The way to do this is to have separate accounts on your computer.

By "account" daily_9_5 means Windows user accounts. Refer to the Microsoft help pages on how to setup different user accounts on the same computer.

There is no way to do this directly in Thunderbird.

As good as Thunderbird is and that is something it can't do. I am really surprised. Thanks for the replies. If someone else can figure out a way to do this please let me know.

RH

Let me ask you this, can you do this when you write a letter in Word? I already know the answer is no. Thunderbird is software just like that created by Microsoft. Microsoft created user profiles in the Windows operating system to accomplish what you want to do. That is how it works.

It doesn't matter which operating system you use: Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix. They all provide the ability for you to create separate user accounts using the operating system. You create a separate user account for you and for your wife. When you turn on the computer, you login to your user account, you "own" that bit of the system and it is private. Ditto for your wife, when she turns on the computer, she logs into her user account.

I really do appreciate everyone's input to my question. I guess what I wanted to do, and how it can be done aren't as simple as I had hoped. But I know what will work now. Thank you again and have a nice holiday season.