Introduction

I’ve been using Netscape and then Thunderbird as a mail client for many years. The main benefit of Thunderbird is its multi-platform support. At home my family and I use Linux, MacOS and Windows so with Thunderbird we can all use the same email client.

However one item that has always bothered me was the way replies and forwards are formatted in Thunderbird. Instead, I have do admit, I do like Outlook style replies. And with many companies using Outlook as their default mail client being able to setup replies in Thunderbird to look like replies in Outlook is even more important.

Thunderbird Setup

Thunderbird Extensions Installation

Use Tools > Add-ons to install the SmartTemplate and QuoteAndComposeManager extensions in Thunderbird. Restart Thunderbird after the extensions have been installed.

QuoteAndComposeManager Extension

In the QuoteAndComposeManager extension enable the Hide automatically borders option. This will hide the borders in HTML mails and delete the quoting character “>” in plain-text emails.

SmarTemplate Extension

In the SmartTemplate extension create templates for New, Reply and Forward – Note: by default all accounts defined in Thunderbird will use the same Common templates but if required each accounts can have their own custom templates. These templates will be used instead of the default signatures and replies/forwards in Thunderbird. Refer to the SmartTemplate documentation for more information about the reserved words that can be used in the templates.

New: This template will be used as a signature when composing a new email.

<br /><br />
<b>First Last</b><br />

FYI if you wish to display a picture in your signature you will have to use the moz-do-not-send=”false” tag as show below:

Reply: This template will be used when replying to an email.

<br /><br />
<hr style="height: 1px;border: none solid #000;color:#000;background-color:#000;" />
<b>From:</b> %from%
<b>Sent:</b> %datelocal%
<b>To:</b> %to(name)%{
<b>Cc:</b> %cc(name)%}
<b>Subject:</b> %subject%
<br />

Forward: This template will be used when forwarding an email. It is usually the same as the Reply template.

<br /><br />
<hr style="height: 1px;border: none solid #000;color:#000;background-color:#000;" />
<b>From:</b> %from%
<b>Sent:</b> %datelocal%
<b>To:</b> %to(name)%{
<b>Cc:</b> %cc(name)%}
<b>Subject:</b> %subject%
<br />

Thunderbird Account Settings

Since the signatures were defined in the SmartTemplate extension remove all the signatures for all your accounts.

Finally make sure to select start my reply above the quote and disable the Include signatures for replies and Include signatures for forwards options in the Composition & Addressing tab.

That’s it you’re done. Thunderbird is now setup to match Outlook replies and forward formatting.

Over a year ago my wife and I decided to renovate our house. This involved a full remodel of all the bathrooms and a re-layout of the kitchen and powder room. Because of the scope of the job we hired Rob Soluri from Home Revisions, Inc. of Austin TX to perform all framing, drywall, electrical, plumbing, tiling and painting work. Everything else including kitchen cabinets, appliances, bathroom fixtures, tiles, countertops and flooring we organized with local Austin companies directly. We also hired an interior designer, Laura Burton from Laura Burton Interiors to help us with the design phase.

One goal was to have most of the major work done while we were away on vacation in June and July 08. Looking back that was a mistake. Not because we didn’t trust the builder or thought the job couldn’t be done properly but because we lost control of our budget and decision making process.

During these 2 months we paid Home Revisions, Inc. all draw requests promptly but never received any invoices or receipts. We had no idea where the money was going to or what we were paying for. It was only in December 08 that we finally received all the invoices. Way too late for checking anything. Totally unacceptable.

Not only that but Home Revisions, Inc. made a number of decisions without prior consultation. We expected to get very detailed emails or pictures from Home Revisions, Inc. but most emails were short, with very few details and we never received any pictures of the work in progress.

Let’s take the stair case for example. To minimize cost, we wanted to keep the existing steps, risers and landing for now and only replace the railings. When we came back we found out that the entire stair case had been replaced. Not only was this a significant additional expense but at no time did he ask us what type of material we would like to use or how the stair case should look like. The stair case does look quite nice but it was not what we were looking for.

So we finally came back to Austin in early August 08. At first we were quite excited. The house looked quite good but after closer inspection we did find quite a few issues. Minor issues such as lights, switches and phone lines no longer working or receptacles in the wrong place but also major issues such as warped and crooked walls, off centered and crooked island hood, hot water not working in one bathroom or incorrect cabling for HDTV.

We actually did expect these kinds of problems. And to be fair we had issues with every single vendor we dealt with. We had to replace the tiles twice, some kitchen cabinets (and some still counting), the wooden floors and even the oven (we’re still waiting on that one actually). These are the situations where you can really judge the character of a business and see how well they deal with customers issues and solutions they provide.

Every one but Home Revisions, Inc. addressed and fixed all their issues in a professional manner. No one but Home Revisions, Inc. came back to us saying “absolutely not”. Some issues were dealt promptly but most took weeks of wrangling and complaining before Home Revisions, Inc. would finally agree to do anything. This made the project a tedious and stressful process. More than what it should have been.

And we are still wondering what would have happened if we had been away for another few weeks. For example when we got back we didn’t have any hot water in one of the showers. No one took the time to try to work out the problem so the advise was to replace a 5 year old hot water heater. After a week of cold showers I worked out the shower valve wasn’t installed properly. The hot water heater was just fine. They just looked for the easy way out.

To us it looked like Home Revisions, Inc. didn’t have a process in place to check on their contractor’s work. For the fee paid we were expecting to have him personally check on all the work performed and ensure that we were satisfied. Instead it was always a last minute rush to fix something.

Anyway we are finally done and are glad it’s over. Time to forget and move on…

So today we were supposed to get the countertops measured for the bathrooms. I already knew one of the pony walls was warped but it was much worse than expected. Over 1/2 inch over a distance of only 2 feet! Talk about poor workmanship. So now we have to wait another week for the pony wall to be fixed. That should have been done a long time ago. Looks like Rob from Home Revisions, Inc. cannot be bothered checking out the work done by his contractors. Instead we are always scrambling to get everything fixed at the last minute.

And the sad part is that quite a few other walls, windows and soffits are also off. Louzy work!