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Thunderbird 3 is a major version upgrade of Thunderbird.
Changes in version 3.1rc1:
Thunderbird 3.1 Release Candidate 1 is based on the Gecko 1.9.2 platform to provide improved performance, stability, web compatibility, and code simplification and sustainability.
New features include:
Faster Search Results and Quick Filter Toolbar
Faster Search Results
Message indexing is faster and provides users with faster search results.
Quick Filter Toolbar
New Quick Filter Toolbar lets you filter against search terms, tags, starred messages, address book contacts, new emails, and attachments.
User Experience Improvements
New Migration Assistant
The new Migration Assistant gives Thunderbird 2 users a way to choose the new features in Thunderbird 3.1 or to keep their current features and settings.
Saved Files Manager
New Saved Files Manager displays all the files you downloaded from your email to your computer.
Mail Account Setup Wizard
Hundreds of ISP settings have been added to make setting up Thunderbird easier. The Mail Account Setup Wizard matches against a database of email settings from popular mail providers so that you will only need to provide your name, email, and password to set up new mail accounts.
Performance Improvements
Improvements to Stability, Memory, and Password Handling
New in Thunderbird 3.0:
New Search with Advanced Filtering Tools
- Search results now include advanced filtering tools. You have the option to filter your results by sender, tag, attachments, people, folder, and mailing list. You can also filter your email using the timeline tool.
- New Global Search Field with Autocomplete
- When typing in the Global Search field, Thunderbird autocompletes against your address book. You have the option of searching everywhere or filtering against different parts of the email such as by subject or by sender.
- User Experience Improvements
New Mail Account Setup Wizard
• The new Mail Account Setup Wizard matches against a database of email settings from popular mail providers so that you will only need to provide your name, email, and password to set up new mail accounts.
Redesigned Mail Toolbar
• The Mail Toolbar is redesigned to include the new Global Search bar. Buttons such as reply, forward, delete, junk are part of each email message. You can add those buttons back to the main toolbar by customizing the toolbar.
Tabbed Email Messages
• Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a New Tab window. Middle-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a Tab in the background. When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs will be saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.
Smart Folders
• The folder pane offers a Smart Folders mode which combines special mailboxes, like Inbox, from multiple accounts. Smart Folders is now on by default.
New Message Summary View
• Selecting multiple messages will give you a summary view of the emails you have selected.
Column Headings
• The column headings that are displayed and the order in which they are displayed can now be set on a per-folder basis.
Message Archive
• You can now file messages from your Inbox or other folders into the new Archive folder system.
Activity Manager
• The Activity Manager records all the interactions between Thunderbird and your email provider in one place.
New Add-ons Manager
• The new Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to find, download, and install Thunderbird Add-ons which includes Extensions, Themes, and Plugins. Note that few Add-ons are compatible with this beta at the time of release, as Add-on developers need to upgrade them.
Improved Address Book
• If someone is in your address book, it is indicated by a new star icon which you can click to edit contact details inline. If they are not in your address book, you can add them with one click of the icon. A new birthday field allows you to keep track of your friends' birthdays. You can also add a photo for contacts in your address book.
Improved Gmail Integration
• Better recognition and integration of Gmail's special folders such as Sent and Trash including non-English versions of Gmail. Thunderbird also uses All Mail as the Archives folder.
Performance Improvements
IMAP Folder Synchronization
• Thunderbird will download IMAP messages by default in the background to allow for faster message loading and better offline operation. This feature can be enabled on an individual folder basis via Folder properties, or for all folders in an account via Account Settings / 'Synchronize & Storage'.
Tabs and Search
• Thunderbird 3 changes the way you do email with tabbed email, and a new set of search tools helps you find your emails faster.
Tabs
• If you like Firefox's tabbed browsing, you're going to love tabbed email. Tabbed email lets you load emails in separate tabs so you can quickly jump between them. Perhaps you're responding to an email and need to refer back to an earlier email. Tabbed email lets you keep multiple emails open for easy reference.
• Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a new tab window. Right-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a tab in the background.
• When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs will be saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.
Search
• The new search interface in Thunderbird 3 contains filtering and timeline tools to pinpoint the exact email you're looking for. Thunderbird 3 also indexes all of your emails to help you search even faster. Your search results are displayed in a tab so you can easily switch back and forth to your search results and other email.
Message Archive
If you think you're going to need an email in the future but want it out of your inbox without deleting it, archive it! Archiving helps you manage your inbox and put your email into a new archive folder system.
• Selecting the Archive button or hitting the 'A' key will archive your email.
Customize Your Email Experience
• Thunderbird is flexible to suit your personality, to give you the features you need, and to fit your work style. Change how Thunderbird looks or add as many features as you want.
Thunderbird Look & Feel
• With Personas, lightweight "skins" allow you to change the look and feel of Thunderbird in an instant. Hundreds of skins are available from the latest movies, famous landmarks, and Japanese tattoos. You can also choose from several Themes that dress up all the different icons in Thunderbird.
Easier to Get Started
• Setting up Thunderbird 3 is much easier. Several of the new features will also ease you through your day.
Mail Account Setup Wizard
• Prior to this new feature you had to know your IMAP, SMTP, SSL/TLS settings. Now all you need to provide is your name, email address, and password and the new email account set up wizard will check our database and find the email settings for you.
One-click Address Book
• One-click Address Book is a quick and easy way to add people to your address book. Add people by simply clicking on the star icon in the message you receive. Two clicks and you can add more details like a photo, birthday, and other contact information.
Attachment Reminder
• The new attachment reminder looks for the word attachment (and other words like file types) in the body of your message and reminds you to add an attachment before hitting send.
Activity Manager
• The Activity Manager records all the interactions between Thunderbird and your email provider in one place. There's no more guess work. You only have to look in one place to see everything that's happening your email.
Secure and Protect Your Mail
• Thunderbird's security and privacy measures ensure that your communications and identity remain safe.
Cutting Out the Junk
• Thunderbird's popular junk mail tools have been updated to stay ahead of spam. Each email you receive passes through Thunderbird's leading-edge junk mail filters. Each time you mark messages as spam, Thunderbird "learns" and improves its filtering so you can spend more time reading the mail that matters. Thunderbird can also use your mail provider's spam filters to keep junk mail out of your inbox.
Robust Privacy
• Thunderbird 3 offers support for user privacy and remote image protection. To ensure a user's privacy, Thunderbird 3 automatically blocks remote images in email messages.
Phishing Protection
• Thunderbird protects you from email scams which try to trick users into handing over personal and confidential information by indicating when a message is a potential phishing attempt. As a second line of defense, Thunderbird warns you when you click on a link which appears to be taking you to a different Web site than the one indicated by the URL in the message.
Automated Update
• Thunderbird's update system checks to see if you're running the latest version, and notifies you when a security update is available. These security updates are small (usually 200KB - 700KB), giving you only what you need and making the security update quick to download and install. The automated update system provides updates for Thunderbird on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in over 40 different languages.
Open Source
A• t the heart of Thunderbird is an open source development process driven by thousands of passionate, experienced developers and security experts spread all over the world. Our openness and active community of experts helps to ensure our products are more secure and quickly updated, while also enabling us to take advantage of the best third party security scanning and evaluation tools to further bolster overall security.
Thunderbird will download IMAP messages by default in the background to allow for faster message loading and better offline operation. This feature can be enabled on an individual folder basis via Folder properties, or for all folders in an account via Account Settings / 'Synchronize & Storage'.
System requirements:
Thunderbird 3 no longer supports versions of Windows prior to Windows 2000 (e.g. Windows 95, 98, ME and NT) and Mac OS X versions prior to 10.4 Tiger. Linux requirements have also changed. Do ensure that compatibility mode for unsupported Windows platforms is disabled for the Thunderbird executable in Windows.
Thunderbird is freeware
For more information, visit:
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/3.0b2/
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