Thunderbird 3.1 - New Features and Changes: Difference between revisions

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(→‎Folder Pane: new section summarizing visible changes)
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Click ESC or the close button to revert from the search results to the full message list.
Click ESC or the close button to revert from the search results to the full message list.
==Folder Pane==
{{Right-pic|Tb31folderPane.png}}
The "Smart Folders" have been renamed to "Unified Folders", but their function of collecting the contents of same-type folders remains the same.
When new mail arrives, the asterisk on the server and folder icons is back which was removed in 3.0. Also, the server and folder colors have been modified when indicating new mail. On Windows, the color corresponds to '''browser.anchor_color''' and can be set in the Config Editor.


[[Category:Thunderbird]]
[[Category:Thunderbird]]

Revision as of 18:36, 30 May 2010

This is a draft and work in progress. Please add comments and suggestions to the discussion page or comment on the 3.1 RC1 forum thread.
  • This article is inherently incomplete and subject to change until TB 3.1 is released.
  • Make sure you understand that pre-release versions may be stable enough for your purpose but equally well may corrupt your e-mail or entire system when running into bugs!
    • Do not use pre-release versions in production environments where data loss or instability matters!
    • See Testing pre-release versions on how to stay on the safe side before looking into the release candidates.

Thunderbird 3.1 is coming up soon! While the changes from 2.0 to 3.0 were substantial, this is a rather incremental release, but nevertheless has notable changes and improvements summarized here. Everything in Thunderbird 3.0 - New Features and Changes should still be valid unless obsoleted here.

New Migration Assistant

One of the most obvious changes is the migration from 2.0.0.x to 3.1, which is now more detailed and better coordinated with other activities. Specifically, password requests and IMAP synchronization don't interfere any more with the setup questions during the migration process. Rather than presenting all options on a single page in a tab, it is now organized in multiple pages and more like a dialog (as seen with other applications). However, you still want to read the options carefully to ensure that you get the setup you want, thus don't simply accept the defaults as they are presented.

Welcome Page

The first page is presented after loading an old-version (2.0.0.x or earlier) profile in Thunderbird 3.1, and after any compatibility checks for extensions.

Migration Assistant TB 3.1, Page #1

IMAP Settings

If one or more of your accounts is IMAP, the following page appears:

Migration Assistant TB 3.1, Page #2 - IMAP only

The description in this page is not very specific what "synchronization" implies:

  1. If synchronized, the complete contents of a folder will be downloaded from the server and mirrored locally. Thus, it requires disk space to store these messages, and bandwidth to initially download them. After the initial download, only new messages need to be synchronized, which is done in the background, but without much control by the user. This may be a critical factor for users on metered or otherwise bandwidth-limited connections, who may want to forgo automatic synchronization.
  2. If you don't choose synchronization, messages will be downloaded from the server whenever you access them. There is however caching involved, i.e., if the message is in either disk or memory cache, it will be taken from there. Both caches are naturally much smaller than what the offline storage can offer.
  3. Other reasons to choose synchronization are message availability when no connection is present, and to allow message-body search and indexing by the new Gloda search system.

A brief description of the available options:

  • By default, offline synchronization will be enabled for all folders and all accounts, thus consider carefully if you want to accept this choice. To support your decision, the estimated storage requirements is presented next to the synchronization option (label (a), after "Required:", which is based on your usage just before the migration, no connection to the server will be established yet at this time). The lower-right corner informs you about the current total disk-space usage of your IMAP folders (b) and how much space is left on the device where your profile is located (c). If you agree to synchronization, (b) increases by (a), and (c) decreases by (a) due to downloading those messages from the server.
  • The second choice is the best if you didn't use synchronization in the past and don't plan to use it now either. You can always activate synchronization later in the Account Settings or Folder Properties. The main side effect of not using local copies is that the new Gloda search function will not be able to search in message bodies, and you will have to manually activate server-side searches to get to the body-search option in the full Search Messages dialog. Also, messages won't be available when offline.
  • The third choice allows you to pick and choose for each account which individual folders are synchronized locally. You can also restrict synchronization for each account to a given most-recent time period. Select this option first and then click on the account name (d). This brings you into its Synchronization & Storage Account Settings (shown below), where you can click the "Advanced" button to get to the folder listing, or modify the time-restriction settings. Verify that the folder you want synchronized are checked, and those which you do not want to be copied locally are not checked. Close the dialogs to get back to the migration assistant.
Migration Assistant TB 3.1, Page #2 - Advanced

Toolbar Customizations

Like 3.0, the Migration Assistant proposes to use the header-pane buttons only and to reset the main toolbar to a minimum set. If you made any customizations, and/or want to remove the header-pane action buttons later, you should go with the second option to retain your current toolbar (it should switch visibly as soon as you check the lower box):

Migration Assistant TB 3.1, Page #3

Note: If your icons are above the button text, upon restart they will revert to icons beside text. Just right-click to get the Customize palette the first time you open Thunderbird 3.1 and change it to icons and text, it will stick this second time.

