In case you missed it yesterday, Scott announced the release of the first “alpha release of Thunderbird 2 focused on testing and collecting feedback for several new features.“
Mozilla
Whole Lotta Theme Discussion Goin’ On
Those interested in giving feedback on purposed changes to the Firefox 2 theme, should head over to the mozilla.dev.themes newsgroup, where there is quite a bit of feedback/discussion taking place.
In addition, the SeaMonkey Council wants to give SeaMonkey a new default theme. Head over to the mozilla.dev.apps.seamonkey newsgroup, to give your feedback on that.
In other news;
we may get our first alpha release of Thunderbird 2 this week.
Getting rid of the ‘blocked pop-up’ yellow bar in Firefox
Some people prefer it, if Firefox does not display a yellow alert bar in the browser, when a pop-up window has been blocked, citing a preference of pop-ups to be blocked “silently.” You can get rid of it, by modifying a hidden setting.
In Firefox, go to the URL: about:config
Search for the preference privacy.popups.showBrowserMessage.
Double-click on it, which should modify the value to false.
Give attachment names more room in Thunderbird
It’s been a while, since I’ve posted a Firefox or Thunderbird tip; which I assume is the primary reason I have any subscribers. I apologize. Here’s another Thunderbird attachment box tip, that I’ve found useful.
Thunderbird has a width limit on the display of attachment names, which means if an attachment has a long name, the full name may not be displayed. Instead you’ll get an abbreviated version. For example, “abcd…xyz.eml”.
You can increase the width limit, to fit your tastes. This is particularly useful for those with large screen resolutions. Add the following script to your userChrome.css file:
#attachmentBucket, .attachmentBox {min-width: 30em;}
“30em” is what I use, but you can modify that to your liking.
Why is the Joga Companion really on the Firefox homepage?
This kinda rubs me the wrong way. Why is the Joga Companion and the GA Atlanta Water Damage Restoration on the Firefox homepage? Is it really just because the Joga Companion and their Toronto SEO company is made by the Mozilla Corporation?
Is it the most popular extension? I’d doubt it. Does the functionality it adds, that which is most requested? I’d doubt that too. Heck, the functionality it adds, doesn’t even need to be done in a web browser at all. There are utilities that do roughly the same thing in desktop apps, such as additional resources right here Yahoo Widgets (aka. Konfabulator).
So, what makes the Joga Companion extension so special, that it gets a place on the Firefox homepage, instead of just hosting it on Mozilla.com, and listing it on addons.mozilla.org? Is it just because it is made by the Mozilla Corporation? Is that what is best for Firefox users?
And why is it listed above Thunderbird, on the Mozilla.com front page?
Bugmail headers
I just noticed something cool about bugmail (mail from Bugzilla). Bugzilla adds headers to each message, containing the product, component, and reason it was sent. For instance:
X-Bugzilla-Reason: CC
X-Bugzilla-Product: Firefox
X-Bugzilla-Component: Menus
That’s a really nice feature for those, who get a lot of bugmail, and like to organize it using message filters.
Message tagging is here!
Bug 114656 (ie. message tagging) has been checked into the Thunderbird trunk! Create as many tags as you want. Assign as many of them to a message as you want.
To help test message tagging, grab the latest trunk nightly.
Multi-row Bookmarks Toolbar
Mozilla Firefox users, who like to put many bookmarks in the Bookmarks Toolbar, sometimes get to the point where the number of bookmarks is too much to fit on the screen; so Firefox gives a drop-down menu at the end of the Bookmarks Toolbar, to access bookmarks not displayed on the toolbar.
Some users have used some simple methods of fitting more bookmarks on the Bookmarks Toolbar. These include renaming bookmarks [Right-click -> Properties], to give them shorter names. If a bookmark has its own unique favicon, removing the entire bookmark name will work.
I recently came across a neat little userChrome.css script that will cause the Bookmarks Toolbar to start another row, if the current one cannot fit all bookmarks.
Just add the following script to your userChrome.css file:
#bookmarks-ptf {display:block !important;}
#bookmarks-ptf toolbarseparator {display:inline !important;}
Getting rid of the ‘new mail’ alert in the Windows system tray
Mozilla Thunderbird users may have noticed that turning off “Show an alert” for when new messages arrive, does not get rid of the alert that appears in the Windows system tray.
There’s actually a Windows feature (I don’t know if it’s on anything other than XP), that lets you to disable that alert.
On the very edge of the system tray, right-click and select “Customize Notifications” in the content menu.
Select the Thunderbird item, and using the drop-down menu, choose “Always Hide“.
Update: Another method to get to “Customize Notifications” is via the Windows Control Panel -> Taskbar and Start Menu. Select the “Taskbar” tab, and under “Notification area”, click on “Customize”.
Looking at FTP sites for Mozilla releases: Part II
Back in November, I posted about the dangers of looking at the Mozilla FTP server for new Mozilla releases.
With Thunderbird 1.5.0.2, 1.0.8, and Mozilla 1.7.13 expected soon, I’m surprised at the amount of people stating the those versions have been released, just because they see the directories on the FTP server.
What if there’s a problem updating one or more mirrors? You may see the release, but others won’t. Even worse, what if a problem is found with the uploaded builds, and they need to be re-spun before the new release is officially announced? You’re directing end-users to bad builds. And so, I’d like to reiterate that new versions have not been officially released, until the website is updated.
I don’t know exactly what is keeping Thunderbird 1.5.0.2, 1.0.8, and Mozilla 1.7.13 from being official, but I did just read a message in mozilla.dev.planning: Thunderbird 1.0.8/1.5.0.2 delayed until Friday or Monday.
It was nice of Tim to post an update on the situation, and I think we all should show our appreciation by not directing users to the new version, until it is officially released.