Thunderbird E-mail - Lawrence University

Get Started

The Account Wizard assists users with initial Thunderbird configuration. You may then personalize your e-mail by selecting Tools-Options and choosing from General, Display, Composition, Privacy, Attachments, and Advanced settings.

Thunderbird Default Toolbar

Get Mail:	Retrieve new messages
Write:	Create new message
Address Book:	Select contacts to compose messages to; create new contact cards; create mailing lists
Reply:	Compose response to message
Reply All:	Compose response to message sender and all message recipients
Forward:	Send message to another recipient
Tag:	Categorize message as Important, To Do, Later, etc.
Delete:	Delete selected message
Junk:	Designate message as unsolicited
Print:	Print message
Quick Search:	Search for all messages with particular key word or name

Retrieve and View Messages

Thunderbird checks for new mail upon opening and periodically thereafter. When new mail arrives, the Inbox will appear in bold text with a parenthetical count of unread messages beside it. All new or unread messages will also appear in bold text.

To sort Inbox messages by date, received, sender, subject, or priority, select View - Sort by. Or, simply click the preferred label above the list of messages.

Compose a New Message

Choose File-New-Message,
Click the Write icon in the Toolbar, or
Open the Address Book, select the recipient, and click the Write icon in the Toolbar.

Address a Message:
Type an e-mail address in the address field. If using an LU computer, LDAP (address auto-completion protocol) is enabled by default. Type the first few letters of the LU recipient’s name, and LDAP will complete the address. If multiple names are displayed, select the appropriate one. Then, click on To: and choose preferred recipient type:

To:	Primary recipient/s
CC:	Carbon Copy, for secondary recipient/s
BCC:	Blind Carbon Copy, for secondary recipient/s not identified to the recipients in the To: and CC: lists
Reply-To:	Address replies will be sent to
Newsgroup:	Post to newsgroup
Followup-To:	Redirect newsgroup posting so subsequent threads go directly to redirected newsgroup instead of to original newsgroup

Message Options:
In the Options menu, select any of the following:

Check Spelling
Return Receipt: Request a confirmation message when your message is received.
Priority: Indicate urgency of message content.
Character Encoding: Defaults to “Western” but must be changed for non-Roman alphabet.
Send a Copy To: File a copy of the message somewhere other than the sent mail folder.
Security: Change default security options.

Copy Yourself Automatically:

Go to Tools - Account Settings - Copies & Folders
Select to place a copy in the Sent mail folder or to BCC your LU/other e-mail address. Click Ok.

Attach a File:

From the Compose window, click Attach.
The “Enter file to attach dialog box.” appears.
Type the name of the file you want to attach, or navigate to where the file is stored. Click Open.

Or, drag and drop a file from your desktop onto the Attachments icon in the Compose window.

Attach a Web Page:

Choose File- Attach-Web Page.
In the dialog box, type the URL and click OK. The URL will appear in the attachment area.

Save an Attachment:

Right-click on the attachment.
Choose Save As.
Type a filename and choose a file type.
Specify where to save the file. Click Save.

Organize Mail Center

Delete Messages:
Select the message/s and press the Delete key, or click the Delete icon in the toolbar. (To recover the message, click the Trash folder, select the message, and drag it to the Inbox.)

To delete a message permanently, select the message and press Shift + Delete.

Create Folders for Filing Messages:

In the All Folders menu, right click on mailhub.lawrence.edu and select New Folder.
Type the name of the folder and click OK.
To file messages, drag and drop them to the desired folder. (If you drag and drop messages to a local folder on your hard drive, a copy of the message is made.

Use the Address Book

Use the personal address book to store contacts and to create mailing lists. Quickly add contacts by clicking an e-mail address in a received message and choosing “Add to Address Book.”

Create an Address Book Card:

Select Tools-Addressbook.
Click the New Card icon.
Enter preferred information and click Ok.
(To edit a card, double-click the name in the address book window; edit as necessary.)

Import/Export E-Mail Addresses:
Import address books from other e-mail clients or export address books to PDAs or cell phones.

Import addresses from other e-mail clients:

From the main window, go to Tools - Import. Select Address Book, click Next.
A list of all installed e-mail clients will appear. Select the client to import addresses from or, if you want to import from a file, select Text file. Click Next. (If you selected Text file, you will need to locate the file before import can occur.)

Import an Excel file of addresses: (You must first save the excel file as a comma delimited .csv file)

Select Tools-Addressbook.
Select Tools-Import.
Select Addressbook from options. Click Next.
Select Text file from the options. Click Next.
Navigate to where you saved the .csv file. Change the file type to All Files. Select the .csv file and click Open.
Match the fields: E-mail to E-mail, Name to Name. Click Ok. Click Finish. (Imported file is now a new addressbook in the folder list.)

Export addresses to a file:

Select Tools-Addressbook.
Select Tools-Export.
Select a location to save the file. For the file type, choose LDIF, which is readable by most e-mail clients. (For a PDA or cell phone, comma delimited may be preferable.) Click OK. The file will appear in the chosen location.

Create a Mailing List

If you regularly send messages to a particular group of recipients, consider creating a mailing list:

In the main window, click the Address Book icon, then the New List icon.
Use the drop-down menu to select the address book in which to put the list.
Enter List Name, Nickname, and Description.
Type each e-mail address for the list. (Or, you can drag entries from the Address Book into the list once it is created.) Click Ok.

Create a Signature

Set up a signature to automatically include contact information (such as name, title, phone, website, etc.) at the bottom of outbound e-mail messages.

Open a new document in a word processing program such as Microsoft Word.
Type the information to include. (Thunderbird uses HTML signatures, so you can use formatting such as color, bold, underlined, italicized, and various font sizes.)
Select File - Save As and choose “.html” in the save as type dialogue box. Name the file. Save the file in your personal network space.
Open Thunderbird.
Select Tools-Account Settings.
Select the "Attach this signature:" box.
Click Choose from the bottom right side of the window. Find and select your signature file.
Click Open, and the file will appear in the Signature File box.

Click OK. The next time you compose a new message, your signature will be included.

Filter Junk Mail

Use the Junk icon to mark incoming, unsolicited messages. Thunderbird will not classify messages from your address book contacts as junk; add contacts to easily insure valid messages are not junked.

Create a Junk Mail Folder:

Choose File - New - Folder.
Type “Junk” with a capital J. Click OK.

Check Quota in Webmail

Login at: http://webmail.lawrence.edu/
Click on Folders. Quota is shown in the upper right corner.

Tip: Empty the Trash to free up space

Shortcut Keys

Ctrl+P	Print selected e-mail
Ctrl+M	Open a Compose window
Ctrl+T	Check for new mail
Delete	Move selected message to the Trash folder
Ctrl+R	Reply to original message
Ctrl+Shift+R	Reply to all in the original message
Ctrl+L	Forward message
Ctrl+A	Select all
Shift+Delete	Delete message without moving to the Trash folder
Ctrl+2	Open the Address book