Mozilla Thunderbird
Revision as of 15:25, 22 January 2019 by Nsonsteb(talk | contribs)(Configuring Thunderbird for GusMail users)

Mozilla Thunderbird logo

Mozilla Thunderbird is an e-mail client made by the Mozilla Corporation. To download Thunderbird, visit Mozilla's website. When installing for the first time, the Account Wizard will launch. After putting in your email address (username@gustavus.edu) and password, it will auto-configure all the required settings.

Setting up a Signature

  1. Open a Word document
  2. In the open document compose your signature (including images if you so desire)
  3. Go to File and down to Save and save a copy of that message as a .html file locally on your machine
  4. Go to Tools and then Account Settings
  5. Check the box that says Attach the signature from a file instead (text, HTML, or image)
  6. Click Choose and choose the locally saved image created previously
  7. Click OK

See also

You can also visit the page regarding how to set up extensions to make signatures a little easier in Thunderbird.

Subscribe to Folders

  1. From the File menu, select Subscribe
  2. Click Refresh
  3. Check the folders you want to subscribe to
  4. Click OK.

Configuring Directory Services

  1. From the Tools menu, select Account Settings.
  2. In the composition and addressing window,
  3. Click on use a different LDAP server and click edit directories.
  4. There you will need to click "add" and put in the settings displayed in the picture.
  5. Also go to Tools --> Options and under the Composition tab check the Directory Server: box and select ldap.gac.edu
LDAP settings

Turning off LDAP

On campus at 鶹Ƶ, Thunderbird is typically configured to use LDAP look up when composing messages. This feature will populate the To: field with matches when you begin typing an email address. To configure Thunderbird to use LDAP see Mozilla_Thunderbird#Configuring_Directory_Services

This feature needs to be turned off if a machine (laptop) goes off campus, as access to the LDAP information is blocked by a firewall.

To turn LDAP off:

Ldapoff.jpg
  1. From the Tools menu - select Account Settings
  2. In the Composition and Addressing section - under the Addressing area - toggle the Use my global LDAP server preferences for this account
  3. Click the Global Addressing Preferences... button.
  4. In the Global settings, set the Directory Server: to None.
  5. Click OK to close all the open windows.

Setting up Templates

  1. Create a new email message in Thunderbird by clicking the Write button.
  2. Compose the message with any text and formatting.
  3. When you have finished composing the template, click the File menu and then click Save As.
  4. From the drop-down list, choose Template. The message has now been saved as a template for future use.
  5. To access templates you have made, scroll down to the Local Folder section in the Folders List.
  6. Under Local Folders, click on the Templates folder. This folder lists all the templates you have created in Thunderbird.
  7. Double-click on the template you wish to use. You can now customize, address and send the message as desired.

Migrate Thunderbird profile to new machine

The paths linked below will tell you which folders to move in order to migrate your Thunderbird profile to a different machine.

Thunderbird Profile Paths

Thunderbird Inbox Text Size

In order to change the Font size of the inbox in Thunderbird on a PC:

  1. Copy this text into a text editor:

/* * Do not remove the @namespace line -- it's required for correct functioning */

@namespace url("");

/* set default namespace to XUL */

/* * Make all the default font sizes 10 pt: */

{ font-size: 10pt !important }

  1. Save it as userChrome.css in a place you can find it easily later.
  2. Open File Explorer
  3. Go to C:/users/*username*/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/profiles/*numbers and letters*.default (You will need to show hidden folders to see AppData
  4. Look for a folder named Chrome. If there is not one, create one
  5. Copy userChrome.css to the Chrome folder
  6. Open Thunderbird

To customize the font size

  1. Open userChrome.css
  2. In the * { font-size: 10pt !important; } line change the 10 to the appropriate font size.
  3. Some font sizes seem to mess up the sizing of pop-up boxes. You should be able to resolve this by using a smaller font.