How to put Thunderbird to classic view?

[Technical Ben]

I pressed "upgrade to latest version". Should have know. If it is not broken, DON'T fix it. 
I hate the new layout. I don't need, nor find helpful, the new tabs or position of the buttons.
I have to click the top of the page for tabs/mails, and the middle for deleting etc, instead of them all being next to each other.
Anyone know how to customise it?

[Rik]

Sorry, Ben, I've never been able to get on with TBird, so haven't used it in years. I don't suppose there's a restore point you could try rolling back to?

[Ted]

Easiest way is to revert to an earlier version. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Go_back_to_an_old_version_of_Thunderbird

Or you could try, View, Toolbars, Customize, you can add all the relevant buttons to the top bar.

Also look at View, Layout.

[MisterW]

This doesn't help does it ? http://kb.mozillazine.org/Window_layout_-_Thunderbird

[Technical Ben]

Will have a fiddle. It's a stupid layout choice IMO. For example, if you choose to hide the "message preview" you loose the buttons altogether. So if I wanted to delete spam, I would have to open each one first...  
The old way worked perfect, and like FF. Or like the windows in Windows. IMO it's a stupid jump on the "tab" bandwagon time for programs it seems.
[edit]
Just drag and dropped the buttons over! 
Wish all GUI customisation was this easy. Even though it should not have been needed. 

[Ted]

I find a very useful customization, is to change the default font and font size in the actual program, not the messages, which you can do within the program.

Guite easy to do. In your profile go to the Chrome folder and look for a file called userChrome.css if it doesn't exist, simply create one in any text editor and save it.

Copy and paste this code into it.

Code Select Expand

/* Global UI font */
* { font-size: 11pt !important;
  font-family: Verdana !important;
}

Change the font family and font size to whatever you require and save.

Restart Thunderbird.


More information can be found here. http://kb.mozillazine.org/Pane_and_menu_fonts