1847337 - Reply and Forward not available on toolbar in Standalone Message Pane

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Message Reader UI, defect)

Description

[Noah]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:109.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/116.0

Steps to reproduce:

Right click the Mail Toolbar, select customize. Reply, Reply-All, Forward and other options are missing.

Actual results:

I can't put them in the place they have been for me in all past versions.

Expected results:

I strongly feel that the option to have these buttons in this location would be available, regardless of the message header toolbar.

Comment 1

[Noah]

Any updates on this one?

Comment 2

[Noah]

Has anyone tested this out in 115.3?

Comment 3

[Keith Mitchell]

Still an omission in 115.4. The only button options available for customization in the message window menu bar are ones that make sense at the top level, not at the per-message level, e.g. no delete button either, even though these are available at the top level. This really disrupts my established workflow, please fix.

Comment 4

[Noah]

Totally agree that there is no reason to have this be limited. Unified Tooldar SHOULD mean that all options are availalbe within it.

Comment 5

[Noah]

Anyone check 115.5.1 for this?

Comment 6

[Noah]

Still not available in 115.5.2

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

If there is a change in bug status or an action to moving the bug forward then you will see it posted here.

Perhaps you are trying to be helpful, but other comments which as "when will this be fixed" or "this has not changed" should be avoided in bugzilla unless they clarify how to reproduce the issue.

Comment 9

[webmaster2]

Good to see this bug is still OPEN.

My mind is actually flip-flopping on this issue.

As Keith Mitchell says, "The only button options available for customization in the [Message Toolbar] are ones that make sense at the top level, not at the per-message level...". It looks like the defaults are Get Messages, Write, and Tag... really not appropriate when you have a message open for reading.

At first I was shocked and dismayed that the Reply, Forward, etc., were gone as options on the Message Toolbar in vers. 115. Then I started using the message header buttons, and I must admit, I have adapted no problem. I'm even looking at them as more convenient, having them in the message header. That said, I would be totally fine if the previous functionality was restored, with those buttons available in the Message Toolbar as before.

Perhaps the best solution would be: 1) restore the functionality to the Message Toolbar, 2) add "Hide Message Header buttons" to the Message Header customize settings (leaving of course the "More" drop-down functionality, as a way to bring the buttons back if desired). This way, everyone can be happy. One question remains... what would be the default? I would say, Reply, Forward, etc., should default to the message header, not the Message Toolbar. Others may disagree.

Comment 10

[Noah]

I think the main issue is that some users open emails in individual windows, separate from the inbox view, therefore by losing the reply, forward, etc. from the unified mail toolbar, we are having to adapt in a way we are not really wanting to after 10+ years of using the program. I also personally believe that by calling it "unified" it should have all of the options available in it and each user can choose to custumize it as they want. Not sure why this is so hard for the developers to write in, but I'm going to lean on that this is low priority for them. I don't know what it takes to write in the buttons to the toolbars, but they used to be there, so I'm assuming the code could be revived without too much effort.

Comment 11

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Attachment: Screenshot 2024-01-02 082727.png

Apologies, but I don't understand this issue.
These buttons are available in the unified toolbar for the mail tab, as well as in the old toolbar still used in the standalone window.

What am I missing?

Comment 12

[Noah]

The issue is that they aren't there in the standalone window. See my screenshot, "TB Email in Window Customize". The only reply, forward, etc. are in the message header toolbar, not the main toolbar for the window as it's been since back at the start of the program.

Comment 13

[Noah]

Attachment: TB Email in Window Customize.png

Comment 14

[webmaster2]

The issue is that they aren't there in the standalone window. See my screenshot, "TB Email in Window Customize". The only reply, forward, etc. are in the message header toolbar, not the main toolbar for the window as it's been since back at the start of the program.

Exactly.

Comment 15

[webmaster2]

I have been using the standalone window for over 15 years.

Comment 16

[Noah]

(In reply to Alessandro Castellani [:aleca] from comment #11)

Created attachment 9370749 [details]
Screenshot 2024-01-02 082727.png

Apologies, but I don't understand this issue.
These buttons are available in the unified toolbar for the mail tab, as well as in the old toolbar still used in the standalone window.

What am I missing?

I'm thinking this bug is incorrectly labeled in the title as being in the "Mail unified Toolbar" while the missing elements are only absent from the toolbar for emails opened in an individual window. What is the name for that toolbar? Happy to resubmit with the correct terminology to reduce confusion.

Thank you for taking the time to address this!