Features as Add-ons

Features present in the regular 2.0 and earlier releases had been removed in 3.0 and are now available as separately maintained extensions. The last two dialogs offer you to install the extensions for the compact (one-row) header pane and the additional folder columns indicating size and number of messages in each folder. Click the Install button if you want these extensions:

Migration Assistant TB 3.1, Page #4
Migration Assistant TB 3.1, Page #5

Default Client

Once the Migration Assistant is done, click the "Close" button. Even if Thunderbird 2.0 was defined as your default application for mail, news, and/or feeds, you may be presented with a dialog confirming/re-establishing those settings. After that, you should be prompted for your account passwords unless you have them saved, and the "What's New" tab should be visible.

Global Database

The main feature which was introduced in 3.0 but no opt-out page shown in the Migration Assistant is the global database. It will be automatically activated after migration and starts indexing your messages. If you don't want to use the Gloda search (e.g., on a low-performance machine or just because you want to avoid the overhead), cancel all password requests and go into the Tools → Options → Advanced → General tab, uncheck "Enable Global Search and Indexer" there and then restart Thunderbird.

Message Header Pane

Customizable Header-Pane Buttons

The additional buttons in the header pane of a message are now a "real" toolbar and allow respective customization. Right-click over the button area and click on "Customize", now you can drag-and-drop the buttons between pane and palette as you wish. You can also switch to icon-only mode (see image below) to save space. The userChrome.css entries to hide buttons as a workaround are now obsolete.

Customizing the "more" Button

By default, Thunderbird 3.1 will fill up one header line ("to" or "cc") and then display the "more" button. The major improvement here is that the line is fully utilized again, whereas TB 3.0 showed just the first address and then the "more" already. Also, the number of remaining addresses is stated now to see how much is missing.

Showing 3 cc lines before "more" appears

A preference mailnews.headers.show_n_lines_before_more has been introduced with 3.1b2 but isn't fully functional yet. It allows to show any given number n lines to be shown when opening a message before the "more" appears. The figure above shows an example for n=3 lines, "more" indicates the number of addresses shown if it is clicked on. The figure shows the patched version currently up for review. If you want to use this feature in 3.1RC1 already, read the instructions in this forum thread.

Quick-Filter Bar

The Quick-Filter function has been substantially modified for TB3.1 and is no longer combined with the Gloda search bar. Thus, if Gloda is enabled, you will have two search bars (the Gloda search as toolbar item, Quick-Filter search between the tab bar and the message/thread-list headings). The Quick-Filter bar is not customizable, but can be hidden if needed. If the tab bar is visible, it has a search symbol at its right end which can be used to toggle the visibility of the Quick-Filter bar. Also, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F can be used to enable it, ESC to hide it (careful though, these shortcuts are shared with the Find in This Message function and alternatively focus on either of those).

Quick-filter bar, Windows XP default theme

While the old quick-search function had a drop-down menu with all possible selections, each search item can now be selected individually and combined to a more comprehensive search. From left to right:

  • Keep filters applied when switching folders
  • Show only unread messages
  • Show only starred messages
  • Show only messages from people in your address book
  • Show only messages with tags on them
  • Show only messages with attachments
  • Filter messages by: Sender, Recipients, Subject, Body ("or" = if either of them matches)

The message list will now change color depending on the state of the search:

  • Clear: No Quick-Filter function is active, the full list is shown
  • Yellow: The Quick-Filter search is running, list may be incomplete
  • Blue: Searching is finished and the list can be accessed now
  • Red: The search didn't match any of the given criteria

Click ESC or the close button to revert from the search results to the full message list.

Folder Pane

The "Smart Folders" have been renamed to "Unified Folders", but their function of collecting the contents of same-type folders remains the same.

When new mail arrives, the asterisk on the server and folder icons is back which was removed in 3.0. Also, the server and folder colors have been modified when indicating new mail. On Windows, the color corresponds to browser.anchor_color and can be set in the Config Editor.