Thunderbird and Identities

When an email account is initially setup in Thunderbird, the user is prompted to enter their name which is shown as the from on the mail message. What if you want to have multiple display/from names on the same email account?

Thunderbird gives you the ability to create multiple ‘identities’ for an email account:

  1. Go to Tools >  Account Settings… (Linux: Edit > Account Settings)
  2. At the bottom right of the Account Settings window shall be a button Manage Identities
  3. Choose Add..
  4. Complete at least the first two fields (Your Name, Email Address)
  5. Click OK, Click OK, Click OK
  6. When you compose a message there will now have a drop-down menu on the from field.

Multiple identities are great, if you remember to select the correct one when composing a new message. The Identity Chooser extension adds a slight change to the behavior of the Write button. By default Thunderbird will use the default identity of whatever account you happen to be in when clicking the button. With Identity Chooser clicking the Write button presents a drop-down menu to select which account or identity to use.

1 Comment on Thunderbird and Identities

  1. Excellent! The Identity Chooser extension is a must have for those of us who tend to forget who we are for whom. Thanks ever so much!

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