I had been using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 for almost a year now because it handles 2 things of which I peruse daily:
- E-mail. I have nearly a dozen e-mail accounts (and growing) that I need to keep track of and individual logins is a hassle, not to mention a thing of the past
- Calendar. I like to schedule everything and I mean everything. More as a personal journal/log of my life than as a reminder of what’s to come. It also synced well with my smartphone which I then synced to Google Calendar for backup purposes
Stealing Outlook’s thunder
Yesterday, I made the switch to Mozilla Thunderbird. It lacks the calendar feature, but I found myself using Outlook more for its calendar than its email. And I find myself preferring Google Calendar over Outlook’s. It also didn’t load as fast as I would have liked and seemed to hog a lot of system resources, so all reasons went against Outlook.
Free is better
It seems like I’m becoming a huge fan of free (i.e. Google Calendar) and open source (i.e. WordPress, Thunderbird) programs, not only because it is cost-effective but, to put it bluntly, better.
Thoughts on Thunderbird
Thunderbird loads extremely fast and comes with a lot of great features standard. Setting up e-mail accounts can be as easy as typing in your e-mail and password into the wizard, especially if you’re using an e-mail from a major provider like Gmail. I did have to use the manual setup for several of my e-mails to ensure that I was using the proper server name, port, and security settings.
It doesn’t look as visually-pleasing as Outlook, but great things don’t need to come in great packages.
Thunderbird alerts
Initially, I was disappointed about the fact that if you turn on sound alerts for new e-mails, it applies to all your e-mail accounts. Of course, I was being picky at this point as even Outlook didn’t allow for this option.
But shortly afterward, I recalled that this isn’t Microsoft, it’s Mozilla and like its popular Firefox internet browser, it allows for addons - utilities programmed by ordinary users that can extend a program in limitless ways. I was positive that there was at least one person who programmed my need. And I was right. More importantly, I found additional addons that proved just as useful.
Here are the 3 alert-related addons I installed for Thunderbird:
- Mailbox Alert – This allows you to pick and choose which e-mail accounts you wish to attach sound and/or message alerts. Remember to disable Thunderbird’s own sound alerts if you use this addon. Personally, I only use this addon’s sound alert feature and prefer Thunderbird’s own message alerts which display useful information unique to each e-mail (i.e. subject). The addon can only display a pre-set message of your choice.
- New Mail Attention – Thunderbird, apart from its message/sound alerts, does not give you any indication of new e-mails if you have the program minimized. This addon will cause Thunderbird to flash in Window’s Taskbar, similar to receiving messages from just about any instant messenger.
- Blinking Alert – Thunderbird’s message alerts can be subtle, especially if you don’t disable auto-hide. This addon will make message alerts blink with your choice of a variety of colors and at the frequency you choose
An idea: alert for specific queries
Here is my idea for an alert-related addon, one that I could not find in the database: a Thunderbird alert that sounds/displays when certain keywords appear in the to, from and subject fields, and message body. Perhaps even attached documents if possible.
Unified folders (inbox)
Apparently, there was something called a ‘Smart inbox’ that would display e-mails from the accounts of your choice in a single folder. From a quick Google search, I found that this option was no longer possible with IMAP but only POP in newer versions of Thunderbird which is unfortunate. IMAP is superior.
However, there is a nice workaround: View > Folders > Unified. You will still be able to view your e-mails in their own individual folders, but this will also create a ‘Global inbox’ named Inbox that aggregates all your e-mails into a single folder. No choosing from which accounts though.
In the message body of this Inbox folder, I like to enable the viewing of an additional column called Account. This allows me to determine which account the e-mail was originally sent to.
Eric
Mozilla Thunderbird addons, alert capabilities and global (unified) inbox
I had been using Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 for almost a year now because it handles 2 things of which I peruse daily:
Stealing Outlook’s thunder
Yesterday, I made the switch to Mozilla Thunderbird. It lacks the calendar feature, but I found myself using Outlook more for its calendar than its email. And I find myself preferring Google Calendar over Outlook’s. It also didn’t load as fast as I would have liked and seemed to hog a lot of system resources, so all reasons went against Outlook.
Free is better
It seems like I’m becoming a huge fan of free (i.e. Google Calendar) and open source (i.e. WordPress, Thunderbird) programs, not only because it is cost-effective but, to put it bluntly, better.
Thoughts on Thunderbird
Thunderbird loads extremely fast and comes with a lot of great features standard. Setting up e-mail accounts can be as easy as typing in your e-mail and password into the wizard, especially if you’re using an e-mail from a major provider like Gmail. I did have to use the manual setup for several of my e-mails to ensure that I was using the proper server name, port, and security settings.
It doesn’t look as visually-pleasing as Outlook, but great things don’t need to come in great packages.
Thunderbird alerts
Initially, I was disappointed about the fact that if you turn on sound alerts for new e-mails, it applies to all your e-mail accounts. Of course, I was being picky at this point as even Outlook didn’t allow for this option.
But shortly afterward, I recalled that this isn’t Microsoft, it’s Mozilla and like its popular Firefox internet browser, it allows for addons - utilities programmed by ordinary users that can extend a program in limitless ways. I was positive that there was at least one person who programmed my need. And I was right. More importantly, I found additional addons that proved just as useful.
Here are the 3 alert-related addons I installed for Thunderbird:
An idea: alert for specific queries
Here is my idea for an alert-related addon, one that I could not find in the database: a Thunderbird alert that sounds/displays when certain keywords appear in the to, from and subject fields, and message body. Perhaps even attached documents if possible.
Unified folders (inbox)
Apparently, there was something called a ‘Smart inbox’ that would display e-mails from the accounts of your choice in a single folder. From a quick Google search, I found that this option was no longer possible with IMAP but only POP in newer versions of Thunderbird which is unfortunate. IMAP is superior.
However, there is a nice workaround: View > Folders > Unified. You will still be able to view your e-mails in their own individual folders, but this will also create a ‘Global inbox’ named Inbox that aggregates all your e-mails into a single folder. No choosing from which accounts though.
In the message body of this Inbox folder, I like to enable the viewing of an additional column called Account. This allows me to determine which account the e-mail was originally sent to.