Moving Thunderbird attachment pane in the message composition window
A recent distro upgrade has brought in a new version of Thunderbird. I have just one small niggle with this, when composing a new message the list of attachments used to be on the top right of the window, inline with the from/to/subject fields, it has now moved to the bottom of the message window. Is there any way to move this back to the top right?
The top right made much more sense to me since it doesn't waste vertical space in the main message window whereas it's pretty rare to have a subject or to field that is so long that having the attachments on the right causes them to be clipped. I also much prefer to have my attachments in a vertical list vs the horizontal display I now get.
At a bare minimum I'd like to be able to move the attachments list to the top of the message, instead of having it isolated at the bottom (it would be nice to do the same for the incoming message display as well).
I've hunted through all the options I can find and done google searches with all the key words I can think of, but haven't managed to find an answer to this, so I'm hoping somebody here can help.
Chosen solution
MoreLayouts v6.7 (also on ATN) lets you configure Compose window attachments list location/behavior.
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It's baked in, I don't think it can be moved back. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/new-thunderbird-91#w_new-user-interface-for-adding-attachments
I too hate the new location of the attachments pane.
With monitors becoming wider and more squat, we have ample space for things in the side to side direction, but the top-down space is at a premium. So why would Mozilla change what was perfectly suited for our wider monitors?!!
Also, if the "Attach" button is up on the top right, wouldn't it make sense to have the attachment list there as well?
What I'm left questioning is why bother redesigning this in the first place? Really?!! This change is what was missing to make Thunderbird a better program? Come on Mozilla, stop messing around with this thing and just leave what is working alone.
At the very least, give us the option to have it on top or at the bottom!
Modified by Moesito
Chosen Solution
MoreLayouts v6.7 (also on ATN) lets you configure Compose window attachments list location/behavior.
@alta88, the plugin does the trick. I now have a sensible attachment pane again.
Thankyou.
That said I also agree with @Moesito, this design changes makes no sense for a typical widescreen monitor, the behaviour restored by the plugin ought to be the default.
I have tried installing MoreLayouts (v6.7 and others) from both links above and TB v91.3.0 will not let me install - says it is not compatible, Firefox says it has not been verified. Any suggestions? I'm hoping this lets me view the attachment pane in the TB main window - I find it really frustrating having to scroll down to the bottom of a message to find attachments.
@tim_mw, you're welcome; some of the ux design decisions are incomprehensible to me, done on a whim or for a few squeeky wheels. the concept of making changes additional behind a pref instead of replacing 20+ years of learned user behavior, getting data to see preference -- standard good practice -- is alien to this project.
@BarnRat1, you can't install it in firefox.. if Tb really says it's incompatible, first uninstall ML, then remove the xpi from [profile folder]/extensions, if there, on a closed Tb. restart and install again.