[j2227]

The Complete Guide for Thunderbird to Apple Mail OS X by j2227


08/26/06 - I will be updating the theme soon. Some members have noted on bugs with the latest release of Thunderbird

Note: For better formatting and pictures, see the readme in the zip file enclosed. Make sure you have Lucida Grande

3.05 MB

Hello all Aqua-soft.org and beyond. Today, I'll be discussing how to turn you Mozilla Thunderbird into a pretty good look-a-like of Apple Mail for Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger.” There are a few guides out there to do this, but none have been updated recently. Everything’s included: extensions, userChrome, the redux theme, updated .jar files…everything needed, so no complaining about broken links. With that means I need to give all due credit to the creators of them:

1. Tiger Mail 2.0 by toyo-snow
2. Account Buttons by Inpac
3. Move Search Items by Frank DiLecce
4. Thunderbird Title Bar fixer by Frank DiLecce
5. Compact Menu by Chris Neale
6. Menu Editor by Devon Jensen
7. ConfigDate by Alexander Ihrig (optional)

I'd also like to give a huge thanks to all the great modders out there that were apart of this: INpac, DJ Fall, patstome, Qweedle Guy, theEVILcube, sean.fletcher, and everyone who also helped with this objective in some way. Without them, you’d be without this.

By the way, Apple©, Apple© Mail, and Apple© Macintosh OS are copyright Apple Computer© 2006.

————————————–—

0. Install Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 from the Mozilla website and set up your email accounts. (Okay, I lied. This isn’t included.)

1. Install the modded Tiger Mail 2.0 into Thunderbird. If you don’t know how to do this, open up Tools > Themes and drag the file to the Theme window. Don’t bother restarting. It’s not manditory yet.

2. Install the necessary extensions: Account Buttons, Move Search Items, Thunderbird Title Bar fixer, and Compact Menu OR Menu Editor. (I personally user Menu Editor. For a how-to to set it up, click here. Make sure you have the Extensions command available in your Thread or Message pane context!!
You can also use neither, but you will have to continually edit your userChrome.css to access the menu bar, which you will have to do anyway to see the Compose/Address Book Window menu bars.)

3. Restart Thunderbird.

4. Set up your extensions, layout, and such. Few of them have options in the Tools > Extensions dialog box, specifically Move Search Items and titlebar fixer.
Right click on the toolbar to customize the layout of your main window, Message Preview window, Compose window, and Address Book window. Move all your icons to the top row next to the menu in correct or preferred order. Don’t forget about flexible spaces (if your going to use them)! Once done, go to the Tools menu of the window, then to Toolbars, and hide the one it was just on. (e.g. Tools > Toolbars > Mail Toolbar (unchecked) )

5. Close Thunderbird.

6. Go to your Drive:Documents & SettingsApplication DataThunderbirdProfiles folder and drop the folder “Chrome” included inside, overwriting the previous.
*Note: If you have any modifications you did, you might want to copy the contents of your current userChrome.css or userContent.css into the new one.

7. Now for editing the installation folder. Go to your Drive:Program FilesMozilla Thunderbirdchrome folder.
Backup/Replace your messenger.jar with your preferred one included. This will change your start page (or start.xhtml is the technical term) from Thunderbird Start. If you wish not to do this, just open the Options menu in Thunderbird and uncheck “When Thunderbird launches, show the Start Page in the message area.” However, Thunderbird will start without displaying the search box:

Next, replace en-US.jar if you are locale If you installed Thunderbird in a different language such as in this list, well…you’ll have to mod several things in your version to get it accurate. If you need help, send a message my way.
Finally, drop the folder “Icons” into chrome folder as well. This is optional if you don’t want to see the Thunderbird Titlebar icon, as also showing in the picture above.

8. Restart Thunderbird.

9. The folder tree is spoofed to look like Mail, so I recommend renaming you “Local Folders” directory to “ “(meaning: a space). This shouldn’t hurt your mail in anyway, unless you have it scatter throughout your hard drive unorganized. Then I can't guarantee anything. Once done, download your mail.

10. One optional step is to configure your time so it is close to Apple Mail’s format:

To do that, go to your Control Panel, click on Regional and Language options, click customize next to your local language, click on the Date tab and set the long date to: MMM dd, yyyy. Optionally, if you want it in a different format such as just the time or just the month, use the Config Date extension.

11. You’re done! See, only 10 steps to give Thunderbird a complete overhaul. We did our best visually to make everything look Apple perfect, even if it was pixel-perfect to the real OS X Mail. Hey, we even did the About Box and the Options dialog. If you liked this tutorial and/or have comments or suggestions, feel free to leave a message or start a thread, as long as you use the search box first.

