Thunderbird Window Suddenly Too Wide

[David E. Ross]

PC
Windows XP SP3
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.7)
Gecko/20100713 Thunderbird/3.1.1
TB3 Classic theme 1.1.7

We just had a momentary power interruption while I was reading a
newsgroup. My PC rebooted.

When I again launched Thunderbird [View > Layout > Wide View], the
Thunderbird window was too wide. I can't see the right end of the
window, and there is no horizontal scroll bar. Some messages are longer
than the window is high, but the vertical scroll bar is apparently too
far to the right for me to use.

When I view the window as less than maximized, there is still no
vertical scroll bar. If I minimize and then open the window (maximized
or not), the problem still exists. If I terminate Thunderbird and
relaunch it, the problem still exists. How do I restore Thunderbird's
window to be maximized within the available space on my monitor?

--

David E. Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>.

Anyone who thinks government owns a monopoly on inefficient, obstructive
bureaucracy has obviously never worked for a large corporation.
© 1997 by David E. Ross

[Mike Easter]

David E. Ross wrote:
> Windows XP SP3
> Thunderbird/3.1.1

> We just had a momentary power interruption while I was reading a
> newsgroup. My PC rebooted.
>
> When I again launched Thunderbird [View > Layout > Wide View], the
> Thunderbird window was too wide.

You need to be sure that your resolution is optimal for your monitor and
your viewing pleasure - (somehow it got to be) the size of the Tbird
window is not 'right' for your res - apparently some config 'slipped'
because of the abnormal shutdown.

> I can't see the right end of the
> window, and there is no horizontal scroll bar.

You need to grab the Tbird titlebar and move the window to the left so
that you can see its right side.

> Some messages are longer
> than the window is high, but the vertical scroll bar is apparently too
> far to the right for me to use.

If you can't see the bottom edge of the window, you also need to use the
titlebar move to get it into view.

> When I view the window as less than maximized, there is still no
> vertical scroll bar.

You *must* view the window as less than maximized by adjusting that
non-maximized size to whatever you want it to be. Maximized is the wrong
setting for customizing window size.

> If I minimize and then open the window (maximized
> or not), the problem still exists. If I terminate Thunderbird and
> relaunch it, the problem still exists. How do I restore Thunderbird's
> window to be maximized within the available space on my monitor?

Don't maximize it, keep it in a 'resizable' condition. If you can't move
the window by grabbing its titlebar so that you can see the bottom of a
resizable window, you have to temporarily make some 'weird' res so that
you can get access to the bottom. You can always get the R window edge
by moving the window to the left.

--
Mike Easter

[Mike Easter]

Mike Easter wrote:

> you have to temporarily make some 'weird' res so that
> you can get access to the bottom.

Disregard the weird rez - with resizable windows, you can always adjust
the window size without having to do anything weird or abnormal with the
rez. I was thinking of weird rez for configuration tools that don't
have resizable windows and also don't fit on the screen properly - this
is especially a problem if you have a very very low rez (big
configuration display) and can't adjust the display settings because you
can't access all of the settings display window.

You can resize the Tbird resizable window from any of the 4 corners or
edges to get it situated properly.

--
Mike Easter

[David E. Ross]

The problem was that, with a resizable window, I still could not get
scroll bars.

I shut down Thunderbird and went down stairs to eat dinner. When I came
back up stairs and relaunched Thunderbird, the problem went away!

[Ron Hunter]

On 8/1/2010 9:23 PM, David E. Ross wrote:
> On 8/1/10 6:00 PM, Mike Easter wrote:
>> Mike Easter wrote:
>>
>>> you have to temporarily make some 'weird' res so that
>>> you can get access to the bottom.
>>
>> Disregard the weird rez - with resizable windows, you can always adjust
>> the window size without having to do anything weird or abnormal with the
>> rez. I was thinking of weird rez for configuration tools that don't
>> have resizable windows and also don't fit on the screen properly - this
>> is especially a problem if you have a very very low rez (big
>> configuration display) and can't adjust the display settings because you
>> can't access all of the settings display window.
>>
>> You can resize the Tbird resizable window from any of the 4 corners or
>> edges to get it situated properly.
>>
>>
>
> The problem was that, with a resizable window, I still could not get
> scroll bars.
>
> I shut down Thunderbird and went down stairs to eat dinner. When I came
> back up stairs and relaunched Thunderbird, the problem went away!
>

Hummm. Add 'eating dinner' to the list of things to try when fixing
problems. Sounds good to ME. Strange things do happen when power
failures catch you when operating. If your power isn't reliable, a UPS
might be in order.

[EE]

I would back up my profile just in case. I have backups of Firefox and
Thunderbird profiles. I had to use the Firefox one recently after a
power failure wiped out the profile.

[David E. Ross]

I backup my whole PC -- two physical drives -- once a week. After
creating the backup files locally on my PC (the D-drive with data onto
the C-drive and the C-drive with software onto the D-drive), I then
encrypt the files (which also compresses them) and transfer them to a
portable drive that I store elsewhere. I retain several generations of
backups on both the portable drive and my PC.