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question about reading habits

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Lu Wei

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May 10, 2013, 10:41:14 PM5/10/13
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First let me describe my reading habit :

I set view of messages to sort by date, which is normal for reading I
think, and collapsed thread, which gives a compact view and easy for a
quick glance.

When reading a group, I think important messages should be read first,
so I set view to "Watched threads with unread", after a quick glance of
titles, click to select the more important titles to read first, and
normally by hitting "n" to go through the threads and all the other less
important threads and processing them. Then, I switch the view to "All"
to check if there are some topic of interest. For a normal reader, I
think this habit is logically and practically efficient.

But I find TB not designed good enough to favor this kind of habit.
First it do not recognize "my posts"; I have to set a filter to mark my
post as "Watch thread", and "Read" (or I will read my own post once
again), which is not at hand for a novice. Second, the switch of view is
not convenient: I must click 3 times to set view from "Watched threads
with unread" to "All", and another 3 click to switch it back. I noticed
that the toolbar can be customized to have a "view" button, but it only
gives "All" or "Unread" option, and other views defined by message headers.

I'd like to have your comment. Can something be done to solve the
inconvenience of switching view, like some add-on or request an
enhancement on Bugzilla? Or do you have a better reading method? Thanks.

--
Regards,
Lu Wei
PGP key ID: 0x92CCE1EA

Mark Filipak

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May 10, 2013, 11:47:02 PM5/10/13
to support-t...@lists.mozilla.org
Well, Lu Wei, I think you're going through a lot of wasted motion, but I
hesitate to be critical even though you invite criticism because I myself don't
like it when someone goes off on an irrelevant tangent, but here goes...

I ALWAYS have 'View' > 'Threads' set to 'All'. I never change it and still I go
through my mail very quickly. The unread messages are usually the most recent
messages... but... ...um, Did you know that the message pane has a 'Read'
column? It highlights the messages that have NOT been read and also puts a
little ball next to them. The column heading has a picture of a pair of glasses
(at least, I think it's a pair of glasses). You can even sort on that column to
be sure the unread messages are all together.

I understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, but I seems like a
bunch of monkey motions to me.
--
The Insect Hall of Fame:
Thunderbird Bug 121947 - 11 years and counting.

Poutnik

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May 11, 2013, 2:03:03 AM5/11/13
to

Mark Filipak posted Fri, 10 May 2013 23:47:02 -0400


> Well, Lu Wei, I think you're going through a lot of wasted motion, but I
> hesitate to be critical even though you invite criticism because I myself don't
> like it when someone goes off on an irrelevant tangent, but here goes...
>
> I ALWAYS have 'View' > 'Threads' set to 'All'. I never change it and still I go
> through my mail very quickly. The unread messages are usually the most recent
> messages... but... ...um, Did you know that the message pane has a 'Read'
> column? It highlights the messages that have NOT been read and also puts a
> little ball next to them. The column heading has a picture of a pair of glasses
> (at least, I think it's a pair of glasses). You can even sort on that column to
> be sure the unread messages are all together.
>
> I understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, but I seems like a
> bunch of monkey motions to me.

Do you apply the approach to both emails and Usenet groups ?
As it seems to me Lu Wei may had in mind the latter.

Note that I use TB for emails only,
using for Usentet dedicated client Gravity.

It seems to me much more convenient that TB.

--
Poutnik ( Vista64 HPremium, PaleMoon 32b, TB )

Ken Springer

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May 11, 2013, 2:13:08 AM5/11/13
to
I have no TB solution for you, but...

Why not install a good Macro Recorder? Then simply select the
appropriate macro you've created to do all the switching?


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.3
Firefox 20.0
Thunderbird 17.0.5
LibreOffice 4.0.1.2

Mark Filipak

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May 11, 2013, 2:25:41 AM5/11/13
to support-t...@lists.mozilla.org
On 2013/5/11 2:03 AM, Poutnik wrote:
>
> Mark Filipak posted Fri, 10 May 2013 23:47:02 -0400
>
>> Well, Lu Wei, I think you're going through a lot of wasted motion, but I
>> hesitate to be critical even though you invite criticism because I myself don't
>> like it when someone goes off on an irrelevant tangent, but here goes...
>>
>> I ALWAYS have 'View' > 'Threads' set to 'All'. I never change it and still I go
>> through my mail very quickly. The unread messages are usually the most recent
>> messages... but... ...um, Did you know that the message pane has a 'Read'
>> column? It highlights the messages that have NOT been read and also puts a
>> little ball next to them. The column heading has a picture of a pair of glasses
>> (at least, I think it's a pair of glasses). You can even sort on that column to
>> be sure the unread messages are all together.
>>
>> I understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, but I seems like a
>> bunch of monkey motions to me.
>
> Do you apply the approach to both emails and Usenet groups ?

