IT types-help with email client

[tulip]

Hi,
I've recently switched from Outlook 2007 to Mozilla Thunderbird, and I'm considering switching back. I'm not an IT person at all, and I admit that I don't know about the add-ons and full capabilities of Thunderbird yet (or of Outlook for that matter). But what I don't like about it is the following:

no calendar feature. I use a paper calendar, but I like to have a reference calendar to see dates and such. I did some research on Lightning and it got terrible reviews.

the signature is like in courier font and I can't seem to make it look nicer

annoying things like asking me if I want to send the message in plain text or HTML every time I send a message, and there's no "don't ask me again" box to click on.

I ask for your opinions on these two. I really like the concept of Open Source, and automatic updates and getting away from the Microsoft monopoly, but I'm not comfortable with it yet. What can it do that Outlook cannot, and vice-versa? What features are available that I am missing (I haven't added on anything yet).

[melissam]

Hi Tulip,

Here's how to stop Mozilla Thunderbird from asking you about the desired format when you compose a rich text message and click Send:

* Select Tools | Options (or Thunderbird | Preferences... on a Mac) from the menu.
* Go to the Composition category.
* Make sure the General tab is selected.
* Click Send Options....
* Under Text Format, make sure something but Ask me what to do is selected.
o I recommend Send the message in both plain text and HTML, which preserves any rich formatting while giving recipients a chance to choose a plain text alternative.
o Messages you compose in plain text only will not be converted to HTML.
o For people you know to disdain all rich formatting, set their preferred format to plain text. This will override your default choice, but only if the message has no other recipients set to accept HTML.
* Click OK.
* Close the options window.

- Melissa

[melissam]

Tulip,

To get a signature in Thunderbird, you need to attach a signature file. You can apply HTML formatting in your signature to make it look nicer.

If you want to PM me your signature and how you'd like it to look, I can take a stab at it.

- Melissa

[tulip]

Thanks, Melissa. I followed the instructions for the signature, and it said to save it in plain text, and it looks that way. My sig has three offices listed so it would be nice to make it easier to read. I'll PM you. thanks again.

[dex]

It looks like you've already gotten advice on .sig and how to set your formatting options, so I won't touch on those again.

I use Lightning with Thunderbird as my calendar app and have no problems with it. Admittedly, I haven't read any of the reviews, so I don't know what others don't like about it.

[tulip]

Oh, there were reports of crashing, but of course, who knows. I may try it anyways. I don't need a fancy calendar (my paper Franklin Covey takes care of that for me), just one I can refer to to know if the 31st falls on a Tuesday or a Wednesday.

Thanks for the info.

[emily_in_nc]

Outlook Express stopped working for me a year or so ago out of the blue on WinXP Pro, so I switched to Thunderbird and never looked back. I was already using Firefox, so it seemed a natural thing to do. I see that others have answered some of your questions, but keep asking if you have more. Someone can certainly help! :)

As for calendars, I use Google calendar and like it a lot. It's not integrated with Thunderbird, but since I use gmail and iGoogle, those all work together nicely.

[badgercat]

I just wanted to jump in and say that I've been using Thunderbird for about 4 years now (on a PC for 3, and now on a Mac for 1) and it works very nicely for the things I like it to do--which, honestly, my primary concern is just allowing me to handle 4 email accounts in one window, so not much...oh and I love that i can just type in 1 or 2 letters of an email address and it starts guessing who I want to send it to, but that could be standard among email programs for all I know, as Thunderbird is the only one I've ever *really* used aside from a short stint with Eudora and a summer job with Outlook Express. I hope you can get it working to your satisfaction, though! :)

[tulip]

Thanks everybody! Melissam really helped with the signature, so that's taken care of. I didn't think of having multiple email accounts in one window like badgercat does. That would make alot of sense because I have my work account and my personal yahoo account. I like to keep them separate, but it would be nice to have them in the same format and both accessible on my iphone. BTW, I'm sticking with Thunderbird thanks to y'all's help.

Speaking of iphones, I'm new to mine, too, and have done nothing to customize it. I guess the first thing I need to do is sign up for itunes so I can get apps, right?

I'm so not techy, but I need to be as efficient as possible with my small business that has three offices in two states, so I'm learning all this stuff, kicking and screaming!