Talk:Thunderbird:Help Documentation:Managing Your Accounts

Help needed before creating first account

T-bird asks new users to create 1 or more accounts as soon as they launch it for the first time. So it should:

• Display guidance on this before showing the Accounts window, and preferably not open the Accounts window until the user clicks an "OK" button.
• Keep the guidance open in a separate window while the user is creating accounts for the first time. If the user does not complete an account before closing T-bird, the guidance should be displayed at the next launch.

Topics to be covered in the guidance (based on T-bird 1.5.0.8):

• Things you need to know before you start, e.g. ISP / newsgroup details.
• Before starting, users should think about where they want their email to be stored. The default for Windows is a subdirectory of C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\, but back up and restore may be easier if the data is stored elsewhere. For example when I install Windows I partition the hard drive first and store as much as possible in logical drives other than c:, to make life easier / reduce risk of data loss if I have to re-install Windows. But to do this with T-bird you have to make sure all accounts use the same storage location, and you also have to think about where to store the Address Book and possibly the data used by related applications, e.g. calendar. I don't know enough about this yet and will need to trawl through the forums.
• In T-bird, "account" = user id as used when logging in to the ISP, newsgroup, etc. So users need to create 1 account per user id. This is different from e.g. Outlook, where "account" = email address - and easier to set up, because users need to specify most settings only once per user id rather than once per email address. (see T-bird bug report 360843)
• Additional email addresses for a user id are created via the "Manage Identities" button.
• Global read receipt preferences are set via the Tools->Options->Composition->Return Receipts dialogue.
• If the user wants to set up an email virus scanner which operates as a proxy server (e.g. AVG), the user must tell T-bird to use the proxy server for incoming email (e.g. localhost, 127.0.0.1) and ports which match those specified in the email scanner configuration. N.B. the initial "Create account" dialogue in T-bird 1.5.0.8 does not allow the user to specify a port for incoming email, so the user has to go back and edit each account to specify the matching port for incoming email.
• Similarly if the user wants to set up an email virus scanner which operates as a proxy server (e.g. AVG), the user must tell T-bird to use the proxy server for outgoing email (e.g. localhost, 127.0.0.1) and ports which match those specified in the email scanner configuration. N.B. the initial "Create account" dialogue in T-bird 1.5.0.8 does not allow the user to specify a port, so the user has to go back and edit each account to specify the matching port for outgoing email.
• Leave "Compose in HTML format" (account->Composition & Addressing->Composition) at the default value ("yes"), because T-bird actually sends plain text if possible or if an addressee won't accept HTML messages (see T-bird bug 47140 comment 35).
• The meaning of the inputs in account->Composition & Addressing->Addressing (I don't know what they mean, the defaults seem to work OK).
• What happens if the user tells T-bird not to download messages larger than X (account->Disk Space), e.g. whether the user has to adjust anything in account->Server Settings->Server Settings.

T-bird should also offer additional guidance when the 1st account has been created:

• Change the "Wait X seconds before marking message as read" (Tools->Options->Advanced) to a higher value, e.g. 30 seconds (the default in 1.5.0.8 is 5), because T-bird marks a message as read if it is shown in the Message pane (= Outlook's Preview pane) for X seconds. So a message may be marked read by accident if X is small. This may cause read receipts to be sent prematurely or to spammers if they are smart enough to request receipts.

--Philcha 03:53, 17 November 2006 (PST)