How to get old yellow folder look in version 78.1? I hate the way it looks.
So, I just upgraded to version 78.1 and I just hate the way it looks. The old folders used to be yellow and distinct. The new folders are white with a blue outline of the same color as the rest of the theme. I hate that. It all just looks the same, as if they are trying to hide everything with the same color. This may be the "Modern Trend" but I hate the modern trend. I like things to stay the same. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Is there a way to get the old look back? I looked through the addon themes, but there are only three that are compatible with my version and they are all crazy stuff that I hate worst than the new default theme.
Chosen solution
Some info to help explain what has been going on behind the scenes in developer land and why they were put into the position of finding a new solution.
Not everyone has the same screen resolution nor same monitor size nor same eyesight and the old folder icons were PNG images which were not scalable and for some people this caused issues and the icons became blurry. For others the icons were a predefined colour which some found almost invisible. It is understandable that trying to use Thunderbird with a blurry icon issue is not exactly providing a product that is inclusive for all people.
So a new solution that provided scalable icons which operated for contrast requirements and could offer personalised colouration was required.
The new icons are called Photon icons which only come with an outline. These new icons are Scalable Vector Graphics commonly called SVG. SVG graphics do not lose any quality if they are zoomed or resized, so you can understand how this would benefit many people with different requirements. They are also designed to cope with those who require good contrast or suffer from colour blindness issues. So as you can see, although I've only mentioned a few important considerations, there is a lot to consider when choosing something as simple as an icon.
However, the developers also understood that not everyone is going to appreciate a load of icons that all have same monochromatic outline, so they have completely written a bunch of code so allowing people to choose any colour they want, so you could set eg: 'Sent' folder as a green. Or perhaps you might want to select a few special folders that you use more often and give them a different colour.
To choose the outline colour of a folder icon:
- Right click on folder icon and select 'Properties'
On the 'General Information' tab, there is 'Icon colour'.
- Click on the rectangle colour and a pop up Colour window opens and you can select any colour you want.
- click on OK to select the colour
- Click on OK to save and close 'Folder Properties'
Now it still only changes the outline colour but I've found it rather helpful to add some colour.
I changed the 'Inbox', 'Sent' and 'Junk' folder and also some of my more frequently used folders, which made them stand out and easier to locate.
I hope this info is helpful.
Read this answer in context 👍 2All Replies (20)
akerbeltz Now you are being obtuse. As I already mentioned you are sending emails to the person who originally asked the question and anyone following it - which is only me.
I do not know what it is you do not understand, I thought I had made it quite clear, so for the last time before I stop following this question..... There are two methods available. Manually (as mentioned in the 'Chosen Solution) or via userChrome.css mentioned above in another comment. You choose.
anybody know how to change bookmark folder colors in version 81.0.2? right click>properties only gives option to change name of folder. thanks in advance
Toad-Hall
Thunderbird 78.4.0
I closed Thunderbird, created the chrome/userChrome.css file in the profile directory and copied the css to color the different folders, and restarted Thunderbird.
No colors are shown :-( Although this thread is about 78.1 will this work with 78.4?
This does work after I turned on toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets.
I also had to prepend #folderTree > to the treechildren selector.
Toad-Hall said
/*
* Do not remove the @namespace line -- it's required for correct functioning - it only needs to be entered once at the top of the userChrome.css file
*/
@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");
/* remove this section of code - if you do not want to preset all folders you created with same colour */
/* all other folders - not special folders - */
treechildren::-moz-tree-image(folderNameCol){
fill: #ffff00 !important;
}
If you set all folders with this, but want just a couple of other folders to be a different color, what would the css be to override the above?
I hate the outlines. They are extremely distracting and make the folder pane very busy. While in theory, being able to change colors sounds mildly good (though never something I would have sought), and could maybe be some kind of solution if I could change them to a lower-contrast color en masse, the fact that I would have to do this icon by icon with dozens of folders is a deal-breaker. If the solid icons can't be restored for technical reasons, I would hope an update would be released VERY soon with a much lighter weight outline, in a much lower contrast default color. Foisting abrupt and non-restorable visual changes on people in a tool they use heavily every day is not OK.
The hostile and patronizing comments towards people who are also having trouble with this and don't feel they should have to be delving into the application code to change it back is nothing new, unfortunately, but is as offensive as ever. I know people who are attracted to code composition tend to be linear, black-and-white thinkers with below average empathy, but that doesn't make treating end-users like they are lazy or stupid if they are not as interested as developers in as tweaking their tools OK. We do not all have to be like you (and thank goodness we are not). There is a vast range of differences in how people perceive and interact with the world, and if you can't fully grasp the depth and reality of that, you shouldn't be involved in UX design.
