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when entering an address in the To for an email to send, how do I set Thunderbird up to search my address book by the name instead of by the email address

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by Toad-Hall

heypaula
heypaula
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I just started using Thunderbird and believe I have my address book set up right, but when I want to compose an email to send out and start typing in the "to' field, it searches my contact list by the email address instead of by their name - I want to search by their name, because I don't have all the email addresses memorized so can't know if it is grabbing the right one without the name being shown to me. PLUS once I do select from the addresses offered, it displays it in the 'To' by the email address and not by their name - which i would also prefer their name to show there too.

I just started using Thunderbird and believe I have my address book set up right, but when I want to compose an email to send out and start typing in the "to' field, it searches my contact list by the email address instead of by their name - I want to search by their name, because I don't have all the email addresses memorized so can't know if it is grabbing the right one without the name being shown to me. PLUS once I do select from the addresses offered, it displays it in the 'To' by the email address and not by their name - which i would also prefer their name to show there too.

All Replies (1)

Toad-Hall
Toad-Hall
  • Top 10 Contributor
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In address book for contact details: Double click on name to open the 'Edit Contact' window. Example: First: Robert Last: Smith You need to fill in the 'Display' field with name eg: Bob or Smithy etc select: checkbox 'Always prefer display name over message header' click on OK

Sometimes people will add their display name when sending an email. eg: Robert Smith < email address> You can override this and set default to show display names for people in address book as per display name set up by you. Menu icon (3 lines) > 'Options' > 'Options' > 'Display' > 'Advanced' select checkbox 'Show only display name in my address book'