How do I have an address only in its folder?
I can't figure out this address book. I need to have folders, each populated with a list of recipients. I don't know how to import or add recipients to a folder, except to add them to the whole address book, one at a time, and then copy it to the folder....But it is still in the general address book. If I delete it from the general address book, it deletes from the folder too.
This appears to be kind of useless, if my general address book has to have hundreds of recipients, instead of sorting them into folders, which is the whole idea of folders.
What is the method for having a usable address book and how do I do it?
Thank you.
All Replies (3)
The 'Address Book' can contain several 'address books'. Thunderbird comes with 'Personal Address Book' and 'Collected Addresses', which are the default address books - they cannot be deleted. But you can create other address books , which can be deleted.
You do not create folders in the Address Book, you create 'address books'. File > New > address Book So you could create different address books for different groups of people eg: Family, Friends, Clients etc.
Address books can also have 'Mailing Lists'. Mailing Lists are a sub group of the associated address book used when sending one email to several people (all contacts in that Mailing List). To create a mailing list: select the address book which needs a mailing list. File > New > Mailing List
The contact must have a vaild email address and must be in an address book, if wanting to put them in a sub group of that address book. You can then add them to the Mailing List.
if you delete a contact from the address book then they are also deleted from the sub Mailing List which takes it info from the address book. However, you can delete them from a Mailing List and they will still be in the address book.
You can use drag and drop method to move contacts to another address book or to place them into a Mailing List.
In the first image below, I have created a 'Test' Mailing List as a sub group of my Personal Address Book. (Same applies no matter what address book you use) To put contacts into that Mailing List, I select the Personal Address Book to see the contacts. Then I highlight contacts, left click and hold down to grab those contacts and then drag them t the left and hover over the Mailing List, then release the mouse to drop into Mailing List.
When I want to send one email to all of those contacts in the 'Test' Mailing List: From main Thunderbird interface where you see mail accounts and emails. click on 'Write' make sure Contacts sidebar is visible. View > select: Contacts Sidebar or toggle view using f9 key. Select the address book select 'Test' mailing list click on 'Addto bcc' or other option. It will look like the second image below.
Note that the contacts are not inserted as individual names, but as a group name.
If you want to actually see the list of contacts as individual names, then use alternate method: In Address Book select the Mailing List click on 'Write'
If you receive an email from someone and you want to put the email address into your address book. click on the 'From' email address in header and choose 'Add to address book'. By default it places them in the Personal Address Book. (There is an addon called MoreFunctionsforAddressBook which allows to choose the address book. See info below.) You can then edit the contact to add more information eg: Display Name or move them to another address book. In From header, the outline of star will change to a yellow star if contact is in an address book.
'Collected addresses' is by default used to collect email addresses you use that are not in any address book. You can choose to switch this off or choose a different address book. Tools > Options > Composition > Addressing tab or menu icon > Options > Options > Composition > Addressing tab
'Automatically add outgoing email addresses to my :' select address book deselect this option to switch it off click on OK to save changes.
MoreFunctionsForAddressBook
This addon offers more choices within the Address Book.
Thanks so much, just started T-Bird today and was going to give up on changing to T-Bird, I have been using Eudora for years but something in the "Certificate" changed and I can't get it to connect to my ISP so I thought I'd try Thunderbird. I can access my mail using Outlook but never seemed to like Outlook .. don't know why. That explanation above was just what I needed ..thanks for the help. Chaz
Modified by chaz99