Modified by oranji
Well said. I have used Thunderbird for what, almost 15 years now, I run 2 businesses from it, my personal mail and a shedload of FOSS projects. I never counted them but I must have between 250-500 folders which I use to manage all these different things. There is no way in hell I'm going manually change the icon for each one.
Found this for userChrome.css:
I'm a senior citizen and don't know much at all about computers. But I do know that the new changes on the clear folders for me are hard to see. Is there any way I can change back to you last version of Mozilla so I can get the beige folders back? Why does everyone think that things need to be changed all the time? I can see a time in the near future when computers and smart phones are so advanced I won't be able to use them anymore. There are a lot of us seniors who use computers and aren't computer literate and I think you should take us into consideration when you decide to change things that are working just fine for us.
Oh and another thing, maybe you should give people a choice to either update or not or to have a special one for computer illiterates that only changes the important items and not things like the folder colors or other visuals. thanks....
Hi. I recently upgraded to 78.4.0 and I want to downgrade because of the new folders.
Could I have some advice on how to downgrade?
I found the archive of old releases here:
https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/
I would get the win32 en_US version since that's what I'm currently using, although 64-bit apps do work on my computer. Before I found this thread I was looking at 78.3.1, since the release notes for 78.3.2 and 78.3.3 apparently have some message list focus on startup issue.
Can you tell me what the latest stable version of Thunderbird is that has the old icons? I can't remember the last time I updated.
What do I need to back up, if anything?
Can I just open the .exe or .msi file and install?
Thanks for your help.
Modified by Chris Pickett
piratebabe said
I'm a senior citizen and don't know much at all about computers. But I do know that the new changes on the clear folders for me are hard to see. Is there any way I can change back to your last version of Mozilla so I can get the beige folders back? Why does everyone think that things need to be changed all the time? I can see a time in the near future when computers and smartphones are so advanced I won't be able to use them anymore. There are a lot of us seniors who use computers and aren't computer literate and I think you should take us into consideration when you decide to change things that are working just fine for us.
100% agree. Unfortunately, the tech industry feels that it must constantly be in a state of evolving in order to survive. To some extent, this is true, because the industry achieves market saturation so quickly. There is this symbiotic relationship between software and hardware producers. Both need each other to continually evolve in order for both to survive. If one stops evolving, the it will kill the other and itself.
When the PC first came into being around 30 years ago, it had a huge room for improvement. They were incredibly slow and expensive. Software was garbage. The market was screaming for something better and FAST. My first PC was an Intel 286 with 4 MB of ram running Windows 1.0 You pushed the button to turn it on and went a cooked lunch while it was booting up. Then you launched a program and took a post-lunch nap waiting for it to load. An entire program could fit on a 1.44MB floppy disk. Hard drives were measured in megabytes. I had a 20 and a 40-megabyte drive.
Even though the software was small back then, even the best hardware had a hard time running it. So software was the driving force behind hardware development. As hardware got better, it opened up new capabilities for software development, which in turn put a greater burden on hardware, necessitating further hardware development.
The problem is that back in those days, the PC was exactly that, a Personal Computer. Its primary function was to serve a consumer market focused on things that the average consumer needed, which was pretty minimal. All the way, the PC market has changed. As the lines between work and home life have blurred, the PC today is more of a BC (Business Computer) rather than a PC. The average consumer needs very little more than they did 20 years ago. I still own a copy of Microsoft Word 98, which (if it were not insecure) would serve all of my word processing needs just fine. I don't need anything more when it comes to word processing now, than I did 20 years ago. I would venture to say that the large majority of people would be in the same boat.
So why does Microsoft continue to develop Word if the average user does not need anything thing more than what it could do 20 years ago? Because the PC is no longer geared towards the average user. It is geared towards business users and developers. And herein lies the problem. You and I have no use for all these improvements. We were just fine with what we had 20 years ago, but the problem is, the tech industry cannot survive on people like you and me who are satisfied with what we have. It can only survive if it is constantly moving forward supplying the market with new tech whether they need it or not.
Why is it this way? Well, the long and short is, people need jobs. In order for people to have jobs, they have to constantly be producing. Unlike real consumable products like food and clothing which people need every day, once you write the code for a piece of software, your job is done. The software is infinitely reproducible with no effort or needs for you. So the only way you can keep your job is to constantly be producing new code and convincing people, "They Need It'.
