The web design blog
Modifying your options in Mozilla Thunderbird
Monday 21st January 2008
This article describes how to modify some basic options in Mozilla Thunderbird to achieve a sound basis for sending and receiving emails.
To modify your Options go to Tools > Options
Along the top you'll see the six main sections:
- General
- Display
- Composition
- Privacy
- Attachments
- Advanced
If you've just started using Thunderbird here's a few options you could consider changing:
General tab - default settings
If you make Thunderbird your default mail application then when you click on an email address link on a web page, then Thunderbird will kick into life and set up a new message to send.
General tab - when new messages arrive
If you want to be notified when you receive a new message you can have a little pop-up window appear at the bottom of your screen and / or a sound can be played to let you know.
Composition tab - general
Auto Save is a handy feature that gives you some security when you are typing out long emails. You can instruct Thunderbird to save your current draft every 30 or 60secs. There's nothing worse than spending time writing out an email only to lose the information through something out of your control - like a computer crash.
TIP: You can also manually save your current drafts as you type by selecting the Save icon from the main navigation along the top (or Ctrl+S with the keyboard - Cmd+S on a Mac).
Composition tab - addressing
When you send an email, you can tell Thunderbird to save the email address or addresses to your address book. There are two significant benefits to doing this:
- When you next compose a message to someone in your address book the email address will auto-complete
- When you receive an email from someone in your address book Thunderbird will automatically accept it (i.e. not consider it spam)
To enable this feature select the checkbox to Automatically add outgoing e-mail addresses to my [Address Book] - you have two options here, so you decide
Composition tab - spelling
Thunderbird comes equipped with a spelling checker, which we recommend you enable. All emails you send should be void of spelling mistakes - poorly written emails look unprofessional and send out bad signals.
Privacy tab - general
Enable all three options within this section to avoid potential risk from viruses, spyware and other underhand goings-on.
Privacy tab - e-mail scams
Enable this option to cut down on potential risk from viruses, spyware and other underhand goings-on.
Privacy tab - anti-virus
Enable this option to cut down on potential risk from viruses, spyware and other underhand goings-on.
Advanced tab - update
Make sure that Thunderbird is set up to check for updates automatically. This ensures that you will always have up-to-date software that gives you the highest level of protection available.
And that's all the basic options you'll need to update to get off to a flying start with Thunderbird.
Related Links
Useful links to further Thunderbird resources:
Mozilla Thunderbird, Thunderbird, account settings, email
posted by Blair Millen in the category: email
Comments are closed.
