Setup Calendar in Thunderbird

Out of the many calendar add-ons in Thunderbird, Lightning is the best. It adds a full feature calendar system to Thunderbird and it integrates so well that you don’t even see the differences.

1. Open Thunderbird. Go to “Tool -> Add-ons”. Search for Lightning.

2. Install Lightning. Restart your Thunderbird.

3. You should see a new “Events and Tasks” option in the menu bar. Go to “Events and Tasks -> Calendar” and the calendar will show up in a new tab. You can start adding events and tasks to your Thunderbird.

Integrating Google Calendar to Thunderbird

Now that you have set up Calendar in Thunderbird, the next step is to integrate Google Calendar to Lightning. Provider for Google Calendar is one good add-on that can get the job done.

1. In Thunderbird, go to “Tool -> Add-ons” and search for “google calendar”. Scroll through the list to find “Provider for Google Calendar” and install it. Restart Thunderbird.

2. Next, open your browser and login to your Google Calendar account. Go to “Calendar Settings”.

3. Click on the Calendar tab, follow by the calendar that you want to integrate to Thunderbird.

4. Scroll down till you see the “Calendar Address” field. You should see three icons beside it, with the label XML, iCal, HTML respectively. Right-click at the XML icon and select “Copy Link Location”.

5. Go back to your Thunderbird. Go to “File -> New -> Calender”. On the popup window, select “On the network” and click Next.

6. In the next window, select “Google Calendar” and paste in the link that you have copied earlier.

7. Give your new calendar a name and set the color.

8. Enter your Google username and password. You might want to check the box “save password in Password manager” so it won’t prompt you for password in the future.

9. Lastly, once you see the “Your Calendar has been created” message. You are done integrating your Google calendar to Thunderbird.

Repeat the same steps for each and every Google Calendar that you want to add to Thunderbird. The “Provider for Google Calendar” supports a two-way sync, so you can add/edit events and tasks in Thunderbird and have them synced back to the Google server.

That’s it. What other ways do you use to integrate Google Calendar to Thunderbird?

Installation

To install Thunderbird 5 via PPA, open a terminal and type the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/thunderbird-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install thunderbird

Done. Go to “Applications -> Internet -> Thunderbird” to run the application.

Integrate Thunderbird to the Messaging menu

For the Thunderbird to appear in the Messaging menu, all you have to do is to install the “Ubuntu Unity Messaging Menu” extension.

In Thunderbird, go to “Tools -> Add-ons“. Search for “Messaging Menu”. Install the first extension that appears in the screen.

Restart Thunderbird after the installation. The Thunderbird entry should appear in the messaging menu now.

Replacing Evolution

If you are using the calendar feature in Evolution and you want to migrate to Thunderbird, you might be disappointed to find that Thunderbird does not come with a Calendar feature by default. You can, however, install the several extensions to implement the calendar feature.

Lightning is the most popular (and most comprehensive) Calendar extension for Thunderbird. It is almost a “must-install” for every Thunderbird user.

Alternatively, if you are a Google Calendar user, you can also install the Google Calendar Tab extension that loads your Google Calendar in a new tab.

If you are using IMAP to check your email accounts, there is no need to do any email migration from Evolution. However, for those using the POP protocol, follow the instructions here to migrate all your settings from Evolution.

Lastly, enjoy your Thunderbird.

Note: Thunderbird could be the default email client for Ubuntu Oneiric. It will be good if you can familiarize with it now.

One of the most common applications people look for is a desktop email application. Thunderbird from Mozilla is a fantastic replacement for Outlook. Much like Firefox, Thunderbird can be customized with any number of addons.

These are 12 of Thunderbird addons that I strongly recommend to make your Thunderbird a bit more powerful.

1. Lightning

A calendar is one of the most important tools for anyone in business. You need to be able to quickly look and access your day. Needing to have multiple windows open and toggle back and forth is very inconvenient. Lightning is Mozilla’s calendar application.

This extension lets you add a full calendar to Thunderbird, making it more efficient to schedule appointments from an email.

2. Reminderfox

When you get busy working or playing on Facebook, you might not notice it is time for the meeting. Reminderfox is a popular Firefox browser extension that is also available in Thunderbird. If you are trying to have an all-in-one mail application, reminders and to-do lists will help a lot.

3. Adblocker plus

Much like a browser, there are many things that can show up in your email inbox to slow down your what you or doing or even cause harm. Adblocker plus will help filter out the unsavory banner ads and other things that can be an annoyance.

4. WebMail Notifier

For those who use Yahoo or other web-based email accounts, in some cases, the email provider does not allow POP access. For this reason, you may not be able to access your email directly from your desktop mail program.

WebMail Notifier will check your web-based email account at regular intervals and let you know how many unread emails you have waiting for you.

5. Add-on compatibility reporter

Mozilla put out this extension to help you check the compatibility of your add-ons. It is nothing more than a time saver. When you install an add-on or upgrade to a newer version of Thunderbird, something may not be compatible. This handy little add-on will let you know.

6. Quick translator

Quick translator does just what the name implies. If you get an email in a language you are not familiar with, you can quickly translate the words into your native tongue. This is a very important extension for those of you who work via the web or have international clients.

