Hmm, perhaps you need to consider using tags to mark the items you need to follow up instead of tabs. I say this because the session.json file used to store tabs is considers a cache and an update could remove all your tabs, as well as other programs such as ccleaner that routinely delete it.

I can not get the option to do anything either, so that is probably a bug. But I really do not know the cause as yet.

It appears this "Date Display Modifier" for "Today's Messages" may have been discussed for several years back where users have addressed this question, possibly unsuccessfully.

For my display of messages that will stay open for days, weeks, etc., I open each message as its own individually displayed message, lay them out separately on a second monitor, stack messages on the same thread in a cascade with the top edge bar displayed (with the subject) so any can be clicked on from a corner. What I have to do ritualistically and time consumingly, is to wait to the next day, click each message (bringing it to the front), find it in the inbox, reopen it (now with the date showing), then close the original message (without the date), and finally, resize the new message to match the cascade and position it in the cascade where its almost-twin had been located.

I'd really like all messages to display as Value 2, e.g. "mail.ui.display.dateformat.default" for "Older Messages" e.g. "Friday, December 31 2003 10:23 AM" but my "about:config" dialog box in my configuration editor when searching for "mail.ui" doesn't display "mail.ui.display.dateformat.default"... do I have to add it, or perhaps possibly "create" it? It does display three matching choices: (1) "mail.ui-rdf.version," (2) "mail.ui.display.dateformat.today" and (3) "mail.ui.folderpane.version." I'm using Version 45.1.1 of Thunderbird on a Windows 7 machine.

Thanks very much for the assist!

You do indeed need to create (add) an absent setting. Right-click in the larger window in Config Editor, select "new". You need to know something about what sort of entry it is. The choices are "string", "integer" or "boolean". This one is "integer" because it takes one of a series of simple numerical values.

Thunderbird's tabs are weak in that they don't remember and restore the cursor position. I have better things to do with my screen space than litter it with email messages.

I'd use tags, as suggested, and I sometimes use calendar Events to remind me to follow up. Calendar Tasks might be more appropriate than Events, but I prefer a periodic reminder and I'm not sure that Tasks can do that.

Your approach reminds me of my colleagues who have a border of post-it notes around their monitor. It always seems to me that unless you have a strict regime of clearing them, they just turn into visual clutter that becomes part of the scenery and one just switches off and ignores them. It wouldn't work for me.

My Inbox is my "to-do" tray. Anything in it is "pending" and needs attention. Anything that has been dealt with will be deleted or filed in an appropriate folder. And by using IMAP, it appears the same in each of my computers, so I'm not relying on a fragile arrangement of windows on one particular machine.

The date format switch has always worked for me, and I find that having the date omitted from today's messages actually works as a useful visual cue to help in spotting new items. I've tried showing the date and it just blurs that very useful distinction between new ("pending") and "dealt with" or "in hand".

When something is hard to do, or requires painstaking effort, it usually means you're doing something that the designers hadn't anticipated or had even explicitly rule out. Your persistent windows carefully placed and left open for extended periods are definitely something that hadn't been anticipated.

Re the article "Date display format" http://kb.mozillazine.org/Date_display_format, I right clicked in the configuration editor, selected "New" "Integer" and pasted "mail.ui.display.dateformat.default" entered the Integer value of 1, [Attempting to have the format read like "Friday, December 31 2003 10:23 AM"], verified the entry was displayed correctly in the editor as a 4th entry, and closed the editor; but there was no change in the date format in any message I opened. Later I also closed Thunderbird (although many messages remained open), to see if that would help, it didn't. What I did notice, when I went back to the configuration editor and searched for "mail.ui", was that a previous item was gone, apparently replaced by my paste. Before any changes were made, it previously displayed three choices: (1) "mail.ui-rdf.version," (2) "mail.ui.display.dateformat.today" and (3) "mail.ui.folderpane.version." During editing, it added my new paste, which was then the 4th item. Now, when I reopened the configuration editor, choice (2) "mail.ui.display.dateformat.today" was gone and it was replaced with the new paste "mail.ui.display.dateformat.default" in that second position. Interestingly, (the same as before I had done any editing), there were now only 3 items displayed, not 4, where I had added a "New" item. In any case, absolutely nothing changed in the emails I opened. If an email was from today, it simply showed the time (no change), and if it was from another day it still showed the date and time in the original unchanged format, e.g. "7/24/2016 8:00 AM". Nothing I do seems to change anything in the Date area.

As a point of reference, I completely closed Thunderbird and all my messages, (Task Manager, End Process Tree) to determine if changes would take effect; when I reopened Thunderbird, unfortunately, no changes had occurred. I've been completely unsuccessful in accomplishing anything at all (other than changing what's displayed in the configuration editors display of the second entry).

Again, thanks to all.

