If you’re like me and you have grown tired of Outlook or even Outlook Express (we are going way back in regards to OE) and their bizarre behaviors that have defied any explanation and you are looking for a reliable email client, I suggest Mozilla Thunderbird. A huge benefit is that it is free which is always a big plus for those of us on a tight budget.
A lot of you might be saying: “A desktop email program?” There’s nothing wrong with web mail, but if you want complete control over how your mail is handled, filtered, organized, and even secured, a desktop client is the way to go, and Thunderbird is one of the best.
What you probably did not know is that you can Supercharge this program to do some amazing things that the programs that you have to pay for cannot.
Let’s get started: one of the first add-ons that we will look at is Dropbox for Filelink. We’ve all ran into the scenario of sending out an email with an attachment, and the email bounces back stating that the file attachment exceeds size limits. Dropbox for Filelink solves that issue quickly and easily.
When you download this program be sure to save it to your desktop. Once the download has completed, open Thunderbird, then open the Tools menu and choose Add-ons. From the options button, which looks like a small gear or sprocket icon, select “Install Add-on from file, locate the downloaded add-on.
If you don’t already have a Dropbox account, you will need to signup for one. They offer a free account for up to 2GB of space. If you already have a Dropbox account, the first time you have a large attachment in one of your emails, Thunderbird will give you an prompt stating, “This is a large file. It might be better to use Filelink instead.” Click the link button in the choices, it will ask what service you would like to connect with. Thunderbird’s Dropbox for Filelink works also with Dropbox, Ubuntu One, Hightail and YouSendIt. So you log into one of these accounts and Thunderbird does the rest.
In part 2, we’ll cover another Thunderbird add-on that will help to improve your email productivity, so be sure and check back soon!