If you're running a recent version of Thunderbird, you might want to have a look at our articles covering Thunderbird 1.5.
Hopefully, at this point you will have Thunderbird up and running. As the next step in the process you will need to get familiar with the program. An introduction to Thunderbird part 2 will evolve around basic buttons/options and how to read mail.
The get mail button will connect your Thunderbird client to your mail server and look for new messages. In the bottom left corner you will get a message if you have new email.
The write button opens a new window, where you can write your mail, edit attachments and send it.
Pressing the address book button will also open a new window, you will now be able to see which mail address you currently got, you can also add new cards, send a instant message or chat with someone who is in your address book, I will elaborate on the address book in part 4.
The reply button will open and new window, including the text from the mail highlighted in your inbox.
Will include all recipients of the email replied to, i.e. everybody listed in the To or Copy field will receive the reply.
The forward button opens a new window, with the highlighted message either as an attachment, or inlined (included as text) in the new message.
The delete button will delete the highlighted mail message, if you're a fan of the keyboard the delete button has the same function.
The junk button will mark the highlighted message as junk (AKA spam).
The print button will print the highlighted message.
The stop button will abort the current event, useful for example if you want to abort sending a big message, or stop downloading thousands of messages from newsgroups.
When opening your Thunderbird client it will automatically connect to mail server and look for new mail, these mails will then be downloaded to your domestic inbox, viewed as a subfolder of your email address on the left. Click on the inbox and your mail messages will show to the right.
Having Thunderbird up and idle, you need to press the Get mail button to make the client check for new messages, unless you've told Thunderbird to check for messages automatically (this is possible under Tools -> Account settings).
This is the second in a series of articles about Thunderbird, if you have Thunderbird related topics you'd like to see covered here, let us know. Comments on this article, thumbs up or flames, can be sent to articles@nidelven-it.no. If you need help using Thunderbird, we recommend using the Thunderbird forums.
If you're running a recent version of Thunderbird, you might want to have a look at our articles covering Thunderbird 1.5.
If you find these articles useful, you might also want to check out the introduction to Firefox, introduction to Open Office, Plone or the introduction to Gaim. We're always looking for more translators.