Take a closer look at the picture posted. In the main interface, Zoom is greyed. It is not operational when it isn't operating on an opened email contents. Neither is Ctrl-Shift-+.

I really not know how to make it clear to you. It seems you have not used these functions in the past hence why you appear to have a complete lack of knowedge. Although I'm perplexed as to why you failed to understand the past comments fully explaining this to you.

So I'll reiterate................ 'View' > 'Font size' deals with general UI font size so you can increase or decrease as required. This mean the entire font size will be increased or decreased depending upon what you click on.

'View' > 'Zoom' > increase/decrease is available for reading email content because senders may not be using the same size font which you have set up in the general UI.

This means 'Zoom' is designed to work on Email content - NOT on message lists or folder pane - just on opened email content.

When an email is opened and has focus then the Zoom option is available. In your example - It is supposed to be disabled because you have not selected an email - there is no content to zoom.

It's also just 'Ctrl +' or 'Ctrl -' - no shift. Regardless - it will not work if you do not open and get focus to show email content.

You will find that various items will be greyed out under specific conditions. Examples:: In Account Settings if a mail account is already set up as the default account then the 'Set as default' option will be greyed out. There is no need for it to be enabled becaue it is already set as default. That's how you know it is already set as default. Select an account which is NOT set as default and lo and behold, the option to 'Set as default' is enabled WHY ? because the selected account is not set as default and the option allowes the user to choose to make changes.

View > Calendar and its sub options might be greyed out ...WHY ? Because you are not viewing the Calendar. First you need to open and be looking at the Calendar and then the Calendar options are available.

re > In fact, I would assume that the reason I don't enable the reading pane is that I do not want to open all my emails regardless of whether or not they might be harmful. It's not good security policy to use that pane.

If you are the sort of person who operates Thunderbird is a less than secure method then you may feel that way. If you do not allow remote content - which by the way is the default setting inThunderbird then all remote content is blocked. If you do not automatically use the settings 'Display Attachments inline' then it is safe. If you do not click on links until you have checked what you are linking to and are satisfied the links are accurate and good then it is safe. If you do not get so curious about wanting to open attachment which come from an unknown origin so you do not open them then you are safe.

Opening an email is not harmful to you nor your computer. You can open and read and email in either the Message Pane or in a tab - it makes no difference - the email is still opened. If you do not like or want email then delete it and compact folder to remove all traces of it.

So be clear, if Remote content is disabled then opening an email is not a problem. It is Safe. What may prove harmful is if you start clicking on anything within the opened email which you should not be clicking on.

To quote the Grateful Dead, "You ain't gonna learn what you don't wanna know." The problem is with how you people set the defaults in the new version -- to a typeface and font size that was unreadable, with no immediate indication of how to fix it. It's disabling because it causes an inability to be able to read it, and those of us who have to deal with software engineers making such stupid mistakes have a stock set of responses to try to get to readability, which are disabled in the Inbox screen.

I never asked you for help solving the problem, I told you you should not have made the interface so there was a problem without enabling the standard solutions people who encounter this problem use to overcome it.

But apparently, the one thing you absolutely cannot do is accept criticism of your perfect software, instead talking down to the person doing the criticizing and pretending that someone who has used Thunderbird since 2004, and has on occasion had other problems and criticisms with upgrades and said so at the time, has never used any of Thunderbird's features before.

There isn't any resolution to this problem. Software engineers of a certain mind-set apparently never learn that they aren't perfect and more intelligent than the people they are talking to.

Over and out.

re >What's really coming across is that quite a few software jocks here and in the belly of the upgrade need to take a course on functional needs, or similar topic, and find out beyond their own useless headboning what to set up interfaces to do and not do, and why we have standards for interface behavior and keystrokes, before they go off the farm and do what they please and use this forum to all pat each other on the back.

No developer uses this forum, so it's impossible for them to 'pat each other on the back'. So if you are implying it me those comments are aimed at then you need to take a rain check.

You do understand that I and all the other helpers on this forum are just other users like yourself. We are not employed by Mozilla or Thunderbird and we are not paid. We all volunteer our own free time to help others. I just answer questions, so if you had a problem with font display then you simply ask how to improve the situation and we have a discussion about your needs and current set up and then we offer info on what to do to fix it. There is no need to get irate with people who are trying to help you or make comments that are wrong. As a heads up, in this support forum if you have a question then please ask your own question unless it is identical to the question being asked.

