509208 - Tbird3 no longer shows folder totals

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 464973

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, enhancement)

Description

[Russell East]

In TBird 2, there was a handy column of Unread and Total figures for each folder in the folder pane.  In TBird 3, those figures can only be seen in the message pane, when a particular folder is selected.  

It's desirable to have those figures available for folders without having to select them.  For example, you are reading the Inbox, and wondering how many messages are currently in Trash, and want to decide whether to empty trash before continuing to read Inbox.  Right now in TB3, I have to select Trash folder to see the total, then reselect Inbox - in the process I may then have lost a message filter.   It's a loss of function in my view.

Presumably for design considerations, the TB2 concept of columns in the folder pane is not going to happen, but as a simple workaround, how about making a ToolTip for each folder that contains that Unread/Total figure?   So, a user will move the mouse over a folder icon in the folder pane, and a tool tip will display showing the desired figures.

Comment 1

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Bug 464973(WONTFIX) is for loss of "expand column", i.e. loss of Total/Size column.
Bug 465564 is follow-up of it. Bug 465568 is for enhancement around count/space etc.  
Do you really think Unread/Total by Tooltip is useful and convenient?

Comment 2

[Russell East]

I'm a cyclist.  With regards to the cyclo-computer dashboard, there are two kinds of cyclists in my experience: (1) those who want to see all kinds of information all at once, or (2) those who enjoy the zen-like beauty of no information at all.  I belong to the former group and drink in 7 kinds of information on my dashboard when I ride - it's a wonder I don't crash into things more often.  :-)

This discussion about having folder columns in TBird or not seems to be the same kind of thing.  Information junkies crave this stuff at the expense of beauty.  Sometimes there is a rational explanation, or not.  The only use-case I can come up with is this.  I am reading mail in one mailbox that is currently filtered with a search, and I suddenly have the urge to find out how much data is held in another mailbox.   There is only one way to do it now - select the other mailbox, thus losing the search filter.   It's inconvenient, not the end of the world, and frustrates my lust for information.

As a workaround, I suggest the tool-tip.  It would keep me happy enough.   Perhaps you could pref it on/off to keep the zen-like-folk happy.

Comment 3

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

There is no need of multiple columns to make people of (1) happy. Multiple fields in single column can keep people of (1) happy. It's Bug 465564. I'm a people of (1) and I'm not happy with workaround of tool-tip you proposed nor with off of the tool-tip. I prefer change(enhancement) proposed by Bug 465564.

Comment 4

[Russell East]

Yes, if you can get single column into the UI, then I also will be happy.  But if not, then please consider a tool-tip as last gasp attempt to get something available.

Comment 5

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

Setting dependency to Bug 465564 for ease of track. Clear it if wrong, please.

Comment 6

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

This seems like bug 464973 to me.

Comment 7

[Russell East]

It's not really a duplicate at all, it's a fallback in case you don't support the columns but are prepared to work with a tool tip instead.

Anyhoo, the columns plugin that is mentioned here, https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=464973#c23 works well enough for me, so I'm happy for now.  :-)