The best email client available in my opinion is Thunderbird, sibling to the Firefox web browser. What makes it the best email client? Aside from being absolutely free and incredibly easy to setup with a Gmail account, one of the main reasons for it’s popularity is the same thing that makes Firefox so popular, extensibility.

The following is a list of add-ons that make Thunderbird such an essential piece of software for me.

• WebMail: allows Thunderbird to send and receive emails using a number of different web based email accounts including yahoo and hotmail
• Lightning: Adds a calendar to Thunderbird for event and task scheduling.
• Check and Send: Checks the address and contents of a message, this add-on is good for a variety of checks including checking a message for attachments if the message contains specified words, or checking to insure recipients are (or aren’t) in a specified address book.
• Auto Zip Attachments: allows you to easily compress files attached to the message you’re composing.
• Identity Reminder: reminds you to select the correct “from” address before composing messages
• Identity Select: from the same developer as Identity Reminder this add-on allows you to select a “from” address from a context menu on the write button effectively bypassing identity reminder if it’s installed (they work in conjunction)
• ImportExportTools: easily import and export email messages or entire folders.
• Provider for Google Calendar: allows two way syncing between Lightning and Google Calendar.
• More Functions for Address Book: adds the ability to copy contact information form the context menu, import and export vCards and much more.
• Google Contacts: sync your Google contacts with your Thunderbird address book.
• Duplicate Contact Manager: allows you to edit and /or delete duplicate contacts in your address book.
• Remove Duplicate Messages: removes duplicate messages.
• Select Address Book Text: add the ability to copy address book text without opening the properties dialogue box.

Are there any must have Thunderbird add-ons you use not listed above? If so please tell me about it in the comments section below.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 8:29 pm and is filed under software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.