For this post I picked two well-integrated extensions that help you organize emails in Thunderbird 3.

Thunderbird’s new version comes with a bunch of novel features. I have previously mentioned tabs. But also searching emails has become a lot more convenient. You can now use operators like in Google or Gmail and results will open in a new tab.

The Mozilla Thunderbird extensions introduced here show refreshing ideas from Thunderbird’s user base.

Messages Timeline

Messages Timeline provides a visual overview of when emails were received.

The email you’re currently viewing is marked with a green dot. When you move the mouse over a light blue dot, both the dot and the respective message are highlighted in yellow. Once you click another dot, it turns green and the respective email is displayed in the message window.

This Mozilla Thunderbird extension lets you visually browse emails by date. Furthermore, when you move the mouse across different folders, it indicates the date range covered by emails in each folder. In the example below the range covered is November 23rd, 2009 to February 12th, 2010.

Are you looking for mails from a specific time frame?  If so, you can click and drag on the timeline to see only those messages. Using right-click on the timeline, you can select time frames and zoom in to distinguish between emails that arrived within a short time.

The developer has announced further features, including automatic expansion of time periods with many messages.

eMarks

Thunderbird 3 supports tabs. This way you can keep all of your conversations together and open sites like Google Wave or Twitter in Thunderbird, rather than a browser. Additionally, you can now make bookmarks in Thunderbird.

This extension, however, isn’t concerned with website bookmarks. How did you handle important emails so far? What did you do with messages that contained information you needed for reference every now and then? Did you tag or copy them into specific folders? Now you can eMark your most important eMails.

The Mozilla Thunderbird extension comes with an entry in the menu bar and a toolbar which can be turned on and off. To add an email to eMarks you have to use either one, there is no option in the right-click menu.

All further options are summarized in eMarks Help, which is also displayed below. Hopefully, future updates of this extension will allow to create folders or categories for eMarks.

There is a lot more information about Thunderbird out there. Here are just a few of the MakeUseOf highlights.

I recently covered 5 Extensions For Tabbed Email Browsing In Thunderbird 3. If you have ever wondered How To Recover Deleted eMails or How To Terminally Delete eMails in Thunderbird, you’ll love to read my respective articles. Furthermore, I explained How to Set Up Message Filters In Thunderbird and How To Integrated Google Calendar Into Thunderbird. Mark showed you how to Synchronize Your Google Contacts, Calendar & RSS In Thunderbird. Saikat demonstrated How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails.

How do you successfully manage your emails? What email tasks are you struggling with?

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (4)2 Great Thunderbird 3 Notes Addons To Increase Your Productivity
• (19)How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails
• (10)How To Access Hotmail Email Messages from Your Gmail Account [Part II]
• (5)5 Extensions For Tabbed Email Browsing In Thunderbird 3
• (27)3 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook

Notes are a quick and easy way to keep track of random, but significant thoughts and ideas. They can also help you to remember important phone number, things you need to get done or appointments. The difficult part is to keep your notes organized and not forget about them.

If Thunderbird is your eMail client, you will find the following Thunderbird notes addons very handy for organizing your thoughts and ideas. In addition, they may help you to increase your eMail productivity.

XNote

With XNote, you can attach sticky notes to individual eMails.

To take full advantage of XNote, you should first add the XNote button to your Thunderbird toolbar. For this > right-click onto an empty spot in your toolbar and select > Customize… This will bring up the “Customize Toolbar” window. Locate the XNote button and drag it into a convenient spot within your toolbar. Then hit > Done in the customization window.

You can also create a sticky through the right-click menu. Simply > right-click anywhere into an eMail and you’ll find the > XNote option at the very top of the menu.

In this Thunderbird notes addon, sticky notes are attached to a single eMail and will appear only when that eMail is selected. You can re-size the sticky and move it to any location on your screen. It will disappear as soon as you select another eMail and reappear when you select that eMail again.

To see which eMails contain notes, you have to manually add a new column to your folder display. To do this, > left-click the right-most icon on the bar that lets you sort eMails by subject, date, etc. and select > Notes from the list.

For more tips a tricks, visit the XNote port to Thunderbird 3.

ThunderNote

ThunderNote is a Thunderbird notes addon that allows you to keep track of multiple notes within different categories.

It works much like a standalone tool, only that it is integrated into Thunderbird with a separate toolbar button. You can add the button to your toolbar as described for the XNote button above.

When you click the button, ThunderNote launches within a separate window.

You can now add categories and notes. This extension features only the bare necessities, i.e. writing notes, organizing them within categories, printing individual notes, syncing, as well as import/export through CSV files.

For more information about ThunderNote, visit its Google Code site.

Are you looking for Thunderbird-independent note taking apps? Jeffry covered Four Free Quick Note Taking Apps For The Mac. I compiled 3 Dead-simple Apps For Note Taking & List Making (Windows and online) and I introduced the online tool Springnote. Saikat recently wrote about OrangeNote – A Smart Note Taker & Clipboard Manager. Finally, Shankar introduced Everntote.

If you haven’t done so yet, I recommend you to extend Thunderbird with Google Calendar to handle your appointments. I have described the procedure in my post How To Integrate Google Calendar Into Thunderbird and even though the versions have changed, it essentially still works the same.

Have you adjusted Thunderbird to increase your productivity? Please share what works best for you!

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (3)2 Extensions To Better Manage Emails in Thunderbird 3
• (6)8 Most Useful Plugins For Gnome-Do
• (3)Web Annotation For Students or Professionals From WebNotes (+100 Invites)
• (23)TinyPad – Replace Notepad With Automatic Syncing & Sharing Built In
• (3)Super Simple Sticky Notes From Jjot

A major new feature in Thunderbird 3 is tabbed email browsing. The idea is to view separate inboxes or emails in parallel tabs. However, more and more extensions emerge, which exploit the tab feature to add web browser capabilities to Thunderbird.

Most of these extensions are experimental, meaning they are very new and haven’t passed the public review process yet. All extensions covered in this article were thoroughly tested and didn’t cause issues, neither alone nor in combination with other standard extensions for Thunderbird 3.

ThunderWave (experimental)

Toolbar buttons are a convenient way to launch applications into Thunderbird tabs. So they essentially work like a bookmark. Since Google Wave basically tries to become “email reloaded”, it’s a good idea to integrate it into Thunderbird, i.e. “old school” email.

Is Google Wave still all Spanish to you? Maybe this video explaining Google Wave “Pulp Fiction” style can fill you in.

If you’re going to add multiple such buttons, you will soon run out of space in your email toolbar. Thus I recommend to create a new custom toolbar just for your new extra buttons. Right-click on any existing toolbar and select > Customize and a > Customize Toolbar window will pop up. At its bottom, click the > Add New Toolbar button, enter a name, and hit > OK. Now you can drag and drop buttons from the > Customize Toolbar window onto your toolbar.

Google Calendar Tab (experimental)

In Thunderbird 3, you can still use Lightning and Provider for Google Calendar. Now you can also use this add-on to launch Google Calendar within a Thunderbird tab. Sadly, there is no toolbar button provided, just an option within the > Tools menu.

Within the add-ons options menu you can switch from > Google Calendar to > Google Apps for your domain.

Addressbook Tab (experimental)

You already saw the toolbar button for this add-on in the first screenshot. With AddressbookTab you can open the address book within a tab, rather than in its separate little window.

ThunderTabs (experimental)

Here is the one extension with which you can open any website, given you know the URL by heart. Simply click ThunderTabs’ toolbar button, a little JavaScript window will load, enter your URL, and hit > OK.