Ah... I don't belong to any newsgroups.

> As it seems to me Lu Wei may had in mind the latter.

You're probably right. My bad.

Ron K.

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May 11, 2013, 3:04:59 AM5/11/13
to
Lu Wei on 5/10/2013 10:41 PM, keyboarded a reply:
Take a look in the Toolbar Pallet for the View widget. Opening the
widget provides a drop-down which includes access to making a Custom
View. Not exactly what I think you are asking for, but it is a built in
feature.

--
Ron K.
Who is General Failure, and why is he searching my HDD?
Kernel Restore reported Major Error used BSOD to msg the enemy!

Ron Hunter

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May 11, 2013, 4:46:09 AM5/11/13
to
Mine is rather simple. I read all new messages in each group I follow.
I have buttons on my pointing device programmed to go the bottom of a
long post, and to the next unread message. Simple, quick, and easy.
But then I am retired with plenty of time to do things the easy way.

WaltS

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May 11, 2013, 9:40:51 AM5/11/13
to
On 05/10/2013 10:41 PM, Lu Wei wrote:
> First let me describe my reading habit :
>
> I set view of messages to sort by date, which is normal for reading I
> think, and collapsed thread, which gives a compact view and easy for a
> quick glance.
>

I sort by date, all threads, messages set to view unread.

> When reading a group, I think important messages should be read first,
> so I set view to "Watched threads with unread", after a quick glance of
> titles, click to select the more important titles to read first, and
> normally by hitting "n" to go through the threads and all the other less
> important threads and processing them. Then, I switch the view to "All"
> to check if there are some topic of interest. For a normal reader, I
> think this habit is logically and practically efficient.

I switch view to "All" if I want to check a previous post. Never use
watched threads with unread.

>
> But I find TB not designed good enough to favor this kind of habit.
> First it do not recognize "my posts"; I have to set a filter to mark my
> post as "Watch thread", and "Read" (or I will read my own post once
> again), which is not at hand for a novice. Second, the switch of view is
> not convenient: I must click 3 times to set view from "Watched threads
> with unread" to "All", and another 3 click to switch it back. I noticed
> that the toolbar can be customized to have a "view" button, but it only
> gives "All" or "Unread" option, and other views defined by message headers.
>

I don't do any of this, so don't have your problems.

> I'd like to have your comment. Can something be done to solve the
> inconvenience of switching view, like some add-on or request an
> enhancement on Bugzilla? Or do you have a better reading method? Thanks.
>

Don't know of any extensions, or filed bugs. My reading method works for
me. May not be for everyone. I have not experimented with other settings.

--
openSUSE 12.3 (64-bit) KDE 4.10.2
Thunderbird Daily 23.0a1

Keith Nuttle

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May 11, 2013, 10:07:02 AM5/11/13
to
On 5/10/2013 11:47 PM, Mark Filipak wrote:
> On 2013/5/10 10:41 PM, Lu Wei wrote:
>> First let me describe my reading habit :
>>
>> I set view of messages to sort by date, which is normal for reading I
>> think,
>> and collapsed thread, which gives a compact view and easy for a quick
>> glance.

>> I'd like to have your comment. Can something be done to solve the
>> inconvenience
>> of switching view, like some add-on or request an enhancement on
>> Bugzilla? Or
>> do you have a better reading method? Thanks.

> I ALWAYS have 'View' > 'Threads' set to 'All'. I never change it and
> still I go through my mail very quickly. The unread messages are usually
> the most recent messages... but... ...um, Did you know that the message
> pane has a 'Read' column? It highlights the messages that have NOT been
> read and also puts a little ball next to them. The column heading has a
> picture of a pair of glasses (at least, I think it's a pair of glasses).
> You can even sort on that column to be sure the unread messages are all
> together.
>
> I understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, but I seems
> like a bunch of monkey motions to me.

I have both newsgroups and mail accounts set to "Unread" I have Threads
set to all. ie no threads.

I sort the Subject column ascending. This orders the messages by
Subject (Threads)and usually in the order they are received.

I have customized the toolbars by moved all of the message processing
icons,( mark read, delete, Spam, forward arrow, etc.) into the right end
of the toolbar in both the main window above the message list, and
message window itself,

I also have the addon installed "Mark them All Read" the icon for this
icon is placed with the other processing icons.