7. Quick locale switcher

Do you need to work in multiple languages? Well, you know how much of an inconvenience it can be to change the input method each time you need to switch languages. Quick locale switcher allows you to quickly change your language, dictionaries and all the other stuff so you can concentrate on work.

8. Thunderbrowse

Everyday you get a link emailed to you. Instead of clicking on the link and wait for the browser to open, you can open the link inside Thunderbird. When you click on a link in an email, a new tab will open and you will be taken to the URL destination.

9. Quote collapse

This solved one of the irritations I have with long email threads. There is too much going on and the email can be distracting. This fancy little extension lets you minimize parts of the quoted email thread so you only see what you need to.

10. Send later 3

As the name implies, you will gain the ability to schedule emails. I know I use the schedule feature for a ton for things like birthdays, follow up etc. When you type up an email and it is ready to send, you can go to File -> Send Later or use the keyboard shortcut to bring up the Send later window. From this window you can choose a preset time or choose sometime more specific.

11. Nostalgy

If you process a large number of emails everyday, Nostalgy will save you a lot of time. This add-on will let you create keyboard shortcuts for actions like move a message to a folder or change folders.

12. Themes

Last but not least are themes. If you spend a lot of time using your email program, it may as well be visually appealing, right? You can choose from over 70 different themes to spruce up your inbox.

While many people will not use any add-ons for Thunderbird. It is a fantastic program right out of the box so to speak. However, using one or more of the add-ons will only extend its usefulness.

What add-on do you use to tame the email beast called your inbox?

image credit: wikimedia

Installation

If you are using Windows/Mac, you can download the installer and do a standard installation in your OS. However if you are using Linux, the installation method is slightly different.

There are two ways to install Thunderbird 3 in Linux (Ubuntu):

First method:

• Download the tar file from the Thunderbird download site.
• Extract the tar file to your Home folder. You should now see a Thunderbird folder.
• Open up the Thunderbird folder. Locate a file with filename thunderbird
• Right click on this file and select Properties. Click on the Permissions tab and checked the box “Allow executing file as program“. Close the dialog window.
• Double click on the thunderbird file. When prompted, select Run.

That’s it. Thunderbird 3 should now run in your Linux OS. This is so far the easiest method to run Thunderbird 3.0 in Linux. The downside is that you have to update it manually everytime a new build is released.

Second method (PPA method):

Open up a terminal and type the following:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Add the Mozilla daily build PPA into the sources.list

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu karmic main

If you are still using Jaunty, remember to change the karmic to jaunty

Save and close the file. Back in your terminal,

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install thunderbird-3.0

This will install Thunderbird in your Linux and it will update automatically when a new build is released. (Note: Thunderbird will be renamed as Shredder if you install via the PPA)

New features

The first thing that you will see when running a fresh install of Thunderbird 3.0 is the prompt to set up your email accounts.

Adding your Hotmail or Gmail account is very easy. You just need to enter your username and password and it will do the rest of the configuration. You don’t need to know any IMAP, SMTP, TLS settings, the wizard will check a database and find the right settings for your account. It also supports IMAP by default, so you can sync your online account with Thunderbird easily.

Tabbed content

Thunderbird 3 comes with tab support so you can open your emails in tabs. Search results are automatically opened in new tabs so you can return to your mailbox easily.

New search features

This is one of the most powerful improvement in Thunderbird 3. The search function now includes a highly customizable filter. You can now filter your search to pinpoint the exact email your are looking for.

Also, in your search result, there is a side pane where you can further filter your search result. This is very useful if you have a large number of emails in your inbox.

Activity manager

Activity manager shows all the activites taking place in the background. It gives you a quick glance of your Thunderbird status.

One-click Address Book

The concept used here is the same as the bookmarking concept in Firefox 3. Basically, for any emails, you can click the star beside the address to add it to the address book. Click it again to to add more details like a photo, birthday, and other contact information.

Smart folder

If you have set up multiple email accounts in Thunderbird 3, you can now manage all the inboxes in one place. The Smart Folders feature combine special folders like your Inbox, Sent, or Archive into one folder. Instead of going to the Inbox for each of your mail accounts, you can see all of your incoming email in one Inbox folder. Smart folder is activated by default.

Better toolbar placement

This is one of the few small changes to the interface that makes a big difference. The email toolbar now appears at the header of each email, so you can quickly decide if you want to reply, forward or simply delete the mail.

Addon

Like Firefox, Thunderbird also supports addon. The differences between Thunderbird 2 and 3 is that you can now install addon right within Thunderbird (just like how you did it in Firefox). Previously, you have to download and install the extensions manually.

Some other Gmail-like features

Here are some of the new features that are already available in Gmail, but is now integrated into Thunderbird

Archive

For long time Gmail users, you will find this feature familiar. The Archive function allows you to store your important emails in the Archive folder. This is useful if you want to keep the emails for future reference, but don’t want it to appear in the inbox.

Attachment reminder

This used to be available as an addon in Thunderbird 2, but it is now upgraded as the main feature. Basically, it will scan your email content and sense any mention of file attachments. It will then remind you to attach if you have not done so.