ThunderBrowse

ThunderBrowse, finally, goes all the way and represents the most comprehensive extension in this series. If you really want to browse with Thunderbird, you have to get this extension. Besides, it’s no longer experimental and has been receiving great reviews.

First of all, it comes with a ton of options. You can define how links embedded in emails open, how tabs are handled, you can create Hotkeys for opening the ThunderBrowse window or a ThunderBrowse tab, and much more.

To access all these options, go to > Tools > Add-ons > Extensions > ThunderBrowse and click > Options.

Let me give you a quick overview of some of the main features.

You can quickly open a new ThunderBrowse tab using the icon at the top right of your tabs.

Depending on which options you selected, it will open a Thunderbird tab or a tab within the message window. No matter which of your accounts or folders you open, the tabs you see in the message window of one will be the same in any other.

It may look cluttered at first, but it’s incredibly useful. Imagine someone sends you a reference and you want to quickly review it before reading the rest of the email. Previously, you would have to load it in your browser and switch back and forth between two applications. Now you can open the link in a Thunderbird tab or in a ThunderBrowse tab right next to the email you’re reading.

Of course, you can also open links as you please using the right-click menu. Besides opening in a tab or in your browser, you can also open the link in a new (separate ThunderBrowse) window.

With these tab options available in Thunderbird 3, who needs a browser?

So tell me, what can your browser do that Thunderbird presently can’t?

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (14)How To Terminally Delete eMails In Thunderbird By Compacting Folders
• (19)How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails
• (10)How To Access Hotmail Email Messages from Your Gmail Account [Part II]
• (27)3 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook
• (3)2 Extensions To Better Manage Emails in Thunderbird 3

Outlook is part of Microsoft’s Office suite. It comes with a lot of extra features compared to Outlook Express, including time/event management, contact management, and Microsoft Exchange Server support to synchronize and share information.

Arguably, Outlook Express is a good enough tool for those who don’t expect a lot of flexibility from their software. But what if you want more without having to spend money? Which free alternatives to Outlook should you look into?

Thunderbird

What is it?

Thunderbird is Mozilla’s desktop eMail client. As such, it’s an open source application and supports various addons, which enhance its functionality.

Like Outlook, Thunderbird supports POP, IMAP, and SMTP. Using the Account Wizard, you also can subscribe to RSS News & Blogs, hook up to your Newsgroup account, and launch a quick Gmail setup.

What makes it a better alternative to Outlook?

Thunderbird is available not just for Windows, but also for Mac OS X and Linux. Localized versions of Thunderbird exist for dozens of the most common languages.

Thunderbird is much better than Outlook, in case you enjoy to customize your eMail client. There is a vast collection of themes and extensions available. These will also cover up for most features that are not integrated into Thunderbird by default.

MakeUseOf has dozens of articles regarding Thunderbird. Below is a small selection:

• Saikat wrote How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails.
• Mark explained how to Synchronize Your Google Contacts, Calendar & RSS In Thunderbird.
• Kyle showed you how to Update Your Thunderbird Address Book with Address Crawler.
• I have written articles explaining How to Set Up Message Filters in Thunderbird, How To Integrate Google Calendar Into Thunderbird, and How To Recover Deleted eMails in Thunderbird.

Gmail

What is it?

Gmail or Google Mail is Google’s free webmail client.

Although it is only an online eMail application, Gmail is a very powerful tool that easily rivals most common desktop clients. Gmail supports POP and IMAP and it is fully integrated with the Google Apps suite.

What makes it better than Outlook?

The clear advantage of an online eMail client is its global availability. Wherever you go, whichever computer you use, your eMail is already there.

Gmail provides a complex selection of settings and features. Gmail tracks conversations and optionally compiles all eMails belonging to one conversation into a single thread. Within settings you can create filters, enable Google Mail Labs experimental features, manage multiple inboxes, and switch themes.

There are tons of Gmail hacks that provide interesting options. MakeUseOf has covered them extensively. Here are some of the highlights:

• Mark has compiled a list of Essential Shortcuts to Browse through Gmail faster.
• Saikat covered 5 Ways To Create Custom Multiple Signatures in GMail.
• David shared 7 Tips to Make Gmail The Best Free Email Service For Productive People.
• Sharninder explained How To Access & Use Gmail Offline.
• Karl wrote about How To Backup Your Gmail account To YOUR Hard Drive.
• Aibek revealed 1 Awesome Gmail tip You Didn’t Know about.

Angelina has written a series of posts on How To Turn Gmail Into a Multitasking Machine. In Part 1 she explains how to best configure Gmail, how to consolidate your eMail, and set up labels. In Part2 she provides tips for eMail filtering. Finally, in Part 3, Angelina explores options for the sidebar and the use of multiple inboxes.

Zimbra Desktop

What is it?

Yahoo’s Zimbra Desktop is a desktop eMail client that rivals Gmail, Thunderbird, and Outlook alike. Interestingly, it is powered by Mozilla.

What makes it a better alternative to Outlook?

Much like its Mozilla companion Thunderbird, Zimbra is available in 20 different language versions for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The design is sleek and Zimbra offers several more theme options. Best of all, it’s easy and intuitive to use with a ton of useful features.

Zimbra supports its own online webmail client Zimbra as well as Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Microsoft Live Hotmail, AOL Mail, Microsoft Exchange IMAP, IMAP, and POP.

Zimbra has a built-in calendar, contacts, task manager, documents, and briefcase.

Obviously, language integration is not yet perfect. Although I selected the US English language installation and confirmed this language preference within options, some tabs and menus are still displayed in the language of my operating system: German. This should not be an issue if you select the language of your operating system.

Zimbra synchronizes eMails, contacts, and calendars with Zimbra, Yahoo! Mail, and Gmail.

Like Gmail, Zimbra offers an optional conversation view, i.e. threaded conversations. It also comes with advanced tagging options.

Contacts can be grouped and tagged, you can add photos, and import/export via .csv files is supported.

Zimbra comes with great search features. You can quickly search your mailbox for all or specified item types or use the advanced search to add several search criteria, such as file size, date and time, tag, status, folder, and more. The best is that searches can be saved as virtual folders.

Zimbra extensions are called Zimlets.

For more details on how Zimbra compares to Outlook and Thunderbird, check out the Feature Comparison list.

Runners-Up

If none of the above alternatives seem entirely satisfying to you, please have a look at the following two clients:

IncrediMail was reviewed by Saikat: Have Some Fun With This Email Client (Windows).
Zenbe received a review from Sam: All Your Emails In One Place.

What is your favorite eMail client and what makes it valuable to you?

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (8)How to Email Smarter With Buit-In Time Zone Converters
• (10)How To Access Hotmail Email Messages from Your Gmail Account [Part II]
• (19)How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails
• (30)How To Send Personalized Mass Emails in Outlook
• (37)Do You Check Email Online or Use A Desktop Client? [MakeUseOf Poll]

Here is the post that will shed light on how to recover deleted emails in Thunderbird. So if you have recently deleted an important eMail and accidentally emptied the Trash, you may still be able to recover it. Just don’t compact your folders, yet!

Before you start, close Thunderbird and best perform a backup. At least make a manual backup of the files you are going to work with!

Open your Thunderbird profile folder. Generally this folder can be found under C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles.

By default, the Application Data folder is hidden. To make it visible go to C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\ and click Tools > Folder Options and open the View tab. Scroll down to Hidden files and folders and check Show hidden files and folders. Click OK to save and you should be able to see the Application Data folder.

You should know under which account and to which folder the deleted eMail was originally delivered. Otherwise you will have to apply trial and error and search through different accounts and folders.

