well press the alt key and you will find almost all the menu item refered to is support articles.

Matt...Pressing the alt key does nothing...I saw someone else make reference to that solution....could it be I am using too old a keyboard..? I believe the keyboard I am using is one I salvaged from an old a Gateway..Would I be too simplistic to think that Mozilla could supply a patch that would make solving this problem so much easier ? Once again I am running windows 7... BOB

If you enable all your toolbars, you will find life much easier. Most help refers to the toolbars.

Assuming you can see 'Mail Toolbar'. but not 'Menu Bar':

• See image to enable all the toolbars.

If you ever completely lose both 'Menu Bar' and 'Mail Toolbar', do this :

• select Thunderbird, so program has focus eg: click on mail account name in folder pane - if TB does not have focus, 'Alt' does not work.
• press the 'Alt' key to get a Temporary Menu Bar, then immediately:
• View > Toolbars > select 'Menu Bar' to set permanent.
• Then View > Toolbars > select 'Mail Toolbar'

"If TB does not have FOCUS"...I don't have the vaguest idea what that means...I seem to have the mail toolbar, but the ALT key is dead, no matter what I try...I have been using Mozzilla for years, and love it, and have great respect for the volunteers who keep it churning, but this seems like a convoluted problem that people at the user level should not be subject to..Correct me if I'm off base

re :I seem to have the mail toolbar That is useful information. the 'Mail Toolbar' will have 'Get Messges', 'Write', 'Address Book' etc. So if you can see those, you should also see an icon with 3 horizontal lines. This icon is called the 'Menu icon'.

In the image I previously supplied, I have moved the 'Menu icon' to the far left of the 'Mail Toolbar' because it was more logical to me, but yours mght be to the far right. Click on the 'Menu icon' and move the mouse pointer so it hovers over 'Options' - another drop down list appears. Take a look at the image I supplied in previous comment. click on 'Menu Bar'. This will get your 'Menu Bar' back.

Actually the active program has focus.. It has been that way since windows was invented. and that is X-windows on unix, Not the late comer Microsoft Windows which adopted the terminology. Should a user be expected to click on a user interface and customize it. Well I would say most definitely. One of the reasons I hate Live mail is I can not customize it.

If alt is not working. Your windows or keyboard is broken. There is more than one Alt key. Have you tried the other one?

Or 

You already have the menu bar displayed across the top of the screen as show in Toads image. Another Windows shortcut to display a menu bar is press F10. If you keyboard is truly old that will be printed on the keyboard. Later Windows keyboards drop the F keys in favor of Microsoft office shortcut images. So in my case I have a spell checker icon on it.

Yet a third way of making the menu bar visible is right click the tools bar and select "menu bar" from the menu that appears. (It is important to right click an empty space on the toolbar.)

Note I keep referring to Windows shortcuts. Both the Alt key to display menus and the F10 key are Windows. Not Thunderbird. Much of our time here is spent explaining to people how to use their computers. Not how to use Thunderbird and this is another instance.

So the convoluted problem, as you call it, of making a menu appear is courtesy of Microsoft and their Windows standard which required menu bars to be hidden in Windows 7. Vista as well I think.

Toad-Hall said

re :I seem to have the mail toolbar That is useful information. the 'Mail Toolbar' will have 'Get Messges', 'Write', 'Address Book' etc. So if you can see those, you should also see an icon with 3 horizontal lines. This icon is called the 'Menu icon'. In the image I previously supplied, I have moved the 'Menu icon' to the far left of the 'Mail Toolbar' because it was more logical to me, but yours mght be to the far right. Click on the 'Menu icon' and move the mouse pointer so it hovers over 'Options' - another drop down list appears. Take a look at the image I supplied in previous comment. click on 'Menu Bar'. This will get your 'Menu Bar' back.

Could it be I have not stated my problem correctly....I do indeed have the menu bar you are talking about .."get messages...write..chat etc" My problem is that the "sent" folder in the pane on the left no longer contains any of my sent messages...just all disappeared at once...Is that your understanding of my problem ?

The information that has been discussed so far has related to the following which you stated : I just can't seem to make work, if indeed I can even find the menus's, or options they refer too.

RE Sent folder Send folder disappeared - I presume you did not mean the actual folder has disappeared because your latest comment says.... the "sent" folder in the pane on the left no longer contains any of my sent messages.

Test to see if this is an indexing issue: Right click on 'Sent' folder and select 'Repair folder'. Select another folder and then reselect the 'Sent' folder. What happened? Report back on results.

Toad-Hall...Right clicking over the "sent" folder does not show the "repair folder"...but it does show the drop down menu with "properties" as an option..and when "properties" is selected, then indeed there is a "repair folders" option...Not to seem un grateful, but this can be very confusing when instructions are not concise....especially to someone who has no experience with the inner workings of THUNDERBIRD... I did try the repair folder option, and it did not help....

Sorry for the incomplete directions.

check to see if the Sent folder actually contains emails. Make hidden files and fodlers visible:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Show_hidden_files_and_folders

In thunderbird Help > Troubleshooting Information click on 'Show Folder' button

A window opens showing profile folder name contents.

If the 'Sent' folder is in a POP mail account: click on 'Mail' folder

If the 'Sent' folder is in a Imap mail account: click on 'Imap Mail' folder

click on account name folder Look for 'Sent' file - not 'Sent.msf' file. What size is the 'Sent' file ? Open the 'Sent' file using Notepad. Can you see emails? - they will be listed one after the other.

" Open the 'Sent' file using Notepad. Can you see emails? - they will be listed one after the other. " I do see my sent emails doing this, interspersed with unreadable goobly gook...

~Using the same instructions as before open 'Sent' file in notepad.

Then make sure Thunderbird is closed - this is important.

In the 'Sent' file. Each email will start with these lines: this is an example

• From - Sun Dec 28 18:14:40 2014
• X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
• X-Mozilla-Status2: 00800000

Use 'Edit' > 'Find' Starting at the top use the look for this line: X-Mozilla-Status: 0001

Make sure each X-Mozilla-Status: has the number 0001 edit the number as required working down through the document. Save the file.

delete the 'Sent.msf' file. A new one will be auto created.

Open Thunderbird.

select the Sent folder in Folder Pane and report on results.

ToadHall....Well I'll be a son of a so and so....you did it...the sent folder is once again present and accounted for...Please tell me, you are a volunteer are you not ??? or are you an employee ??? Either way this is the most dedicated service I have ever seen on the internet...My sincere thanks..

                                                                                                            BOB

I'm just a TB user and volunteer operating from the UK. It is good to hear that you can now see all those emails again.

what status did the mail have?

The status of the sent file was current, and appeared to have every email I sent since I started with "Thunderbird" in November of 2014

I mean when you edited it what was the value of X-Mozilla-Status: before you changed it

I have no idea what you mean "value of X-Mozilla-Status"

When you followed the instructions to do this: Make sure each X-Mozilla-Status: has the number 0001 edit the number as required working down through the document. Save the file.

Can you recall what the number was before you edited it? Was the number eg: 0009 ?