10 Things I Like About Using Mozilla Thunderbird for Email

I’ve had the same laptop computer for many years, and finally relented that we could purchase a new one for me when we got a tax return.  So, when we received the return, Eric was on the computer that night ordering from Dell.

Yes, it is quite possible that he was even more excited than I was.  This is likely because I wasn’t really all that excited.  I can’t help it, I like things the way they are.  Plus, I know what a pain it is to move things between computers, even if it is Eric that does all that hard work for me.

One of the biggest changes for me was to switch what email program I have been using.  It might be sad to admit it, but I have been using Outlook Express for about three thousand years now.  I don’t think I’ve ever used anything except Outlook Express.  Eric has been warning me for years that it was an out-of-date program and I would have to upgrade to something else eventually (even if it was just to Outlook).  I think every time I grumbled and said something like, “Well, we’ll worry about that when the time comes.”

With the arrival of my new Windows 7 computer, that time came to pass.  Eric decided what I would probably like best would be Mozilla Thunderbird.  I’m pleased to say that after only a few days of use, I’m really enjoying it.  (And, honestly?  I kind of wish I had switched sooner.  But, don’t tell Eric that, okay?)

Ten Reasons that I’m Really Enjoying Mozilla Thunderbird:

1. It easily supports multiple email addresses. The only way I function with my email is to do a lot of separating out (by email).  So, this was a must have for a new program.

2. It is not web-based. Yeah, I know.  That makes me sound like I should go crank up the phonograph, but I have just never found a web-based email program that I really liked.  I have two different gmail accounts, but I’m not really crazy about them.

3. It spell checks as I write. No, Outlook Express didn’t do that.  And, sadly, something had even happened to it where I could no longer get it to spell check at all.  It’s a good thing that I’m a pretty good speller.

4. No more checking between multiple email accounts. Not only does it support multiple email addresses, but I don’t have to switch between identities.  If my email is open, it will send/receive from any of the email addresses.

5. Sending email from any of the addresses. If I receive an email in one account, but I actually want to answer it in another, I can just switch which email address I’m sending it from in a drop down menu.  Easy peasy.

6. It pops up a message with information about emails that come in. Now, this may not be as much of a positive, because I feel the compulsion to look at them right away.  But, with my old email program, I would only get a little mail icon in the task bar at the bottom of the screen, and that was, of course, only for whichever email address I happened to have open right then.

7. Links in my signature line! If there was a way to do it in Outlook Express, I was not aware of it, but as far as I know, I couldn’t use html in the signature area of the emails.  So, each of my websites had to be written out as http://www.manylittleblessings.com and so on.  Doesn’t look so tech savvy, I’m afraid.  I’m happy to now just have links like this –> Many Little Blessings <– in my email signature area.

8. I can move emails between accounts. Earlier today, I received emails about some Etsy purchases that customers had made.  I received them in one account, but actually wanted to save them in a folder in another account.  Normally, I would have emailed them to myself.  However, now, since I can see all of the accounts and folders at once, I just did a drag and drop into the folder that I wanted the emails to be in, even though it was a different email address.

9. Nice junk and spam warnings. Mozilla Thunderbird warns me when it thinks something is spam, junk, dangerous, etc.  I then have the opportunity to tell it otherwise, if it’s wrong.  When I clicked on a link inside on of these, it warned me before actually taking me to the site.  (It was for an at-home sales party type of thing that I automatically got added to a mailing list because a friend invited me to a “party.”  I was clicking to unsubscribe to the emails.)

10. No more warnings about needing to upgrade. You know, I mean from Eric.  So, now for at least a while, I won’t have to have him warn me that my email program is part of the dark ages.  (Although, I may just get a “told you so” from him out of all of this.)

Can you believe that I totally forgot to mention that one of my favorite things about it was that it was free?  Since so many are, I didn’t mention it.  But, thought I would be remiss to not at least briefly point that out.  Another one that didn’t make the list is that there are tons of free add-ons for it too.  But, I haven’t tried any yet.

While I know that most of you reading this will probably scoff and say, “I can’t believe she hasn’t been using an email program with all of these capabilities.  It is 2011, after all.”  But, maybe somebody out there will read this and feel a little less scared to upgrade to a newer email program.

This post is linked to Top Ten Tuesday and Works for Me Wednesday.

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