Hi there, I currently use Thunderbird and have used Evolution in the past. I have a wish list that I wanted to share with the aim of perhaps finding an alternative. My criticisms with TB: - Changing the UI They added a archive button to some threads and this is on the right of the preview pane tool bar. If this does not show then the delete button is in that location (as the toolbar aligns to the right). So if you are mas deleting email by scanning the pane then the delete button moves each time the archive one is shown. This means that you can to move the mouse (look / read / think) - rather than just deleting email. - Searching for everything It shouldn't be that difficult to have some indexes for sender, sender domain and message prefixes. I would prefer to have a feature to have tabs / quick lists rather than search / sort my entire mailbox each time I wanted a type of message - Tags Highlighting the row in colour is great.....but that only happens when you have focus on the message - otherwise the text only is a different colour. This means if you have a moderate use of tags then you end up with unicorn vomit rainbow text and have to drill down on each message to see the colour of it - which defeats the point of MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS THING IN BOLD RED tags. - Plugins I am sure there is a (valid) comeback that there "is a plugin for that already" or "write your own" [you flatter me :-] but I would like to think that the core of an email client should cover off: - Email - Inbox filters/views/colour tags - Consistent UI - Tasks & Diary ...as core and not as plugins. I get a lot of email across several accounts and perhaps I am being picky. I am interested in hearing if others have similar / opposing feedback and recommendations of configurations / plugins or applications that addresses these issues. Cheers Piers
Hi, On 2/03/2016 10:32 AM, Piers Rowan via luv-main wrote:
I currently use Thunderbird and have used Evolution in the past. I have a wish list that I wanted to share with the aim of perhaps finding an alternative.
My criticisms with TB:
Okay, I do have the odd issue with TB, but it is the best I know today and I don't expect that to change. I now default to sending HTML emails and use the shift key to modify the action for text emails (to lists and when HTML makes no sense), works for writing new emails or replies.
- Changing the UI
They added a archive button to some threads and this is on the right of the preview pane tool bar. If this does not show then the delete button is in that location (as the toolbar aligns to the right). So if you are mas deleting email by scanning the pane then the delete button moves each time the archive one is shown. This means that you can to move the mouse (look / read / think) - rather than just deleting email.
Odd, does the behaviour of the "Del" key change in this instance? If not, why not just use that?
- Searching for everything
It shouldn't be that difficult to have some indexes for sender, sender domain and message prefixes. I would prefer to have a feature to have tabs / quick lists rather than search / sort my entire mailbox each time I wanted a type of message
I've found that the global index is best turned off completely (unless you have a small email count, then it becomes less useful anyway). But the quick filter works very well (<ctrl><shift>k) -- I usually have it filter by "Sender", "Recipient" and "Subject", leaving "Body" off deliberately. In most cases, I can find messages and conversations quickly and easily by one of the three filters that remains. Sometimes I turn those off selectively, but usually they are always on.
- Tags
Highlighting the row in colour is great.....but that only happens when you have focus on the message - otherwise the text only is a different colour. This means if you have a moderate use of tags then you end up with unicorn vomit rainbow text and have to drill down on each message to see the colour of it - which defeats the point of MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS THING IN BOLD RED tags.
I don't use tags, I sometimes "star" messages, but that's all I do to make it stand out.
- Plugins
I am sure there is a (valid) comeback that there "is a plugin for that already" or "write your own" [you flatter me :-] but I would like to think that the core of an email client should cover off:
Agreed, but some plugins are very useful and the ones that I prefer, well, let me know if you want me to elaborate.
- Email - Inbox filters/views/colour tags - Consistent UI - Tasks & Diary
...as core and not as plugins.
;-) The other unfortunate thing about TB is that Mozilla doesn't give it enough love and continually "threatens" to drop support of it due to "other priorities" :( :( :(
I get a lot of email across several accounts and perhaps I am being picky. I am interested in hearing if others have similar / opposing feedback and recommendations of configurations / plugins or applications that addresses these issues.
Plugins.... okay, the most useful I find are these: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/close-tab-on-esc/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/display-mail-user-agent/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/enigmail/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/hide-local-folders/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/mailredirect/?src=search (<ctrl>b for the win, bounces emails, can bcc yourself if needed) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/resetrec/ (great for when "ID10TS" want to cc loads of unrelated people) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/show-address-only/ (increases awareness of spam emails based on real addresses used) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/sortpref/ (allows me to sort ALL folders on ID easily, date doesn't always suit for search, nor other collumns) https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/threadkey/ (t for thread, u for unthread .. works great, but if I want to open a bunch of emails in thread view, I select them first, then unthread them, then open them so I get them in the right order) btw I would prefer <ctrl><shift>A to open the add-ons in TB as it does in Firefox. Cheers AndrewM
Oh and I would really like it if Maildir storage worked.... large email storage would make this quite useful. Last time I tried it, it gave me all sorts of problems; not sure I want to try again. Instead, for IMAP accounts, I generally leave the email on the server and just download the headers until I need the full body of the email. AndrewM
Andrew McGlashan via luv-main <luv-main@luv.asn.au> writes:
Oh and I would really like it if Maildir storage worked.... large email storage would make this quite useful.
