Mozilla Thunderbird 2 Beta 1 Feedback Thread

Discussion about official Mozilla Thunderbird builds
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xtf
Posts: 14
Joined: July 31st, 2005, 10:21 am

Post by xtf »

Could an option be added to the popup menu of email addresses to search for all messages from that address (or even from that domain) in all accounts?
anowack
Posts: 18
Joined: August 14th, 2003, 2:35 pm

Post by anowack »

So I finally found the time to check out the beta, and here is my feedback:

1) I noticed above that somebody had already pointed out that there's no way to add a new toolbar. (This, incidentally, makes it impossible to replicate the Thunderbird 1.5 UI, for those of us who are used to it.) I would highly recommend making sure this makes it in before 2.0 if at all possible, rather than waiting for a later release - as is, there's almost no space for adding new buttons (or the "mail views" dropdown menu) and the absence is particularly glaring given that Firefox has this ability.

2) The removal of the "mail views" dropdown menu from the default UI is, IMO, a bad idea, particularly given that tagging is a big new feature and it provides a very discoverable way to search via tag. I would recommend returning it to the default UI. (Though finding a spot is difficult given that the toolbar it used to reside on has been removed.)

3) In the "mail views" menu, the tags and customized views are relegated to sub-menus. I would very much recommend that some number of these - perhaps the first five, to match the defaults provided - are returned to the primary menu with (if needed) a "More tags"/"More custom views" sub-menu, to facilitate access to frequently used views. As is, the changed UI has simply added an extra "step" to switch to these views over TB 1.5 for no purpose unless the user has very many custom tags/views.

4) I know this has been mentioned before in this thread, but I would very much like to have an option to have the keyboard shortcuts for adding tags also first remove the previous tag. In TB 1.5, I very frequently would label and then later relabel messages, and TB 2.0 has introduced an unnecessary for me (since I neither use nor desire to use multiple tags on a message) step to this process.

...I suppose these suggestions could pretty much be summed up as "I am used to the old UI for TB and would very much like to be able to replicate it and its behavior with TB 2.0."

Also, bug report: the "customize message views" window will not close - clicking both the ok button and the "x" has no effect.
jd2066
Posts: 6
Joined: November 2nd, 2006, 8:19 pm

Post by jd2066 »

mscott wrote:that's in the current nightly but not in beta 1. It will be in beta 2.

I just downloaded the latest nightly and while it does appear to have some new notification code for Linux it still appears to have a couple problems.
1. It only notifys about new mail in the Inbox and not any other IMAP folders (I have exim filters set up so mail can arrive in other folders).
2. It only stays for a few seconds and doesn't leave a tray icon so if you aren't by the computer when it appears you won't know about the new mail.
After having this problem for a couple months I'm starting to think I should just write my own new mail notification program .
Justin
David.P
Posts: 182
Joined: July 25th, 2006, 11:27 am

Just Two Killer Features Still Missing ;)

Post by David.P »

Hi Forum,

first of all, thanks for the continued development of a truly great e-mail software.

For me, TB is almost perfect at its current state.

However from my point of view there's still two features missing:

1.) Provide a message list view similar to DreamMail, where date headlines are dynamically assigned to the e-mail list. This is GREAT for a fast and intuitive overview over your inbox or sent items, see below screenshot:

Image

2.) Improve the already great "detach attachments" function such that:

a) attachments of multiple messages, or entire message folders can be detached;

b) attachments of incoming messages can be detached automatically; and

c) detached pictures (jpg, gif, png) are being replaced by the respective hyperlinks [e.g. img src="D:/Mail/DetachedAttachments/NicePicture.jpg"] such that detached pictures are still displayed inline inside the preview pane, even if the pictures are elsewhere on the hard disk, e.g. inside the "detached attachments" folder. This is a killer feature that no other mail package has to offer.

Keep up the great work,

David.P
anowack
Posts: 18
Joined: August 14th, 2003, 2:35 pm

Post by anowack »

Two more things:

1) Subscribing to RSS feeds from Firefox (under Windows XP, at least) is still broken. As I understand it, this is more of a Firefox bug, but if Firefox can't be fixed in time for the release of TB 2.0 then it would be nice if TB was able to work around the Firefox bug.

2) I use the "Wide View" layout, and when loading TB, briefly the message pane disappears and the other panes expand all the way to the bottom of the window. This wouldn't be a problem except that when the message pane reappears and the other panes are resized again, the list of e-mails in the current folder is positioned according to where the top of where the visible area was while the pane containing the list was larger. This means that a substantial amount of scrolling is required to get to the bottom of the list, where the most recent or any new messages are. Please either find a way to eliminate the brief disappearance of the message pane or change things so that the message list is positioned according to the bottom of the visible area when this occurs.

EDIT: This behavior can be easily and repeatedly reproduced by closing and opening the message pane while no message is selected and visible in the message pane (such as immediately upon opening TB). When a message is selected, as expected the list is positioned on resizing with the selected message at the bottom of the visible area.
mscott
Posts: 2516
Joined: April 2nd, 2003, 4:10 pm
Location: Thunderbird Research Center, CA
Contact:

Post by mscott »

jd2066 wrote:
mscott wrote:that's in the current nightly but not in beta 1. It will be in beta 2.

