The following five add-ons have recently been added to the Mozilla Thunderbird extensions repository at the Mozilla website. Some of them are not yet compatible with the latest beta of Thunderbird 3. The email user needs to force compatibility in this case with the Nightly Tester Tools add-on (or edit the compatibility setting in the xpi file manually).

Extra Folder Columns

Thunderbird 2 users were able to display extra columns in the mail folder sidebar. These columns could display the size of each folder on the local hard drive, the total number of emails contained within and the amount of emails that have not been read yet. Not so with Thunderbird 3 which does not provide these additional columns for the folders at all.

Extra Folder Columns has been designed for Thunderbird 3 to add those three columns again to the web browser. All three data columns will be displayed by default but the user has the option to remove them individually so that only the columns are displayed that are of interest to the Thunderbird user.

download Extra Folder Columns

Show In/Out

Show In/Out has been designed for Thunderbird users who like to move email conversations, that is all incoming and outgoing emails, to one folder to have access to all emails of a conversation directly. Thunderbird by default does not show if an email was an incoming or outgoing email. That’s where Show In/Out steps in. It adds two new columns to the main window of Thunderbird. The first displays an icon showcasing if the email was incoming or outgoing, the second displays the name of the sender or recipient depending if the email was incoming or outgoing.

The developer has designed the add-on to replace the sender and recipient columns in the Thunderbird main window helping users who like to move all incoming and outgoing emails into the same folder.

download Show In/Out

ThunderBirthDay

ThunderBirthday will display the birthdays of email contacts in the Lightning calendar add-on. The extension has two dependencies that need to be installed before it can be installed. It first needs the Lighting calendar add-on for Thunderbird and second the MoreFunctionsForAddressBook add-on which adds the fields “birthday”, “birthmonth” and “birthyear” to the email address book.

Create a new calendar in Lightning by clicking File>New>Calendar… in the menu bar. Then choose “On My Computer” as location and “Birthdays from the Thunderbird addressbook” as type for your calendar. Also specify the address book to use as a source for birthdays. Finally choose a name for the new calendar.

Now open the “Edit Card” dialog of an address book card and set the birthday in the “Other data” tab. Note that these changes don’t take effect in the calendar until it gets reloaded. To do this either restart Thunderbird or right click on a calendar from the list, then choose “Reload Remote Calendars”.

Also note that the events generated by ThunderBirthDay cannot be modified with Lightning for the moment. Maybe future versions of the extension will be bidirectional.

download ThunderBirthDay

Forward

Thunderbird by default forwards email messages as attachments. This can be changed in Tools → Options → Composition → General so that the email messages are forwarded as inline messages instead. There is also an option in the Message menu to select either attachment or inline as the method of forwarding the selected emails in Thunderbird. This add-on simply moves this option to more prominent locations: The Forward button and Message context menus.

download Forward

Border Colors

If you have multiple email accounts configured in Thunderbird you might know that there is a chance that you send an email to a recipient from a wrong account. Border Colors is a very simple add-on for Thunderbird that color codes each account that has been configured in the email client. The colors have to be selected after the installation of the add-on as black is being used as the default color for all email accounts.

After configuration a border in the color that has been chosen during configuration will be shown when writing emails. A switch between accounts in the compose email window will also change the border color accordingly.

download Bordercolors

I hope you enjoyed this article. Please write a comment if you would like to have your say on a specific add-on mentioned in this article or would like to add one of your favorite Thunderbird add-ons so that other users can benefit from it as well.

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The situation will likely change with the final release of the email client. It is on the other hand likely that most Thunderbird add-ons will function correctly if their compatibility is edited manually or by using an add-on like the Nightly Tester Tools.

Buttons [link]

The Buttons add-on adds several new buttons to Thunderbird 3 including buttons to display the next or previous email (as opposed to displaying the next or previous unread email which is the default option in Thunderbird), SMTP server selection, delete junk button that marks the message as junk and deletes it afterwards, HTML and Image on and off buttons or a delete thread button that deletes the entire thread of messages.

Hide Menubar [link]

The Thunderbird 3 menu does not usually need to be displayed all of the time. Especially users with lower screen resolutions might be interested to save screen estate to work more comfortable in the email client. Hide Menubar is a straightforward Thunderbird 3 add-on that hides the Thunderbird 3 menubar automatically. The alt key can be used to switch between hiding and displaying the menubar.

gContactSync [link]

This add-on makes it possible to synchronize contacts between the Thunderbird email client and one or multiple Gmail and Google accounts.