Let’s say we’re looking for an eMail that was delivered to the Inbox, subsequently deleted and emptied from the Trash. The traces of this eMail should still be found in the Inbox folder.

Go ahead and open the folder for the respective eMail account, then launch the Inbox file without the .msf file extension in a text editor, such as Notepad.

If you’re unsure, click on one of the files and expand the file details in the bottom left of the folder. For the correct file type it should just say “file”, rather than “MSF-file”.

Opening files can take a few seconds or a few minutes, depending on how many eMails have survived termination in that folder. Make sure the text editor you choose can handle large file sizes. Some of my files were up to 300MB!

For my example, I picked an eMail I received from Stumble Upon this morning. I had deleted it and before attempting to restore the eMail I also emptied the Trash for this account.

When I looked into the Inbox file I indeed found that eMail along with all details and contents in my Inbox text file.

To recover the eMail and make it reappear in its original folder, change the X-Mozilla-Status to 0. In the example pictured below it says “X-Mozilla-Status: 0009″. The result should say “X-Mozilla-Status: 0″.

Save the file, close it and launch your Thunderbird client.

Lo and behold, my test eMail magically reappeared in my inbox.

Now to everyone who have been getting rid of secret or compromising eMails simply by deleting them, there is no need to suffer from a nervous breakdown now.

There is a way to remove those eMails forever. Simply compact your folders. My previous post on How To Terminally Deleted eMails In Thunderbird by Compacting Folders thoroughly explains the steps you need to take.

Did I save your day? Your feedback is appreciated, please use the comments!

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (19)How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails
• (8)How to Email Smarter With Buit-In Time Zone Converters
• (10)How To Access Hotmail Email Messages from Your Gmail Account [Part II]
• (27)3 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook
• (14)How To Terminally Delete eMails In Thunderbird By Compacting Folders

Did you know that eMails in the Thunderbird eMail client are not terminally deleted?

Even if you empty the trash folder, they are not physically removed, neither from the trash folder, nor from the original folder. Yes, this does mean that you can recover those eMails. However, that will be the subject of another story.

The issue here is that Thunderbird will grow to an enormous size if all the spam and mails you have trashed are never actually removed. In fact, the traces are multiplied if you move mail from one folder to another and this will add to the size of each of these folders.

So let me explain how you can finally and forever get rid of deleted eMails and thereby reduce the size the Thunderbird eMail client takes up on your hard drive.

The process of terminally removing traces of moved or trashed eMails from folders is called compacting. There are two ways to do this and they’re both rather simple.

Automatic Compacting

Per default, automatic compacting is not enabled in Thunderbird. To enable it, go to > Tools > Options > Advanced tab > Disk Space section and check the box next to > “Compact folder when it will save over …” and set a KB value. The default value is 100 kB.

Thunderbird will now start compacting folders automatically, whenever it saves a reasonable amount of disk space.

WARNING

The problem here is that your Thunderbird eMail client may not respond well at random, at moments when the critical value was reached to set off folder compacting.

Besides, you should not do anything other than reading eMails while folders are being compacted. Otherwise folders can get corrupted or you could lose data. For example eMails you were writing when compacting started may refuse to send or save.

In other words, automatic compacting can be very annoying, especially in situations where you need to use it urgently.

SOLUTION

There are two solutions. If you’re an experienced user, you can customize folder compacting using the Config Editor. If you can’t be bothered with config editing, you should compact folders manually.

Customize Compacting

Automatic folder compacting is still feasible if you make Thunderbird ask for permission before it starts. That way it’s still automatic and you don’t have to think about it, but you won’t be interrupted for good at random intervals.

To open the Config Editor, go to > Tools > Options > Advanced > General and click the > Config Editor button in the bottom right.

In the > Filter: line type > mail.purge.ask to see whether the entry exists. If it does, double-click to set the value to > true.

If the entry does not exist, right-click on any entry and select > New > Boolean and enter > mail.purge.ask as the preference name. Finally, select > true and click OK.

Manual Compacting

To entirely avoid random disruptions due to automatic folder compacting, do it manually whenever you deleted a bunch of spam or an eMail you want to remove for good.

This process is incredibly simple as well. Just right-click on a folder you wish to compact and select > Compact from the menu.

The status bar will display the progress of folder compacting. As stated in the warning above, be sure not to do anything within Thunderbird, while the process is underway!

The status bar will also announce when compacting was completed.

For a trash folder I had never compacted and which contained almost four thousand messages, compacting took less than a minute.

If you run into problems, please refer to the comprehensive coverage regarding Compacting Folders on the mozillaZine.

How do you keep your eMail client slim and speedy?

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (19)How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails
• (10)How To Access Hotmail Email Messages from Your Gmail Account [Part II]
• (5)5 Extensions For Tabbed Email Browsing In Thunderbird 3
• (27)3 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook
• (26)Top 5 Yahoo Mail Classic Tips & Tricks

Synchronizing your Gmail email messages with Thunderbird is a breeze by using IMAP.   Every change you make in Thunderbird is more or less instantly reflected in your online email account.

But what about your Gmail contact book, your Google calendar and Google Reader RSS feeds?    Although Thunderbird offers their own versions, I wanted it instead to synchronize with my Google accounts and keep everything updated as I made changes.    The thought of having two versions, one in Thunderbird and one online, was not very appealing.

Here’s how I finally managed to do it.

Synchronize Your Google Contacts With Thunderbird :

This can be achieved by using an extension called Zindus.   Just install the extension and after restarting Thunderbird, go into the options :

It’s very easy to set up. Just insert your Google account name and password.   Then click the “test connection” button and it will connect to your Google account.    Your contact book will then be downloaded and any further changes in Thunderbird will also be synchronized with your online account.

Synchronize Your Google Calendar With Thunderbird

This one has already been covered by Tina (which is the guide I used) but here’s still a quick summary.   You need two extensions – Lightning and Provider For Google Calendar.   When you install them and restart, you’ll then see your calendar on the right hand side.

To start the synchronization, find the XML link of your Google Calendar (found under the settings on your GCal page), insert it into the Thunderbird calendar settings, and bingo, your events are downloaded and synchronized.

To get the full, in-depth process, read Tina’s excellent how-to.

Synchronize Your Google Reader With Thunderbird

This was the biggie as far as I was concerned.   With over 2000 unread RSS messages, I wanted to be able to browse through the feeds and have it instantly updated online.   I didn’t want to read them in Thunderbird but for them still to be sitting unread online.   That would have led to chaos.    Finally I discovered one possible solution.

Basically what the following method does is install a mini browser in your Thunderbird.   So technically you are still reading them online but inside your Thunderbird client instead.   So it’s not an offline synchronization solution which is what I am really looking for.   But for the moment this will do until I find a better method.

• First download Thunderbrowse and CSLite and install them in Thunderbird.
• Now go into your Thunderbird options and on the ‘General‘ tab, make sure the box labelled When Thunderbird launches, show the Start Page in the message area is checked, and in the location field, enter the URL http://www.google.com/reader/i/.



• Now go into your Thunderbrowse options. On the ‘Content‘ tab, check the option Enable SmartJavascript?, and click OK.
• Open the preferences for the CS Lite extension, and on the ‘Global‘ tab, select Allow cookies globally from the drop-down box.
• Now restart Thunderbird.   You should now see Google Reader in the main browser pane.   Log in and your feeds will appear.



• One piece of advice – place the Thunderbrowse button on your Thunderbird toolbar.  Then when you need to navigate away from the window to read your emails, you can click the Thunderbrowse button to go back again.

