Bugzilla

(In reply to Anje from comment #248)

Thanks Anje for requesting confirmation on the exact patterns of creating recipient items (aka "pills") in the composition window, with a view on supporting end users correctly.

The following reflects my personal understanding and evaluation of the current design.
I've been involved in this, and I'm officially involved in support and documentation.

**The small print of how (not) to create recipient pills in new Thunderbird addressing rows**

1) Recommended way to add new recipient from scratch (same as TB 68): Type, [select autocomplete result], press **Enter** -> pill is created. Type next, press Enter -> another pill. Simple! :-) Of course, copy and paste will also do the trick (see 4 below).
- Note: Commas between recipient pills are neither needed nor possible; the new design emphasizes recipients as items (more than plain text). In the message source, commas will be correctly added as required to separate recipients.
2) Tolerated alternative: **Tab** works to confirm the best autocomplete match & create a recipient pill, so it's currently same as Enter (I have some reservations here, because tab is a navigation key, not a confirmation key. However, it's quite convenient...).
3) Subject to change / discouraged until further notice: **Typing comma** currently also works to confirm autocomplete & create a pill. This is an experimental feature and bug 1642279 suggests that it is not sustainable, at least not for the "autocomplete-on-comma" part; maybe for typing full address and creating pill with comma. (I recommend against using "autocomplete-on-comma" because it may be removed at any time).
4) Accepted use of comma: Pasting a **comma-separated list of recipients** into addressing rows, then pressing Enter/Tab to convert them into pills should work without fault.
5) Discouraged/disfunctional uses of comma:
- Typing a comma after an existing recipient pill for the sake of separating recipient pills is *not* needed (see 1), prevents autocompletion, and it won't work correctly if you just want to create another pill.
- Starting a new recipient with a comma might be valid syntax, because comma in display name is legitimate, and we don't always expect quotes, so entering `,Paul <a@b.com>` will create a valid pill with `",Paul " <a@b.com>` in source. Obviously discouraged, confusing and error-prone for users and mail clients.
- There's a bug that typing comma prevents getting autocomplete suggestions (already in TB 68), probably because the autocomplete widget itself considers that a separator. So even after fixing the worst of bug 1642279, entering a known email address with comma in display name would not autocomplete.

Hth! ;-)

(In reply to Anje from comment #248)

Thanks Anje for requesting confirmation on the exact patterns of creating recipient items (aka "pills") in the composition window, with a view on supporting end users correctly.

The following reflects my personal understanding and evaluation of the current design.
I've been involved in this, and I'm officially involved in support and documentation.

**The small print of how (not) to create recipient pills in new Thunderbird addressing rows**

1) Recommended way to add new recipient from scratch (same as TB 68): Type, [select autocomplete result], press **Enter** -> pill is created. Type next, press Enter -> another pill. Simple! :-) Of course, copy and paste will also do the trick (see 4 below).
- Note: Commas between recipient pills are neither needed nor possible; the new design emphasizes recipients as items (more than plain text). In the message source, commas will be correctly added as required to separate recipients.
2) Tolerated alternative: **Tab** works to confirm the best autocomplete match & create a recipient pill, so it's currently same as Enter (I have some reservations here, because tab is a navigation key, not a confirmation key. However, it's quite convenient...).
3) Subject to change / discouraged until further notice: **Typing comma** currently also works to confirm autocomplete & create a pill. This is an experimental feature and bug 1642279 suggests that it is not sustainable, at least not for the "autocomplete-on-comma" part; maybe for typing full address and creating pill with comma. (I recommend against using "autocomplete-on-comma" because it may be removed at any time).
4) Accepted use of comma: Pasting a **comma-separated list of recipients** into addressing rows, then pressing Enter/Tab to convert them into pills should work without fault.
5) Discouraged/disfunctional uses of comma:
- Typing a comma after an existing recipient pill for the sake of separating recipient pills is *not* needed (see 1), prevents autocompletion, and it won't work correctly if you just want to create another pill.
- Starting a new recipient with a comma might be valid syntax, because comma in display name is legitimate, and we don't always expect quotes, so entering `,Paul <a@b.com>` will create a valid pill with `",Paul " <a@b.com>` in source. Obviously discouraged, confusing and error-prone for users and mail clients.
- There's a bug that typing comma prevents getting autocomplete suggestions (already in TB 68), probably because the autocomplete widget itself considers that a separator. So even after fixing the worst of bug 1642279, entering a known email address with comma in display name may not yet autocomplete.

Hth! ;-)