The results are I can place the mouse pointer in the area of the
processing icons, and quickly go through all of the new messages and
mail. If I find I wish to go back to a previously received message,
the View window is there to quickly change back to ALL. Since the
subject column is sorted, all of the messages in the thread will be in
the same place.

There is a parameter that will allow the arrows to advance to the next
unread message whether it is in the same news group or the next. (It
has been years since I changed this but if you can not easily find it I
will search through may notes.)

I hope this helps and answers your question.


Lu Wei

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May 12, 2013, 2:37:56 AM5/12/13
to

>> As it seems to me Lu Wei may had in mind the latter.

Yes, my concern is about public groups, newsgroup or mail group.

Lu Wei

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May 12, 2013, 3:05:31 AM5/12/13
to
On 2013-5-11 22:07, Keith Nuttle wrote:
>
> I sort the Subject column ascending. This orders the messages by
> Subject (Threads)and usually in the order they are received.
How can that be? Sorting by subject will disorder the date column.
>
> I have customized the toolbars by moved all of the message processing
> icons,( mark read, delete, Spam, forward arrow, etc.) into the right end
> of the toolbar in both the main window above the message list, and
> message window itself,
>
> I also have the addon installed "Mark them All Read" the icon for this
> icon is placed with the other processing icons.
>
> The results are I can place the mouse pointer in the area of the
> processing icons, and quickly go through all of the new messages and
> mail. If I find I wish to go back to a previously received message,
> the View window is there to quickly change back to ALL. Since the
> subject column is sorted, all of the messages in the thread will be in
> the same place.
>
I am using Thinkpad's red tip pointer without a mouse, and being kinds
of geeky I prefer to use keyboard shortcuts to go through the messages.
IIRC "Mark them All Read" is shift+C, and "go back to a previously
received message" is "[".

> There is a parameter that will allow the arrows to advance to the next
> unread message whether it is in the same news group or the next. (It
> has been years since I changed this but if you can not easily find it I
> will search through may notes.)
>
Isn't it keyboard "n" that do advancing to the next unread message?

> I hope this helps and answers your question.
Thanks for your sharing.

Lu Wei

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May 12, 2013, 3:08:35 AM5/12/13
to
On 2013-5-11 14:13, Ken Springer wrote:

>
> I have no TB solution for you, but...
>
> Why not install a good Macro Recorder? Then simply select the
> appropriate macro you've created to do all the switching?
>
Could you suggest one? Searching for add-on using keyword "macro" do not
return any results.

Lu Wei

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May 12, 2013, 3:14:15 AM5/12/13
to
On 2013-5-11 15:04, Ron K. wrote:
> Take a look in the Toolbar Pallet for the View widget. Opening the
> widget provides a drop-down which includes access to making a Custom
> View. Not exactly what I think you are asking for, but it is a built in
> feature.
>
I am not sure whether "the View widget" is the same thing that I have
mentioned. Right click the toolbar -> customize -> pull the "mail view"
item to the toolbar, and a view item with drop-down options will appear.
But it only has "All" or "Unread" option, not the same as the view ->
threads menu.

Lu Wei

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May 12, 2013, 3:24:21 AM5/12/13
to
On 2013-5-11 16:46, Ron Hunter wrote:
> Mine is rather simple. I read all new messages in each group I follow.
> I have buttons on my pointing device programmed to go the bottom of a
> long post, and to the next unread message. Simple, quick, and easy.
> But then I am retired with plenty of time to do things the easy way.
>
The helps are from people like you who read them all! Thank you.

Lu Wei

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May 12, 2013, 3:40:28 AM5/12/13
to
On 2013-5-11 21:40, WaltS wrote:

>
Thank you. I don't want to read every message: worrying about time all
the time. Kinda sick maybe.

Poutnik

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May 12, 2013, 6:02:08 AM5/12/13
to

Lu Wei posted Sun, 12 May 2013 15:05:31 +0800


> I am using Thinkpad's red tip pointer without a mouse, and being kinds
> of geeky I prefer to use keyboard shortcuts to go through the messages.
>

I use ThinkPad T400 for 4 years art work. It is already 4 years
when I gave up trying to get familiar with this pointer.

I found myself unable to point and click where I want. :-D

Poutnik

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May 12, 2013, 6:04:53 AM5/12/13
to

Poutnik posted Sun, 12 May 2013 12:02:08 +0200

>
> I use ThinkPad T400 for 4 years art work.

Hehe, *at* work, not "art work".

