Dec 16, 2008
Again, I stray from the path of SEO blogging and post more non-SEO content. However, seeing as my blog gets more Firefox traffic than IE traffic, there's a good chance that many of you are using Mozilla Thunderbird as an email client, so this post might be of some use.NewFirst Thunderbird Add-on
This morning I decided to do something about a particular Thunderbird behaviour that has been bugging me for some time - the fact that when you click the date column header to sort mesages by date, they get sorted 'oldest at the top' by default. I want them to be 'newest at the top'.
Above: Clicking the date column header sorts in ascending order (oldest messages first). You need to click it a second time to get descending order.
I couldn't find any way to rectify this default behaviour, so I created a Thunderbird add-on called NewFirst to get things how I like them.
This is my first attempt at a Thunderbird Add-on, so I'd appreciate any feedback on this (either by email, or using the blog comments below). It's a very simple add-on, but solves a problem I'm sure others have noticed.
More info
You can either read the full spiel, or just download newfirst.xpi and get on your merry way.
14 Comments
Jon - Jan 24, 2009
This really helps me out with my AOL mail sorting. Since Thunderbird does not have a separate folder for 'old mail' it was a pain to keep new and read mail seperate. One of the options for Thunderbird is to sort by 'read'. By default it sorted ascending. I could not have both until this add-on. At first look, this is a great add-on. Good job.
If you can make an add that has a tab for who I sent mail to rather than who sent it. I know I sent the mail! Hard to look up previously sent mail that way.
The D - Feb 27, 2009
Thanks a lot man. When I'm rockin' the emails, I needz to have my new messages on top!!! This does exactly what I wanted. A great solution for a huge annoyance! Well done!
Erm, I don't understand. If you click the date column header twice you get the emails listed in newest (by date) first order .. is this what your add-on does?
Mark - Apr 28, 2009
stolen from
http://www.bstar.de/2008/03/14/thunderbird-and-default-sorting-of-mails/
Open your Options dialog and choose \”Config Editor\” of the Advanced/General Page. The \”about:config\” of Thunderbird will open. Into the filter field type \”mailnews.default\” and you\’ll see the current default of mails and news. Fine, but what are all these silly values means?
sort_order:
* 1 ascending
* 2 descending
Inferno986 - May 14, 2009
I love your add-on but I would also submit it on the Mozilla Website so you can get more credit that you deserve.
Svenskmand - Sep 22, 2009
You should add the possibility to custom sort the fields lexicographically, like e.g.:
sort for date, if a tie occours then for status (unread), if tie then for flagged etc.
This is the only reason for not using Thunderbird (i use Evolution, but it is not cross-platform :( )
Adding add-on to the mail is best thing that you can do. I hope you can put a tab wherein you can sort your letter from newer first or older first.
Maria Giovanna - Dec 24, 2009
congratulation for this add-on.
i'd like know if it's possible make it compatible with Mozilla Thunderbird 3
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I fixed the installation problem. There was something wrong with the zip structure. To fix it, I unzipped the newfirst.xpi file, then re-zipped it and renamed it xpi again. This time it worked! Thanks for a fine add-on.
Any chance up an update for Thunderbird 3 ?
I guessed I was the only only one annoyed by the Thunderbird default behaviour :-) Thanks, relly nice work!
And, by the way, really useful blog