At the end of the keyconfig thread, I noticed some work to replace its function for TB 68, with the userChromeJS add-on. There is also mention of keyconfig for Firefox 68.

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=72994&sid=ce35eeae0e7826aecf40656e97393fc8&start=3435

It doesn't look like this alternative method is nearly as easy as the keyconfig add-on.

thanks - I'll give userChromeJS a crack

perhaps you need to look at the accessibility features of your operating system. Windows has setting that extend the time a key has to be pressed for it to register, just for this type of issue. https://bltt.org/adjust-windows-keyboard-repeat-rate/

This thread mentions a number of OSX tools and settings for the same purpose https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/10467/how-to-increase-keyboard-key-repeat-rate-on-os-x

I am having very similar problems. Some users in my company start typing very fast and if the keyboard focus is not in the new message window but in the main thunderbird window, all kinds of irrevocable actions are executed. Sometimes, important messages are marked as spam or archived.

Why does Thunderbird not allow customization of keyboard shortcuts like (virtually) every other application?

Especially disabling the single-key shortcuts would be very appreciated!

tobox said

I am having very similar problems. Some users in my company start typing very fast and if the keyboard focus is not in the new message window but in the main thunderbird window, all kinds of irrevocable actions are executed. Sometimes, important messages are marked as spam or archived. Why does Thunderbird not allow customization of keyboard shortcuts like (virtually) every other application? Especially disabling the single-key shortcuts would be very appreciated!

This is EXACTLY my problem, and all my employees. I get messages Archived and marked wrong all the time. Keyconfig use to save as I changed to multi-key shortcuts... me but not I just got updated to latest and it does not work anymore.

This more of a squawk/comment. I think the T-bird developers have it the wrong way round. We appreciate all the work you've done for us, but it seems to me that keyboard shortcuts should be disabled by default, particularly the infernal, single key shortcuts like "A".

Then let the power users find or invent a way to put them back in action. There is no longer a reasonable way for even a power user to to customize them without resorting to some pretty low level mods.

Seriously, "A"?

Are you guys so lost in your developer fog that you can't imagine this being a problem? It's mighty close to the caps lock and shift keys that I hit by mistake all the time, but those don't instantly make messages disappear to an archive folder.

Years ago, I convinced friends to use T-bird, and have been hearing for some time that messages disappear for them. I figured it was due to something like this, and now I know. I'll start steering them to the webmail interfaces. By the way, I've been a $ contributor several times .

For me, this isn't so much an issue of lack of access to extensions to override the behaviour of the A key (and J and others). It's a fundamental UI issue; that a program that is almost entirely about keystrokes can include shortcuts that don't involve a modifier key.

The modifiers force the user to have intent to take an action, and prevent accidents like archiving or junking an email. For a split second, they force us to change gear to take a specific action that differs from the bulk of the other keystrokes and in these cases have greater consequences than "ordinary" keystrokes.

Other programs, such as Adobe Acrobat Pro allow you to elect not to have single keystrokes, which resolves this issue well (see att)

My2C :)

You should never write n emil with the first letter of the lphbet.

Moustap, yer killing me here! This problem is really so dumb it's comical all by itself, but you are helping.

They have probably been sitting there thinking, "gee why isn't T-bird more widely adopted? It couldn't possibly be that we made the keyboard a minefield, could it?"

Gibberish, I also have hand tremors, so I know what you deal with, maybe on a lesser scale. Standard keyboards with some resistance work ok for for me, but the touchscreen on my android phone drives me effing nuts. Responds too fast, so I constantly load videos and clickbait sites embedded in newspaper articles that I don't want.

I've been asking for a programmable dead time for the touchscreen and keyboards for people with tremors for years, but so far no joy. The Touch and Hold Delay in the accessibility settings doesn't help this.

I hope you are enjoying your chat, but nothing will ever happen chatting about features in the support forum. Bugzilla is where developers work and where change is requested.

There is a long standing request for the A shortcut in particular. Perhaps you might follow the bug instead of wasting time here.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=511741

Sorry and thanks for pointing that out. Bugzilla it is.

Wow, just checked out the thread you linked, and some that were linked in it, "long standing" is no lie. They've been arguing about this nonsense for 11 years. Guess I'll conserve my keystrokes and move on.

Bill_G said

Guess I'll conserve my keystrokes and move on.

On topics like this one, I try to.

Bill_G said conserve my keystrokes

1-Why do you mean exactly? You have a solution?

2-The Bugzilla thread is 11 years old. No one is acting on this. Not sure this why it would be more valuable than the current one.

3-Currently I am keeping my TB outdated because I need the KeyConfig add-on to work. Hoping this add-on would be maintained so i can keep my TB secure and up to date.

