Two questions about Thunderbird

I've just installed Thunderbird as a stand-alone mail client, in order to keep my business email completely separated from my personal email (which I still use Netscape 4.8 for). I like Thunderbird, but there are a couple of things I can't figure out, even after thoroughly searching this website!

1. When I'm in a drop-down screen, and I click the "Help" button at the bottom, nothing at all happens. Did I somehow lose some helpf files when I installed Thunderbird? The main "Help" button takes me to either texturizer.com or mozilla.org, and neither of them really explain the details of all the features.

2. How do I get rid of that dang-blasted opening "welcome" screen? I'd like the program to open with a blank screen there. (And it's been so long since I got rid of the equivalent screen in Netscape, I've forgotten what I did.)

 

1. I have no idea what you are referring to. On the top toolbar there is a Help button, which drops down, and has all it is supposed to have.
2. I think you are referring to the Start Page. Uncheck the box in Tools|Options| General.

 

Okay, I found the box to uncheck (duh!) to get rid of the opening screen - remind me never to install new software at 3 AM again. As for the Help button... if I click on the Help button at the top of the screen, it opens IE (which is also kind of weird - why doesn't it open Netscape?) and takes me to http://texturizer.net/thunderbird/
That website offers a FAQ and a few hints and tips, but it's nothing like a help file.

I'm liking Thunderbird more and more, but now I've got yet another question. How can I get it to mark quoted material with the > marks I'm used to, instead of the Outlook-like blue line?

 

I think I understand what's going on. Thunderbird being a Mail program has no way to go to the web. Apparently the info is on the Web, for now, and not within the program. When I click Help, it will try to access Netscape7.2, who is my default browser. If you see IE, it is because IE is your default browser.
As for the quotes, it is the old way to do, which I never saw, but receive some mail like that, and, promptly copy it to my eCleaner program to strip them.
I never used Outlook, and never noticed a blue line, but I enter manually the > at the beginning and end of the quote, because it may be clearer. But, I detest to have > all over. But, it all depends on what you are used to.
I have not used 4.8 for mail in over two years, so does it give you the > feature?

 

Netscape 4.x mail defaults to prefixing quoted lines with >, and that's what I'm used to seeing. When I try to reply to a message in Thunderbird, the quoted material is indented, with a vertical blue line to the left. I think I saw something in the "Hints & Tips" section of the help webpage - something about editing one of the config files (which you have to create first), to change that blue line.

IE is not my default browser, but for some reason many programs (such as ICQ) seem to think it is. That's another thing I'd like to straighten out...

 

I don't have an answer about your way of seeing the mail.
But, I promise that I will try.
As for the second one, it is not that your program is being thought to be IE, but rather the website being set up in such a way that only IE is brought up.
I, generally, take note of those sites, and contact them. In some rare cases, I get positive action, a few other sites, they tell me that it best to use another browser, and most don't answer.
I have set up Zone Alarm to block IE, so it does not open.
Laziness, that's all.
It is possible to get such sites to work by faking the User Agent, but other sites have a sniffer, which detects the browser. I don't miss such sites.

 

I found out how to change the quoting to the familiar > in Thunderbird. Basically, you have to make sure to banish all forms of HTML from your messages. (Whose bright idea was it to put HTML into email in the first place?)

I'm afraid that if I use ZoneAlarm to block IE from accessing the internet, the programs that automatically open links in IE will just give up, and not open the links at all. Would the fact that I have Netscape set as my default browser then take over, or would I just get an error message, or no response at all?

 

You can also add these scripts to the prefs.js file, or create a user.js file, and add them:


// Classic ">" back instead of the vertical bar

user_pref( "mail.quoted_graphical ", false);
user_pref( "mail.quoteasblock ", false);
user_pref( "mailnews.display.disable_format_flowed_support ", true);

Ramona

 

Thanks, Ramona!

Yet another question... if I replace my tired old Netscape 4.8 with Mozilla, will its built-in email function be pretty much the same as Thunderbird? I'm liking TBird more and more, the more I use it, but I really do need to have two separate mail clients (personal and business).

 

acelightning,

TBird is based on Mozilla code, so the answer is yes... Mozilla 1.7.3 Mail is rock solid.

Ramona

 

Thanks - that sounds very promising. I'm going to be moving in a few days, which means I'm going to have to set up the computers again in the new location... and then I'll be offline until the phone company gets around to installing the DSL. (Well, I can go back to using dial-up access, but of course that's an emergency solution only!) Anyway, once the dust settles, I might just decide to install Mozilla and see where that gets me...

 

Personally, I think that if you give HTML mail a try, you'll find that you like it much better than plain text mail, because there are far more features available. I've been using it for nearly two years, and cringe when I see a message full of > >.

 

Jim,
I don't cringe, but I have a copy of eCleaner, a small program which is no longer supported, but probably still available at some download sites .
I copy the message, and paste it into eCleaner. And, click on Clean, symbols, HTML, or whatever you don't like.