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Why don't recent Thunderbird versions highlight the Address Book I'm using?

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by sfhowes

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I often need to copy or move my contacts from one address book to another. When I have the main Address Book open in Thunderbird 24.6 this is easy. I highlight the address book in the left hand column that I want to copy or move from, then I highlight the contacts I want to move or copy. While these contacts are highlighted, the address book in the left hand column is also still highlighted so there is absolutely no chance that I could move or copy people to or from the wrong place.

In every version of Thunderbird since v.24.6, as soon as I highlight the contacts I want to move or copy, the address book in the left hand column is instantly unhighlighted so there is every chance that I could move or copy people to or from the wrong place.

You can see this in the image below, without even opening it. I've blacked out people's names etc for their privacy. One contact is highlighted and the red highlighting is very visible but the address book this contact is currently in is not highlighted. I do a lot of moving and copying contacts between multiple address books and I like to work fast, but I frequently get confused about which address book I'm actually in. With Thunderbird v.24.6 I didn't have any problems at all.

I am fully aware that the address book I'm currently using is given at the bottom of the window but that doesn't help because I'm not looking at the bottom of the window and I'm not even in reading mode - I'm zooming around all over the place in the middle of the window.

It would be so lovely if you could change this little aspect of Thunderbird back to the way it was in v.24.6. There are so many things I absolutely love about Thunderbird, I don't want to have to think about changing to some other email software.

Thank you

Shirley

I often need to copy or move my contacts from one address book to another. When I have the main Address Book open in Thunderbird 24.6 this is easy. I highlight the address book in the left hand column that I want to copy or move from, then I highlight the contacts I want to move or copy. While these contacts are highlighted, the address book in the left hand column is also still highlighted so there is absolutely no chance that I could move or copy people to or from the wrong place. In every version of Thunderbird since v.24.6, as soon as I highlight the contacts I want to move or copy, the address book in the left hand column is instantly unhighlighted so there is every chance that I could move or copy people to or from the wrong place. You can see this in the image below, without even opening it. I've blacked out people's names etc for their privacy. One contact is highlighted and the red highlighting is very visible but the address book this contact is currently in is not highlighted. I do a lot of moving and copying contacts between multiple address books and I like to work fast, but I frequently get confused about which address book I'm actually in. With Thunderbird v.24.6 I didn't have any problems at all. I am fully aware that the address book I'm currently using is given at the bottom of the window but that doesn't help because I'm not looking at the bottom of the window and I'm not even in reading mode - I'm zooming around all over the place in the middle of the window. It would be so lovely if you could change this little aspect of Thunderbird back to the way it was in v.24.6. There are so many things I absolutely love about Thunderbird, I don't want to have to think about changing to some other email software. Thank you Shirley
Attached screenshots

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I can't reproduce this in TB 38.3/WIn10. In the attached picture, note that the selected address book is still highlighted (lighter) when contacts are selected in the right pane. This is true for the default or any other theme.

Does it change if you run in safe mode (hold Shift (Mac:Option) when you launch TB)? It looks like you are using the default TB theme, but your operating system's colours apply a green background.