I just downloaded the latest nightly and while it does appear to have some new notification code for Linux it still appears to have a couple problems.
1. It only notifys about new mail in the Inbox and not any other IMAP folders (I have exim filters set up so mail can arrive in other folders).
2. It only stays for a few seconds and doesn't leave a tray icon so if you aren't by the computer when it appears you won't know about the new mail.
After having this problem for a couple months I'm starting to think I should just write my own new mail notification program .
Justin


That would be awesome if you could jump in and help out. Mozilla doesn't have any GNOME system tray support. Feel free to jump in and and help with Bug #18732 and I think part of Bug #325353.

For your first issue, you can force Thunderbird to check all folders for new mail see:

http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderb ... oadstartup
Thunderbirds are Go!
mscott
Posts: 2516
Joined: April 2nd, 2003, 4:10 pm
Location: Thunderbird Research Center, CA
Contact:

Re: Just Two Killer Features Still Missing ;)

Post by mscott »

David.P wrote:Hi Forum,

first of all, thanks for the continued development of a truly great e-mail software.

For me, TB is almost perfect at its current state.

However from my point of view there's still two features missing:

1.) Provide a message list view similar to DreamMail, where date headlines are dynamically assigned to the e-mail list. This is GREAT for a fast and intuitive overview over your inbox or sent items, see below screenshot:




Have I got great news for you! Just press "G" to group by your sort attribute. Or sort by date, then View / Sort / Sort By Group. Enjoy the containers for mail from Today, yesterday, last week, etc.!
Thunderbirds are Go!
Lost User 224672
Posts: 0
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 5:00 pm

Beta 2 - attachements

Post by Lost User 224672 »

Is there some setting for allowing attachments in email messages? I've sent myself a few different types of attachments and they come thru in the message as a "winmail.dat" file. specifically pdf and zip files.

Please let me know.
jd2066
Posts: 6
Joined: November 2nd, 2006, 8:19 pm

Post by jd2066 »

mscott wrote:That would be awesome if you could jump in and help out. Mozilla doesn't have any GNOME system tray support. Feel free to jump in and and help with Bug #18732 and I think part of Bug #325353.

For your first issue, you can force Thunderbird to check all folders for new mail see:

http://www.mozilla.org/support/thunderb ... oadstartup

Hi,
I guess I wasn't clear on what I ment at the end of my message, I was thinking about writing some kind of shell script that to relay the new mail note somehow.
My Linux programming knowledge is limited to a bit of shell scripting and javascript right now.
I would like to be able to program GNOME or KDE applications and help with stuff like this I just haven't really looked it as it seemed a little complicated.
As for setting "mail.check_all_imap_folders_for_new" to true I already have that set.
It appears though as I just tested it, it only works with a new mail check and not with IMAP IDLE.
Justin
David.P
Posts: 182
Joined: July 25th, 2006, 11:27 am

Re: Just Two Killer Features Still Missing ;)

Post by David.P »

mscott wrote:Have I got great news for you! Just press "G" to group by your sort attribute. Or sort by date, then View / Sort / Sort By Group. Enjoy the containers for mail from Today, yesterday, last week, etc.!

Hi Scott, and thanks for your fast reply! It's been an honour, me being a newbie to TB, receiving your response.

I hope my dumb point No. 1) doesn't disqualify my other input ;)

Therefore I'd be happy to receive your (or everyones) opinion about the proposed advanced attachment detaching function.

Reason is, I like to keep all my mail from the past years around just in case I want to have a quick look through past mail conversations, including potential attachments that had been exchanged. But at the same time, I'd like to keep my mail folders as small and efficient as possible. Therefore, it'd be great to be able to batch-detach all attachments from old e-mail -- however without impacting the look-and-feel of the original mail messages.

Regarding Outlook Express, a tool called Attachment Extractor is almost there - however that program also doesn't replace removed picture attachments by "img scr..." hyperlinks such that the detached pictures can be displayed inline in the preview pane.

Thanks for the consideration,
David.P

PS: the possibilty to have the mail list in DreamMail looking like the good old green-and-white striped computer printout also helps a lot with the intuitive overwiew over long mail lists without fatiguing the eye.
Lost User 224672
Posts: 0
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 5:00 pm

Attachment problem in Tbird version 2 beta 1

Post by Lost User 224672 »

In Tbird version 2 beta 1 when I receive what is supposed to be a .pdf or .zip file it comes thru as a winmail.dat file which is useless. Why is this? I received these types of files with no problem with the previous non beta version of Thunderbird..?
mscott
Posts: 2516
Joined: April 2nd, 2003, 4:10 pm
Location: Thunderbird Research Center, CA
Contact:

Post by mscott »

MrMars, are the messages being sent by you using Thunderbird? winmail.dat is a Microsoft proprietary format, I'm pretty sure we don't generate that format for binary attachments :). Any chance these e-mails are coming from someone using Outlook or OE?
Thunderbirds are Go!
Lost User 224672
Posts: 0
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 5:00 pm

Post by Lost User 224672 »

There are coming from myself at work using Outlook but I just recently started using Tbird 2 beta 1 at home. Previous to upgrading from Tbird 1.5.0.9 to the latest beta version of Tbird these types of attachments (.pdf, .zip) came thru fine without any "winmail.dat" files attached. So the problem only occurs with Tbird 2 beta 1..
mscott
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Joined: April 2nd, 2003, 4:10 pm
Location: Thunderbird Research Center, CA
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Post by mscott »

Thunderbirds are Go!
Lost User 224672
Posts: 0
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 5:00 pm

Post by Lost User 224672 »

I can try that but why did I not have a problem before I started using ver. 2 beta 1..??
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