To quote the Grateful Dead, "You ain't gonna learn what you don't wanna know." The problem is with how you people set the defaults in the new version -- to a typeface and font size that was unreadable, with no immediate indication of how to fix it. It's disabling because it causes an inability to be able to read it, and those of us who have to deal with software engineers making such stupid mistakes have a stock set of responses to try to get to readability, which are disabled in the Inbox screen.

I'm not disagreeing with you.

I never asked you for help solving the problem, I told you you should not have made the interface so there was a problem without enabling the standard solutions people who encounter this problem use to overcome it.

If you do not ask you own question on how to solve an issue then you cannot expect an answer. So no you will never learn anything and you will suffer needlessly. But that is your choice. Personally, i prefer to ask and get a fix. Just as aheads up, I have come across others in your predicament and I helped fix all the settings so Thunderbird was tailor made to their specific needs.

But apparently, the one thing you absolutely cannot do is accept criticism of your perfect software, instead talking down to the person doing the criticizing and pretending that someone who has used Thunderbird since 2004, and has on occasion had other problems and criticisms with upgrades and said so at the time, has never used any of Thunderbird's features before. There isn't any resolution to this problem. Software engineers of a certain mind-set apparently never learn that they aren't perfect and more intelligent than the people they are talking to. Over and out.

AS a heads up - it's not my software. I'm hear to help fix issues. If you do not want to fix anything then stop posting comments. This is not a chat forum. If you need help to tailor your Thunderbird then ask a new question about the specific issue and we'll try to help.

Technically, an inappropriate setting on a distribution is a bug, not an inability of the user to make it work. Sorry if this is not a good place to report a bug. I will send it elsewhere next time.

Take a closer look at the picture posted. In the main interface, Zoom is greyed. It is not operational when it isn't operating on an opened email contents. Neither is Ctrl-Shift-+.

You are correct, the zoom control only works if a message is being displayed, which unfortunately seems unexpected. I think there is a bug report about it.

You have posted in a topic that is not yours. If you want to explore your display issues, please create at new topic https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/new/thunderbird/form

Toad-Hall said

Yes, I did not like the + sign sign for new message (it's a generic pharmacy sign so seems wrong) , I like the pencil, so used 'userChrome.css' to modify it.

Would you please list what needs to be put in the userChrome.css file for the two buttons? Much appreciated!! Thanks!!

Please do not re-use existing threads started by others, even if they are seemingly on the same subject. Ask a new question instead. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-support-rules-guidelines#w_posting-support-requests

"The list you see which has column headers such as 'Subject, Correpondents, Date' That is a list of your emails." Sorry, but I'm not even seeing that. See screenshot. Apparently, those headers are in the "Label bar", which is, ironically, not labeled in this supposedly explanatory image: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/getting-started-thunderbird-main-window-supernova#w_classic-view-layout-with-table-view I searched Mozilla support and couldn't find any way to make that bar appear.

I got to this point because I couldn't find any menu item to bring up the Address Book, nor any other way to make it appear. I found a support article purporting to help with that, and it instructed me to revert to default settings. Big mistake. That's when Thunderbird became completely unusable.

I'm a software engineer and I understand the push to "improve" products. I'm also a user and agree with all of the complaints above. If support can tell me how to get my columns back, I'll make the attempt to move forward with the latest version. If I run into more problems, I'm reverting to 102.

"The list you see which has column headers such as 'Subject, Correpondents, Date' That is a list of your emails." Sorry, but I'm not even seeing that. See screenshot. Apparently, those headers are in the "Label bar", which is, ironically, not labeled in this supposedly explanatory image: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/getting-started-thunderbird-main-window-supernova#w_classic-view-layout-with-table-view

What you are referring to is column headers. To get the "table view" back you click the icon to the right of "Quick Filter" and choose "Table View".

Again, please do not re-use existing topics started by others, even if they are seemingly on the same subject.

In other words, the purpose of the topic you are reading here is to help the original poster. If you are not here to help the original poster, please post your problem in a new topic with a title which describes your issue. One issue per topic and one person per topic is the most effective way to get support.

Please see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-support-rules-guidelines#w_posting-support-requests