"Outlook bar" and "Post to a folder" fea

arvindg · Post by **arvindg** » August 30th, 2005, 7:16 am

I used Outlook for many years, and have recently switch to Thunderbird because it is free and I want to support open source projects like this.

Two of the outlook features that I miss most in Thunderbird are the following:

(a) the "Post in this folder" option in Outlook, which allows us to post messages to a folder. I use this quite often as a way of keeping a "journal" of communication that I have with clients, or to store other misc notes from phone calls, etc.

(b) the "outlook bar" on the left side of outlook where I can store shortcuts to my frequently used folders is something I miss in Thunderbird.

I would like to see these two features in future versions of Thunderbird. Thanks for considering these comments. You guys have done a phenomenal job!

Regards,
Arvind.

hansen · Post by **hansen** » August 30th, 2005, 7:37 am

A) This probably won't make the 1.5 release, but you can use an extension instead:
http://www.supportware.net/mozilla/#ext1

B) Haven't seen any extensions, but Thunderbird 2.0 should solve some of the information overload issues.

dbodner · Post by **dbodner** » August 30th, 2005, 1:56 pm

B) YES. I'd love a "favorite folders" type of thing in Thunderbird.

unfrostedpoptart · Post by **unfrostedpoptart** » October 30th, 2005, 3:29 pm

[quote="hansen"]

B) Haven't seen any extensions, but Thunderbird 2.0 should solve some of the information overload issues.[/quote]

Could you please say more about this, especially if there's any new info now that 1.5 is basically done? I actually just wrote this to a couple of other Thunderbird forums/newsgroups the other day, so I'm very interested in this!

<i>
I was wondering if Thunderbird had something like the Outlook (not
Outlook Express) Shortcuts Bar. This is incredibly useful: it lets you
drag any mail folder to the Shortcut Bar so that you can easily get to
it, or drag messages to it, without digging through your folder
hierarchy every time. The actual folder doesn't move - there's just a
shortcut to it. I have hundreds of nested folders, so this
saves tons of time.

I looked around the Thunderbird preferences (running 1.5 now) and the
Extensions web site, but didn't see anything. </i>

Old Ausdilecce · Post by **Old Ausdilecce** » October 31st, 2005, 5:37 pm

I am currently putting together a extension that provides a 'favorite folders' type of pane..

What I have so far is..

1) a pane ( listbox) of up to 30 folder names ( along the left of the TB window ( to the left of the folderspane )
2) when a folder is clicked, TB will select and open that folder
3) an "add to shortcut bar" context menu item on the folderpane folder items ( to add folders to the shortcut pane :wink:

)
4) a "remove shortcut" context menu item of the shortcut items
5) a resize feature so the shortcut pane can be made as narrow as possible ( to save screen real estate )

What I want to know is:
1) do you guys want to be able to re-order the items in the shortcut list ?
2) do you guys want to ba able to change the shortcut label ( cuz there could be more than one folder called Inbox, so do you want to be able to rename them to Inbox-RR, Inbox-CC etc )
3) what else do you want in the context menu of the shortcuts
4) do you want the shortcut pane to be toggled on and off ( for more real estate )
Can you put together some mockup drawings of what you want it to look like ?

Cheers

Old Ausdilecce · Post by **Old Ausdilecce** » November 2nd, 2005, 4:24 pm

Here is a first cut of the 'favorite folders' aka Shortcut Pane extension..

Get it from www.supportware.net/mozilla/ShortcutPane.xpi

It is version 0.0.1 so take it easy with the criticism

unfrostedpoptart · Post by **unfrostedpoptart** » November 2nd, 2005, 4:47 pm

[quote="ausdilecce"]Here is a first cut of the 'favorite folders' aka Shortcut Pane extension..

Get it from www.supportware.net/mozilla/ShortcutPane.xpi

It is version 0.0.1 so take it easy with the criticism[/quote]

Great start! Just what I was looking for - thanks. But.... What you have so far is great for being able to jump to 'favorite' folders. However, I can't seem to drag a message onto a favorite folder, which is a lot of what I use this feature for in Outlook.

Keep up the great work!

David

unfrostedpoptart · Post by **unfrostedpoptart** » November 2nd, 2005, 7:37 pm

[quote="unfrostedpoptart"][quote="ausdilecce"]Here is a first cut of the 'favorite folders' aka Shortcut Pane extension..

Get it from www.supportware.net/mozilla/ShortcutPane.xpi

It is version 0.0.1 so take it easy with the criticism[/quote]

Great start! Just what I was looking for - thanks. But.... What you have so far is great for being able to jump to 'favorite' folders. However, I can't seem to drag a message onto a favorite folder, which is a lot of what I use this feature for in Outlook.

Keep up the great work!

David[/quote]

A few more comments, now that I've tried it a bit more. First, the size of the box seems fixed, so when I added more groups I got a scrollbar. Please make the box size adjustable: there's nothing below it anyway. Also, I hadn't realized that selecting a shortcut caused the folder pane to open up to that folder. This makes my comment about not being able to drag onto a shortcut not as bad. This may actually work better than how Outlook does it, although it's messier.

David

Old Ausdilecce · Post by **Old Ausdilecce** » November 3rd, 2005, 2:16 pm

unfrostedpoptart wrote:Great start! Just what I was looking for - thanks. But.... What you have so far is great for being able to jump to 'favorite' folders. However, I can't seem to drag a message onto a favorite folder, which is a lot of what I use this feature for in Outlook.

