Thunderbird at GC

Getting Started

Thunderbird vs. Eudora

Extensions

Thunderbird Help

F.A.Q's

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Thunderbird Help

Topics:

Getting Started
Reading Messages
Composing and Sending Messages
Deleting Messages
Signatures
The Address Book
Junkmail Filters
Attachments
Shortcut Keys
Organizing Your Mail
Installing and Using Extensions

Getting Started

For how to get started using Thunderbird, see our page entitled Getting Started.

Reading Messages

1. Open Thunderbird. 

2. You will be prompted to enter your GC password.  If you would like, you can choose to save your password so you won't have to do this step again.

3. Thunderbird will open with a list of your messages on top and an area for viewing them on bottom.  Unread messages will be in bold and have a green dot to the right of them.  In the folder list on the left, any folders containing unread messages will be in bold and have a set of parantheses next to them containing the number of unread messages in the folder.

4. Click once on a message to view it in the bottom area of the program.  Click twice to open it in a new window.

5. If you wish an opened message to retain unread status, click the area to the right of the message where the green dot used to be.

6. If you wish all messages in a folder to be marked as read, right click on the folder name and select "Mark Folder Read".

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Composing and Sending Messages

1. Select "Write", located in the upper left corner. This will open a new window for you to compose your message in.

2. Enter the address or addresses, seperated by a comma in the "To" field, either by typing them in or by using your Address Book to insert them.

3. Type your Subject and message in the appropriate fields. Make sure you've added any attachments you wish to be sent with your message.

4. Click "Send". This will send you message immediately (not a queued send like Eudora).  You will be prompted to enter your GC password. If you would like, you may choose to save your password so you won´t have to do this step again.

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Deleting Messages

To delete a message, make sure the message you wish to delete is selected then either hit the Delete key or click on the "Delete" button (the red X).

When you delete a message it wil be sent to the Trash folder.  Messages can be retrieved from the Trash by clicking on the Trash folder to view its contents, then right-clicking on the message you wish to retrive and selecting "Move To".

Messages in the Trash still count towards your mail quota, so it is a good idea to periodically empty it.  Once messages are emptied from the trash folder, they cannot be retrieved.  To empty the Trash folder, go to File>Empty Trash.

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Signatures

Creating a signature:

1. Open Thunderbird.

2. Click "Write" to open a new message.

3. Type the text you wish it to appear in your signature. If you include formatting such as font changes, colors, or links, your signature will be saved as HTML.  If you include none of those things, it will be saved as plain text.

4. When you are finished, go to File>Save As>File. 

5. Name the file "signature" and leave the suffix (.txt or .html) that Thunderbird has given on the end of the file name (i.e. signature.txt or signature.html). Save the file under M:\Apps\Thunderbird if you are on campus. If at home, place the file wherever you want, but be sure to remeber where it is.  Click "Save".

6. Go to Tools>Account Settings.

7. Make sure GC Imap Account is selected. Put a check in the box next to "Attach this signature".

8. Click the "Choose" box and navigate to the folder that you saved your signature file in. Select your signature file and click OK. Now whatever text you have saved in your signature will be added on to your emails as your signature.

Creating and using multiple signatures:

If you would like to have more than one signature, simply follow signature creation instructions and when you get to step 5, be sure to name the file something other than what you named the first one (i.e. "signature2").

To switch between the signatures easily, you must have the add-on Signature Switch installed.  If you are using Thunderbird on campus, this has been installed for you.  If you are using Thunderbird at home, you can download Signature Switch from it's add-ons page.

Setting Up Signature Switch:

1. Open Thunderbird and click on the "Write" icon.  If there is a "Signature" icon that shows up in the Compose window (next to "Save"), skip to step 4.  If not, go on to step 2.

2. Go to View>Toolbars>Customize.

3. Drag and drop the "Sig" icon from the Customize Toolbars window so that it is next to the "Save" icon in the Compose window. Click "OK" in the Customize Toolbars window.

4. Click the arrow next to the "Signature" icon and select "Options".

5. Click "New".

6. Type a name for the signature in the "Description" box.  This could be something like "Work" or "Personal".

7. Click on the folder icon next to the "Path" box.  Navigate to and select one of your signature files.  Click "Open".  In the "Set Signature" widow, click "OK".

8. Repeat steps 5-7 until all signatures that you wish to use are added.  When you are done, you may want to set a default signature for Thunderbird to use. Do that by clicking next to the default signature you want under the "Default" colum.  A green check should appear, indicating that the signature has been set as default. 

Signature Switch is now ready to use.  If you did not set a default, your messages will now default to no signature.  To use a signature (or to use a different signature than your default) click the arrow to the right of the "Signature" icon and select the name of the signature you wish to use.

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The Address Book

Adjusting Your Imported Addresses:

There are two things you will have to adjust in addresses that were in your Eudora address book, then moved to your Thunderbird one.

1. In Eudora, you could send to GC addresses without including "@goshen.edu". This is not the case in Thunderbird. Any GC addresses in your address book that are username only (no "@goshen.edu") will need to be edited and have "@goshen.edu" added before they will work for sending.

2. All if the addresses in your Eudora address book were moved over, but none of the address book groupings were.  That means you will have to recreate these groupings in Thunderbird.  See instructions below.

