : TO: CC: and BCC:

DO YOU HAVE THE CONTACT PANE ENABLED (f9)

It sounds to me like you just do not have that with it's add to CC, BCC and recipient buttons. Sure it is different, but you get used to it. I have not looked back to an Outlook "Express feature with longing for years now.

You select each recipient - or with the Control multiple recipients - and just click on the line you want them to appear on. Fast, simple and intuitive.

You do exactly the same in the contact pane and press a button. Hardly very different really.

'Contact Pane?' Why not just have a button where you select a list?

troutmalt, please try MRC Compose add-on.

Also, when you install it, be sure to go to

   Tools->Add-ons mager->MRC Compose->preferences->Fields Appearance

And check CC an d BCC fields.

waypast said

'Contact Pane?' Why not just have a button where you select a list?

What is a "list"? You assume that all users habitually use "lists" (whatever you mean by that term).

I for one rarely use pre-defined lists of addressees. Most of my mailings are very specifically targetted to carefully selected recipients. It's rare that a list would be useful to me.

So, where does your button to select a "list" go? How do you propose catering for those of us who add individual addresses? How do you select one out of many lists?

The Contacts Sidebar caters for both situations. It contains both individual Contacts, and Mailing Lists for those who do need pre-defined lists of multiple addressees.