517167 - Reduce the number of default columns in main message list

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Thunderbird :: Folder and Message Lists, defect)

Description

[Andreas Nilsson (:andreasn)]

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to remove.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The current default colums showed on a fresh install of Thunderbird is:
thread | star | attachment | subject | read | from | junk | date

I would like to look into if we can kill some darlings and get those down to 5 or 6 items.

Comment 1

[Andreas Nilsson (:andreasn)]

* "Read" is already indicated by messages in bold. Marking something as unread again is a lie. :)
* Thread icon is my other candidate if it stood between that and any of the others
* Junk could be indicated by a row background color instead of a icon (but that is not as urgent to fix).

Comment 2

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to comment #1)
> * Junk could be indicated by a row background color instead of a icon (but that
> is not as urgent to fix).

That would also conflict with tags.

Comment 3

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> > * Junk could be indicated by a row background color instead of a icon (but that
> > is not as urgent to fix).
> 
> That would also conflict with tags.

(or could).

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Hmmm, I'm afraid that reducing the number of default columns shown in message list, as proposed by this bug, is not really a good idea.

1) Most importantly, the small columns like star, read, and Junk all provide not just indication, but also functionality as mouse users get a one-click access for toggling the respective properties. These are all frequent actions. Removing any of these would remove a significant portion of mail-handling functionality, while gaining only very little space and almost no visual improvement.

2) Thread column might be arguable, but then it provides an easy way of getting in and out of threaded view (and it's small so we're not gaining much space). The whole interaction and functionality of Threaded/Unthreaded/Grouped by Sort with sorting isn't ideal (since the removal of G shortcut for "Grouped by sort" view, it is now very hard getting in and out of that mode and not many users will ever come across that useful feature).

3) Big columns are only few, and we can't take any of those out: Subject / From / Date (that's really the most basic information that we'd want to show for every email).

So what's left which we could remove?
If there's nothing we can remove without losing important functionality or information, this should be wontfixed.

Yet I do like the saying at the top :)

Comment 5

[Andreas Nilsson (:andreasn)]

All right, wontfix it is.