I agree with you that the old style of Thunderbird what MUCH easier on the eyes. No matter WHAT the argument here were for why it changed, the real reason is that people need tech jobs, and they have to constantly be developing new hardware and code to keep their job.
Now you know, the rest of the story. Good Day.
I started professional software development in 1975, probably before many of you were born.
The goal to make a nice scalable icon was a good one, but, the new icons look "flat" and "lifeless". I certainly hope someone steps up to the plate and takes on the task of restoring the old look in a "one click" solution !
(As for "making work", I will never get over the MS "dancing paperclip". Today's equivalent are the dozens of different distribution of Linux and desktop that roam the internet. Developers, "GET A LIFE" ! We do not need another distro/desktop !)
From piratebabe: "There are a lot of us seniors who use computers and aren't computer literate and I think you should take us into consideration when you decide to change things that are working just fine for us."
Exactly. The phrase, "New! And improved" came to us decades ago from an ad man's mind but it's an oxymoron to many if not most. New isn't necessarily better, only different. If it's not broke, don't fix it.
Toad-Hall mentioned in a previous post that he actually preferred the older appearance. If this is true, why is it no longer available? In the Options > General menu, give us a choice of the "Classic" appearance instead of expecting us to jump through hoops to get it back. Make it simple, please! .
The amount vitriol in the replies is amusing to me. If mozilla was a for profit business, what I have to complain about would be easier and more efficient.
The new and improved highDef scalability might check a number of boxes, but is aesthetically not appealing. The truth is I am now looking for my next email client after being a loyal defender/user of thunderbird for the last 16 years.
I must admit it is rather amazing, that such a small graphical change has completely revamped how I see the product. Truth be told I am a design engineer, I know for a fact this can be fixed. Somewhere in the chain of the release you have someone(s) saying it needs to be this way and is likely vehement about it. To throw that person(s) under the bus is not fair, as the logic of the reason for the change is not disputable. However, it is solvable.
This is a impressivley unappealing design choice to have made, even in the face of platform challenges. It is not rocket science to be able to retain the original colored mailbox folders. Surely that can be agreed to and resolved.
Please don't make me start using Outlook again.
As so many others have said, the stated two options make no sense for so many people. I've got the skills to modify the css to look a bit more like what it used to be, but it's still a far cry from the old look. It really is a "simple copy and paste" for those who live and breathe computers. For an average Joe the only part they understood was "copy" and "paste". No idea what, where and how. Or why.
The suggestion to stick to the newest version with the old look is a really short-sighted one. Yes. Let's stop updating the software. Open ourselves to all of the known bugs in that version, known to the world. Welcome, hackers! You might be ok for a short while, but how on earth would you live with that "solution" for any period of time longer than that?
I've got a few clients that still use Thunderbird (because I recommended it to them in the past). I myself was forced to move on when I upgraded to Windows 10 as there seemed to be no way to get TB to work with it on my computer. I spent a few months looking for a solution, finally gave up and moved on to Outlook (which I still hate, but at least it worked) so I was alerted to this design change when I got a call from a client. He was sure his computer was hacked as suddenly cc/bcc fields were "missing", the folders were all bland and strange-looking and whatever else. THAT is the average reaction to your change. It's nice the icons are vectors and you can change the outline's color, but it doesn't change the fact these may look decent on the dark background, but when using the lighter one they are hard to read no matter what color you set them to. Probably the only reason why many of the older users don't just give up and move to something else is that there really isn't a viable option.
I offered the client the option to downgrade to the previous version. He's 60+ but even he understood that's not a working solution to anything. It's a simple enough change to offer a "classic theme", even were it to be without vector graphics and whatever else bells and whistles: many users DO. NOT. CARE. They want something they're used to. They want something that "doesn't require them to waste a significant part of their thinking capacity into learning a new interface when they're supposed to work all day.". A direct quote from that user. And I agree with him. This change could have been done so much better.
A working solution would be to either offer all security updates to an older branch that uses the old interface, or to provide a way for those who wish to keep the visually pleasing one and just work, not waste their time with the new, ugly and hard-to-read look.
I do understand this is not a discussion forum, but had to point out the "accepted solution" options aren't really that for many. It does net me quite a few billable hours working to fix the client TB's to a working state but frankly I would've rather had them happy and lost that income.
