Thunderbird:Help Documentation:Finding Information in Messages: Difference between revisions

Thunderbird:Help Documentation:Finding Information in Messages (view source)

Revision as of 13:50, 3 February 2005

3,220 bytes added , 3 February 2005

Finding Information in Messages: continued

Yawar

7

edits

@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 You can create your own views, change existing views, and delete views from the `Customize Message Views' dialog box. To bring up this dialog box, select `Customize...' from the `View:' list or from the View > Messages menu.
+<!-- Do we need more about customising views? -->
 =More Complex Searches=
@@ Line 35: / Line 37: @@
 Thunderbird lets you do more complicated searches in the `Search Messages' window. This window is accessible through the Edit > Find > Search Messages... menu item. You can search for a message in any folder of any account, but only one account at a time.
-==Location==
+==Specifying Location==
+In the `Search Messages' window, the first thing you specify is where to search. In the `Search for messages in:' list, select the account (and folder, if any) to search in. Say you have an account called `mail.isp.net' and you want to search the Inbox. You drop down the list, move the mouse over the account name, then click on `Inbox' when the folder list appears as a sublist of the account list. If you want to search the entire account, you click on `choose this folder' from the sublist.
+Next you specify whether you want to search subfolders, with the `Search subfolder' checkbox. (In Thunderbird, mail folders can contain other mail folders; and mail folders themselves can be considered subfolders of account `folders'.) By default, the checkbox is checked because it usually makes sense to be as inclusive as possible when starting a search.
+==Specifying Criteria==
+Next you set up the criteria to match messages against. For example, the message has to be from so-and-so; or it has to be dated within the last week; or it has to be an unread message. Or you can specify that ''all'' of the criteria will have to be satisfied for a message to match.
+The actual criteria are presented as a table of drop-down lists, with three columns. Each row represents a single criterion. You can add or remove criteria by clicking the `More' and `Fewer' buttons just below the criteria table.
+The columns of the table are:
+; The subject of the criterion : That is, what you want to check. This can be the subject of the message, the sender, the age in days, priority, attachment status, recipients, and so on.
+; The comparison : That is, whether the subject is the same as, different from, more or less or equal, and so on. For different types of values, the comparisons are different. The four different types of values you can check are text, numbers, dates, and truth values (booleans) -- whether something is true or not.
+; The value that you specify : For example, if you want to specify that a message must be 6 days old, you would type `6' here.
+Here is an example of a criterion:
+: You want to match all messages which are 6 days old. You select `Age In Days' in the first drop-down list, `is' in the second, and type `6' in the third column box.
+==Results==
+Once you've specified the criteria, you click the `Search' button on the top-right corner of the window, and the search results appear as a list of messages in the lower half of the window. (There is a divider between the criteria and the results that you can drag to change the space taken up by the two parts.)
+The results list is just a message list like in the main Thunderbird window, except there is no right-click shortcut menu for the messages.
+Below the results list is a row of buttons to manipulate the search results. The buttons are:
+; Open : Opens a message; same as double-clicking it.
+; File : A drop-down menu which lets you move messages to another folder.
+; Delete : Deletes a message; same as pressing the delete key.
+; Open Message Folder : Opens a new Thunderbird main window, goes to the message's folder, and selects the message.
+; Save as Search Folder : Saves the search as a virtual folder where all matching messages appear. The practical effect of this is that these messages show up both in their original folder and in the search folder, and that each time a new message arrives that fits the search criteria, it automatically shows up in the search folder.
-In the `Search Messages' window, the first thing you specify is where to search. In the `Search for messages in:' list, select the account (and folder, if any) to search in. Say you have an account called `mail.isp.net' and you want to search the Inbox. You drop down the list, move the mouse over the account name, then click on `Inbox' when the folder list appears as a sublist of the account list.
+The `Clear' button right below the `Search' button wipes out all the criteria and gives you a brand new search.
-If you want to search the entire account, you would click on `choose this folder' from the sublist.
+To quit the search window, click the close button, press Ctrl+W, or press Esc.