Do you have any better solutions to synchronize your Google accounts with Thunderbird? If so, I would love to hear about them. Let everyone know in the comments.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (27)How To: Integrate Google Calendar Into Thunderbird
• (15)FeedDemon Can Now Sync Google Reader to the Desktop
• (33)UnGoogled: A Week of Discovering Alternatives For Google’s Services
• (12)Two Online Services To Clean Up Your RSS Feeds
• (3)Readefine – Newspaper-ize Web Content With Newspaper Formatting

If you have a 5 Megapixel camera, you may find your photo sizes being around 4-6MB each, if you want to email 5 photos to your friends, you can see that the email will be quite large around 25MB, and that is a bit big for an email. What happens if you have a bunch of photos to email, say 25, that will be 125 megabytes – which most people won’t be able to receive as it is too large.

So to reduce the email size, we first must resize the image for email. You may have another software that you use to compact the size of your images, but Microsoft Office Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird provides a handy tool that allows you to shrink the quality of the images automatically. You will now be able to turn your 125MB email to little over 1MB with hardly any effort.

Resize Images For Email In Outlook 2007

Open up Outlook 2007 and create a new email. Attach your images be clicking on the Message tab, and click Attach File in the Include section as seen in the picture below. I have added 10 pictures that are around 4MB each, which makes the total size of the email 36MB.

In the picture, I have also circled another button. Click it and you will be shown a sidebar on the right hand side. Under Picture Options, select your picture size. I have chosen large.

If you want, you can tick the box that says Show when attaching files, so the Attachment Option side bar will automatically appear when you attach files to your email. All you have to do is write your email and click send for your images to be reduced. When you send your email, you will see that the largest file I sent is 191KB.

Resize Images For Email In Mozilla Thunderbird

If you use Mozilla Thunderbird, you first have to install a Add-on. Go and download the Auto resize JPEG images for Thunderbird add-on. Open up Thunderbird, click on Tools –> Add-ons and click on install.

Click on open when you have located the .xpi file and then click on Install Now when prompted. Then restart Thunderbird.

Once you have installed the Add-on, create a new email as you normally would. Click on Attach and add your images. Write the rest of your email, and when you are done, click send. You will be prompted with a message (unless you ticked the box saying Resize images automatically when sending).

Click on yes to send your email. Thunderbird will automatically reduce the attachments.

With the ten pictures that I emailed, I reduced the email size from 36 Megabytes to 1660KB which is 1.6MB.

What other methods do you use to reduce your email attachment sizes? Share it with us in the comments.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (8)How to Email Smarter With Buit-In Time Zone Converters
• (37)Do You Check Email Online or Use A Desktop Client? [MakeUseOf Poll]
• (27)3 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook
• (19)How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails
• (30)How To Send Personalized Mass Emails in Outlook

Thunderbird unites many advantages, including the flexibility we all know from Firefox. And if you have to rely on eMail accounts from different providers (e.g. work, GMail and Yahoo! Mail), a desktop eMail client like Thunderbird allows you to collect all your eMails in one place on your desktop.

One of the greatest joys for me is customizing Thunderbird’s look and feel, i.e. rearranging icons and trying new themes. Here are 10 of my favorite Mozilla Thunderbird themes.

2nd Classic

(2.0 – 2.0.0*)

2nd Classic is a light gray Mozilla Thunderbird theme with a few good contrasts, for example a different background for the sidebar. It also comes with custom icons for the Mail, Calendar and Tasks buttons, something that most skins are lacking.

If you’re wondering how I got those buttons there, check out my post How To Integrate Google Calendar Into Thunderbird and the secret should be lifted. It also works for iCalendar (ICS), CalDAV or Sun Java System Calendar Server (WCAP).

Aquabird Redone

(1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

I’m a great fan of light Mozilla Thunderbird themes with neat buttons and this skin definitely fits into my predatory pattern. The theme is also available in a dark version: Aquabird Black

Cobalt

(1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

This is the theme I’ve been using for the past few months. As I said, I have a soft spot for stylish light skins. Unfortunately, no custom Mail, Calendar and Tasks buttons.

iLeopard Mail

(2.0 – 3.1a1pre)

The color scheme of iLeopard here is very similar to 2nd Classic, but the icons are very different. I find them adorable, very Mac!

Modern Modoki

(2.0 – 2.0.0.*)

Most Mozilla Thunderbird themes are light. Modern Modoki’s blueish grey colored theme with the beautiful icons is different.

Nuvola

(2.0 – 3.1a1pre)

Nuvola is a more playful skin with colored icons on a light gray background. I like all the little details, especially the custom icons everywhere. Very well done!

OxyBird

(2.0 – 2.0.0.*)

OxyBird is another favorite light skin with pretty buttons. If you’re a fan of light skins, pay attention to the subtle differences in the icons. This theme isn’t monochrome, but integrates little bits of color, which makes it so interesting.

PitchDark

(0.8 – 2.0.0.*)

The only real dark Thunderbird skin I found and liked. The brownish grey / black combination is quite special, but will certainly find its fans. I like the clear borders. Overall it reminds of dark science fiction movies. Not sure where that comes from, though.

Silvermel

(1.5 – 3.1a1pre)

Silvermel has a light gray base with slightly colorful and novel icons.

Whitehart

(1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

Finally a light theme. Whitehart is very classy, with simple but stylish icons. Perfect if you need a low-key skin that’s easy on the eyes. My current favorite!

And Thunderbird can be a lot more than just pretty! As mentioned previously, Thunderbird supports extensions, just like Firefox. Here’s a small selection of custom settings we have covered on MakeUse Of:

Damien compiled a list of 10 Great Thunderbird Addons You Must Have.

Kyle wrote an article explaining how to Update Your Thunderbird Address Book With Address Crawler.

From Saikat you could learn How To Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird To Send Mass Emails.

And in case you’re being flooded with eMails, you will find my article about How To Set Up Message Filters In Thunderbird very useful.

What’s your favorite theme? Do you change your themes regularly? How many are currently installed for your Thunderbird? Yeah, we want to know it all!

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (44)15 Best Mozilla Firefox Skins To Customize Your Browser
• (19)How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails
• (2)How To Resize Images for Email right in Thunderbird & Outlook
• (14)How To Recover Deleted eMails in Thunderbird
• (3)How To Install Skins for Various Instant Messaging Programs

My default mail client is Gmail for online access and Thunderbird for offline. In this demonstration, I am going to use Mozilla Thunderbird, but the same principle can be used for other desktop clients such as Microsoft Outlook or Windows Live Mail.

Step 1: Download Install ThunderBird

To download Mozilla Thunderbird, just visit the Thunderbird Home Page and download the latest version for your operating system.

Step 2: Create your Gmail Account in Thunderbird

Once you have successfully installed Thunderbird, it is time to set up Gmail. When you first launch the ThunderBird after installing it, the below dialog box will appear. If you want to set up more accounts later, you can access it by going Tools –> Account Settings –> Add Account.

Click on the Google Mail or Gmail radio button and click Next. Then enter your name and Google email address. What you type in as Your Name field will appear as the sender when you send emails to other people.

Click Next, and do not click Download Emails now. We’ll download our emails later after we have checked the settings and set up our folders and filters. The setup should be now complete. In order to make sure the settings are correct and to alter the settings if we need, go to Tools –> Account Options. Under your email account, click on Server Settings and make sure you tick the box Leave Messages on Server. This allows you to check all of your emails online as well as offline after you have downloaded them. If you want, you can click the “Until I Delete Them” box.

