Selecting recipient adds a new To: line

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simoncn
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Joined: February 16th, 2019, 3:27 pm

Selecting recipient adds a new To: line

Post by simoncn »

When I start typing in the first To: line in the Compose window, I get a pop-up selection list of suggested recipients from my address book. If I click on one of these recipients, the recipient is inserted into the To: line and Thunderbird automatically adds a second blank To: line.

In older versions of Thunderbird (45.8.0 and earlier), the recipient is inserted into the first To: line and the second blank To: line is not created. If I want another To: line, I can press Enter to get it.

I rarely compose emails with multiple recipients and I would like to run with the mail.compose.addresswidget.numRowsShownDefault preference set to 1. With this setting, the newer behaviour causes the first To: line to scroll up out of sight and the second blank To: line to be shown.

Is it possible to configure newer versions of Thunderbird to use the older behaviour?
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Selecting recipient adds a new To: line

Post by tanstaafl »

I'm not certain what the problem is. You don't know how to modify that setting?

mail.compose.addresswidget.numRowsShownDefault doesn't exist by default so you need to add a integer with that name using the config editor at tools -> options -> advanced -> general, and then restart Thunderbird. You can add settings by right clicking anywhere in the list of settings, selecting new from the context menu, and then select the type (string, integer or boolean), and enter the name of the setting and its value.

If that doesn't solve your problem it might be due to an add-on. You can verify that by trying again after "help -> restart with add-ons disabled"
simoncn
Posts: 3
Joined: February 16th, 2019, 3:27 pm

Re: Selecting recipient adds a new To: line

Post by simoncn »

Sorry that my previous message wans't clear. I know how to modify the mail.compose.addresswidget.numRowsShownDefault preference and I have done that. The problem is that with this prreference set to 1, clicking on a recipient from the pop-up list imediately scrolls the selected recipient up out of sight and shows a blank To: line instead. In Thunderbird 45.8.0 and earlier, the selected recipient is not scrolled up out of sight.
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WaltS48
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Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Re: Selecting recipient adds a new To: line

Post by WaltS48 »

Did you know as you enter the recipient, you can use the down arrow to select the recipient, then select Subject. That doesn't add a second recipient for me.

Also since the release of Thunderbird 60.0.
When writing a message, a delete button now allows the removal of a recipient. This delete button is displayed when hovering the To/Cc/Bcc selector.
REF: Thunderbird 60.0 Release Notes
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tanstaafl
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Re: Selecting recipient adds a new To: line

Post by tanstaafl »

To expand on what WaltS48 said, there is no harm done letting it display a extra blank To: line that you ignore.
simoncn
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Joined: February 16th, 2019, 3:27 pm

Re: Selecting recipient adds a new To: line

Post by simoncn »

@WaltS48: Thanks very much for this information. The down arrow followed by Tab selects a recipient without adding the extra blank To: line. I still feel that a single mouse click is simpler and I am not sure why this was changed.

@tanstaafl: The problem with an extra blank To: line that I ignore is that when mail.compose.addresswidget.numRowsShownDefault is set to 1, only the blank To: line is shown instead of the actual recipient of the message.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Selecting recipient adds a new To: line

Post by tanstaafl »

"The problem with an extra blank To: line that I ignore is that when mail.compose.addresswidget.numRowsShownDefault is set to 1, only the blank To: line is shown instead of the actual recipient of the message."

Its really just a question of personal preference. In my case I leave it at the default setting of 3 because I rarely send a message to more than two recipients without using either a mailing list or a CC:. If I do, I get a vertical scrolling bar so its easy to review who the recipients are before sending.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Enter_email_addresses
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tanstaafl
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Re: Selecting recipient adds a new To: line

Post by tanstaafl »

If you're worried about wasting vertical screen space take a look at the compact headers add-on at https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/th ... er/?src=ss . Its useful when reading messages as it lets you use one line for the entire headers.
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