Editing Integrate with Mozilla Thunderbird

{{review}}
{{TipImported
|id=851
|previous=850
|next=852
|created=2005
|complexity=basic
|author=Stanislav
|version=5.7
|rating=99/31
|category1=Email
|category2=Integration
}}
There is finally an extension for Thunderbird that enables you to compose mail in an external editor.

You can find it at http://globs.org/?lng=en

It works also in Windows 2000, as well as Windows XP and Linux as the author claims. I couldn't make it work at first. You have to start a new message, right click the toolbar and add an icon for External Editor. Now, when you click on the icon, your mail is displayed in Vim.

==Comments==
A new extension that works with Thunderbird >= 91 is now available at https://github.com/Frederick888/external-editor-revived

Check out GitHub wiki page for installation and configuration guide.
----> Frankly, I think this tip should be removed. The plugin was last updated 2005 and it is not compatible with recent versions of Thunderbird anymore.

> Why not use a real mail client (pine, mutt) instead?

Because here at work I am stuck in Windows. I have tried using pine, mutt in Windows, even Sylpheed. They do not work as I expect.

At home I am using FreeBSD, and I am using Thunderbird as a mail client for our "family" address so my wife can use it too. The beauty is, she gets the default interface, and I can press Vim icon and get my preferred editor.

----
> Why not use a real mail client (pine, mutt) instead?

Obviously you have never tried managing multiple IMAP accounts with mutt.

----
The author has now fixed the bugs so that carriage returns are not shown in Windows and you can use "+set ft=mail" as an argument.

So my value for text editor is now

<pre>
gvim.exe "+set ft=mail"
</pre>

and it works very nicely.

If gvim is not in your path, you'll have to fully qualify it.

The docs say to use:

<pre>
gvim --nofork
</pre>

----
That extension does not support multibyte language. When writing mail in English, it works well.

I copy the content from Thunderbird to Vim, and then <code>:set syntax=mail</code>, then edit it, then paste it back to Thunderbird.

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Latest revision		Your text
Line 60:		Line 60:

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−	Use vim in a terminal is also possible for thunderbird's external editor. A small script can be downloaded from [http://www.fclose.com/b/linux/3301/vim-as-thunderbirds-external-editor-in-linux/ Fclose.com]. This provides a familiar way for many Linux users.