Step 3: Managing Identities

Since we are in Account Settings, we can set up and manage our identities. Identities are a way we can send mail from other accounts. On the main Account Settings page, you’ll see a button that says Manage Identities. Click on that, and set up your identities for the accounts you are forwarding.

Then click on Add to add a new identity and to fill in the details of your other email accounts. You can change the settings in “Copies and Folders” so your sent mail is stored in another folder if you want.

Step 4: Create folders to sort your mail

Since mail from different email accounts are coming to this one account, we will first set up folders so we can sort mail so we know which email account we will send the email from. To do this, right click on your account and click New folder.

Create folders for all your email accounts that you are forwarding to this Gmail account.

Step 5: Automatically filter your mail from different accounts

Now we have to set up Mail Filters to sort our mail into correct folders. To access message filters, go to Tools –> Message Filters. You have to create a new filter for every email account you are forwarding that you want to go into its own separate folder. Click on the New button and give the filter an appropriate name. Select To from the first drop down box, Contains from the second and type the email address in the third. In the bottom half, select Move Message To and select the folder that you want to move the emails too.

Magnified view

Repeat the steps for every email account. Message Filters are great if you get a lot of mail from one address for example MySpace and Facebook, you can set message filters to your move all mail from those sites to different folders. The below screenshot is how I effectively sort all my MySpace and FaceBook messages into one folder.

Step 6: You are now done

By reading the Part 1, you should now be able to access your emails online in one simple location. By reading this part, you should now be able to access your emails offline. Combined these posts together and you will now be able to successfully managed your mail more efficiently and effectively. However, I do suggest that you check your other email accounts just in case there are some important emails filtered as Spam and that everything is still working correctly.

There are other ways to do this, but this is what I have been doing and it works great with my mail. Especially if you change your email addresses a lot. What do you think? Has this helped you to manage your email more efficiently?

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (27)3 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook
• (19)How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails
• (8)How to Email Smarter With Buit-In Time Zone Converters
• (12)How To Turn Gmail Into A Multitasking Machine (Part III)
• (13)How To Turn Gmail Into A Multitasking Machine (Part II)

I expected this question after my previous post – How to Send Personalized Mass Emails in Outlook. So, let me continue where I left off and do a bit of Mozilla Thunderbird add-on hunting. After all, Mozilla’s rich add-on universe has a cure for every conceivable ‘problem’ except world hunger.

Yes, I found the answer in Mozdev.org. It’s the Mozilla developers’ community dedicated to open and free, quality applications and extensions – a perfect place to check out when you want to know how to set up Mozilla Thunderbird for anything.

Mail Tweak is a Thunderbird extension for Thunderbird ver. 2.0+. It’s a collection of enhancements and workarounds for the email client. The enhancements total around 36 (113KB) and one of them is called Personalize messages.

This ‘productivity’ tweak sends each recipient an individual message using fields from the address book or a CSV (comma separated values) file.

1. Go to the installation page of Mail Tweak at Mozdev.org. Download the mailtweak-0.16.xpi file to your computer.
2. Open Thunderbird. Select Tools – Add-ons – Extensions. Browse to the location of your downloaded file and install. Restart the Thunderbird client to complete.
3. Open the Add-on window (from Tools – Add-on) and select the Mail Tweak extension. Click on Options.
4. Scroll down the entries in the Tweaks section and select Personalize messages. Click OK.
5. You can now compose a message by selecting Message – Personalize message from the menu toolbar.

   Add your recipients (or a recipients list) as you normally do. You can include the contacts in other ways, of course.

   • Click on Address Book on the menu. Select the bunch of names – right click and choose Personalize from the context menu.
   • Open a new message window from Message – Personalize. Select the Personalize button on the menu and pick up the mail addresses from a CSV file.
6. To send the messages, click on File – Personalize (or click the Personalize button on the toolbar). An alert pops up with the option of ‘Send now’ or ‘Leave unsent’. With the latter option, Mail Tweak saves the messages (as individual emails) in the Unsent folder. After reviewing them you can email them from File – Send Unsent Messages.

Further personalize your email using Mail Tweak…

To include other fields like address, city, work phone etc. from the address book, specify field attributes in the emails. For example, to include the first name of each individual recipient – place a %%firstName%% where needed.
(All available address book field names are the properties as given in the nsIAbCard file. This is where all address fields of a particular contact are stored as attributes. Check out all the attributes here.)

Here’s an example to illustrate – to include the home address and the city of the contacts, include %% homeAddress%% and %%homeCity%% in the appropriate place. Similarly, it can be worked out for the other fields.

Without turning this into a soup of geeky codes and syntax, let me direct you to the Mail Tweaks Personal Messages section for some more help.

Although, Mail Tweak is built for the latest version, it can also be installed in Thunderbird 1.5 and in Shredder (pre-release versions of Thunderbird 3) with limited functionality.

MozDev.org does put out this caution – Performance may be poor if you use this feature for large messages or many recipients, and you might see warning messages from Thunderbird. For bulk mailing, it is better to use a specialized bulk mailing program.

That’s a good advice but for a home user’s run-of-the-mill mass mailing needs using the Thunderbird client, Mail Tweaks is a good enough productivity solution.

So, how often do you use bulk mailing? Do you think this solution is workable for you? Let us know if you have any other freeware to lessen the load.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (30)How To Send Personalized Mass Emails in Outlook
• (10)How To Access Hotmail Email Messages from Your Gmail Account [Part II]
• (27)3 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook
• (14)How To Terminally Delete eMails In Thunderbird By Compacting Folders
• (14)How To Recover Deleted eMails in Thunderbird

An email sent by me to a recipient across the globe takes a second to land in his inbox, but was it timed right? Especially if my contact receives a flood of emails daily, I would like my important email to land when he is most inclined to read and respond to it. An email arriving at midnight will get buried under others which reach the next morning. And don’t we all have a habit of skipping through emails when we have lots of them?

This is why I would want to know the exact time of the day for my recipient who is on the east coast of the United States while I send him an email from India. With that in mind, I am going to look at a few ways I can do that with time zone converter utilities in some of the email clients/services we normally like to use.

Sender Time Zone Converter in Gmail

A few months back, Gmail put out a new experimental lab feature called Sender Time Zone that might save you from waking up your girlfriend at the wrong hour of the night. Message headers usually include the dispatch time info and the time zone too. The Gmail just translates what’s Greek into user friendly icons. Varun covered this lab feature in his article What’s new in Gmail: Imports, Images, Previews, Translations and more.

1. Log in to your Gmail account and click on Settings – Labs (Alternatively, click on the little green flask icon on the top right.)
2. Scroll halfway down the page and enable the Sender Time Zone lab feature. Save your changes.

   

3. For each email, you will either see a little green phone icon or a red one. The green icons are for those senders who are probably awake (i.e. daylight time between 9:00AM to 6:00PM). The red ones are for those who could have gone out of office or could be unreachable.

   

4. But for more help click on the show details link located on the top right hand side of the email body. The email header opens up displaying the sender-time and the Current time there in his time zone.

   

If the time zone information isn’t included for an email, then the lab feature will not display the icons.

FoxClocks for Mozilla Thunderbird

Although this Mozilla Thunderbird add-on won’t give you the sender’s time zone for each individual email, the install does allow you to set up clocks for every part of the world and view it from the Thunderbird status bar. The best thing about this sort of time zone converter is that you can also give a unique color to each clock or have a clock change color during certain hours. For instance, set green for the right time to contact someone in the eastern coast of the U.S.

