I just downloaded Thunderbird and am trying it out as a newsreader. I'm
having trouble, because I can't seem to get the help system to work for
me very well. For example, I'd like to know what the various message
icons mean, and I'd also like to turn off the graphical iconification of
things like ":-)" into smiley faces. Searching for "meaning of icons"
(without quotes) at yields only one
hit, and that's for "about:config entries," which does not seem to have
anything on the meaning of the various message icons I see in
Thunderbird. Is this documented somewhere?
Also, I want to see a threaded view of subjects in a newsgroup showing
me only unread articles, but when I set the View to "Unread," threading
seems to be turned off, and "Threaded" is turned off in the "View>Sort
by" menu.
So:
- How can I better use the TB help system?
- Where can I find out what the various message icons mean?
- How can I see a threaded view of unread messages?
Thanks,
Scott
PS - I wrote this posting in Emacs and then pasted it into a TB Compose
window, and TB changed many of my line breaks. , pasting the
text in via "Paste as Quotation" did not introduce line breaks,
even though the added ">" at the beginning of each line made each
line longer. How can I avoid having TB insert line breaks in my
postings? I tried setting the "Wrap plain text messages at n
characters" option to 0, 80, and 100, but none of these prevented
line wraps. (I have Emacs configured to wrap at 75 characters.)
Before posting, I had to rewrap in Emacs to avoid having TB uglify
the posting, sigh.
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Scott Meyers wrote:
For example, I'd like to know what the various message
icons mean, and I'd also like to turn off the graphical iconification of
things like ":-)" into smiley faces.

ToolsDisplay->[]Display emoticons as graphics

Also, I want to see a threaded view of subjects in a newsgroup showing
me only unread articles, but when I set the View to "Unread," threading
seems to be turned off, and "Threaded" is turned off in the "View>Sort
by" menu.

View->Threads->Threads with unread

So:
- How can I better use the TB help system?
- Where can I find out what the various message icons mean?

No idea how to do those two.

I wrote this posting in Emacs and then pasted it into a TB Compose
window, and TB changed many of my line breaks. , pasting the
text in via "Paste as Quotation" did not introduce line breaks,
even though the added ">" at the beginning of each line made each
line longer. How can I avoid having TB insert line breaks in my
postings?

By editing your messages inside Thunderbird. As a nice side effect, it
will allow others (me, for example) to see your messages in "flowed"
format. If you're reading this in Thunderbird, you'll notice that there
are no fixed line-breaks; they adapt to the width of the window (resize
the window and watch how the text adapts to the new width). *But* if
someone has a newsreader that doesn't support this kind of format, the
message will still show up with a line-width of 72. If you use Emacs,
things get complicated. Just edit in Thunderbird, if you can help it.

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Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
Scott Meyers wrote:
ToolsDisplay->[]Display emoticons as graphics

Thanks.

>Also, I want to see a threaded view of subjects in a newsgroup showing
>me only unread articles, but when I set the View to "Unread,"
>threading seems to be turned off, and "Threaded" is turned off in the
>"View>Sort by" menu.
>
View->Threads->Threads with unread

I'm having trouble understanding what this does. I've noticed that when I
set this option, the View drop-down option always changes to "All." What I
want is to see only unread messages, and I want a thread to be collapsed
until I enter the thread to read within it. Is there a way to do that?

In general, is there no comprehensive description of what the various UI
components do in TB? I've now searched the TB help at
for several things, and I've
always come up empty. Isn't there some kind of manual for TB?

Scott

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Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
Scott Meyers wrote:

>So:
>- How can I better use the TB help system?
>- Where can I find out what the various message icons mean?

No idea how to do those two.

Sadly TB is missing some refinements and features - "Help" is one which
is being worked on as an extension. See:
<>
-- Gus

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