Here is an image of the action choices presented to me:

Are you sure that when you selected Tools/Message Filters to create the filter that the account for which you created the template was selected in the Folder Pane?

Yes... I have multiple accounts in the folder pane and I tried two of them... one was an IMAP account and the other was a POP account.

Thank you for replying.

I realized this was a problem some months ago: formerly, you didn't have to create a template before the option appeared in the menu. Is it still missing after restarting TB?

I restarted TB and yes it is still missing.

I just tried it with TB 24.4. on POP and IMAP accounts, and the Reply with Template option appeared in the filter actions after a template was created. The template was a message saved with a non-empty Subject and a blank To: address line.

Do you still have the problem if you run in safe mode (hold Shift when you launch TB)?

Thanks for doing that sfhowes.

I started TB in safe mode and the problem remains. The template was created and saved with subject text and the "to" field is empty.

One thing that may be of significance is that I have installed an add-on called Folder Pane Tools 0.6.1. After installation it changed how things were displayed in the folder pane most notably it created an Inbox folder where all the inboxes of my accounts (i have 6 accounts) are now displayed.

I disabled the Folder Pane Tools add-on but the problem persists.

Also, FYI, I have the Thunderbird Conversations 2.7 Add-On installed.

No other add-ons are installed.

I don't have either of those add-ons installed, but that shouldn't matter if you tried it in safe mode and the problem remained. Perhaps a complete removal of the add-ons would make a difference, but I doubt it.

I notice that Folderpane Tools has not been listed as working with TB versions greater than 23.

Faced with an inability to solve this by conventional means, I would be inclined to set up a new profile with Profile Manager, add an account, create a filter, and see if the menus display properly. If they did, the data from the original profile could be transferred to the new one.

To start PM, Winkey-R and type thunderbird.exe -p

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_manager#Creating_a_new_profile

Hi sfhowes,

I think I've figured out what is happening.

First off, I'm a new Thunderbird user. I have been using Apple's email program on my Mac for many years. Since upgrading to Maverick, its my observation that the Mac email program is unstable sometimes causing my Mac to freeze, sometimes loosing my ability to switch desktop windows, and slow awkward scrolling issues arise within the email program as well as temporary freezes of the email program.

I installed the latest version of Thunderbird this weekend, and am just getting familiar with it. I configured all 8 of my email accounts and they all worked fine. Then I added Conversations add-on and I wanted to be able to rearrange the order my eight accounts and found that Folderpane Tools was the ticket and it worked... hadn't noticed it was only up to 23... but it worked on 24.

I incorrectly said the Folderpanes changed the way my folder pane displayed things. It was Conversation that did... Folderpane Tools let me reorder and that was it. But Converations changed the way things that were displayed in that in added folders to arrange by inboxes, sent, trash, etc. And Templates was one of those folders it added.

Being unfamiliar with Templates as I'm new to Thunderbird. Here's what happened. I created a message and saved it as a Template. I had not realized it was married to a particular account. And when I looked at the template folder I don't recall seeing a subfolder for the specific account the template was for.

After reading your last email I removed both add-on's and my accounts appeared in the folder pane as they did originally... most notable was the inbox and template folders disappeared.

I tried to create a filter for a specific account and the problem remained, but I wondered where my saved template went to because I couldn't find it. So I created another one and discovered a new folder got created called Templates for the account I was trying to make the "reply with template" filter for. And then I was able to see the "reply with template" option when creating a filter.

To understand what was wrong in the first place, I reinstalled the Conversations, and all the folders (inbox, sent, trash, templates) were reinstated. I looked in the template folder and saw two subfolders, one for the account I just created the new template, and one for my default account. In my default account was the original template I saved. And now when I try to create a filter using the original template, I do see the reply with template option.

I can no longer recreate the problem since uninstalling Conversations, creating a second template, and then reinstalling Conversations.

So, the problem is resolved, but something isn't quite write when creating the very first template when the Conversations add-on is installed. I don't recall seeing a subfolder within the Templates folder when I created the first template.... i could be wrong, but all I remember seeing is the template itself in the Template folder, not in a subfolder. So I'm guessing that the Reply with Template option did not appear because the template I made did not appear to be assigned to an account.

Thanks for helping.