Mozilla

Newsgroup subscriptions like bookmarks

Chris Ilias

I’ve been thinking…
Subscribing to newsgroups is very similar to subscribing to RSS feeds. I use a Firefox extension called Sage to read RSS feeds. Sage contains the list of subscribed feeds within a folder in my Firefox bookmarks. This allows me to:
– sort the list via ‘sort by’.
– re-arrange feeds via drag and drop
– rename feeds
– add separators in the list

These would all be great features for the list of subscribed newsgroups in Thunderbird. [150274, 132247] Instead, Mozilla plugs straight into the RC file. Perhaps, it’s time to put a buffer between two, allowing the program to customize the list.

I’m not a coder, so I don’t know how complicated it would be, but it’s just an idea.

Marking folders/newsgroups read on exit

Chris Ilias 1 Comment


Every once in a while, someone asks if Mozilla Thunderbird can automatically mark a folder or newsgroup read when you exit that folder or newsgroup. (Why: I don’t know. Automatic marking of all messages as read on exit, is one of the reasons I dislike web-based forums.)

Thunderbird 1.5 can do this, but the setting is hidden. Go to Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General, and click on “Config Editor.” In the resulting window, right-click on any of the listed preferences, and select New -> Boolean. The preference name to enter depends:
mailnews.mark_message_read.nntp for Newsgroups
mailnews.mark_message_read.pop3 for POP3 email folders
mailnews.mark_message_read.imap for IMAP email folders
mailnews.mark_message_read.rss for RSS folders
mailnews.mark_message_read.none for folders in “Local Folders”

Set the value to true. Close the Config Editor, and click on “OK” in the Options panel, and you’re done.

Looking at FTP sites for Mozilla releases

Chris Ilias 2 Comments

Apparently there are a few websites reporting that Firefox 1.5 has been released, because it’s on the FTP server. These sites need to reel themselves back in.

To quote David Baron:

“It hasn’t shipped yet, it’s on the FTP site in preparation for being shipped. “

and Dave Miller:

“very few people (in the grand scheme of things) watch the FTP site 24 hours a day waiting for the next file to show up. Getting it on the FTP site is one of the FIRST steps of the process of actually shipping a release. It has to be on the FTP site for an hour or two (to give it time to propagate across our FTP mirror network) before any of the web pages are posted, otherwise there’ll be nothing to link to from the web pages. If the download page (http://www.mozilla.org/products/mozilla1.x/) doesn’t link to it yet, there’s no reason to expect any other web pages about it to exist yet either.”

Dave gave a link to the Mozilla Application Suite, because that’s what was being discussed. Those quotes apply to all Mozilla product releases. The people jumping the gun may end up regretting it. There is supposed to be a re-organization of Mozilla web content happening soon, making Mozilla.com the end-user site. Mozilla contributers have eluded to this happening during the release of Firefox 1.5.

Bookmarks in RSS

Chris Ilias 1 Comment

I’ve recently become fascinated with the idea of using RSS to maintain a list of items rather than a feed of news or a log. If used in that way, Mozilla Firefox‘s live bookmarks feature, all of a sudden, has a practical use. My website evolved from one links page, that has now become my ilias.ca main page. I originally created a links page to help users in two ways:
– users wouldn’t have to go through the hassle of maintaining a list of help sites for Mozilla or Netscape.
– users wouldn’t have to clog up their bookmarks with help sites. They could bookmark one site, and use that as a gateway.

It seems to me ‘maintaining a set of bookmarks for others’ is what Live Bookmarks is all about. You set up a Live Bookmark to ‘ilias.ca help sites’, and now all the sites appear in that Live Bookmark. Whenever I update a link, add a link, or remove a link, that change is reflected in your Live Bookmark.

And so, I’ve created an RSS formatted file for that purpose. Mozilla Firefox users will see the Live Bookmark icon, when visiting the ilias.ca main page, and can click on it to create the Live Bookmark.

I was thinking about the concept a little more and realized that if you store bookmarks in an RSS formatted file, you can use them on a customizable web portal, like Google’s Personalized Home. Supposedly, Internet Explorer 7 is supposed to have much greater RSS support. Maybe it would be possible to actually make Firefox and Internet Explorer use the same bookmarks RSS file. Oh the possibilities…

Auto-complete email address with default domain

Chris Ilias 8 Comments


Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 users may have noticed that when you start typing an email address in the mail composition window, Thunderbird no longer automatically adds the default domain to it. You can turn this feature back on, if you’d like. Go to Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> General, and click on “Config Editor.” In the resulting window, search for the setting mail.identity.default.autocompleteToMyDomain. Double-click on it. That should change the value to true. Close the Config Editor, and click on “OK” in the Options panel, and you’re done.

browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped

Chris Ilias 9 Comments

[for Firefox users]
When you type a web address in the location bar of Mozilla Firefox, a drop-down list will appear, showing entries in your browser history that match what you have typed so far. Sometimes people only want entries that have been previously typed. Well, there’s a preference setting for that.

Enter about:config in the location bar.
Search for the preference browser.urlbar.matchOnlyTyped.
Modify the value to true.

Limiting The Attachment Window Size in Thunderbird

Chris Ilias 8 Comments

[for Mozilla Thunderbird users]
Ever get an email message in Thunderbird, with so many files attached, the attachment pane takes over the message viewing area? In Mozilla Thunderbird, you can set a limit to the height of the attachments pane.

Open a text editor, such as Notepad, and paste this text:
#attachmentList {max-height: 4em !important;}

Save the file as userChrome.css (not userChrome.css.txt), and put it the \chrome\ folder of your Thunderbird profile folder.

However, there is one caveat. If you do receive a message with so many attachments, that the height limit is exceeded, there will not be a scrollbar for you to browse through the rest. You can use the menu File–>Attachments to see the full list.

UPDATE: Try the script in comment #1 first.