269857 - add "quick reply" text field for answering mail in preview pane.

Status: REOPENED

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, enhancement)

Description

[Fabian]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041109 Firefox/1.0 (amano)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041109 Firefox/1.0 (amano)

Thunderbird should have an stable and optional quick reply function under the
preview pane that will seamlessly integrate with the global inbox and evolve
with any GUI changes in the future. 

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Fabian]

Such an enhancement is already available as an extension, but making this
feature out-of-the-box would be a plus for marketing it towards new users that
would enjoy a free, fast and stable way of answering messages in a quick reply
fashion. Some people comment on many message boards that they would rather use
Gmail than a mail client because of the quick reply style "conversation"
interface. Lets bridge the gap and offer new and older users another reason to
choose Thunderbird for their mail needs. 

Comment 2

[Aaron]

I second this, and will add this be for all OSes. 

Comment 3

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
are asking for your help in focussing our efforts. If you can still reproduce
this problem in the latest version of the product (see below for how to obtain a
copy) or, for feature requests, if it's not present in the latest version and
you still believe we should implement it, please visit the URL of this bug
(given at the top of this mail) and add a comment to that effect, giving more
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If it is not a problem any longer, you need take no action. If this bug is not
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Thank you for your help in this matter.

The latest beta releases can be obtained from:
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Comment 4

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.

Comment 5

[chrizilla]

(In reply to Gervase Markham [:gerv] from comment #4)

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.

I think this is incorrect, since reason given for auto-close in comment #3 was "bug has had no comments […] not been confirmed by a second user", but a second user has actually seconded in comment #2: "I second this".

Regardless, this enhancement request merits revisiting because the addons providing the quick reply functionality in the pre-webextension era are all defunct now (except for the conversations addon but which apparently is riddled with lots of bugs and comes at the price of entirely changing the preview pane, display of attachments, user interaction with messages, and a whole host of other potentially undesired alterations ...). The upshot is: For users who are otherwise happy with TB's current look&feel and want to keep it, there is no addon providing quick reply as a standalone feature.

I agree with Fabian in comment #1:

making this feature out-of-the-box would be a plus for marketing it towards new users that
would enjoy a free, fast and stable way of answering messages in a quick reply fashion.
Some people comment on many message boards that they would rather use Gmail than a
mail client because of the quick reply

Many renowned webmail interfaces provide a quick reply functionality. It speeds up the workflow and as Fabian pointed out, it would help webmail users transition to Thunderbird.

I agree with Fabian, that the quick reply function should be implemented as a collapsable pane below the preview pane.

This has been a feature repeatedly requested by popular demand throughout the years. For example:
https://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=543166
https://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=3062655
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1219046
https://www.thunderbird-mail.de/forum/thread/45105-quick-reply-f%C3%BCr-tb3-0-erledigt/

Comment 6

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Thanks for catching this. I would have thought there would be an already open bug report but Im not finding one in https://mzl.la/3TESwDB

Comment 7

[chrizilla]

Attachment: quickreply feature in PostBox.png

image content: screenshot of the quick reply feature in Postbox
image date: originally uploaded on 20 March 2012