"Phoenity Icons" as an add-on, not exactly the same as the older version but close enough for this old fart, everbody is correct there should be a "do you want the classic view or the new view" option when upgrading, also im a proud user of over 17 years of TB, outlook just gives me a head ache, enjoy
Modified by melaids
I agree, this new look awful for me....simply don't understand why as user can not choose what to use...the old or the new one
Is there an easier way? Simply replace some files from (.css or something) the old TB version? I disabled the updates on my 2nd computer, because I do not want to see this new style...
thnx
Thunderbird email program is great. You can add extensions to make it work better. Tools> Add-ons then do a search. Save file to say the Desktop. Phoenity Icons is the best as it will bring back the colorful icons. Simple to install too. Tools> Add-ons. See attached file.
Create a userChrome.css file to modify the look as well. Use Notepad found at C:\Windows> notepad and save as All files and add the .css after the file name. Copy and paste the code below then save.
The email message you receive may have text that is too small. You can use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in making the text bigger and it will stay the size for all the other messages until you close the program then re-open. The userChrome.css file with the code below will make the text bigger.
Outlook has too small of text and will not remember the zoom setting from message to message.
Tools> Add-ons> Extensions Phoenity Icons This extension will bring back the solid yellow folder icons. The top row of icons are also colorful. The newer versions of Thunderbird have a flat look and only show an outline border for folders with a white interior. You can change the border color but you still have the flat look and the white interior.
ThunderHTMLedit This is the HTML editor so you can in the composition window edit the HTML source of the message.
From the top you go to Tools> Options> scroll all the way down on the right side and click on "Config Editor" File name is: userChrome.css
C:\Users\ "your name" \AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\"Your profile name" 736m2uer.default-release\Chrome You create a folder and call it: Chrome Next copy the userChrome.css file to it.
Thunderbird and Firefox will not see the userChrome.css file automatically until you do these steps. In the search box above the list, type or paste:
userprof
Double-click the: toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets Change preference from false to true. Close Thunderbird then re-open. Change the color to what you want or the solid line to dashes or dots. https://www.quackit.com/html/html_color_codes.cfm
Here is the userChrome.css contents:
/*
* Do not remove the @namespace line -- it's required for correct functioning */
@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* set default namespace to XUL */ /* horizontal grid lines */
- threadTree treechildren::-moz-tree-row() {
border-bottom: 1px solid #7ebebe !important;
} /* vertical grid lines */
- threadTree treechildren::-moz-tree-column() {
border-right: 1px solid #7ebebe !important;
}
/*
* Make all the default font sizes 15px or whatever size is best for you: */
- { font-size: 15px !important; }
Thunderbird email program is great. You can add extensions to make it work better. Tools> Add-ons then do a search. Save file to say the Desktop. Phoenity Icons is the best as it will bring back the colorful icons. Simple to install too. Tools> Add-ons. See attached file.
Create a userChrome.css file to modify the look as well. Use Notepad found at C:\Windows> notepad and save as All files and add the .css after the file name. Copy and paste the code below then save.
The email message you receive may have text that is too small. You can use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in making the text bigger and it will stay the size for all the other messages until you close the program then re-open. The userChrome.css file with the code below will make the text bigger.
Outlook has too small of text and will not remember the zoom setting from message to message.
Tools> Add-ons> Extensions Phoenity Icons This extension will bring back the solid yellow folder icons. The top row of icons are also colorful. The newer versions of Thunderbird have a flat look and only show an outline border for folders with a white interior. You can change the border color but you still have the flat look and the white interior.
ThunderHTMLedit This is the HTML editor so you can in the composition window edit the HTML source of the message.
From the top you go to Tools> Options> scroll all the way down on the right side and click on "Config Editor" File name is: userChrome.css
C:\Users\ "your name" \AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\"Your profile name" 736m2uer.default-release\Chrome You create a folder and call it: Chrome Next copy the userChrome.css file to it.
Thunderbird and Firefox will not see the userChrome.css file automatically until you do these steps. In the search box above the list, type or paste:
userprof
Double-click the: toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets Change preference from false to true. Close Thunderbird then re-open. Change the color to what you want or the solid line to dashes or dots. https://www.quackit.com/html/html_color_codes.cfm
Here is the userChrome.css contents:
/*
- Do not remove the @namespace line -- it's required for correct functioning
- /
@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* set default namespace to XUL */ /* horizontal grid lines */
threadTree treechildren::-moz-tree-row() {
border-bottom: 1px solid #7ebebe !important;
} /* vertical grid lines */
threadTree treechildren::-moz-tree-column() {
border-right: 1px solid #7ebebe !important;
}
/*
- Make all the default font sizes 15px or whatever size is best for you:
- /
{ font-size: 15px !important; }