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How do I completely disable double-click in Thunderbird message list (i.e., no tabs, no windows, no effect whatsoever)

  • 7 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 115 views
  • Last reply by JHHL

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My biggest single frustration with Thunderbird is when I am going through my work in-box in the morning, deleting massive amounts of list-server traffic that does not concern me, and my finger twitches on the mouse button, or I otherwise unintentionally double-click, and suddenly several dozen messages I have no intention of reading open in tabs.

There is no valid reason why double-clicking with multiple messages already selected should have an "open all in tabs" (or "open all in windows") effect; given the extremely limited usefulness of this functionality; it could just as easily be a menu option somewhere.

My biggest single frustration with Thunderbird is when I am going through my work in-box in the morning, deleting massive amounts of list-server traffic that does not concern me, and my finger twitches on the mouse button, or I otherwise unintentionally double-click, and suddenly several dozen messages I have no intention of reading open in tabs. There is no valid reason why double-clicking with multiple messages already selected should have an "open all in tabs" (or "open all in windows") effect; given the extremely limited usefulness of this functionality; it could just as easily be a menu option somewhere.

Chosen solution

I just now found a solution on my own.

It seems that I finally found my way (tabs within tabs? Ye vish!) to the Configuration Editor, and by intentionally setting mail.openMessageBehaviour to 3 (not a supported value), I find that double-clicking on a message now has the desired effect (i.e., it doesn't do ANYTHING that a single-click doesn't already do). My finger can now twitch on a line in a message list to produce a double, triple, quadruple, n-tuple click, and it won't open the selected message(s) anyplace other than the lower message pane. And yet, on the rare occasions when I want to open the message in a tab or a window, the right-click menu is still there.

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All Replies (7)

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Can you try with another (newer) mouse? It's surprising how many issues like this are resolved by simply swapping to a new mouse.

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Zenos said

Can you try with another (newer) mouse? It's surprising how many issues like this are resolved by simply swapping to a new mouse.

The problem, at least at the office, is not the mouse, but my finger. Which is not so easily replaced.

(I do have occasional bounce problems with my mouse at home, but that's not the issue here.)

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I suggest you slow the double click rate on the mouse, or speed it up. Whatever suits your usage. Microsoft try and set a default that suits most people, but if you are accidentally double clicking it is time to revisit that default.

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Not WinDoze.

Mac.

And while I've adjusted (Mac, WinDoze, DOS drivers, and maybe even Linux) the minimum speed for a double-click to be accepted as a double-click and not as two separate clicks, I've never even heard of a setting -- in ANY OS -- for the maximum speed for a double-click to be accepted as an actual, intentional, double-click, and not as a either a keybounce or a muscular twitch.

The biggest question is why anybody would consider "opening several dozen -- or more than a hundred -- emails in tabs or separate windows" to be a useful enough function to map it into a double-click in the first place.

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JHHL said

The biggest question is why anybody would consider "opening several dozen -- or more than a hundred -- emails in tabs or separate windows" to be a useful enough function to map it into a double-click in the first place.

Well I for one would not be happy if double click normally opens selected mail and selecting more did not do what it normally did. Just as I am not happy the multiple selection disables forward from the right click menu, leaving me stuck with forward as attachment, which some brain dead government folk block on their mail gateways.

SO you are left with a problem, you need to fix what you do not like and no one has a workaround to disable double click actions.

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Mouse Properties allow you to set a double click to suit a speed which you would naturally do a double click. You can speed it up or slow it down.

You need to work out whether your action od a double click is fast twitch or slow, then see what mouse settings you are using. For example: If you naturally have a slower double click and the settings is set to allow a longer delay between clicks then it is going to act on it. I have mine set to the fastest I can intentionally do, so a slightly slower double click will not be understood as a real double click.

You will discover that double click is used as normal in most programs for something. MSWord' use it to eg: highlight a word.

An alternative would be to use the keyboard more often. Once an email in list has been selected, you can use the up and down arrow keys to select emails and open them in 'Message pane'. You can use the 'Delete' key.

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Chosen Solution

I just now found a solution on my own.

It seems that I finally found my way (tabs within tabs? Ye vish!) to the Configuration Editor, and by intentionally setting mail.openMessageBehaviour to 3 (not a supported value), I find that double-clicking on a message now has the desired effect (i.e., it doesn't do ANYTHING that a single-click doesn't already do). My finger can now twitch on a line in a message list to produce a double, triple, quadruple, n-tuple click, and it won't open the selected message(s) anyplace other than the lower message pane. And yet, on the rare occasions when I want to open the message in a tab or a window, the right-click menu is still there.

Modified by JHHL