1. Install FoxClocks from the Mozilla Add-ons page. A detailed set of instructions is available at the FoxClocks developer website.
   
2. Use the Zone Picker to browse for and select time zones.

   

3. Use the Add as… button to select a time zone and customize it by giving it your own name. For instance, the name of your contact.
4. Double-clicking on the time zone/custom name in the Watchlist brings up the Location Properties window. Here, you can configure FoxClocks to display a different color for a particular period in that time zone. For instance, select green for the time range when you think the person can be contacted.

   

If you use Thunderbird, make sure to check out our Cheat Sheets!

Sender’s Time Zone for Microsoft Outlook

This helpful 1.2MB plug-in for Outlook does the job of reading the email timestamp for you and showing the difference compared to your local time. Once you open a message in Outlook, the plug-in displays the current local time of the sender, difference in your time zones and the time since the message was sent. This freeware plug-in installs in a jiffy and requires zero configuration. All you need to do is to decide whether it’s the right time to send a response.

The freeware plug-in is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 2007, Outlook 2003, Outlook XP (2002) and Outlook 2000 and can be downloaded from here.

You can of course, forget about all this and calculate the senders’ local times in your head or turn to an online service to read the clock for you. It’s sure to become an inconvenient habit. The easier way could be to try out the services I’ve just listed.

Do you have a different way of estimating time difference for your email client? Do drop in a comment on how you do the math or even if you consider all this to be a waste of time.

Image credit: FJTU

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (27)3 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook
• (10)How To Access Hotmail Email Messages from Your Gmail Account [Part II]
• (37)Do You Check Email Online or Use A Desktop Client? [MakeUseOf Poll]
• (19)How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails
• (30)How To Send Personalized Mass Emails in Outlook

I have found a solution to the problem, and it comes in the form of a Thunderbird extension called Email Address Crawler. It will crawl your inbox, outbox or any other folder you have for emails that aren’t in your address book. This way you can make sure to add all of your new contacts quickly.

After you install Email Address Crawler, all you have to do is right click on the folder you want to look through. There will be an option to in your menu to crawl through the email addresses in that folder.

Search Options

After clicking this option, a window will pop up that gives you options for the search parameters. This helps you refine the search of, in this case, your inbox.

As you can see, I elected to search the To and From fields in order to maximize my results. You can also choose the CC options, but I decided not to since I don’t get very many emails with anyone CCed. You’ll also want to set the number of occurrences you are looking for. If you set it too low, you might bring back spam emails or emails from people you don’t care about. I went with three occurrences, because I thought that if I had interacted with someone that much they are worthy of being in my address book.

You’ll also want to select which address book these new contacts will go to. I selected a new address book that I called ‘Crawled Contacts’. The reason behind this is that you aren’t given the choice of adding certain contacts. This will allow me to go through the contacts before I add them to my main address book.

Added Contacts

Clicking OK will just about immediately add whatever contacts it found to your address book. I tend to delete a lot of my emails, so I didn’t come up with very many contacts. Really, the only contacts that showed up were just another of my own emails.

This is a prime example of why you would want to have an intermediate folder to add the new contacts to.

Conclusion

Email Address Crawler is a great extension for Thunderbird, but it is only as good as how many emails you have in your folders. If you are like me and delete most of your emails, you may not get lots of value from it. However, if you have an overflowing inbox, this could be a great tool that will beef up your address book very quickly.

If you know of any other tools that extracts email addresses like Address Crawler does, please let us know about them in the comments.

As a Thunderbird user you might be also iterested in recently published 10 Great ThunderBird Addons You Must Have.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

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Chances are you are receiving too many. Hopefully you’re receiving little spam, but certainly you have a lot of mail hitting your inbox that doesn’t need your immediate attention. Maybe you even receive private stuff at work that you should rather not attend to at all until you’re home.

So what to do about it? Ignore it while it’s staring at you from your inbox? Waste some time by sorting it manually?

If you’re using Thunderbird I can show you a smart solution: set up message filters and have Thunderbird auto-sort messages into different folders of your choice.

In Thunderbird go to >”Tools” >”Message Filters”.

From the >”Filters for:” menu choose the account you wish to set up a filter for. Then click the “New…” button on the right side and the “Filter Rules” window for a new message filter will open.

You can set as many rules as you like, for example mails from your mom’s eMail address that contain your sister’s name in the message body and are CC’d to your dad should be sorted into the urgent family business folder. For each new rule click the + button behind the last rule.

You can also sort several different mails that you receive on a daily basis into one folder. For example set up a rule that catches all mail from MakeUseOf (Sender contains MakeUseOf.com), then set up a different rule within the same Filter for each of the other newsletters or eMail updates you would like to sort into the same folder.

Of course you cannot just sort mails into folders. You can have the message filters perform several other actions as seen in the menu pictured above. For example, automatically “Mark As Read”, “Tag Message” or (the coolest) reply with a template. If required you can have the message filter carry out multiple actions on the same eMail.

With a bit of discipline you can have the flood of eMails that are arriving in your inbox each and every day nicely sorted within minutes and you’ll never again miss an important message that reaches your inbox totally unfiltered.

MakeUseOf have published several posts about Mozilla Thunderbird before, including 2 part series on Thunderbird addons:

PART 2: 10 Great Thunderbird Addons You Must Have
PART 1: 10 must-have Thunderbird Addons

How do you manage incoming mail? We would love to hear your tips and tricks!

Picture credits: ilco

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (27)How To: Integrate Google Calendar Into Thunderbird
• (14)How To Terminally Delete eMails In Thunderbird By Compacting Folders
• (19)How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails
• (10)How To Access Hotmail Email Messages from Your Gmail Account [Part II]
• (31)How To Access Hotmail Email Messages from Your Gmail Account

As such, it is time for us to re-visit the list of Thunderbird addons and update our readers with the latest list of must-have Thunderbird addons. (If you never heard of Thunderbird before, it’s an email client from Mozilla, just like Microsoft’s Outlook but a lot more customizable.)

1. Lightning and its related addons

If you are looking to use Thunderbird to replace your Outlook (or Evolution in Linux), then Lightning is a must-have extension. It adds calendar and task management capabilities to Thunderbird and allows you to manage your daily schedule all within Thunderbird.

At the same time, there are also several Lightning-related extensions that further enhances the functionality and capabilities of Lightning.

ThunderBirthday and MoreFunctionsForAddressBook: MoreFunctionsForAddressBook is an extension that increases the number of fields that you can include in your address book. You now have the option to include the birthday, photo ID, spouse name etc. ThunderBirthday, on the other hand, extracts birthday information from your address book and updates it to the Lightning. With this, you don’t have to manually enter the birthday entry in your Lightning and you won’t ever forget your best friend’s birthday again.

.vcs support: This extension allows you to export your Lightning entries to .vcs format. Currently it only supports .ics, .csv and .htm format.

Remember The Milk Integration: This is still an experiemental addon, but it is in no way inferior than the rest. If you love Remember The Milk, then you are going to love this extension as well. As its name implies, this extension will integrate and sync RTM with Lightning.

2. Thunderbrowse

When someone sends you a link, wouldn’t it be great if you can open the link and browse the Web right within your Thunderbird? Thunderbrowse is here just to serve that purpose. After you have installed this extension, whenever you click on a link within your mail, the message pane will become a full-fledged browser and allow you to view the website without having to open up a browser window.

Like Firefox, it supports tabbed browsing and javascript. In addition, with Thunderbrowse, you can install the Thunderbird extension within itself. There is no need to download the xpi file and install it via the Tools -> Addons section.

