232486 - [META] Some global options need to be moved into account settings.

Status: NEW

(Thunderbird :: Preferences, enhancement)

Description

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

I filed this as one bug because it is the same issue, just two (or more)
variations. If needed, I can file an individual bug on each issue and make this
a META.

Some global options should be moved into account settings because different
accounts might have different expections for some settings that can only be set
globally.

* Everything in the Composition tab should be moved to account settings.
* The attachments tab should be moved to account settings (each account might
have a different place to save).

From now on, people should be very careful when making global settings that it
wouldn't be ever wanted to be different between accounts.

Comment 1

[[e-mail]]

Does this bug also apply to settings that get changed in the view menu? Many of
these settings - how to sort, how to show message bodies - should really be
specific to individual accounts or even individual folders. 

This is even more important now that RSS-feeds can be used too: if you set "view
message body as plain text" - which is important for safe message viewing - you
will not see any of the webpages. Also, many settings do not make sense to be
shared between email and news accounts.

Finally, the settings for column headers should be configurable differently for
different folders or accounts. 

Comment 2

[Brian 'netdragon' Bober]

Yes, it would apply. Don't hesitate to file additional bugs and make this bug
depend on it. This is simply a META.

Comment 3

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

(In reply to comment #0)
> * Everything in the Composition tab should be moved to account settings.

Not everything (especially as that tab has been restructured since this was filed).  Also, note that the "account-specific" composition settings are actually identity-specific.  There might be arguments to make some of these truly account-specific, but identities seem to be how these are partitioned.

I'd say only a few of the current Compose options might benefit from being tree'd out: Forward, the HTML Options, maybe Quoted-Printable; and *possibly* the wrap column (that preference is part of a larger miasma which should allow control of format=flowed and whether the compose window should wrap at window-width or at a fixed column, some of which probably shouldn't even have UI to control).  In the Addressing subtab, making all of those settings per-identity probably makes sense.  In the Spelling subtab, making the selected dictionary per-identity is sensible, but not the other controls.


> * The attachments tab should be moved to account settings (each account
> might have a different place to save).

I assume you agree that the Download Actions settings must be global.

Each account might want a different place to save, but messages from multiple accounts can be saved in the same folder; at that point, do you use the setting from the account containing the folder, or the account to which the message was originally addressed?  If the latter, what if the message is addressed to two different accounts?

I think a better approach to this is to outfit the Save dialog (for saving messages as well as attachments) with a Favorite Directories list.


Don't dismiss the problems that occur when preferences are split out to specific account or identities.  In particular, those setting which the user actually wants global, but finds herself wanting to change: she now has to make this change across the board, and may not even be aware that the setting has multiple instances.  This is currently a problem for identity-settings because each account's default identity is exposed at the Account Manager level, rather than having to drill down to the Edit Identities level; there are often bugs filed such as "I set my account to Compose as plain but when I reply to a message it composes at HTML" -- because they're replying to a different identity.

Comment 4

[ovidiu]

I'd add here the junk settings as in bug 352428
and I'd say "preferences" though "acc manager" may be selected also ..

Comment 5

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Above all, the relation between what the user will perceive as "global settings" (Tools > Options) and "per-account settings" should be clear and consistent.
E.g. we have a per-account setting "use global settings" for return receipts, but we don't have the same for junk handling. So the behaviour is quite different:
1) For junk settings, changing the (perceived "global") *default* settings does NOT change the per-account settings, but it just seems to be a template for new accounts
2) For return receipt settings, changing the global settings will by default affect all accounts, unless user explicitly opted out of using global settings on a per-account basis.
Obviously, 1) is pretty useless because it'll never change anything really and just leave the user confused.

3) A useful addition to consider might be to provide some way of re-applying global settings to individual accounts to overwrite and/or disable their indivdual settings from a central point.
a) Always use global settings for [Account Selector]
b) [Apply these settings to] [Account Selector]

Where [Account Selector] is a list like
All acounts
Selected accounts > Choose... -> dialogue where you can check individual accounts
No accounts

Where a) would toggle between "use global settings" and "use per-account settings" for each account from [Account Selector]
Where b) would not toggle, but /change/ current "per-account settings" for selected accounts

Okay, 3 is probably day-dreaming, but at least we should have 2 consistently.