OT Thunderbird news reader menu function buttons

[alan_m]

I use Thunderbird as my news reader.

Many updates ago the ability to configure the order of the news toolbar (follow-up, reply, archive etc) was removed BUT a third party add_on plug-in added the functionality back.

I added "Message Header Toolbar Customize" which has since been updated to the latest version.

The most recent Thunderbird update has changed the behaviour yet again! There is no longer any text associated with the buttons - just a series of blank squares. A Mouse-over will reveal the function of the button and "Message Header Toolbar Customize" will still allow the order to be changed and allow the display of miniature icons but even though text is an option in the plug-in no text is displayed.

Does anyone know the work around to get text on the buttons to be displayed again?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Thunderbird is a f****ng mess,

However the latest does put text in the boxes, so id guess you have to remove any extra tools and also if you have a userChrome.css enabled, disable it

I've spent a day trying to get the fonts right on it. No go.

I got the folders and message panes displaying in the right font and then it stopped working. Would you believe that disallowing incoming mail to set fonts in messages disallows userChrome.css setting fonts in the whole application!!

[Andy Burns]

I've seen no update to the 'customise' add-on since 27th August

On v2.2.1 there are options to show: icons/text/icons beside text/individual

is that gone in the version you're running?

[alan_m]

Disabling the plug-in puts the button back in the non-adjustable "thunderbird" order. userChrome.css is disabled.

I've discovered that the text does appear if the window is large enough

For many years I've been running with the newsgroup article list and the selected article contents running in windows side by side. Until the latest update the article contents window could be set to about 40% of my screen width and show text on the buttons. It now has to be set closer to 60% before it shows text - and this is despite now hiding many of the functions that I don't tend to use.

Could it be that the menu sub window is now one line shorter?

[alan_m]

the add-on plugin still works. I've just discovered that displaying of text in the news reader options buttons (follow up, reply to etc.) depends on the window size and in the latest version of TB I now have to set the window to a larger width than previously to get the text to display. The icons alone will display irrespective of the widow width. The icons next to texts will also display when the text goes missing.

[GB]

I've just downloaded the latest version of the add in, and it works entirely as expected.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ah. You might be able to fix that by making all thunderbird text smaller...

userChrome.css:

@namespace url("

");*{ font-size:8px; }

[Andy Burns]

I only use that add-on to do one thing, hide *all* the icons/text in the message pane toolbar completely!

[John Rumm]

Which version are you on? (The 78.x tree does not yet auto update to the

9x version tree - so there are a number of "latest versions" out in the wild.

[GB]

I leave 'follow up' and 'more'.

[alan_m]

92.2.0

[Andy Burns]

It does as of last(?) week ...

[Andrew]

I leave it entirely as TBird installs it, and simply train my brain to accept it as is. Not sure why some people are having so much aggro with it.

[Andrew]

???. 91.2 everywhere else.

[alan_m]

Maybe not, I can set the button size in various steps between small and huge which changes the width of the buttons in the toolbar and the text is still displayed. If I change the overall widow size by even 1% the text will disappear irrespective of the space taken with the buttons in small or huge.

[alan_m]

Because follow-up post back to the newsgroup and reply sends an email to the person who posted a usenet article. The TB default is to put the reply button first whereas most (all) people would use the follow-up button so the post goes to the news group.

It not so much aggro if TB didn't keep f****ng up features that previously worked and were previously set to what we trained our brains to do (after configuring it in a more logical way).

[alan_m]

Sorry 91.2.0 (32 bit)

[Andy Burns]

No aggro, but it's a waste of screen height, all the icons I want are in the top toolbar, turning it off might mean a bit more mileage on my mouse ...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Thunderbird is a total f****ng bug ridden mess.

It needs a ground up rewrite

[alan_m]

Over the years I've come to believe that any software that is inherited by a new generation of developers ends up being buggy mess. Too many on-going new features without a basic understanding of what the original designer's code did - possibly because a lack of comments in the code or a lack of meaningful documentation.

I seen programs become bloatware or have a x10 drop in speed with a new version being introduced.