3. Foxclocks

If you are like me who always corresponds with partners all around the world, you will appreciate the usefulness of Foxclock. Foxclock is an extension that lets you keep watch of the time around the world by putting small clocks in your statusbar. Next time when you send an email to your partner, you will know why he doesn’t reply to you instantly. He could most probably be sleeping in his country.

In addition, Foxclocks also integrates well with Google Earth. If you don’t know where Budapest is, simply right click and choose  ‘Google Earth…’. It will bring you to where it is.

4. Quicktext

Quicktext is useful for several purposes:

1. It allows you to create templates so that you don’t have to spend lot of time replying repetitive emails.
2. It allows you to create multiple signatures and insert them accordingly to the person you are sending to.
3. It allows you to substitute specific text with a predefined variable, such as [[TO=firstname]]

If you are one who has to send repetitive emails all the time, this extension is the one that you must have.

5. Thunderbird Biff

Thunderbird Biff checks your email in the background and notifies you (in Firefox or Sunbird) when new mail has arrived. To get this extension to work, you will need to install the Thunderbird Biff server version of Thunderbird and the client version in Firefox/Sunbird. Once it is installed, it will display an icon at the status bar. Whenever a new mail has arrived, the icon will pop up and notify you.

6. Sync Kolab

Sync Kolab uses the Kolab technology to synchronize your address book and calendar (Lightning) with several other computers and platform. Basically, it makes use of an IMAP server to do the synchronization. It supports vCard/iCal/xml format and is compatible with a lot of other mail/calendar clients.

7. Auto Address Cleaner

Auto Address Cleaner cleans up your address field and eliminates any chances of offending the recipients by using wrong (possibly mistyped in the address book) names in the To/Cc fields. Instead of displaying the name of the recipient, it will only show their email address.

8. Google-related addons

For those who are fans of Google apps or you simply can’t live without Google, here are some of the extensions that integrates Google apps into Thunderbird.

Gmail IMAP setup – enables you to setup Gmail IMAP account with almost zero configuration.
Google Contact – synchronizes Thunderbird with Google contacts.
Provider for Google Calendar – allows bi-directional sync between Lightning and Google Calendar.

9. Check and Send

Have you ever sent an email and realized that you didn’t attach a file to it? The Check and Send extension checks your message content, subject and address before you send the message. You can define a specified keyword for it to look out for (such as ‘attachment’, ‘attached files’) and inform you when no attachment was found. You can also use it to check if certain words exist in the message or if the recipient is in the address book.

10. Tags Toolbar

Are you missing your favorite tags in Gmail? You can have it now. Tag Toolbar allows you to add tags for your email. You can define your own tags, specify the color and there is a nice toolbar that makes it easy for you to tag your emails.

Do check out Aibek’s article for the other 35 must have Thunderbird addons.

Also, don’t forget to download the Thunderbird cheat sheet that contains plenty of excellent shortcuts for Thunderbird users. Highly recommended.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (77)10 must-have Thunderbird Addons (+ 25 more)
• (5)5 Extensions For Tabbed Email Browsing In Thunderbird 3
• (3)2 Extensions To Better Manage Emails in Thunderbird 3
• (9)Ubiquity – Extend Firefox and Improve your Browsing Experience
• (26)Top 5 Yahoo Mail Classic Tips & Tricks

Since most MakeUseOf readers are likely to have tried different email programs and desktop clients the resuts should be rather interesting. So make sure to vote!

Why do you prefer checking your email online or on the desktop ? Let us know in the comments.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (8)How to Email Smarter With Buit-In Time Zone Converters
• (27)3 Best Free Alternatives To Microsoft Outlook
• (2)How To Resize Images for Email right in Thunderbird & Outlook
• (10)How To Access Hotmail Email Messages from Your Gmail Account [Part II]
• (18)5 Ways to Backup your Email

Naturally, there is a vast amount of addons and tools to sync, integrate and simply work more efficiently with Google Calendar. For example you can sync it with mobile devices like the Blackberry or iPhone using GoogleSync. Then you can add Google Calendar to Gmail with several different Greasemonkey scripts. Now I will explain how to add it to Thunderbird.

For this you will need two Thunderbird addons:
1. Lightning adds a Sunbird type calendar to Thunderbird.
2. Provider for Google Calendar connects Lightning with Google Calendar.

After installing both of these plugins, you will notice several changes in Thunderbird. First of all there is a new sidebar holding the calendar. At the bottom of the old sidebar that is hosting the folders and address book, you should see three new buttons: Mail, Calendar and Tasks.

To integrate an existing Google Calendar, you first need to fetch your calendar’s address. Head over to the web interface, click the little arrow next to one of your calendars, and select >Calendar settings from the menu.

In the Details window you’re looking for the Calendar / Private Address section at the bottom. I found that both XML and ICAL URLs work, but XML is recommended. Whether you pick the calendar or the private address depends on whether your calendar is set to public or private.

Back in Thunderbird the first thing you have to do is click the Calendar symbol to switch from Mail to Calendar view.
Then click >File >New >Calendar… If the Calendar option is not available, you probably forgot to switch to the Calendar view.

From the Create New Calendar window select >On the Network, click >Next, select >Google Calendar as the format and insert the URL into the >Location field, click >Next, eventually enter your Google >User Name and >Password and click >OK, >Name your calendar, give it a >Color, click >Next and finally >Finish to complete the procedure.

And there you go, you have integrated your Google Calendar into Thunderbird. Editing the calendar works bidirectional, meaning you can add and edit events via the website or in Thunderbird and they will be synced automatically.

The Mozilla Wiki has a thorough page covering Provider of Google Calendar, including a section about bugs and limitations. There also is a Google Group discussing further questions.

(By) Tina is a regular MUO author. In her offline life she’s a PhD student interested in unraveling signaling events that determine cartilage and bone development.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

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MailStore

Windows only email backup utility that lets you backup all your emails from multiple email accounts and programs into one secure and searchable archive. Import and manage messages from Gmail, Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, POP/IMAP accounts and many other mail programs: search through emails, remove duplicate attachments, one-click backup, etc.

Highlights:

• Backup from: Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Microsoft Exchange Server Mailboxes, AVM KEN! Mailboxes, Thunderbird, Mozilla SeaMonkey, Webmailer, any POP3 and IMAP accounts, from Imported Archive files.
• Search all your e-mail within fractions of a second (incl. the contents of attached documents).
• and more

MozBackup

For Thunderbird users only. MozBackup is a dead-simple utility to backup and restore your Thunderbird profiles, emails, installed extensions and settings. Quick and easy. It can do the same for Firefox as well.

GmailUploader

Unlike the above two GmailUploader is a not a backup tool. It’s basically an online service to upload locally stored mailbox files to your Gmail account. If you have switched to Gmail only recently (from Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) and need an easy way to import years old downloaded messages to your Gmail account than GmailUploader is the tool you need. It’s the only free tool you’ll find.

Amic Email Backup

Backup and restore your profile settings, emails, address book, message filters, signatures, blocked senders, etc. It works with 9 popular email clients including MS Outlook, MS Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus, The Bat, PocoMail, Netscape Messenger, Opera Mail, and Incredimail. Please note that the backup can be restored only to the same type of email program from which it was created.

Oulook Express Backup

Backup Outlook Express messages, message rules, preferences, blocked senders, signatures, stationery, Windows Address Book, Internet Explorer settings, and your Windows Favorites.

Highlights include:

• Create backups for multiple identities.
• Automattic Backup scheduler.
• Back up your data as a self-executable, standalone EXE file that can be executed on any machine, even if Outlook Express Backup is not installed.
• Access individual emails inside the backup file without the need to restore it first.

