Introduction to Thunderbird, part 6, installing add-ons (and Lightning!)

OK, so now we've come a fair bit along the way of getting to know Thunderbird.  But some of the best still remains.. :)

It is possible to change how Thundebird works and/or add new functionality, through the use of add-ons.  Add-ons are readily available in Thunderbird, and now I will show you a bit about installing add-ons, as well as using an add-on (in this case Lightning, a full-featured calendar solution that plugs into Thunderbird).

Let's get started..  we start with the initial Thunderbird view and getting to the add-ons tab:

Above you first select the Tools menu, and then click on add-ons.  If the menubar with Tools etc. isn't visible, try pressing down F10 on the keyboard and it should appear.

Click on the Lightning (highlighted) and the following screen appears:

Click on the green "Add to Thunderbird" button, and the following should appear (if it doesn't, don't worry and go to the next step):

Wait for the countdown to finish and it will be possible to click on "Install now".  Press "Install Now".  When the add-on is installed, the screen should appear as below, and you can restart Thunderbird to have it working with the new add-on.

And here's how the initial view of Thunderbird with the Lightning Calendar add-on should look, in the area to the right that is highlighted:

You can press on the icon in the upper left of the highlighted area.  This will bring up the calendar in full view, as seen here:

I've highlighted the add Event and add Task buttons.  First, let's press on the add Event button and this screen should appear:

Here you can enter various information about the event you want to add. I've set the Title (subject), nothing on Location and selected the Business category.  Calendar: Home is the default calendar (you can add more, but more about that in another article).  The event needs a start and an end, and repeat/reminder we'll cover later.  Description is whatever else you need to jot down about the event, that is useful to keep with the event.  OK - so enter your info and press "Save and Close".

Next up we'll add a task.  Press on the add Task button, and the following window should appear:

The Title is a short description of the task, Location isn't set, nor is category.  Calendar: Home is again the default calendar, and we set a start and end date and time for the task.  I was adding this task as I was working on it, so "In Process" was set as status, and I guess I was about 40% complete when I entered this task.  Again we have repeat and reminder, this time I'm setting a reminder 5 minutes before the task begins.

OK, so press "Save and Close" and Thunderbird should look something like this with the calendar view:

As you see, I've highlighted the event and task we've added.  You can explore a bit more yourself, try for example to right-click on the event or task and you'll get some options.

OK, that's it for this article, hope you found it fun, interesting and useful. :)

This is the sixth article in a series about Thunderbird, if you have Thunderbird-related topics you want covered here, let us know. Comments on this article, thumbs up or flames, can be sent to articles@nidelven-it.no. If you need help using Thunderbird, we recommend using the Thunderbird forums.

If you know a language or languages besides English and would like to translate these articles, let us know via articles@nidelven-it.no as well. :)

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