I seriously doubt that the prefs ever still work. I did do some research some days ago that indicated that they may have stopped working in the TB24 time frame.

Very oddly, only in the Inbox's main display window's date column, the date format changed to the long format (e.g. Wednesday, July 6, 2016 9:06 PM) for mail before July 22nd; after that date it was just the short version, (e.g. 07/23/16 9:02 PM), except mail from "today", which only had the time, no date (e.g. 2:06 PM). Interestingly, when I open any mail, including the mail from before July 22nd with the long date displayed in the inbox date column, each opened mail doesn't display the long date either.

I really don't need the long date, I just need all mail I open, including today's mail, to show the date, and that just never happens... any help will be very appreciated!

TRy this addon: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/thunderbird/addon/super-date-format/

Although it says it works for versions 10 to 21, I can get it to work in 45.2

In order to install a downloaded extension, please do the following:

1. Click the menu button and choose Add-ons.
2. Drag your downloaded XPI file to the Add-ons Manager tab and drop it.

or

1. Click the menu button and choose Add-ons.
2. Click the gear icon at the top-right corner to the left of the search box and select Install Add-on From File…
3. Locate the XPI file you downloaded and click Open.
4. You may need to restart Thunderbird when prompted.

For more detailed instructions and information about installing add-ons, see Installing an Add-on in Thunderbird.

Dear Toad-Hall, I tried to install the Add-on you suggested, “super_date_format-1.1-tb.xpi” but it was unsigned and my Thunderbird 45.2.0 wouldn't accept it. I read about how to install unsigned Add-ons: “Override add-on signing (advanced users)” set “xpinstall.signatures.required to false in the Firefox Configuration Editor.” I went to the config editor to set the blocking to “False” and found it was already set for “False”, so no changes were made there, but I still couldn’t get the Add-on to install… I received this message “This add-on could not be installed because it has not been verified.” Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

There's no point in setting preferences in Firefox when you want them to apply in Thunderbird.

I didn't think Thunderbird refuses unsigned add-ons; I'm sure I have several such installed and working myself. Sure you're not trying to install the add-on into Firefox?

Zenos said

I didn't think Thunderbird refuses unsigned add-ons; I'm sure I have several such installed and working myself. Sure you're not trying to install the add-on into Firefox?

Nope, and we have no intention in going down that road unless there is some software issue that forces it. There is nothing there by grief as far as I can see.

We will however be removing support for Binary add-ons. This causes some issues for Lightning as it is binary, but work is progressing to fix that. Regardless binary add-ons will go as they are just to fragile.

Hi everyone, thanks for your help.

I just successfully loaded the “super_date_format-1.1-tb.xpi” in Thunderbird (I had mistakenly tried to load it into Firefox instead of Thunderbird and of course that didn't work) and it does allow me to nicely customize the date column, so I added the abbreviated day of the week and a few other tweaks, e.g. Sun 08/14/16 01:02 AM. Unfortunately, the date column display was never a problem in the first place, although it displays better now.

My issue is that an opened email doesn't show the date (only the time) in the upper right hand corner when it's "today's" mail. I open all mail the same day I receive it, and I leave multiple mails open for days/weeks, tile-stacked-cascaded, perhaps 50 or more on my second monitor. Since none have dates, its a real problem as I have no way to tell when they were from, which is key to the whole process of addressing the reported issues depicted in the emails. Can anyone please tell me how to have the date always displayed on each and every message, irrespective of whether it's opened the same day received or not.

So it's a poor way to manage email.

Why would you expect a window you opened last week to be dynamically updated? Leaving documents open for extended periods is just not an expected way to use a GUI based system.

An email message is a document. You opened it. It is assumed that if you left it opened that's the way you wanted it. There would be howls of protest if documents left open in other contexts (e.g. word processors) were spontaneously modified by the OS.

You have chosen and evolved a unique and clumsy way (IMHO) to manage your email. You are going to be swimming upstream all the way.

Hi Zenos, I very much appreciate you (and everyone else) making an effort to help me out. I'm very sorry my writing has given you an incorrect impression of my needs. I agree there need not be any dynamic updating of any email, and I never intended the reader to think I've made such a request, so I hope you don't mind if I re-ask for everyone's help, hopefully more clearly, below.

All I need is that on every email I open, that email will have displayed both the date and time, e.g. 8/13/16 5:43 PM. At present, when I open a new email received today, the date is missing (suppressed), e.g. 7:02 AM. If I open an older email, say from yesterday, the date and time will display just fine, e.g. 8/13/16 5:43 PM. That simple request is what I need on every email.

Can anyone please tell me how to have both the date and time always display on each and every message, irrespective of whether it's opened the same day received or opened on another day.

Thank you to everyone who's trying to help, It's very apreciated.