Know a better way to backup your emails ? Share it in comments.

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (8)How to Email Smarter With Buit-In Time Zone Converters
• (37)Do You Check Email Online or Use A Desktop Client? [MakeUseOf Poll]
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• (10)Read your Gmail in a web-based RSS reader with FreeMyFeed

TOP 10 Thunderbird Addons (must-have)

(1) Contacts Sidebar – handy addon that lets you display all available address books in Thunderbird sidebar. This lets you easily access all your contacts from the main window, quickly edit contact details, drag’n drop files on top of a contact to send it as an attachment and more… (Thunderbird: 1.5b – 2.0.0.*)

(2) QuoteCollapse – automatically collapses all the quotes within any message, making it look neat and less cluttered. To expand quotes back to standard view just click inserted ‘+’ button. (Thunderbird: 0.7 – 2.0.0.*)

(3) QuickMove – must-have addon letting you quickly file messages to your frequently used folders using keyboard shortcuts. (Thunderbird: 0.5 – 2.0+)

(4) Signature Switch – allows you to create multiple email signatures (Private, Business, etc.) and quickly switch between them right from the main toolbar. Also provides configurable signature auto-switch option based on the email recipients. (Thunderbird: 0.7 – 2.0.0.*)

(5) Remove Duplicate Messages – helps you quickly locate and remove duplicate messages from the selected folders (and its subfolders). (Thunderbird: 1.0 – 1.5.0.*)

(6) Nostalgy – lets you assign single-key keyboard shortcuts to common thunderbird operations i.e., move/copy/delete messages, change folder, add/remove/view tags, add attachment, scroll the message while keeping the focus on the thread pane and lots more. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

(7) GMailUI – adds Gmail-like mail archiving and powerful message search (i.e. ‘from:Makeuseof to:Aibek’) functionalities into Thunderbird. Makes excellent addition to already existing ‘Saved Searches’ feature. (Thunderbird: 0.8 – 2.0.0.*)

(8) Attachment Extractor – integrates one-click attachment extract option from selected messages. Once attachments have been extracted it can delete, detach or mark messages as ‘read’. Way easier than going through messages one-by-one. (Thunderbird: 2.0 – 2.0.0.*)

(9) Auto Zip Attachments – adds an ‘AutoZip’ button to the compose toolbar allowing you to compress all attached files to a single ‘zip’ file. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

(10) Send Later – integrates extra ‘Send Later At’ (‘Ctrl+Shift+Return’) feature to the message compose window, allowing you to send messages on a particular future date and time. It can be a contract cancellation notice, a ‘Happy Birthday’ or a friendly ‘Don’t Forget’ note. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0)

BONUS:Thunderbird Shortcuts (Cheat Sheet)

Well, that’s not really an addon but definitely a must-have for any Thunderbird user. Lots of excellent shorcuts for Thunderbird users here. Highly recommended. Download the cheat sheet.

OTHER Cool Addons

(1) QuickFolders – useful addon that adds an extra toolbar to Thunderbird panel. Drag’n Drop any mail folder on top of it, and you’ll get an instant-access shortcut to that mail folder. Dragging selected message on top of this shortcut will move/copy them to the folder. Especially handy when you have many message folders, but use only a few of them simultaneously. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0)

(2) Birthday Reminder – shows a list of upcoming birthdays for all contacts in your Address Book. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

(3) Email Notification Randomizer – extension to randomize the email notification sound. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 1.5.0.*)

(4) Allow HTML Temp – adds a new button to the toolbar that lets you temporarily enable/allow ‘HTML’ in the selected message. Switches back to default settings once you move to the next message (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

(5) Text Size – adds text size (increase/decrease) buttons to the main toolbar. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

(6) Mail Redirect – lets you export messages out of Thunderbird to another email address without forwarding. It preserves all message headers and “bounces” them to a provided email address. (Thunderbird: 0.7 – 2.0.0.*)

(7) XNote – provides an option to add sticky-like notes/memos to desired messages (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 1.5.0.*)

(8) Lightning – an integrated calendar application for Thunderbird (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*). Also check out Lightning Multiweek, which adds a multi-week view option to Lightning.

(9) Provider for Google Calendar – allows Lightning users to read/write events from/to a Google Calendar. (Thunderbird: 2.0a1 – 3.0a1)

(10) Mouseless – introduces bunch of Keyboard shortcuts for quicker navigation, i.e ‘/ ‘ for search, ‘w’ for new message, ‘a’ for reply, d for delete (move to trash) and so on. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 1.5).

(11) Skype Toolbar – initiate calls, chat sessions, transfer files to your Skype contacts within Thunderbird, view sender’s account status (online, offline), etc. (Thunderbird: 1.0 – 1.5.0. )

(12) Xpunge – adds two buttons to the main toolbar: ‘Xpunge’ and ‘MultiXpunge’, which basically work as shortcuts to already provided ‘compact all messages’ command (‘File -> Compact Folders’). While ‘Xpunge’ compacts only whole accounts, “MultiXpunge” can be configured to compact individual folders as well.

(13) MrTech Disable XPI Install Delay – disables default 4 second delay when installing extensions. (Thunderbird: 1.0 – 3.0a1)

(14) View Headers – adds a toolbar button letting you instantly view selected message’s headers. (Thunderbird: 2.0 – 2.0.0.*)

(15) MozPod – sync Thunderbird’s Address Book with an iPod. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*). More iPod Tools and Tips

(16) Nokia Sync – sync Thunderbird with Nokia mobiles. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

(17) TimeStamp – adds an option to insert the current date and time to any message. (Thunderbird: 1.0 – 2.0.0.*)

(18) Dictionary Search – provides a quick way to lookup (or translate) any word within an email message. Simply select the word you want to lookup, access right-click menu and select “Dictionary Search for …”. A new tab or browser window will open with the meaning of the word you selected.

(19) Change – currency converter, convert between 36 currencies right from your toolbar. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 1.5.0.*)

(20) Growl Notification (Mac) – displays ‘new mail’ notification as soon as there is a new email. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

(21) Minimize To Tray Enhancer (Minimize To Tray needs to be installed as well) – lets you minimize Thunderbird to the system tray instead of the taskbar. Provides an option to minimize Thunderbird on program/windows start.

(22) SenderFace – associate friends’ images with sender’s ID and display image thumbnails in the ‘from’ field. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 1.5.0.*)

(23) Spamato – extendable (with plugins) spam filtering system

(24) withAttach – adds couple of menu options (and toolbar buttons): (1) compose an email with attachments, (2) reply with attachment and (3) reply all with attachment. (Thunderbird: 1.5 – 2.0.0.*)

(25) Smilie Inserter – easily add smilie faces to your messages. Note: Smilies faces need to be downloaded separately. (Thunderbird: 0.7 – 1.5.0.*)

Thunderbird TIPS

• Mozilla Thunderbird Portable (If interested, check out MakeUseOf Top 100 list of portable apps)
• Using Thunderbird to Get Things Done
• Using Outlook’s calendar with Thunderbird
• How to make Thunderbird’s labels stand out
• How to mport Apple Mail to Thunderbird
• How to sync your Pocket PC with Thunderbird
• How to keep your inbox empty

• (35)10 Great Thunderbird Addons You Must Have
• (5)5 Extensions For Tabbed Email Browsing In Thunderbird 3
• (3)2 Extensions To Better Manage Emails in Thunderbird 3
• (9)Ubiquity – Extend Firefox and Improve your Browsing Experience
• (26)Top 5 Yahoo Mail Classic Tips & Tricks