I think you will find it is because the demand for such a "feature" is probably close to zero. Although I am not aware of any functioning add-on that will export all mail in a folder to a single PDF. A search of adons.thunderbird.net certainly does not show any for V91. The import export tool offers an export of all messages in a folder to a PDF, but writes a single PDF for each mail. https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools-ng/?src=ss

As for you being the only one wanting a single PDF with many emails in it, there can not be many of you. Most folks acknowledge that email is a document format of it's own and store their mail in email archives, not portable document formats that miss all of the trace information that might be forensically needed in litigation.

Way back in V3 Thunderbird got an archive feature for email that automatically catalogues mail by year and even month while retaining original folder structures if desired. The mail so stored can be searched using the global search or simply accessed using the normal folders. It can also be exported, forwarded and generally treated as mail. Why then store your mail as something else that requires what is technically a proprietary storage format that really only has one use. Printing to paper.

Now if you insistent on this drive of data, why not use portable apps versions of appropriate software? Such as https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/thunderbird_portable

Well, there are a lot of assumptions there. We've tried using archives, but you have to be online to get to them. If it wasn't clear, I'm on the road, using public equipment. I cannot use portable apps, as most of our clients systems are secured systems that won't let you run your own apps. I can log into the email system, but (again, you didn't read or interpet) Outlook, Tbird, and our network indexing tool (I think it was a Google box) can't find emails when I need them to. However, I can dig through my notes, build a paper trail, and VOILA! There's the elusive email. Search engines, in general, don't seem to work well for me.

What does work well? A PDF file. I can open them on ANY computer, click "Find" and SOMEHOW, the computer finds it every time. Not sometimes, EVERY TIME. I fought and fought with IT for a couple of years, because they know best. We kept everything live, we archived .PST/.OST files, etc. Every time I showed them they way didn't work, they fluffed me off. So, I talked the boss into a copy of Office. Every since then, I can respond to a request for data or quote within minutes of receiving the email. And be 100% sure I'm as accurate as I can be.

So, assuming PDFs are the way to go for my company, am I going to have a folder with 2,800+ emails for each month? With no way to search all of them quickly? Or am I going to package it up into one convenient, quickly searchable package. BTW, that package is future-proof, as long as .PDFs live. I have lost an entire year of emails, because an Exchange upgrade went awry and restoring from backup wasn't possible. I have three thumbdrives that are a rotational backup and get upgraded/replaced every two years. We use as much protection against "bitrot" as possible, probably WAY more than is necessary.

The frustrating thing is, as an ex-programmer, I know it takes a LOT more coding to export each as an individual file than it would just to spool it into one, long-assed file. But, hey. I'm just an asshat who does his job right and is frustrated Tbird doesn't have a "one file" check box.

People all work with various methods to suit their circumstances. But it is unusual to want to put an entire months worth of emails into one pdf. I've been on support for well over a decade and you are the first I've seen to mention it.

I would have thought one email per pdf would work well and it is still searchable. In fact you can control the filename as well if you use ImportExportTools NG, that may help with search.

Perhaps you are directly searching content and not subject nor date so like one pdf.

Exporting contents of folder as mbox file, would export to a single document that could be opened by a decent text editor.

People all work with various methods to suit their circumstances. But it is unusual to want to put an entire months worth of emails into one pdf. I've been on support for well over a decade and you are the first I've seen to mention it.

I think this is coming as a direct outgrowth of an everything for the month goes in a manilla envelope and goes in a filling cabinet style of account storage. It was very common in the days of paper and placed things where they could be found.

My employer uses photographs from his phone and the cloud to file and report receipts to his accountant. But there is still the end of month envelope of the inevitable paper that is generated that has to be kept to meet tax requirements. (they still want source documents).

Like you, this its the first time I have encountered anyone doing it with email. I really do not understand the reasons for doing it. I would much rather scroll or search a list of emails in Thunderbird that try and find the page I want in a large PDF file without an index

The frustrating thing is, as an ex-programmer, I know it takes a LOT more coding to export each as an individual file than it would just to spool it into one, long-assed file. But, hey. I'm just an asshat who does his job right and is frustrated Tbird doesn't have a "one file" check box.

You might think that, but export a list of files to a list of files is just a for next loop that repeats until the last email is processed. Export to a single file would require opening a file, then executing the for next loop using append statements then closing the file. So why not write your open export routine if you want one? It is only JavaScript.

The source used is here https://github.com/thundernest/import-export-tools-ng/blob/master/src/chrome/content/mboximport/mboximport.js

Wow. Thanks for all the input of how wrong our archiving method is. I've already mansplained enough why PDFs are our choice and, honestly, if you're stuck on that, then you're missing the point entirely. And if you Google it, yes, other people have asked about this Tbird PDF feature before.

All I need is for Tbird to send the selected emails to the printer as ONE print job, not individual print jobs. I can do that with Outlook; there's nothing "special" about it. Tbird insists on treating each email as a separate print job, hence separate PDFs. I'm not going to sit and try to programme something that Microcrap figured out over a decade ago.

Tbird will never change, though. Everybody is more interested in telling folks how to work around "the problem" instead of addressing it, head on.

PS - LMAO over "I think this is coming as a direct outgrowth of an everything for the month goes in a manilla envelope and goes in a filling cabinet style of account storage." Just because someone does things differently, does not mean it's wrong. You've grabbed the completely wrong end of the stick and I've mansplained enough.

I just had a prime example of what and why I need printing into one PDF file. I am a project information coordinator. We are a small R&D company that specializes in dispensing technologies. I report directly to the President of the company. We'll call his "Louie".

I got an email from Louie this afternoon. "I need to see where we are at on the Pig project. Get me all the quotes we have on the hose connectors in the neck assembly. In fact, also get me all the quotes, split out for each of the four pieces we're making."

I have done my due dilligence by requiring all vendors to submit quotes via email. They must use the following subject format: "P:999999/S:999999/V:999999". As emails come in, I have filter trickery that moves them into the appropriate project's folder and SKU subfolder. At that point, we don't care about the vendor number.

Today, I just went into the Pig project's folder, went into each of the four SKU folders, selected all, and printing to the CutePDF printer. I ended up with four PDFs, one for each SKU. Then, I went into the neck assembly's parts listing and found the hose connectors' SKUs and filtered everything but those three SKUs out. Selected the results and printed to another PDF.

After 15 minutes, I had Louie's email with 5 PDF attachments on it's way. Louie has 5 attachments, not the 237 attachments over how many emails to get them to him. This is something I do every work day. I enjoy making tidy little packages of information for my bosses. And they enjoy the simplicity of a single PDF attachment that they can copy/paste from. Not to mention that when they forward it to someone, it looks the same on everyone's computer. It just works, mates!

If you want to export a folder of messages to a single text file, that can be done with the ImportExportTools NG add-on mentioned above. If the important content is just text and not images, this option is available.

All I need is for Tbird to send the selected emails to the printer as ONE print job,

If you have an enhancement request for the program, the Bugzilla web application is the vehicle to request same. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org