Manage your email in Thunderbird

Account settings
Once you’ve set up an email account, click on the Tools menu at the top and select the Account Settings option. This will open a new window that allows you to tweak the way your email account is handled. If you have multiple email accounts set up, each one will be listed on the left side of the window – ­ double-clicking an account name displays a list of settings.

Click once on the account name and, on the right side of the window, you’ll see the account settings such as your display name and email address. Meanwhile, the Copies & Folders section lets you choose whether to save copies of sent messages and where they should be stored, how Thunderbird should handle draft emails and more.

At the bottom of the Accounts Settings window there are buttons to add and remove email accounts. This allows you to manage several email accounts at once. If you do have more than one email account you can specify a default account: when you create an email it will be sent from there unless you choose otherwise.

Get rid of spam
Spam emails are a big problem these days, but Thunderbird includes an intelligent spam filter that can make sure most of it never reaches your inbox.

The problem with many spam filters is that they use simple rules to detect unwanted email, such as looking for specific words. Thunderbird’s spam filter, however, can be trained to spot spam and learns as it goes along. It takes a little while for it to get used to what you consider spam, but the wait will be worth it.

Once you’ve set up the spam filter, Thunderbird’s Privacy options (found by heading to the Tools menu, selecting Options and then clicking on the Privacy button) let you set further spam options, including how it should deal with emails you manually mark as spam.

Thunderbird also keeps an eye out for phishing emails and other scams. In the Privacy options screen, click the Email Scams tab and make sure a tick is placed next to the ‘Tell me if the message I’m reading is a suspected email scam’ box. Thunderbird will now warn you if it suspects an email is not what it seems.

This can be a useful extra layer of protection, but like any automated system it’s not perfect, so if you suspect an email could be a scam then be cautious.

Other options
There are five other buttons within the Options window that let you change various settings within Thunderbird. Clicking on the General button lets you make Thunderbird the default email program for your computer so, for example, if you click an email address it will pop up and create a new message.

It’s also possible to change how Thunderbird reacts when a new email arrives. By default, it will play the standard Windows sound set up to indicate a new email, but you can specify a different audio file if you prefer.

A pop-up alert is also displayed just above the Windows Notification Area each time a new email arrives ­ – click on the Customise button, and this alert can be altered so that it only displays a preview of the mail, the subject, the sender or a combination of all three.

The Display section of the Options window deals with settings such as what colour the text within emails should be, while the Composition section is split into three further sections ­ – General, Addressing and Spelling.

Most of the settings are best left as they are, but you may like to adjust the Auto Save time, which determines how soon the program will save a copy of an emails you create. Under the Spelling tab, you may also want to instruct Thunderbird to run a spell check before it sends emails, to check spelling as you type, or both.

Make it your own
Another popular feature of Thunderbird is its ability to change its appearance using different themes. Unlike add-ons, a new theme won’t add new features, but it does let you give Thunderbird a different look.

There are plenty to choose from ­ – head to the Tools menu, click on Add-ons and then the Themes button. The default theme will be the only one listed, but to add a new one click on the ‘Get themes’ link in the bottom-right corner and you’ll be taken to the Thunderbird themes website.

As we’ve demonstrated here, Thunderbird offers a huge range of features and can be customised to suit just about anyone’s email preferences. Best of all, it’s free so you’ve nothing to lose by giving it a try today.

Thunderbird add-ons
It’s possible to add extra features to Thunderbird using the many free add-ons available. For example, Thunderbrowse lets you click on a link in an email and see the page within Thunderbird, while the Lightning add-on adds a calendar and appointment scheduler.

There are many more to choose from – visit the add-ons web page to see what’s available.

Once you’ve downloaded an add-on, head to the Tools menu within Thunderbird and select Add-ons. All currently installed add-ons will be listed here ­ to install a new one, click on the Install button at the bottom and locate the add-on file you downloaded.

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