First Look: Mozilla Thunderbird 2
Apr 10, 2007 

 If you like Thunderbird 1.5, you'll love version 2, now available as a 
near-final release candidate. Like the new Firefox 2, Thunderbird 2 doesn't 
introduce
any radical changes. But it does introduce inherently useful upgrades that will 
boost your productivity, particularly if your inbox overflows with e-mail.
 

 The release candidate download is now available  
 from Mozilla's site 
 . I've been using version 2 every day since beta 2's release in January. 
Though the program is not yet final, I've found it stable and up to the task of
handling my daily e-mail chores. Making the switch is easy: Thunderbird 2 
maintains all your filters and account settings, and you shouldn't have any 
problem
jumping right into it. Like previous versions, Thunderbird 2 has a clean and 
straightforward interface that makes good use of available screen space. 

 Click to view full-size image. 

 One of the first things I noticed: mail pop-up alerts, one of Thunderbird's 
new features, which list the subject and sender of newly received messages
in the lower-right corner of your screen and automatically fade after a few 
seconds. Each pop-up provides enough information on the latest few unread 
messages
for me to decide whether I need to interrupt what I'm doing to switch to 
Thunderbird and read the e-mail.  

 As convenient as the mail pop-ups are, the introduction of tags in Thunderbird 
2 is an even bigger boon for organizing messages. Tags replace the previous
versions' labels function, which allowed you to assign just one of a handful of 
premade labels, such as 'Personal' or 'ToDo', to each message. Now, you
can create an unlimited number of tags, and you can give any e-mail multiple 
tags.   
 Click to view full-size image. 

 Creating on-the-fly tags for any new topic does wonders for managing an 
ever-growing inbox. For example, I track antivirus news and products, so I 
created
a new tag called 'antivirus'. A right-click lets me assign the new tag to any 
e-mail, and I can then quickly view only those tagged messages. I found 
right-clicking
faster and cleaner than the typical method of creating a new folder for all 
such messages and then manually adding those messages to the folder. The feature
is also particularly useful when combined with saved-search folders that show 
all messages with a particular tag (but keep your e-mail in one inbox). In
the release candidate, however, the new tags have a few rough edges. For 
example, I changed the name of the default 'Personal' tag to 'PCW', but a filter
I migrated from Thunderbird 1.5 still assigns 'Personal' to many messages. 
Also, when I assign multiple tags, Thunderbird seems to randomly select which
tag's color it will use for the message; it doesn't allow me to designate a 
dominant color.  

 Brand-new in this release candidate is a Gmail account preset that fills in 
almost everything (server name, etc.) automatically when you configure 
Thunderbird
to read your Gmail messages. You need only provide your name (for display) and 
account. The default settings will leave the messages on Gmail's servers
so you can read them through both Thunderbird and Gmail.  

 The release notes list the same functionality for a .Mac account, but (not 
surprisingly) I didn't see such an option in my Windows version; it may show
up only in the Mac software.  

 Other notable tweaks to Thunderbird include better customization options for 
viewing folders, and find-as-you-type searches. See the  
 release notes 
   for a full list of changes.  

 Unfortunately, Mozilla doesn't seem to have significantly improved its 
junk-mail filters, and my inbox still has plenty of spam. Also, Thunderbird 
still
lacks a built-in calendar; however, a terrific and easy-to-use add-on called  
 ReminderFox 
  adds some basic calendaring functions, such as reminders to revisit a 
particular e-mail by a certain time.   

 Though Thunderbird 2 is not yet a final release, I found that the release 
candidate's new features and overall stability more than warrant your making
it your primary mail client.   

 PCW Rating: Pending   

 Stability, clean looks, and a high degree of customization make the beta of 
Thunderbird 2 a winner.   
 www.mozilla.com 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130448-pg,1/article.html

Vikas Kapoor,
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Skype ID: dl_vikas
Mobile: (+91) 9891098137.
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