Tag

Like ‘Starring‘ your emails in Gmail, you can now ‘tag’ your emails according to its importance. You can also create your own tags.

Things that have been demanded but not yet integrated in Thunderbird 3

The thing that is most demanded by the public is the integration of the Lightning extension into Thunderbird. Lightning is an extension that adds Calendar features in Thunderbird. It is only with Lightning that Thunderbird becomes more complete and get a chance against Outlook, or even Evolution (in Linux).

The good thing is, you can still install Lightning in Thunderbird 3 via the addons.

Have you tried Thunderbird 3? Do you like it? Let us know in the comments.

Preparing your Thunderbird

First of all, if you have not installed Thunderbird, click here to install. Alternatively, in your terminal,

sudo apt-get install thunderbird

Open your Thunderbird (Applications-> Internet -> Mozilla Thunderbird).

It will first prompt you to import setting, select Don’t import anything and click Next.

It will then ask you to setup your email account. Go ahead and set up your email account.

Migrate local mail from Evolution

First, we will migrate the Evolution mails that are stored locally in your hard disk.

Open up two Nautilus windows (if you like, you can open two tabs instead of two windows). Press Ctrl + H to reveal the hidden folders. In one window, navigate to the .mozilla-thunderbird folder. You should see a folder with name similar to i7bqvbzk.default. Click on that folder, followed by Mail and Local Folders. You should see some files like Inbox, Trash, Unsent Message etc.

In the second window, navigate to .evolution -> mail -> local folder. Similarly, you will find files such as Inbox, Outbox, Sent, Trash etc.

Now copy the five files Inbox, Outbox, Drafts, Templates, Sent from the Evolution folder to the Thunderbird folder. If it prompts you whether to replace the existing files, click Replace All.

If you have used any subfolders in your Evolution, you should see a folder with a .sbd extension (such as #evolution.sbd). In your Thunderbird folder, create a similar folder with the same name. Back to your Evolution folder, copy and paste all the files in the subfolder that don’t have a file extension to the Thunderbird subfolder.

That’s it. Restart your Thunderbird. You should see all your Evolution mails imported over.

Migrate Calendar

Thunderbird does not come with a calendar function by default, so we need to install the Lightning extension to give it the calendar functionality. As the Lightning extension in the Ubuntu repository is outdated, we will have to download the extension and install it manually.

Go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2313 and download Lightning 0.9.xpi.

Some of you who have installed Lightning 0.9 before will find that you won’t be able to add entry to the Calendar and Task section. This is a common bug as the Lightning extension still uses the old libstdc++5 dependency file while Ubuntu Intrepid comes with the newer libstdc++6. Thus, before you install the Lightning extension, first install the libstdc++5 dependency file.

sudo apt-get install libstdc++5

Now, in your Thunderbird, go to Tools ->Addons. Click on the Install button to install the Lightning extension. (If you have already installed Lightning extension, you will need to remove and reinstall again).

Restart the Thunderbird. The Lightning extension should detect the presence of Evolution and prompt you to import the calendar from Evolution.

Make sure the box is checked and click Next. It should import your Evolution calendar over.

Migrating Task

Lightning does not import the Task list from Evolution, so you have to do it manually.

In Evolution, click on the Task tab. Right click on the Personal (or whatever name you give to your task list) and select Save to disk. Navigate to the location and save the task list in .ics format.

In Thunderbird, first click on the Calendar tab, then go to File->Import Calendar. Select the file that you have just saved. Thunderbird will prompt you where to save the calendar. Pick the one you want and click OK. Your Evolution Task list will now be imported to Thunderbird.

Migrate address book

Importing address book from Evolution is not an easy task since Thunderbird does not support the importing of .vcf format. To overcome this, we have to install the MoreFunctionsForAddressBook extension.

Go to http://nic-nac-project.de/~kaosmos/morecols-en.html and download the MoreFunctionForAddressBook extension. Install it in Thunderbird (and restart Thunderbird).

In Evolution, click on the Contacts tab. Right click on your contact list and select Save As vCard. Select a location and save the contact list in .vcf format.

In Thunderbird, click on the Address Book tab on the icon bar to load up the Address book window. Right click on the entry area and select Import vCard/vcf. Select the .vcf file that you have just saved.

Done.

Enable Tracker Indexing

You have now completed the migration from Evolution to Thunderbird, you might want to enable tracker indexing so that your mail in Thunderbird can be indexed and searched by tracker.

Download the tracker extension here.

Install the extension in Thunderbird and restart thunderbird.

On your Ubuntu desktop, go to System -> Preferences -> Search and Indexing. Make sure that the Index delay is set to at least 45 and the box beside Enable Indexing is checked.

Next, go to System -> Preferences -> Sessions. Make sure that the boxes beside Tracker and Tracker Applet are checked.

Close everything and restart your computer.

Once it is booted up, start your Thunderbird and go to Tools -> Tracker Indexer Setting

On the Indexing tab, make sure that the Enable Indexing box is checked.

On the Privacy tab, click the Drop everything and Reset index status. Tracker will now re-index your Thunderbird folder.

That’s all. Enjoy!