Thunderbird's advanced search helps you find mail fast

Compared with Outlook and other commercial e-mail programs (are there any other commercial e-mail programs left?) Mozilla's free Thunderbird e-mail client has a lot going for it. Not the least of Thunderbird's time-saving features are its search capabilities.

If you don't see the search toolbar directly above the main Thunderbird window, click View > Toolbars > Search Bar. By default, you can view all your mail, all your unread mail, all mail with one of Thunderbird's five built-in labels attached (Important, Work, Personal, To Do, Later), mail from people in your address book, messages received recently, mail with attachments, and mail that the program has identified as "Not Junk."

Thunderbird's View options let you sort your mail into several prefab categories.

(Credit: Mozilla Foundation)

To create your own message view, click Customize in the View drop-down menu, and choose New in the Customize Message Views dialog box, or select one of the existing views and click Edit. In the Message View Setup window, choose either "Match all of the following" or "Match any of the following," and make your selections in the location and parameters drop-down menus. Enter the text you want to search for in the text box, and click the plus sign to add additional parameters. When you're done, click OK twice. The view you just created will appear in the View box, and messages matching your selected parameters will display automatically.

Create a custom view in Thunderbird to filter your messages with a single click.

(Credit: Mozilla Foundation)

Save time with Thunderbird's Quick Search
Custom views are great if you know ahead of time what you'll be looking for, but you can also create a "view" on the fly by converting a search into a virtual folder. Press Alt-I, Tab to move the cursor to the search box, press Alt-down arrow to display the search-parameters drop-down menu, use the arrow keys to navigate to your desired parameter, press Tab again to select it, and type your search term. When the results appear, choose Save Search as a Folder, rename the folder and make other changes (or accept the defaults), and click OK. The folder appears in the left pane in whichever location you chose for it in the New Saved Search Folder dialog box.

Tomorrow: The perils of trying to break the Microsoft habit.

[joshsc]

I love Thunderbird however setup is not straightforward at all. Secondly, it would be nice if it were compatible with all of the online email services including Yahoo so one wouldn't have to use YPOPs.

[NearChaos]

WordPerfect Mail is still around, in case anyone is curious. And I suspect it still has faster search.

[The Conundrum]

What version of Thunderbird are you using? I have the latest release (2.0.0.12), and the menu choices and toolbars that you refer to in the article don't exist. Are you using a nightly? An extension? If so, you should make that clear up front.

[maksenf]

Can't see the "View->Toolbars->Search Bar" either. Confusing article.

[chelp]

I had the same problem. And I still can't find a "Search bar". But I did find the Message View thingy that is shown in this article. Go to View > Toobars > Customize. Then drag the dropdown box labeled "View" up onto your toolbar area. Click "OK". Now you can do all of the stuff in this post.

[vicstev]

I downloaded T-Bird back in '06 & because it interfered with other programs (I thought),I un installed it . I want to go back to Mozilla/T Bird , am not able to set up T-Bird again cuz I didn't save my profile when I un installed everything. ( didn't think I would use it again) Now, that I want to download &set up a new profile, it won't accept my new password and don't know the old one. I'm still using the same e mail address. I can't find any help on the website at all. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks In Advance,
Vickey