Thunderbird is better than outlook with the exception of a few extremely irritating things that could be easily fixed
1. Why can't multiple email addresses be pasted into To:, CC: and BCC:? 2. Why is there no resend action available? 3. Why does Thunderbird always have to insert annoying little characters into the signature area that I then have to take time to delete?
Items 1 and 2 force me to have to change machines and use a machine that I have an Outlook license for. If these items were fixed I probably would never need Outlook assuming that you don't steal a page from Microsoft's playbook and start replacing functionality that I have come to depend on with inane and annoying dysfunctionality that supposedly helps but instead aggravates or in some cases enrages. Item 3 falls in this category at an aggravation or annoyance level.
Todas las respuestas (8)
Hi blogman, I am running Thunderbird 38.1 on Windows 7. As far as 1. goes, I have always been able to paste multiple addresses into the To, etc fields. You just need to separate them with a comma and a space. Regarding 2. just right-click the message you sent already (it would be sitting in the Sent folder) and choose "Edit as new". This creates a duplicate, ready to go. I don't have the issue you describe in Item 3 so I'm not sure how to address it. What do you mean by "annoying little characters"? Norio
Hi - How did you copy those multiple addresses from an email being displayed in Thunderbird?
I did find the Edit as New - thanks.
Thunderbird is perfectly designed to allow one email address per line. this makes it easy to remove one or add another. However, you can use copy paste and a comma then space to separate them on one line. But this is long winded and the slowest method and you have to double check you have entered everything correctly. Copy paste is prone to accidentally including additional spaces due to human error. It is not so easy to remove one entered in error.
How to add contacts to address book Generally email addresses are added to the address book then they can used via the Contact sidebar to add several addresses quickly. If you receive an email- a friend sends you an email and you want their name in the address book to make life easy. Left click on the 'From' email address to see drop down options. Select 'Add to Address book' By default it will add them to the 'Personal Address Book'.
Of course, you can also add them manually. click on 'Address Book' Select the address book of choice eg: Personal Address Book Click on 'New Contact' Enter details and click on OK
How to use Contacts Sidebar: In new Write message Enable the Contacts Sidebar if you canot see it. 'View' > 'select 'Contacts Sidebar' or toggle the view using F9 key. Select the address book you require to see contacts You can select several contacts by holding down the Ctrl' key and using mouse to select. then click on 'Add to To' button or one of the other options. All names are added in one go.
If you send one email to several people on a regular basis, you may like to know about Mailing Lists.
re :3. Why does Thunderbird always have to insert annoying little characters into the signature area that I then have to take time to delete?
I presume you are referring to the -- that you see just above the signature. Those dashes -- are called signature delimiters.
If the signature is placed directly after the reply and on top of the quote, it lacks the "-- " signature separator. That separator is used by Thunderbird to strip off the old signature when replying or changing identities. The signature becomes part of the message and can no longer be automatically removed (since it can't be identified using the seperator), causing a stacked signature.
However, you can remove the separators. Tools > Options > Advanced > General tab or Menu icon > Options > Options > Advanced > General tab click on 'Config Editor' button - it will tell you to be careful :)
In top search type: signature_separator look for this line: mail.identity.default.suppress_signature_separator Double click on that line to toggle the Value from 'False' to a 'True'
Close window - top right X click on OK
General info on signature separator/delimiter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_block
Thank you Toad-Hall, for the elucidating responses!
Hi blogman, You CAN copy multiple email address from an email message in Thunderbird in one fell swoop, although it's not as straightforward as I would like it to be.
1) Highlight the message header 2) Type ctrl + u (View-Message Source) 3) In the window that opens, find the the To: or whatever field has the multiple emails and copy the lines. 4) Paste into a decent text editor and edit so the addresses are separated by spaces & commas. 5) Copy & paste into Thunderbird message
Like I said, it's a bit kludgy. However, it's a LOT easier than copying or clicking on email addresses one at a time to add them to the message you're creating, especially if there were 15 addresses or more.
Hope this helped, Norio
The whole design for the To: CC: and BCC: interface is Kludgy. It is that Unix/LInux mindset that overthinks everything and makes things needlessly arcane. Reminds me of trying to create a desktop shortcut in Ubuntu. I finally had to create a shell script to create desktop shortcuts and then create a desktop shortcut to the script to create desktop shortcuts. Outlook has you beat in that department. It's called KISS. One edit control for each kind of recipient. Then its up to the user to create properly delimited lists of email addresses and its up to the interface to parse the input to make sure they did. Not a dynamically created edit control for each additional recipient with a drop down to pick the recipient type. This is why geniuses are actually retarded. It is also the reason Microsoft survives despite it's bloat, arrogance, huberis. You have better, leaner more efficient and more stable program for free but all it takes is a few of these Linux like obfuscations and people will grab their ankles and pay for an office with outlook license every time.
I agree with you--totally. People are like lemmings going over a cliff holding their copies of Office. Another kludgy interface in Thunderbird that needs improvement so users don't abandon hope is the message filters mechanism. I can't believe no one has developed an extension for editing them. Thunderbird developers could have stuck the filters into an sqlite table, but no... Oh well. Take care, blogman.