Comment 17

[webmaster2]

I'm thinking this bug is incorrectly labeled in the title as being in the "Mail unified Toolbar" while the missing elements are only absent from the toolbar for emails opened in an individual window. What is the name for that toolbar? Happy to resubmit with the correct terminology to reduce confusion.

Agreed. I think it's called the Message Toolbar, which is what I called it in my bug report, 1863237. (The title got changed when the status was marked as duplicate of this bug, 1847337).

No need to resubmit. If Wayne agrees, he can change the title of this bug.

Comment 18

[Noah]

Any updates on this? I'm sure it's low priority overall, but it seems like a simple one to get on the next update.

Comment 20

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Confirmed - reply and reply all are missing from the window's (old, pre-115 style) toolbar.

But there is an easy workaround with buttons in the message header area. And the pre-115 toolbars will be replaced in a future version

Comment 21

[webmaster2]

Thanks, Wayne. Nice to see this moving forward.

Comment 22

[Alessandro Castellani [:aleca]]

Why do you need those buttons in the toolbar if they are always available in the message header of the standalone window?
What's the purpose of duplicating those buttons?

Comment 23

[Noah]

For me, this was based on 10+ years of usage and habit. I've always had them there in the past and when the message header buttons were added, I eventually installed the Add-on, "Message Header Toolbar Customize" to remove them as not only were the buttons there smaller and felt visually cluttered, I didn't use them based on habits.

Honestly, this has been months and while I still have the instinct to go to the Message Toolbar vs. the Message Header, I'm starting to get used to it. I assumed it was a bug or simply an omition with the new UI, but it appears to be a choice that the team made. One of the main reasons I use Thunderbird was the customization options along with the Add-ons. While this feels like a step in the opposite direction from that, I also hope this isn't the tend. UI simiplification has gotten out of hand in other places (gmail had a button that had two options when you clicked on it (print and something else) and it make those tasks worse by trying to simplify) and while I don't think this is the case here, I just hope Thunderbird it's going down that track when the UI makes the usibility worse.

Thanks for hearing out my rants and as I said, I'm getting used to it at this point, but still do prefer the old UI options for the message toolbar...

Comment 24

[webmaster2]

I agree with Noah, and I reiterate what I said before...

As Keith Mitchell says, "The only button options available for customization in the [Message Toolbar] are ones that make sense at the top level, not at the per-message level...". It looks like the defaults are Get Messages, Write, and Tag... really not appropriate when you have a message open for reading.

This is key. The Message Toolbar has become somewhat useless, whereas before it had options that made good sense... Reply, Reply All, Forward.

At first I was shocked and dismayed that the Reply, Forward, etc., were gone as options on the Message Toolbar in vers. 115. Then I started using the message header buttons, and I must admit, I have adapted no problem. I'm even looking at them as more convenient, having them in the message header. That said, I would be totally fine if the previous functionality was restored, with those buttons available in the Message Toolbar as before.

I stand by this, and think that the Message Toolbar should have useful options, as prior to vers. 115.

Perhaps the best solution would be: 1) restore the functionality to the Message Toolbar, 2) add "Hide Message Header buttons" to the Message Header customize settings (leaving of course the "More" drop-down functionality, as a way to bring the buttons back if desired). This way, everyone can be happy. One question remains... what would be the default? I would say, Reply, Forward, etc., should default to the message header, not the Message Toolbar. Others may disagree.

I think this is the best solution, because it restores the pre-115 functionality, and also adds flexibility. Again, when some users upgraded to vers. 115 they found the Reply, Forward, etc. GONE from the Message Toolbar. Both Noah and I found ways to remove the buttons from the message header, because they were duplicates of the options in the Message Toolbar. In my case, I forgot that I used chrome css to accomplish that, and I was so irritated by the new UI that I laboriously reverted to a prior version of Tbird. When I googled the situation, I found a lot of users complaining about vers. 115. Later, I accidentally updated to 115, and then discovered my old fix using chrome css, and eliminated it.

I say restore the functionality that was removed.

Comment 25

[pflegerl]

Attachment: Mail in new Tab Page.png

Unfortunately this bug is still present. It's quite annoying for our company.

We use ToDo mailbox folders, where our attorneys will find their list of mails, which they should work through. They get a mail from the assistant team, and attached is the .eml of the original mail. When they open the .eml it will open the original mail on a new tab.

And although multiple recipients are present in the To and CC field, only the "Reply" button is available, not the "Reply All" button. Someone who is used to both buttons being available will probably initially assume that there is only one recipient and this can lead to problems.

Right now, I need to advise everyone to use the right-click context menu, because "Reply All" is available there.