Smooth Wheel [link]

Smooth Wheel offers the ability to fine tune the mouse scrolling smoothness in Thunderbird. The default smoothness does not satisfy many Thunderbird users (and actually Firefox users as well) and this is the add-on to customize the smoothness for a better experience.

Remove Duplicate Messages [link]

Duplicate emails are usually experienced during connection errors or if the mail program or mailboxes got damaged. This add-on cleans duplicate emails easily offering to move or delete them in the email program.

FiltaQuilla [link]

FiltaQuilla adds new filters to Thunderbird extending the automatic email processing options in the email client. It is for example possible to launch or run a file, append to subject, train the email program as good or junk and mark the email as unread or replied.

Foxclocks [link]

Can display multiple clocks in the Thunderbird interface.

Know of any other Thunderbird 3 add-ons that should be in this list? Let us know in the comments.

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Another excellent feature is the ability to mark text and perform a search or create a link from it. By default Google and Wikipedia are available but the add-on provides access to custom searches as well which can be added in no time in the add-on’s options. Three links can be created from any word that is marked, they lead to www.word.com, www.word.org and www.word.net with the option to add custom extensions like co.uk as well.

Another interesting feature is the option to convert email addresses in the mail body to links. Say someone added a mailto link in the body text of the email. This could be converted into a link to the domain of the email, e.g. from someone@something.com to www.something.com. It can also handle Javascript links.

The option to add custom manipulations is what makes this Thunderbird add-on special. Each function is accessible through the right-click context menu.

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Searching can be done in two ways. In the first the user clicks on an entry in one of the variables, say mails since yesterday which blends all older mails out. The matching mails are then displayed in the mail folder as usual. The same principle works with every column, say tags or priority.

Search can be refined by typing in search terms. It would not be a problem to find all messages with the search term ghacks of the last two days, or mails of the last months that have been tagged with work and contain the keyword project.

Seek 1.0 extension to Mozilla Thunderbird from David Huynh on Vimeo.

One of the nicest aspects of this extension is the visualization which displays a timeline of incoming mails. The Seek [via Lifehacker]Thunderbird extension however has some shortcomings which I would like to address.

It does work best if you have all mails in one folder because it is folder based which is a pity because I tend to neatly organize my emails in folders and filter them on arrival so that they are moved to the correct folder. Makes it easier for me but this extension less useful.

The thing that’s bothering me the most however is the fact that you have to index folders before you can use Seek. That takes a few seconds only but you have to do it every time you change folders even if there has not been a change in that folder since then.

My default order of displaying emails is to group them by date which has been changed by the extension even if it is not active.

Last but not least you have to disengage Seek before you can delete mails in the active folder. The extension is great but it has those shortcomings which make it unusable for me unfortunately.

Providing a central index that gets updated whenever new mail arrives or is changed would be welcome because this is in my opinion the biggest problem of Seek currently.

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Unselect Message puts an end to this. Instead of moving to the next message in line when deleting or moving a message it simply does not select a new message. This makes sure that Thunderbird does not jump to a spam or malicious message after deleting or moving the previous one.

Unselect Message is unfortunately not compatible with the latest version of Thunderbird unless you change that. It seems that the author is not developing the extension anymore but it is working fine in the latest version of Thunderbird.

Download the Thunderbird add-on from the Mozilla website. Rename the xpi extension to zip and unpack it. Now edit the file install.rdf with a text editor and change the maxVersion entry from 1.6 to 2.1. Save the file and move it into the archive once again replacing the old version of it.

Now install the Thunderbird add-on as usual and the extension should work just fine.

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The Thunderbird add-on Mail Redirect allows mail redirects instead of forwards to other recipients. This ensures that the recipient will only see the original message and not the information that are attached when the email gets forwarded.

The extension Mail Redirect adds a Redirect option to the Thunderbird right-click menu which means that more than one email can be redirected at a time. Alternatively the keyboard shortcut CTRL + B can be used to redirect messages.

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Duplicate entries can have several reasons. Besides corrupt address book files it can also be that the same contact send you mails from different accounts. You can use the Duplicate Contact Manager to merge those information by adding the second email to the first address book entry and deleting it afterwards.

The add-on can be started by opening the address book in Thunderbird and clicking on the – newly added – Duplicates menu and there on the Find and manage Duplicates entry.

