Reply indicators

Some localized e-mail applications use non-standard reply indicators, such as Aw:, VS: or Svar:, instead of the traditional Re:. When answering to a message starting with AW:, Thunderbird does not recognize this to be a reply indicator and adds his own Re: to the subject (becoming Re: AW:). You can avoid endless chains of reply indicators by setting Thunderbird to accept also other forms, which are then replaced while replying.

This happens by adding the following lines to your "user.js" file:

// Recognition of localized reply indicators
user_pref("mailnews.localizedRe", "AW,Aw,Antwort,VS,Vs,SV,Sv,Svar,");

You may want to change the value of the variable according to your own needs. Separate the elements of the list by commas and do not include the :. Note that the handling of this variable is case-sensitive. This change only affects messages that arrive after you made this change.

Some trivia: Often mistaken for being an abbreviation of "reply", "re" is the ablative singular form of "res, rei" (a Latin noun meaning "thing, matter"), the indicator Re: stands for "In this matter".