You might want to look at notmuch. It works well storing all your email in Maildir, with a number of different clients. -- Brian May <brian@linuxpenguins.xyz> https://linuxpenguins.xyz/brian/
Quoting Brian May (brian@linuxpenguins.xyz):
You might want to look at notmuch. It works well storing all your email in Maildir, with a number of different clients.
Good idea. Just in case it will be of interest in case people are eyeballing one's choices in MUAs, my site offer page 'MUAs' on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Mail/ . Please let me know if I missed any.
On 01.03.16 21:33, Rick Moen via luv-main wrote:
Quoting Brian May (brian@linuxpenguins.xyz):
You might want to look at notmuch. It works well storing all your email in Maildir, with a number of different clients.
Good idea.
Just in case it will be of interest in case people are eyeballing one's choices in MUAs, my site offer page 'MUAs' on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Mail/ .
Please let me know if I missed any.
Nah. Mutt's there, so there's little left to miss. Erik (Who switched to it about 20 years ago, has been as happy as a pig in a pumpkin patch ever since, and is far too restrained to comment on the fact that it's those GUI MUAs which more often evoke complaints.)
Quoting Erik Christiansen (dvalin@internode.on.net):
Nah. Mutt's there, so there's little left to miss.
Erik (Who switched to it about 20 years ago, has been as happy as a pig in a pumpkin patch ever since, and is far too restrained to comment on the fact that it's those GUI MUAs which more often evoke complaints.)
I can't even remember how long ago it was in my case, except I switched from Elm, which should give _some_ idea of how long ago. -- Cheers, He's making a database; Rick Moen He's sorting it twice. rick@linuxmafia.com SELECT * from contacts WHERE behavior = 'nice'; McQ! (4x80) SQL Clause is coming to town. -- @KarenMN
On 02/03/16 10:19, Andrew McGlashan via luv-main wrote:
Odd, does the behaviour of the "Del" key change in this instance? If not, why not just use that?
I use DEL and CTRL DEL when I can discard the message based on subject. The remaining messages are previewed to make a decision on them. Using the mouse allows me to perform other actions - like scroll the text with the mouse wheel or click a link and move focus to the other monitor to interact with the page I just opened.
I've found that the global index is best turned off completely (unless you have a small email count, then it becomes less useful anyway). But the quick filter works very well (<ctrl><shift>k) -- I usually have it filter by "Sender", "Recipient" and "Subject", leaving "Body" off deliberately. In most cases, I can find messages and conversations quickly and easily by one of the three filters that remains. Sometimes I turn those off selectively, but usually they are always on.
I use these but they don't seem quick - I will look into turning off the global index.
I don't use tags, I sometimes "star" messages, but that's all I do to make it stand out.
I use stars to keep things at the top of the list and tags to highlight things
- Plugins
I am sure there is a (valid) comeback that there "is a plugin for that already" or "write your own" [you flatter me :-] but I would like to think that the core of an email client should cover off: Agreed, but some plugins are very useful and the ones that I prefer, well, let me know if you want me to elaborate.
Thanks for the list/reply Cheers P
Plugins.... okay, the most useful I find are these:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/close-tab-on-esc/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/display-mail-user-agent/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/enigmail/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/hide-local-folders/
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/mailredirect/?src=search (<ctrl>b for the win, bounces emails, can bcc yourself if needed)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/resetrec/ (great for when "ID10TS" want to cc loads of unrelated people)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/show-address-only/ (increases awareness of spam emails based on real addresses used)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/sortpref/ (allows me to sort ALL folders on ID easily, date doesn't always suit for search, nor other collumns)
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/threadkey/ (t for thread, u for unthread .. works great, but if I want to open a bunch of emails in thread view, I select them first, then unthread them, then open them so I get them in the right order)
btw I would prefer <ctrl><shift>A to open the add-ons in TB as it does in Firefox.
Cheers AndrewM _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list luv-main@luv.asn.au https://lists.luv.asn.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/luv-main
participants (5)
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Andrew McGlashan -
Brian May -
Erik Christiansen -
Piers Rowan -
Rick Moen