Changing the Window Layout

The Thunderbird window consists of a title bar, menu, toolbar, folders bar, and display area. At the bottom is a status bar showing connection status, the unread message count, and total message counts.

Three Layouts

There are three layouts for Thunderbird. Each layout displays at least two panes: Folder and the Message list. Each layout can optionally have a third pane with the contents of the currently selected message (if there is one).

The layouts Thunderbird supports are

• Classic view This has the Folder list on the left and the Message list on the right. If the Message pane is on, it is displayed below the Message list.

• Wide view This has the Message pane the full width of Thunderbird's display area, the Folder pane above on the left, and the Message list above on the right. If the Message pane is not turned on, this view is the same as the Classic view.

• Vertical view This has the Folder pane on the left, the Message list in the middle, and the Message pane on the right. Again, if the Message pane is not displayed, this view is the same as the Classic view.

Each layout is selected from the Thunderbird View, Layout menu.

If you have the Message pane turned off, the space that would normally have been occupied by it is allocated to the Message list window.

Folder Pane

The Folder pane shows all the defined accounts and the folders for each account. The Tree List view lets you expand each account and see folders that belong to the account. Each email account has at least an inbox, a Drafts folder, Templates folder, Sent folder, and Trash folder. If Junk Mail Controls are enabled, you'll also have a Junk folder.

News and blog accounts have a folder for each RSS feed and a Trash folder.

Newsgroup (NNTP) accounts have a folder for each newsgroup you have subscribed to. There is no Trash folder in newsgroup accounts because messages can't be deleted. You can, however, attempt to cancel a post you've made. Most servers, though, do not handle this properly.

Message List Pane

The Message list contains all the messages for an account. Messages are in bold if they are unread and are not bold if they've been read. You can mark messages as read or unread at any time. When you mark a message as read and the sender has requested a read receipt (and you have enabled read receipts), the receipt is sent.

Message Pane

The optional Message pane shows the contents of the currently selected message. For email, if the format is HTML, the HTML formatting is applied in this pane. If you have a substantial amount of email, the Message pane is a valuable time-saver because it allows you to quickly peruse your messages without having to explicitly open each one.

Attachments Pane

The Attachments pane is used to show message attachments. Messages with attachments are indicated in the Message list pane with a paperclip icon. Attachments in the Attachments pane can be right-clicked and then either saved or opened. The standard cautions apply when opening attachments: Unless you know that the attachment is safe, you should run a virus scan or not open it!

The Attachments pane is displayed only if the message has an attachment and if the Message pane is also displayed.