How can I use messages as notes?
I have finally been forced to migrate from Outlook Express (OE) to Thunderbird. This was a fairly painless operation (thanks folks), but I have one problem that I can't believe is unusual.
I used OE as an organiser, memory-aid, and many similar functions. I have many GB of data, a significant amount of which consisted of pseudo-messages that contained notes, lists, reminders, etc., and which would never be sent anywhere. For instance, if I was pursuing a support call, or a utility complaint, then I might keep a log of all phone conversions, email exchanges, letters, etc., in such a pseudo-message.
I found that there's a couple of 'Edit' option on these messages, but they assumes that I want to save any modified version to my Drafts folder -- which I do not! I simply want to edit these messages in situ, as though they were files, stored in their respective folders (NOT in Drafts).
Is there a way I can do this, or has no one thought of it as a feature. OE handles this very well, and I'm now totally committed to this method of organising my personal life.
All Replies (5)
The full message source can be edited with this add-on:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/header-tools-lite/
For other ways of setting reminders and making notes:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/reminderfox/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/xnotepp/
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/installing-addon-thunderbird
Thanks. I'll give the header-tools-lite a test. I'm not interested in anything too specialised as they will almost certainly have eliminated the flexibility I need.
Just checking: will this only allow me to edit the text of unsent messages? I don't want to mess with anything I've already received or sent
Modified by ACProctor
OK, this is a non-starter for me. Messages that have already been sent or received should be immutable. I once used such messages as evidence in the past and so such an add-on would have rendered them useless at that time.
I have to say that the idea that all your unsent messages should be in a single Drafts folder is a bit "Mickey Mouse" (probably a hangover from the days when people didn't create many folders of their own, and didn't retain many of their historical messages).
Is there no similar add-on that simply enables editing of unsent messages?
[Unrelated, but to put the record straight: OE also had silly instances of arbitrary limitations -- they made it impossible to print an unsent message (say for someone else to review) without copying-and-pasting elsewhere.]
I agree, old email should be immutable. Have you looked at Onenote? Personally I use a calendar for this kind of activity. It nags me when I need to be reminded. ;-)
You could use email and just keep forwarding it to yourself as you edit and amend it…
It's not really a calendar that I need; I simple want to keep notes and other long-term unsent messages in their original folders.
Yes, I could use OneNote, or Word, or even Notepad, ... but the essential thing is that I want these filed along with related messages in my many folders. It's basically just another "file system", but Thunderbird oddly doesn't fully acknowledge that. I can't speak for Microsoft's litany of more-recent email systems, but I do know that OE isn't the only system out there that handles the folders in a more file-system fashion.