Thanks all

No, I don't have a solution, I'm saying I'm following the moderator's advice and not wasting any more time on this.

The bug thread was started 11years ago but there are recent additions. It just hasn't gone anywhere, and indeed, the hotkeys have been frozen into the latest version of T-bird. At one time there was a at least a fairly simple switch to disable most of the shortcuts, which I used to fix this for some friends, but that's long gone.

The message is clear to me, if we have a problem with T-bird, we should just vote with our feet and go use something else like webmail. They don't get it.

Bill_G said

The message is clear to me, if we have a problem with T-bird, we should just vote with our feet and go use something else like webmail. They don't get it.

Not quite as simple as it sounds. But in those 11 years, there have been multiple changes of management.

First Mozilla created Thunderbird and Firefox, spun out of the Mozilla suite components. Thunderbird was the poor cousin in the family. Not much happened just for Thunderbird, Firefox was king

Then Mozilla spun off Mozilla Messaging a company that was dedicated to Mail like Mozilla co was devoted to Browsers, except Mozilla Messaging had no funding source so after a short and tumultuous existence where Version 3 of Thunderbird was rushed out the gate ahead of Firefox breaking the base code Thunderbird used the Mozila Messaging folk spend most of their existence chasing down and fixing the serious bugs in Version three.

Mozilla absorbed Mozilla Messaging again into Mozilla Labs. SO the focus on mail was lost with the Labs stuff and the starting of the Firefox quantum project basically leaving mail in a vacuum.

Then in 2012 Mozilla dropped Thunderbird development entirely. So for a number of years a team of volunteers basically kept the project from folding entirely. They went through a long process of trying to find a new legal home for the project and finally made arrangements with the Mozilla foundation for the legal coverage and fund raising started to start to address the years of neglect.

The somewhat better financial position was basically eaten up with the whole sale changes to the Mozilla platform that Thunderbird and Firefox are both built on. Mozilla ripped out the addon infrastructure, then decided that the XUL interface language used to crate the cross platform product was to go.

There has been a lot of complaints about the addon changes, but it was go with them and build a better moustrap on the new infrastructure, or close up shop and call Thunderbird dead. Same goes for the XUL changes. This has not yet hit the main three pan view with folder and lists, but the application menu, options have already changed to the new HTML based structure and V78 will see the account dialogs and new account wizards appear like the options do now.

But all of these things, in response to outside change detract from the efforts to actually move the application forward. Things like fixing the address book to use modern standards for things like vCard, CardDav and ldap might not impress the end user, but it is in adopting modern data interfaces that will encourage folk to be involved. Most folks outside of Mozilla have never heard of the MORK storage format used in many places in Thunderbird/ Mozilla. But I digress, my point is now finally the product is starting to shake off almost a decade of neglect and what the developers call technical debt. Things that should have been changes, but were left alone because they worked, not that anyone actually understood how or why.

So now Thunderbird is moving forward and a lot of these decade old issues are actually getting traction. Perhaps the most notable of late is the use of one line for multiple addresses when you compose a message. It is how Microsoft mail clients have done it forever, but finally Thunderbird has joined in. A small thing, but much needed by those that regularly add comma separated lists of email address to a message.

So while there is no answer to changing key configs, nor is there the ability to even do so in the new addon structures, so you simply can not do it with an addon even if you wanted to update it. Things are looking up. I stay with Thunderbird because I can not find a better product. My exposure in these forums does offer insights into other mail clients, and occasionally I will install one of the others for some reason. Most are pretty, Thunderbird is fairly dated as far as the user interface goes. Beyond that most of them lack features and control over your mail. All the effort has gone into the glossy parts.

One recent example has been the closure of incredimail. They had a desktop client and I am not sure how it all worked, but from the few posts in this forum it was a mess where you had to export your mail from their product before a certain date or you lost it. (it is also one of the reasons I am still wary of IMAP mail) But I do not think Incredimail was all IMAP.

Sorry, I realize it complicated, and suspect that if the developers aren't all volunteers, they probably aren't overpaid. If I had useful programming chops maybe I could offer to pitch in, but probably won't get there in this lifetime.

I should be more sympathetic. I maintain some Labview apps that they use in the student labs that guide them through analyzing motion in videos etc. They have asked for complex features that they want to be able to configure based on changes in curriculum etc. That's been on the back burner for a couple of years, but looks like I'll have time now... The idea of having to work in collaboration as the Mozilla developers probably do just gives me heartburn.

I'll probably continue with T-bird, as these things haven't really caused me pain, but I just won't be recommending it to friends and relatives who need a sort of Playschool email experience.