Using ‘Thunderbird’ to Manage e-mail Accounts



2266315-441960 Using ‘Thunderbird’ to Manage e-mail AccountsIntroduction to ThunderbirdThunderbird is a program designed to enable you to manage one or more e-mail accounts from a single platform (as opposed to having to sign-in to each account separately). It represents an alternative to the Windows Live Mail option which has been used by many of our members for the past few years. Thunderbird has been written by the Mozilla organization and works very well in a Windows-10 operating environment.Members are advised to get the Thunderbird setup software from one of our Home Help Technicians rather than trying to download it directly from an internet site. The reason for this recommendation is to ensure that we all adopt a standard approach to establishing the platform on our machines and that we are not inundated with offers of numerous additional “free” packages which we do not want.Setting-up your edition of ThunderbirdCopy the Thunderbird setup program into your ‘Downloads’ library.Double-click on the Thunderbird entry in your Downloads library to start the setup procedure. The following sub-menus will then appear:Click on ‘Install’Click on ‘Next’Click on ‘Next’ Click on ‘Finish’ The standard version of Thunderbird will now be installed on your computer. The next step is for you to establish your existing e-mail system on the Thunderbird platform. The following series of illustrations shows the steps involved in making a copy of a gmail account available via Thunderbird. Click on this buttonChoose ‘Set as default’Click on ‘Done’.Enter information relating to your existing account. Click ‘Continue’. Enter your e-mail account name and Password. Click on ‘ALLOW’.The newly-created Thunderbird version of your existing e-mail account will now be displayed, as follows . . .Note your e-mail account name near the top of the left panel. Note also the calendar feature in the right panel. (More about this later.)By clicking on the ‘Inbox’ heading in the left panel you will see all your Inbox messages listed, together with a ‘Welcome’ message from Thunderbird.Transferring Contacts details to ThunderbirdIn this documentation we are assuming that you will be transferring your contacts from Windows Live Mail to the Thunderbird alternative. This assumption forms the basis for associated illustrations.Contacts iconIn your Windows Live Mail system, click on the Contacts icon which looks like an open book and is usually located near the bottom, left of your screen:This will open the screen showing all your contacts and will look something like this . . .First, highlight ‘All Contacts’ in the left-hand column. Then click on ‘Export’ in the menu bar. On the drop-down menu, click on the ‘Comma separated values (.CSV)’ option and enter the name of the file you want to save with your Contacts details in the ‘Save exported file as:’ box. (I called mine, ‘Addresses’.) Now hit the ‘Browse’ button to identify where you want to save this file. (We recommend that you choose your ‘Downloads’ folder in which to store the file, simply because this makes it easier to find.)This procedure should result in the display of screens similar to those shown at the top of the following page . . . Screen displayed after hitting ‘Export’ Screen displayed after hitting ‘Browse’Note that in the ‘Browse’ screen the ‘Downloads’ folder has been highlighted. Note also that the ‘Save as type:’ box is showing ‘Comma Separated Values (*.CSV). If it is not, hit the ‘down’ arrow at the right end of this box and select the CSV option. When you hit ‘Save’, the full address of your new file will be displayed in the ‘Save exported file as:’ box. Hit ‘Next’.The next step is to identify the fields in your Contacts file that you will want to transfer to the Thunderbird e-mail account. We recommend that you should tick every box in this context – that way you will have the opportunity to transfer everything you have chosen to record in your Windows Live Mail file to your Thunderbird file. Hit the ‘Finish’ button to complete the procedure on the Windows Live Mail side of the transaction.Open your Thunderbird program and click on the ‘Address Book’ tab near the top of the page.Click on ‘Tools’ and choose ‘Import’ from the drop-down menu. This will display the menu shown at the top of the next page . . . Click on ‘Address Books’, then on ‘Next Click on ‘Text file (LDIF,tab,.csv, .txt)’, then on ‘Next’Having clicked ‘Next’ on the first of the two menus above you will be shown the second one. At this point it is important that you click on the fourth of the options shown – i.e. ‘Text file (LDIF, .tab, .csv, .txt)’. Again, click on ‘Next’. You will now see the following . .The first of the two columns shown in the box represents the various fields in the contacts file you have just stored in your ‘Downloads’ folder. The second column shows the fields in the corresponding Thunderbird file into which you will be transferring the information. You will note that the information in each of the fields in the two columns does not always coincide; for example, ‘First Name’ and ‘Last Name’ are OK, but then the ‘Display Name’ entry in the left-hand column is opposite the ‘Middle Name’ entry in the Thunderbird file. To correct the potential error, highlight the line containing the field into which you want the ‘Display Name’ to be transferred – in this particular case, the ‘Name’ field - and click on the ‘Move Up’ button to the right. See the results in the two illustrations below . . . You will see in the second of the two illustrations above that ‘Display Name’ now coincides with ‘Name’. The same process must now be completed for all the fields you wish to take from your Windows Live Mail contacts file and transfer them to the corresponding Thunderbird file. When you have finished this (lengthy) process, press the ‘OK’ button at the bottom of the screen and your Thunderbird Contacts File will have been created under the name you chose to give it. ................
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