I had a look at the source code and found a settings item that affects the date/time display in the message view window that is giving you grief. Unfortunately, the user preference I found just switches it between sender's time and recipient's time, but doesn't touch the date/time formatting. At least this gives me a hook to follow up, but my hunch is that this particular format decision is hard coded. I think if there had been a user preference for the date/time format it would have been close by.

Just to go round this particular buoy once again; in leaving windows open indefinitely, you are doing something highly unusual and not anticipated by the designers. They didn't expect anyone having a need to adjust the presentation format.

I'd suggest you raise it as a bug, but in all honesty I can't see it gaining much traction.

On a slightly different tack, I needed to swap from time-only to date-and-time format (just in case it was copying or tracking the date format used elsewhere), and it all worked perfectly on my Linux box, contrary to what you and Matt have reported about these settings being ineffective.

I'm very fortunate and thank you for expending your time and high level expertise on my behalf.

With regard to a broader picture of Thunderbird users who may possibly benefit from this inquiry, I'd like to offer a very simple reason that some may be able to benefit from a Date and Time on every message (rather than just the time on messages of today). If one were to open one or two messages today just before going home (no date on either), and leave them open, then on the next morning open another one or two new messages (no dates on them either) and then go to a morning meeting, when they returned, since none of the messages had a date on them, it might be difficult to know which was from today, which one was from yesterday, and using the time alone (no date displayed) wouldn't be enough. But if all messages showed the date (none in this example showed a date) one could determine how to respond. When one would write their response, the wording in response to yesterday's message might be quite different than wording to a message from an hour ago. This describes what I'm up against, as I usually have 60+ messages a day, of which some are just closed without a response, and always several must remain open so I can respond once I've done my research and the information being sought is obtained; and frequently it can take quite some time to get an answer to respond with, as I have to send multiple emails to other departments and wait for their response, hence many messages are left open for several days, and unfortunately, none have dates on them.

Again, Thank you so very much. I hope you can find a way to have each and every email I open display both the Date and Time every time... and I hope others can benefit from your work as well.

can you link me to the code Zenos? If I can identify the element there is a chance we can override the hard coded format.

Matt, what I have, and it's not a lot, is this preference:

// display time and date in message pane using senders timezone pref("mailnews.display.date_senders_timezone", false);

which I found in mailnews.js, under mailnews in the src folders.

I don't know enough about Thunderbird to know how to find where this preference is actually put into play, but as it acts on the particular display element that our OP is interested in, it may at least tell us where a change should be made.

Chart: your example assumes, yet again, that someone would choose to leave a message open as an aide memoire. I simply wouldn't consider doing this. I'd leave it in the Inbox, so I'd encounter it next time I checked for new mail, or I'd mark it in some way - unread, star, tag, whatever, or I'd move it to a folder set by just for urgent or important jobs.

You could just enable full headers as that will have the full date. 'View' > 'Headers' > 'All'

eg: From, Subject, Reply-to, To, Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2016 07:40:21 -0000 - you can adjust the height of the header display section so that you do not see all of the headers.

It does not alter the displayed 'time' section for emails received that day, but at least you can instantly see the Date as required.

Toad-Hall: I had tried that solution 'View' > 'Headers' > 'All' and it displayed exactly as you mentioned, but at that time, and then again today, I was unable to 'mouse position arrow up-dn pointer click-grab' to move the top pane size to a smaller size, with the idea being the header wouldn't occupy the entire small box of the email, where I must see the content displayed. As well, the TAG is further down in the header in the 'All" mode', and with the window height fixed (even if it could be made smaller), the very important tag is just below view, so it already doesn't display the tag. Just for information of others, is there a method for grabbing the divider line to make the header less/more tall?

Zenos: You're spot on with your suggestion "I'd mark it in some way - unread, star, tag, whatever, or I'd move it". You're certainly correct, and I already do all of that, seven different Tags/Colors, Starred, etc.. Tags are how I differentiate categories of messages for different business divisions, and star to highlight certain sub categories within each business. Folders are also well used for special projects that repeat periodically. My main inbox has 28,000 messages 2015-2016 after I recently moved 20K messages from the previous year to a 2014 folder, and by keeping a substantial part of the messages in one inbox folder, I can do a quick "Filter" quite readily and simply, to find several needles in my huge haystack. The messages on my second top screen are my at-a-glance "message board" which I set the font size in each message to the smallest (Ctrl+ -) and this allows me to see part of the the message (depending how long it is) and, if I leave it scrolled down appropriately, their phone number is handily on display. It's a very busy, sometimes frenetic New York multi-business environment and my message board provides instant visual access to each moments tasks without stopping from doing the work I'm involved with on my lower screen, spreadsheets, web chats, letter writing, scanning, etc..

Thanks again to all for your efforts to find a way to have each message always display both the date and time, irrespective of whether it's opened the same day received, where at present, the date would be suppressed when today's mail is opened when received.

Your suggestions are very well appreciated!