Thunderbird 8 Coming/What’s New

Thunderbird 8 comes out later today and there are some minor changes. Some good and some not so good.

  • Add-ons check first run. On your first run after you have updated to Thunderbird 8, you are going to see an add-ons screen similar to that below. This will let you know which add-ons are currently installed, if they are compatible (or can be updated) and who installed them note add-ons installed by 3rd party programs will be disabled by default) . Further, you have an option to choose to keep the installed add-on or remove it (always good to do a little housekeeping by removing add-ons you are no longer using).

  • Removal of the Folder Pane View Switcher. We mentioned this last month along with the Folder Pane View Switcher add-on. However, you can also get back the Folder Pane View Switcher via a userChrome.css tweak. Add the below code snippet to your Thunderbird userChrome.css file {directions}.
    /*Resurrects the Folder Pane View Switcher */
    #folderPaneHeader, #abDirTreeHeader {
    display: -moz-box !important;
    }

    Note: Some other userChrome.css workarounds for the attachment pane may no longer work as the underlying XBL code has been changed substantially.
  • A work around to make attachments in wrong multipart/alternative contexts accessible again via the Show All Body Parts add-on (only works with Thunderbird 8.0 and newer).
  • Changes to the CTRL+F behavior. Prior to Thunderbird 8, CTRL+F opened the Quick Filter (allowed users to filter messages based on input) and was also used for the Find In Message function. Now, Quick Filter has been re-assigned the shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+K and CTRL+F is used exclusively for Find in Message.

2 Comments on Thunderbird 8 Coming/What’s New

  1. With Thunderbird 8, userChrome.css workaround below to prevent the display of saved passwords no longer works. Do you know how we can prevent saved passwords to be displayed in clear to a user that can send and receive emails using the saved passwords but cannot see them in clear?
    Currently my userchrome.css contains the following:

    /* Security: hide Saved Passwords… button */
    #showPasswords, #security-view-password { display: none; }

    /* Security: hide secondary Show Passwords button */
    button#togglePasswords { display: none !important }

    Thanks

    Chris

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