WaltS

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May 12, 2013, 9:17:46 AM5/12/13
to
On 05/12/2013 03:40 AM, Lu Wei wrote:
> On 2013-5-11 21:40, WaltS wrote:
>
>>
> Thank you. I don't want to read every message: worrying about time all
> the time. Kinda sick maybe.
>

I don't recall saying I read every message. I read the ones of interest,
then mark the folder read.

About time, well...

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XcKBmdfpWs>

--
openSUSE 12.3 (64-bit) KDE 4.10.2
Thunderbird Release
(Why's everybody always picking on me)
"Charlie Brown" by The Coasters - 1958

Lu Wei

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May 12, 2013, 9:24:05 AM5/12/13
to
On 2013-5-12 18:02, Poutnik wrote:
>
> Lu Wei posted Sun, 12 May 2013 15:05:31 +0800
>
>
>> I am using Thinkpad's red tip pointer without a mouse, and being kinds
>> of geeky I prefer to use keyboard shortcuts to go through the messages.
>>
>
> I use ThinkPad T400 for 4 years art work. It is already 4 years
> when I gave up trying to get familiar with this pointer.
>
> I found myself unable to point and click where I want. :-D
>
Yes it is hard to use. I hope the screen could be transformed to a touch
screen.

Ken Springer

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May 12, 2013, 9:54:23 AM5/12/13
to
On 5/12/13 1:08 AM, Lu Wei wrote:
> On 2013-5-11 14:13, Ken Springer wrote:
>
>>
>> I have no TB solution for you, but...
>>
>> Why not install a good Macro Recorder? Then simply select the
>> appropriate macro you've created to do all the switching?
>>
> Could you suggest one? Searching for add-on using keyword "macro" do not
> return any results.

I can't recommend a specific macro recorder, I haven't used one since
the Windows for Workgroup days. I got away from automating my
repetitive actions, went the way of the average user who doesn't care if
it takes him 10 keyclicks to do what can be done with one when the
computer is set up differently than it comes out of the box.

I searched this phrase, "windows 7 macro recorder", and these are some
of the results:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_macro_recorder_software
www.guardian.co.uk/technology/askjack/2011/mar/24/automating-windows
www.jitbit.com/macro-recorder/
www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-hotkey-macro-recorder-utility.htm
www.soft-zilla.com/2012/04/free-mouse-macro-recorder.html
dottech.org/11230/do-it-again-simple-easy-to-use-free-macro-recorder-that-gets-the-job-done/
download.cnet.com/Auto-Macro-Recorder/3000-2094_4-10073153.html

As I said, I don't have any specific recommendation.

Before my MS days, now basically past me, and when computers were far
less powerful than today, I used macros all the time for launching items
from the desktop.

MS included a macro recorder with Windows for Workgroups, but dropped it
with Win 95. OS X includes one that, from what I've seen in
demonstrations, can do truly amazing things, running a series of
programs, doing something in each one successively. Repetitively.

Let's say you generated a list of photos using the search function, and
there's a couple hundred of them. All of the photos are the generic
file name IMGXXXX.jpg. Setting my Finder window (directory window) to
Cover Flow (a view that Windows does not have, at least natively), and
using the OS X recorder, I could have the computer select a file, I type
a new name and press Return, the computer saves the file, and moves to
the next one. I type a new name, press return. Computer takes me to
the next photo. Type a name, press return. Type a name, press return.
Type a name, press return. A lot faster than doing the steps manually.

Lu Wei

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May 12, 2013, 8:12:28 PM5/12/13
to
I see, what you mean is global macro recorder, not a TB add-on. I have
not touched these kind of programs, though I have experience about
macros in text editors and MS Excel. I'll investigate. Thank you.

Lu Wei

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May 12, 2013, 8:24:04 PM5/12/13
to
On 2013-5-12 21:17, WaltS wrote:
> On 05/12/2013 03:40 AM, Lu Wei wrote:
>> On 2013-5-11 21:40, WaltS wrote:
>>
>>>
>> Thank you. I don't want to read every message: worrying about time all
>> the time. Kinda sick maybe.
>>
>
> I don't recall saying I read every message. I read the ones of interest,
> then mark the folder read.
Yeah that's what I do too, after I checked the watched thread.
>
> About time, well...
>
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XcKBmdfpWs>
>
No time to watch it full :) Thanks for the music!

Lu Wei

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May 19, 2013, 12:51:32 AM5/19/13
to
On 2013-5-12 21:54, Ken Springer wrote:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_macro_recorder_software
>
Following the links I tried Autohotkey, and it proved to be the right
choice for me. Apart from TB I also added some other frequently used
tasks. It really can make life easier. Thank you.

ps. It makes one think of a customizable key mapping feature request...
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