Organizing Your Address Book:

Within the general address book are specific address books to help you group and organize your contacts. Thunderbird comes with the address books Personal Address Book and Collected Addresses.  You should also see a Eudora address book, which contains all of the addresses that were imported from Eudora.

You can create a new address book by opening Thunderbird and clicking on the Address Book icon.  In the Address Book window, go to File>New>Address Book. Type the name you want for your new address book and click "OK".

You can move contacts from one address book to another by simply dragging and dropping the contact you wish to move into the address book you wish it to be moved to in the bar on the left of the Address Book window.

Creating a New Contact or List:

There are a few ways to add a new contact in Thunderbird.

1. Thunderbird will automatically add any address you send a message to to your Personal Address Book.  To change which address book it adds these to or to stop it from adding them altogether, go to Tools>Options>Composition>Addressing and either uncheck or adjust the "Automatically add outgoing email addresses" field.

2. You can click on any address contained in a header and select "Add to Address Book".

3. You can add a contact manually by clicking on the Address Book icon, and then clicking on New Card.

You can also create mailing lists in Thunderbird. To create a new list, click on the Address Book icon, then click on the New List icon.  Fill out the information in the Mailing List window.  After the list is created, you can add addresses to it by dragging and dropping, just like you did with the address books.

Importing Addresses From an Excel File:

1. If you have not done so already, save the Excel file in .csv format. (Go to Save As, select .csv from the file type list.)

2. In Thunderbird, click on the Address Book icon. In the Address Book window, select Tools>Import.

3. Select "Address Books" and click "Next".

4. Select "Text file" and click "Next".

5. Navigate to and select the file you wish to import the addresses from.  Make sure the "Files of type" field says "Comma Seperated". Click "Open".

6. Follow the instructions in the Import Address Book window to make sure all data you want imported is placed in the proper field. Click "OK", then click "Finish".

Exporting to a Comma-Separated Values File (.csv):

1. Open your address book.

2. Go to Tools>Export.

3. Select where you want the file to be saved and what you want it to be called.

4. Change "Save as type" to "Comma Separated".  *Please Note  Do not save your exported address book file as a LDIF file which comes up as the default. Click on the drop down menu and change it to comma separated.

5. Click "Save".

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Junkmail Filters

The junkmail filters in Thunderbird are trainable, which means that as you tell the program what is junk and what is not, it adjusts its junk labeling system.  This means the longer you use Thunderbird, the more accurate the program should become at spotting junkmail.

When Thunderbird believes a message to be junk it puts an orange flame to the right of the message.  Depending on your program settings, it may also move the message to the Junk folder.  Because of this, it is a good idea to check the Junk folder periodically-- especially if you have not recieved a message you know has been sent- to make sure there are no legitimate messages in the junk folder.

If you notice a message has been labled junk that should not be, click once to highlight the message, then click the "Not Junk" icon.  If a message that is junk is not marked as such, simply click once to highlight the message, then click the "Junk" icon.  (Hint: The "Junk" and "Not Junk" icons are the same icon, it just changes according to the junk status of the currently selected message.)

If a message is in the Junk folder and you don't want it there, or if there are junk messages in the Inbox that aren't moving to the Junk folder automatically (depending on your account settings it may or may not do this) you can move messages by right-clicking on the message and sleecting "Move To".

Once you have been using Thunderbird for a while and the junk filters have become more accurate, you may want Thunderbird to start sending messages it deems junk directly to the Junk folder.  Here's how:

1. Open Thunderbird and go to Tools>Account Settings.

2. Under "GC Imap Account" click on "Junk Settings".

3. Put a check in the box next to "Move new junk messages to".

4. Make sure "Junk folder on: GC Imap Account" is selected.

Now any mail Thunderbird labels as junk will be automatically sent to the Junk folder.  Be sure to check the folder periodically for legitimate messages that may have been labeled junk!

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Attachments

One major difference between Eudora and Thunderbird is how they handle attachments.  While Eudora downloaded any attachments to the Attachments folder on your M: drive, Thunderbird stores attachments on the server. If you wish to save a copy of an attachment on your computer or M: drive, or if you have made changes to an attachment that you wish to save, you must select "Save As" from the File menu, NOT just "Save".

If you've saved an attachment but can't find it, see our F.A.Q.'s page.

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Shortcut Keys

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Organizing Your Mail

Using Folders:

One way Thunderbird allows you to keep your mail organized is with the use of folders. Your Thunderbird account already comes with some folders, such as Sent, Trash, and Drafts. You can create more folders to help keep your inbox less cluttered. To create a new folder, go to File>New>Folder.  You will want to make sure to create the folder under your GC Imap account and not locally so you will be able to access it from any computer.

To move a message into a folder you can either drag and drop it, or you can right-click on it and select "Move To".

Using Filters:

Filters help organize your mail by automatically performing actions you select on messages of a certain type.  To set filters, go to Tools>Message Filters, then click on "New".  Give your filter a descriptive name, then add what you want it to do and which messages you want it to do it to.  When you are finished, click "OK", then click "Run Now" to run the filter on messages in the Inbox.  When you are finished, exit the "Message Filters" window.

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Installing and Using Extensions

 

Each extension has it's own installation instructions which can be viewed on the page you downloaded it from.  To disable an extension you have installed, go to Tools>Add-ons. Make sure the "Extensions" icon is selected, then click once on the extension you want to select, then click "Disable".  You can re-enable disabled extensions in the same manner.

For more information, visit our Extensions page.