The ten most useful thunderbird add-ons

I've published a great deal of information about Firefox and tons of extensions that have been developed for it but I've never done the same for Thunderbird, the email client that is developed by Mozilla.

I started using Thunderbird about a week ago when I imported all my emails from Opera to it and I like the email client a lot. It is fast, I can sort all emails the way I like it and the spam mail filter is awesome even without third party tools.

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.

Update: We have removed all extensions that are not compatible with the most recent versions of the Thunderbird email client.

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 development.
4. Dod Configuration - Department of Defense Configuration. Configures your application for use within the Department of Defense.
5. Addressbooks Synchronizer - Synchronize 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 specialized:

• Track Package - You ship or receive lots of packages each day? eBay junkies 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 stopped, the cigarettes 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..

While all extensions are still available for download for the email client, it needs to be noted that some may not work anymore in the latest version of it.

Update: Time has passed, and lots of useful extensions have been created for the Thunderbird email client in that time. Here is a list of new extensions that you may want to consider.

• Lightning adds a calendar to Thunderbird which you can synchronize.
• Enigmail adds OpenPGP support to the email client.
• Theme Font & Size Changer enables you to change text size and colors in Thunderbird.
• XNote++ adds sticky notes that you can associate with emails.
• Quick Translator to translate between more than 50 languages with a click or use of a hotkey.

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