The process takes a while and is semi-automatic. There is no information how the extension compares the address book entries but my understanding is that it compares several variables such as displayed name, first and second name and displays those entries if it finds a match.

This does mean however that you will get lots of matches for popular first names such as John or Mary. Takes a while as well depending on the amount of contacts in your address book.

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The most useful keyboard shortcuts in my opinion are the first four which all open a line at the bottom of Thunderbird that accepts folder names. It displays folder suggestions once you begin typing a name much like Google Suggests work when you search the web.

It is possible to select a suggestion for quicker access instead of writing the full name. You can also press enter once a single suggestion is displayed in Thunderbird. The shortcut l seems to be useful as well because it hides the folder pane which means that mails can be viewed using the full width of the window.

• [G] Open a specific folder
• [S] Move the current message to a specific folder
• [B] Move the current message to a specific folder and go there
• [C] Copy the current message to a specific folder
• [L] Hide/show the folder pane
• [ESC-F] Focus the folder pane
• [ESC-M] Focus the message pane
• [ESC-ESC] Focus the thread pane
• [ESC-ESC-ESC] Focus the thread pane, clear quick search box, select the “All” view
• [ESC-I] Focus the quick search box (same as Ctrl-K)
• [Ctrl-Left/Right] Scroll the message from the thread pane

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The Thunderbird add-on Thunderbird Message Filter Import/Export makes it easy to export mail filters from one account or computer and import those mail filters to another computer or mail account easily. This ensures that all mail accounts work with the same filters which gets rid of the learning process.

The add-on adds an Export Filters button to the Tools > Message Filters window. Just select the account that you want to export filters from and click on the Export Filters button. Filters are imported in the Tools > Import filters menu.

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Thunderbird offers two possibilities to handle attachments differently. The possibility would be to save the attachment and delete the attachment in the mail folder in the process or to detach it from the mail while keeping the link in the mail intact for as long as the attachment stays on the hard drive.

Both options can be accessed by right-clicking the attachment in the attachment pane which can be found below the message if that message contains at least one attachment. The user would either choose Save As, Detach or Delete from that menu. The option to to save, delete or detach all attachments is available as well.

While this is fine if you do receive attachments every know and then it becomes lots of work if you get one regularly. A way to process mail folders directly would be to use the Thunderbird add-on Attachment Extractor.

This add-on can process complete folders and save, detach or delete all attachments found inside plus auto-extract attachments from mails automatically. This is far easier and better if you have lots of mails with attachments.

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The list of extensions disappointed me a little bit, 297 add-ons is not much considering that firefox has 1863 add-ons listed. I nevertheless compiled a list of the ten most useful thunderbird add-ons according to my opinion, yours may and probably will differ on the subject.

1. Minimize to Tray – You can’t minimize thunderbird to tray, you can only minimize it to the taskbar or close it completely. You could alternatively use a third party tool like RBtray instead.
2. United States English Dictionary – A great spellchecking dictionary.
3. Lightning – Thunderbird has no calendar and lightning adds calendar functionality. Currently under developement.
4. Dod Configuration – Departement of Defense Configuration. Configures your application for use within the Department of Defense.
5. Addressbooks Synchronizer – Synchronise files if you use Thunderbird on different computers, like notebook and desktop or home and work.
6. Clippings – Have some standard sentences that you use a lot in mails ? Use Clippings to save them and paste them easily whenever you need them.
7. Maximize message pane – maximizes the message preview pane without opening a new window.
8. Text size toolbar – Adds buttons to the toolbar to change the size of the text.
9. ReminderFox – works as well in thunderbird, reminds you of events to come.
10. Quicktext – create templates for emails that you write over and over again.

Five more, good ones but specialised:

• Track Package – You ship or receive lots of packages each day ? Ebay junkie perhaps ? This extension is for you, mark a tracking number and check where the package is.
• Okopipi – Report spam to central databases.
• abc Tajpu – write foreign characters with this extension. Surely looks bad to write something like smoerebroed the way I do.. smørebrød it is i think..
• Signature Switch – one for work, one for home, one for friends, one for p…
• Nested Quote Remover – Remove nested quotes before it becomes ugly.

Two not so serious ones:

• Quitomozilla – Helps you stop smoking by displayed the time you stoped, the cigaretes that you did not smoke in that time and the amount of money that you saved, works in thunderbird and firefox for maximum results.
• Bork Bork Bork – The Swedish chef would speak the text this way.. Smoerebroed all the way..

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