—j2227

[sean.fletcher]

Wow that's impressive.
I had no idea about the whole time thing.
Thanks a lot, J2227!

[j2227]

I'm glad it worked for you. For a moment, I was unsure about putting it

[Trent Pivot]

Thanks for this, but when I try to install the time/date fixer thingy it says it is an invalid installer or something like that and wont let me install it

Thanks again!

[j2227]

Just fixed it. Didn't realize it didn't download properly. I also fixed a minor typo.

[sean.fletcher]

The only things I'm kind of unclear of are how to remove the "Local Folders" icon and how to use the custom start.xhtml. I'll read over it some more to see if I'm missing anything...

[craft660]

"Hello all Aqua-soft.org and beyond. Today, I'll be discussing how to turn you Mozilla Thunderbird into a pretty good look-a-like of Apple Mail for Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger.” There are a few guides out there to do this, but none have been updated recently. Everything’s included: extensions, userChrome, the redux theme, updated .jar files…everything needed, so no complaining about broken links. With that means I need to give all due credit to the creators of them:
—j2227"


I've been following up on your progress here at the forums for a while, and all i can say is that you guys have done gooood. :-) i've much appriciated your work and effort into this.


one thing i don't like about it, if there should be one, is the lack of 'support' for any other extensions from the theme, i.e. Lighning calendar - you simply can't incorporate the calendar with the TigerMail theme and make it look decent as it is today. - sadly this is why i may never use it.

[j2227]

@craft660, I've never used the calender, so I'm not sure what to say. Some extensions are skinable though, a vast amount. I'll try to skin anything once

[Trent Pivot]

Ok, so I think I have it looking good and BOOM! a problem, look and see if you can figure it out:

http://img215.images...8/mailer5xg.png

AND also how can I change JUST the folders fonts on the left side, Can I do it through the userchrome file like the others and how whould I do it.

Thanks ALOT man!

[sean.fletcher]

Yeah... when I try to rename Local Folders (or in my case, .Mac), it won't allow me to leave it blank (as just a space). It either reverts back to the old filename (.Mac) or says " You need to use a filename".
I am supposed to rename the one in "C:Documents and SettingsSeanApplication DataThunderbirdProfiles82z86j0d.defaultMail", right?

[Trent Pivot]

Just rename it like normal but instead of typing letters just hit the spacebar a couple times.

Worked for me...

[sean.fletcher]

sean.fletcher said:

it won't allow me to leave it blank (as just a space). It either reverts back to the old filename (.Mac) or says " You need to use a filename".

mnnmbnmnbmmmn

[Trent Pivot]

Oh then I don't know, sorry.

But I fixed the scrollbar image that appeared in the background of my mail, it was some code in the userchrome.css that I removed, I don't really know what it did but anyway I fixed it. Oh and I found out how to change the folders on the lefts fonts.

My thunderbird is rockin'

[drudragon]

Been following the progress with the on going thread , glad to know everything is packaged up with installation guide for everyones pleasure . Great work!

[nightcrawler1089]

This baby has been stuck! Nice job

-NC

[matthew]

what WB version and what skin are you using for this??? i cant get my Danimator's Tiger nor Xero's one to go borderless ... am using WB5 and as i was said the latest version of Dan's Tiger

Edit: Ok, am an idiot ... i had set a preapp setting for it :D:D ... great skin guys ... great skin

Edit 2: thouh i still have one question ... Why is my thunderbird still showing the icon in the titlebar?

[changer]

Hey Trent Pivot I'm getting the same error that you showed on your picture with the scroll bar backgrounds. What did you do to fix it?

[theEVILcube]

What a wonderful surprise to see this released. Great work j2227!!!

[j2227]

@changer, check your userChrome.css please and remove the applicable lines.

@Trent Pivot and all, please edit/add on to your original post instead of double posting for future reference. I don't want to try looking for a solution and it's already solved at the end.

@nightcrawler, thanks! you rock!

@matthew, did you replace the folder "Icons"

@sean.fletcher, all i can say is try Alt-0160.

@theEVILcube, I never found that .psd that was in your messenger.jar. What folder is it in?

Thanks everyone for pointing this stuff out

[changer]

j2227 is there a way to go revert the folders to standard?
The way you have it set up with Local Folders above the inbox folder basically makes the buttons above inbox unuseable. I know you're supposed to center the buttons in the toolbar but I like them aligned to the left with the apple compact menu on the left.
BTW great work.