Thunderbird:Preference Settings
For documentation of ideas from bug 448716, Preferences UI clean up.
Contents
Mile stones
The list below is a proposal for how the goal of cleaning up the Preferences menu could be archived.
- Deciding for tab layout (Thunderbird:Preference_Settings#Reducing the number of sub-tabs)
- Making mock ups of all tabs with options included
- Deciding on options that can be deprecated (Thunderbird:Preference_Settings#Deprecated_Options)
- Deciding which options should be moved to other tabs
- Deciding which options should be moved to a new Global Account Settings menu
- Re-evaluate the options in the Preference tabs to avoid having to increase the window size.
- Making mock up of Global Account Settings menu (Thunderbird:Preference_Settings#Proposed_options_for_Global_Account_Settings_menu)
- Deciding which options should be moved to other tabs
- Clean up current Account Settings
- Submit bug reports
Status
Waiting for an "okay for now"-approval for milestone 1 before moving to milestone 2.
Account Settings and Preferences definitions
In bug 448716 Comment #17, Comment #18, Comment #19 it was it discussed how the definitions of Account Settings and Preferences should be.
So far the definitions are
- Preferences: program behaviour
- Account Settings: global and local email or folder related
- Identity Manager: user manager bug 448691
The purpose of these definitions is to make the clear where an option belongs when we come to milestone 4 and milestone 5.
From an users point of view, it should make it easier to find a particular option.
Reducing the number of sub-tabs
The current Preferences menu have 6 main tabs and 13 sub-tabs. The goal is to reduce the number of sub-tabs by increasing the number of main-tabs and maybe the window size.
The current window looks like this, where the first line is the title of the main-tab:
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | General | Display | Composition | Privacy | Attachments | Advanced | | | Format | General | Junk | | General | | | Tags | Addressing | Scams | | Network & Disk Space | | | | Spelling | Anti-Virus | | Updates | | | | | Passwords | | Certificates | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
In Firefox the Preferences looks like:
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Main | Tabs | Content | Applications | Privacy | Security | Advanced | | | General | | | Network | | | Updates | | | Encryption | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The proposed layout for Thunderbird looks like:
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Main | Display | Composition | Junk | Security | Advanced | | | General | | | Reading & Display | | | Junk | | | Network & Disk Space | | | Update | | | Certificates | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
In the above mock-up have the content of the main-tabs been set to:
- Main = General + Attachments
- Display = Display->Format + Privacy->Email Scams
- Composition = Composition->General + Composition->Spelling
- Security = Privacy->Passwords
Please open the Thunderbird Preferences menu to see what each tab contains. The window size may not need to be increased.
The Global Account Settings menu would have the same tree layout as the individual accounts. So the tree would look like:
Global Settings Server Settings Copies & Folders Composition & Addressing Offline & Disk Space Junk Settings Return Receipts Security Account 1 Server Settings Copies & Folders Composition & Addressing Offline & Disk Space Junk Settings Return Receipts Security Account 2 Server Settings Copies & Folders Composition & Addressing Offline & Disk Space Junk Settings Return Receipts Security Accounts Continue
Single window version mock up
The options are taken from Thunderbird:Preference_Settings#Proposed options for Global Account Settings menu
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Global Account Settings | | | | When new messages arrive | | [ ] Show an alert | | [ ] Play a sound | | ( ) Default system sound for new mail | | ( ) Use the following sound file [_______] [Browse] [Play] | | | | Forward Messages as [Inline/As Attachment] | | | | Configure text format behaviour [Send Options...] | | | | Junk | | Set your default junk mail settings. Account-specific junk mail settings can be configured in | | Account Settings. | | | | [x] When I mark messages as junk | | (o) Move them to the account's "Junk" folder | | ( ) Delete them | | [ ] Mark messages determined to be junk as read | | [x] Enable junk filter loggin [Show log] [Reset Training Data] | | | | Attachments Folder | | (o) Ask me where to save every file | | ( ) Save all attachments to this folder [____________] [Browse] | | | | Determine how Thunderbird handles return receipts [Return Receipts...] | | | | Disk Space | | [x] Compact folders when it will save over [ ] KB | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
In Preferences I think the following belongs in a Global Account Settings menu:
- When new messages arrive
- Forward Messages: [Inline/As Attachment]
- Configure text format behaviour [Send Options...]
- Junk
- Attachments folder
- Determine how Thunderbird handles return receipts [Return Receipts...]
- [v] Compact folders when it will save over [ ]KB
I suggest those to be moved to a Global Account Settings menu, because each of these are direct email or folder related.
If you look at Edit->Account Settings->Return Receipts Thunderbird have already introduced the Global Settings concept. What Thunderbird here means by "Global" is "what have been configured in the Preferences".
Links to Concept Pages
The following User-space pages are available as related contributions:
