By Jin Nan Goto

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free open source alternative to proprietary email clients such as Microsoft Outlook.  However a feature is missing from Mozilla Thunderbird that is present in other email clients such as Outlook.  Thunderbird does not have a calendar module.  However the great thing about Thunderbird is that it’s functionality can be expanded with plugins.  Thunderbird is incredibly flexible and the lack of a Calendar is fixed by installing a plugin from Mozilla called Lightning.

Thunderbird With Lightning Installed

Installing Lightning

1. Download the lightning.xpi file from http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/
2. Open Thunderbird
3. Click “Add-ons” from Thunderbird’s Tools Menu
4. Drag and drop the lightning.xpi file from your desktop (or whatever folder you downloaded it from) onto the add-ons window.  The result will look like this, and you will be prompted you to restart Thunderbird for the add-on to take effect.

If you don’t want to access your calendar from your email client or if you don’t use Thunderbird you can download a stand alone calendar client called Mozilla Sunbird.

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/

By Jin Nan Goto

In a previous post I went over exporting email contacts from a webmail account and importing them into Mozilla Thunderbird.  However, what if you want to add extra contacts directly into the .csv (comma separated value) file that you exported?   What if you have a list of contacts on an Microsoft Excel file that you would like to import into Thunderbird.  Any spreadsheet program, such as outlook (but also openoffice.org and even Google Docs)will be able to read, edit, and save .csv files.  I can easily open the contacts.csv file that I exported from Hotmail and edit it in Excel.

Then I can type in the new contacts.  One limitation of Thunderbird is that they only import the first 36 or so fields of the csv and the Hotmail .csv file has a lot of unnecessary field.  You need to make sure that you eliminate all but 36 of the fields.

If you have an Excel file (.xls) containing contacts that you would like to add to your Thunderbird Address book, No problem.  Open the spreadsheet and click on “save as”.  Then select CSV (Comma Delimited) as the document type and its ready to import into thunderbird.

Lastly, Whenever you are importing your .csv file make sure that all the fields in Thunderbirds Address Book match up with the fields that you are importing.  You may need to move a couple fields up or down to match.

Related Posts:

Part I. Moving your contacts from hotmail to thunderbird

By Jin Nan Goto

Free webmail services such as Microsoft’s Hotmail, Yahoo mail, and Google Gmail are inexpensive, easy to use, and accessible anywhere that you have a browser.  Over time you may collect many email addresses and contacts that you would like to share with other email addresses.  This tip is for exporting contacts from Hotmail and importing them into the Mozilla Thunderbird email client.  However, the process is similar for most other mail services.

Step 1: Export your contacts from Hotmail

1. login to your Hotmail (or Windows Live Mail as it is now called)
2. Click on the “Contacts” button on the left of the screen
   
3. Click on the options button on the top right corner of the next screen to pull up the options for contacts
   
4. Select Export Contacts
   
5. Click the Export Contacts button and it will save you contacts as a .csv (Comma Separated Values) file

The Comma Separated Values file that you export can be read by Microsoft Excel.  You can use this same process to move all your contacts over to an excel spreadsheet.  If you are using a different webmail then hotmail, you may export your contacts as a Tab delimited file (.tab) and this file type functions in pretty much the same way as a .csv

Step 2: Import contacts into Thunderbird

1. From the Thunderbird  tools, click on Import.
2. Select “Address Book” as the type of material to import.
3. Choose “Text file (LDIF, .tab, .csv, .txt)” as the format and click on Next
   
4. From There you can browse for the contacts file  which you previously exported.

Related Posts:
Part II: Edit your contacts using Microsoft Excel and import them into Thunderbird
(added Oct. 7, 2008)

by Jin Nan Goto

Mozilla Thunderbird is a wonderful and free alternative to Microsoft Outlook.  Stationary is a useful plugin for Thunderbird that will allow you to use pre-made HTML files as templates for your email messages.  Normally email is simple text, but using HTML allows you to create colorful and dynamic looking emails.  In the small business worlds there are many uses for html mail.

• Professional looking Letterhead for your formal communications
• Attractive Advertisements/Newsletters (Be sure that any advertisements are solicited by the recipient.  You don’t want to spam people).
• Gives you greater control over the look and feel of your messages

There are some disadvantages to HTML email.  The first is that it can be a security and privacy risk.  A maliciously formed HTML page can be used to install malware on your machine(although this is usually done through a flaw in windows.  Note: Keep you computer patched).  This is why many email programs block the loading of images and many users disable the receipt of HTML email.  Regardless it still can be useful.

For these instructions to work, you need to use Mozilla Thunderbird.  You can get Thunderbird here:  http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/

You will also need the Stationary Plugin.  You can get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/4394

Part 1: Install Stationary

1. Open Thuderbird
2. Click “Add-ons” from the Tools Menu
3. Drag and drop the stationary.xpi file you downloaded on to the resulting add-ons window.

Step 2: Create message using HTML Template

1. You should create your HTML Template in advance using your HTML editor or notepad (if you don’t have an HTML editor).
2. Click on the arrow to the right of the Write icon in thunderbird.  Select “Other Stationary”.  Then just browse to the template.  In the future this file will be added to the dropdown list.
   
3. Compose your email and send it.  In case the recipient has disabled HTML mail you should be sure and send your message in both plaintext and HTML.