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Accepted
karthick87
Asked: 2012-08-09 09:02:50 +0800 CST

How do I make Thunderbird's reply format look like Outlook's?

  • 772

I am using thunderbird 14.0, where i am facing few issue. Is it possible to make thunderbird look like outlook. I didn't mean the theme or look, i mean the way that how outlook express replies. It has a neat line on the end of every reply, where as thunderbird doesnot do the way like outlook does. It doesn't show the details of From, To Subject & Date while replying..I just to overcome this issue by customizing the settings or i just want to know is there any other email client which serves like outlook for ubuntu?

Outlook Screenshot:

enter image description here

Thunderbird Screenshot:

enter image description here

Update - 1:

enter image description here

Update - 2:

  • Outlook express / outlook has a nice look on forwarding mails. Like it highlights the From field in light grey color. Pls find the snapshot below. How to get this style in thunderbird on forwarding mails?

enter image description here

Update - 3:

  • Can i have the below style? All the informations should be highlighted in light grey color, like the one on screenshot below. Also i dont want the email id to be displayed, on mouse over it should show the email id like outlook. You can find it in below screenshot.

enter image description here

Update - 4:

  • Help me in adding signature for all outgoing mails.

enter image description here

thunderbird

6 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    This is fairly easy to do with Thunderbird 14.0, using the SmartTemplate and ReFwdFormatter extensions.

    1. Install SmartTemplate and ReFwdFormatter

    • Start Thunderbird, go to Tools...Add-ons

    • Search for smarttemplate and install:

      enter image description here

    • Search for refwd and install:

      enter image description here

    • Restart Thunderbird to activate the extensions.

    2. Configure ReFwdFormatter to remove the quote vertical bar

    • Go to Tools...Add-ons and select the Extensions option in the left sidebar.

    • Click on the Preferences button for ReFwdFormatter:

      enter image description here

    • Make sure all the choices you need are selected, and close.

    3. Configure SmartTemplate to reply like Outlook

    • Go to Tools...Add-ons and select the Extensions option in the left sidebar.
    • Click on the Preferences button for SmartTemplate

    • In the "SmartTemplate Settings" window, click on the Reply tab:

      enter image description here

    • Set up the checkboxes as above, and paste this basic Outlook reply template in the text box:

      <br>
<hr>
<b>From:</b> %from%
<b>Sent:</b> %X:=sent% %A%, %B% %d%, %Y% %l%:%M%%p(3)%
[[<b>To:</b> %to%]][[<br><b>Cc:</b> %cc%]]
<b>Subject:</b> %subject%
<br>

    • To see what the fields mean and a list of all available fields, click on the Help button to expand the window with this useful section (or see list on website):

      enter image description here

    • You should also paste the same template in the Forward tab, with the same settings.

    4. Demo:

    enter image description here

    5. Further customization

    • This requires minimal knowledge of HTML. If you need specific help, please post in the comments below.

    Specific customizations for karthick87

    • Makes horizontal line blue
    • Makes header font size smaller
    • Gray highlight/background for headers
    • Date/time in Outlook format
    • Only email names displayed in headers, with clickable mailto: links and a tooltip displaying the email address on mouse hover
    <br>
<hr style="color:#62B3FF">
<div style="background-color: #DDDDDD; font-size:10pt"><b>From:</b> <a title="%from(mail)%" href="mailto:%from(mail)%">%from(name)%</a>
<b>Sent:</b> %X:=sent% %A%, %B% %d%, %Y% %l%:%M%%p(3)%
[[<b>To:</b> <a title="%to(mail)%" href="mailto:%to(mail)%">%to(name)%</a>]][[<br><b>Cc:</b> <a title="%cc(mail)%" href="mailto:%cc(mail)%">%cc(name)%</a>]]
<b>Subject:</b> %subject%</div>
<br>

    enter image description here

    • 38

  2. Please Note: Kindly let me know about improvement, I'm glad to edit it. Instead of deleting it!

    There is an alternative to SmartTemplate4 add-on for Message Attribution aka Outlook like reply in Thunderbird. ReplyWithHeader brings capabilities of outlook like message attribution, header typography, line spaces for Thunderbird. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/replywithheader/.

    RWH Preferences screenshot: Preferences Screen

    Disclaimer: Author of ReplyWithHeader add-on.

    • 7

  3. You can give ThunderBird Conversations Extension a try.

    Here is a screenshot. enter image description here

    • 4

  4. This worked for me (thunderbird v17) except it disabled my signature for creating new mails. I discovered I could switch sender addresses and back, and that would put the signature in. I discovered that in the smartTemplate options when I enabled the 'use html' box in the Write tab signatures became enabled right from the start of creating a new mail.

    • 0

  5. Great sample for SmartTemplate to make ThunderBird more familiar with Outlook. I improve your code, because for some reason that i unknow, in href mailto the system add mailto:<a>[email protected]</a> I hope that this more simple code help to new users of Thunderbird. Thanks.

    <hr color="#b0b0b0"><div style="font-family: tahoma,geneva,sans-serif; font-size:12px"> <b>From:</b> %from(name,link)% <b>Sent:</b> %X:=sent% %A%, %B% %d%, %Y% %l%:%M%%p(3)% <b>To:</b> %to(name,link)% <b>Cc:</b> %cc(name,link)% <b>Subject:</b> %subject%</div> <br>
    • 0

  6. I am sure that this kb article has everything you need to know about custom reply header : http://kb.mozillazine.org/Reply_header_settings

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