Keep up the great work!

David

I don't have outlook and have not used it in several years so I would have NO IDEA what the total functionality of the 'outlook bar' is.. If you could list them, I will see if I can incorporate them...

unfrostedpoptart wrote:
A few more comments, now that I've tried it a bit more. First, the size of the box seems fixed, so when I added more groups I got a scrollbar. Please make the box size adjustable: there's nothing below it anyway. Also, I hadn't realized that selecting a shortcut caused the folder pane to open up to that folder. This makes my comment about not being able to drag onto a shortcut not as bad. This may actually work better than how Outlook does it, although it's messier.

David

I will make the size of the bar adjustable...

I will wait for details of the feature set before releasing a updated version..

Cheers

unfrostedpoptart · Post by **unfrostedpoptart** » November 3rd, 2005, 2:50 pm

[quote="ausdilecce"][quote="unfrostedpoptart"]
Great start! Just what I was looking for - thanks. But.... What you have so far is great for being able to jump to 'favorite' folders. However, I can't seem to drag a message onto a favorite folder, which is a lot of what I use this feature for in Outlook.

Keep up the great work!

David[/quote]

I don't have outlook and have not used it in several years so I would have NO IDEA what the total functionality of the 'outlook bar' is.. If you could list them, I will see if I can incorporate them...

Well, I'm not an Outlook guru, but the only functionality I see missing in your extension is being able to drag messages from the message list of the current folder to a shortcut.

[quote="unfrostedpoptart"]

A few more comments, now that I've tried it a bit more. First, the size of the box seems fixed, so when I added more groups I got a scrollbar. Please make the box size adjustable: there's nothing below it anyway. Also, I hadn't realized that selecting a shortcut caused the folder pane to open up to that folder. This makes my comment about not being able to drag onto a shortcut not as bad. This may actually work better than how Outlook does it, although it's messier.

David[/quote]

I will make the size of the bar adjustable...

I will wait for details of the feature set before releasing a updated version..

Cheers[/quote]

I tried Outlook at work and saw that it does the same thing as your extension: Clicking on a shortcut opens the folder hierarchy and selects the same folder there. Outlook also displays shortcuts as icons, which just takes up more space. It also lets you drag other stuff to the shortcut bar, like files and folders from Windows Explorer (or Finder on the Mac), but that's part of MS's tie-everything-into-the-OS mentality, so I don't see much use for it. So, I just think you need adjustable size bar and dragging messages to shortcuts.

Thanks so much for this! I almost bought Office for Mac to get Entourage (the Mac version of Outlook). Yuck!

David

Old Ausdilecce · Post by **Old Ausdilecce** » November 3rd, 2005, 3:06 pm

Just a heads up..

I have gotten a rather crude version of drag n drop of messages to the shortcuts to work.. Just need to be able to highlight which shortcut (folder) will be receiving the drop and it will look right..

stay tuned..

Old Ausdilecce · Post by **Old Ausdilecce** » November 7th, 2005, 1:42 pm

Here is the second cut of the shortcut bar..

In addition to the functionality described above, the user can now
1) drag one or more messages and drop them on the shortcut to have those messages MOVE to the new folder
2) drag a shortcut to a new location in the list ( to reorder shortcuts )
... the dragged shortcut will ALWAYS be positioned ABOVE the dropped on shortcut..

Get ver 0.0.2 from www.supportware.net/mozilla/ShortcutPane.xpi

unfrostedpoptart · Post by **unfrostedpoptart** » November 7th, 2005, 8:31 pm

ausdilecce wrote:Here is the second cut of the shortcut bar..

In addition to the functionality described above, the user can now
1) drag one or more messages and drop them on the shortcut to have those messages MOVE to the new folder
2) drag a shortcut to a new location in the list ( to reorder shortcuts )
... the dragged shortcut will ALWAYS be positioned ABOVE the dropped on shortcut..

Get ver 0.0.2 from www.supportware.net/mozilla/ShortcutPane.xpi

I really appreciate the work on this. Unfortunately, after installing 0.0.2, dragging messages to shortcuts doesn't work for me. When I drag a message onto the Shortcuts bar, I see the selected shortcut highlighted, but when I let go, nothing happens. Dragging to re-order shortcuts does work. FYI, I'm running version 1.5 (20051025) for Mac on OS/X 10.4.2.

Also, I noticed that if I create a shortcut and then move the folder, the shortcut loses track of the folder.

Thanks again,

David

Old Ausdilecce · Post by **Old Ausdilecce** » November 9th, 2005, 7:16 pm

Wow,

I musta been smokin something.. Lots o bugs in that 0.0.2 version..

Try this one on.. ver 0.0.3 from www.supportware.net/mozilla/ShortcutPane.xpi

unfrostedpoptart · Post by **unfrostedpoptart** » November 9th, 2005, 7:40 pm

[quote="ausdilecce"]Wow,

I musta been smokin something.. Lots o bugs in that 0.0.2 version..

Try this one on.. ver 0.0.3 from www.supportware.net/mozilla/ShortcutPane.xpi[/quote]

Getting better all the time (to quote the Beatles)! Dragging messages now works, and it tracks a folder if I move it! Of course, I had to spot one more issue (the last, from what I can see): when you drag messages onto a shortcut, it selects the shortcut folder as the new current folder. It should not change the current folder. One of the great uses of this is for filing a bunch of mail from the Inbox. It should keep the Inbox as the current folder as I drag each message out of the Inbox.

Thanks again,

David