Hi evreade, Would you mind sending us a screenshot of what you're seeing? For instructions, see How do I create a screenshot of my problem?.

attached is the scree shot, showing --

Hi evreade, If I understand correctly, you're referring to the contacts sidebar, which enables you to quickly add recipients from your address books.

To close it, just click on the "X" in the top-right corner of the sidebar.

P.S. I've removed your screenshot from the forum, because it contains the email addresses of your contacts.

I mean the WRITE on the mail toolbar, I have done the delete with the X however when I go back to WRITE it reappears. I have done a System Restore, have uninstalled Thunderbird and re-installed it and the problem still exists. Any other suggestions?

Hi evreade, For clarification, are you saying that if you hide the sidebar, the next time you open the Write window, the sidebar re-appears?

It does not matter if I use the contacts sidebar or not, whenever I open the Write window 2 dashes appear in the body of the email and I have to delete before typing, what I would like to do is get rid of the 2 dashes for good

2 dashes are a signature separator. Have you created a signature and do you add it to your emails?

I did have a name in the Signature Text box in Account Settings and I have deleted that name, now how do I get rid of the signature separator.

If the separator is still there then something is still in the signature field. It might be a space. Click in the signature field. Press control+a to select all. Press Delete.

Under Options>Advanced>config editor, toggling "mail.identy.default.supress_signature_separator" preference to "true". (Quotations marks are mine)

Problem solved

Thanks for all the help

That will remove the separator but cause other issues if you decide to use a signature. The 2 dash separator is an email standard for programs to decide where the message stops and the signature starts. Just FYI.

Just remove the spaces in the signature box.