change the font weight of unread messages
Hello,
I am on Thunderbird 150.0.2 for Windows.
I am really suffering here. I need to change the font weight of unread messages. In a non-threaded list.
The default weight I get with my preferred font (Trebuchet MS) is not bold. It is BLACK. When I say BLACK, I mean ultra bold, display font, heading weight. Heavier than the boldest font that even exists in the font family. Thunderbird is creating this ultra mega black font by taking the bold font variant and applying a faux bold effect to it. The result is that the text is so heavy that it takes up twice as much horizontal space as the ordinary bold font variant. This becomes a usability issue because it's not possible to see the date, sender, and subject at the same time.
I have struggled and strived with userchrome.css. Spent hours combing through forums here and elsewhere. I've already enabled the mystery setting in the config editor. I put userchrome.css where it is supposed to be.
I saw a blog post from Mozilla that says "userchrome.css is not supported". What is the actual meaning of this? That it has been actively blocked from working anymore, ever, for anyone? Or that users are taking risks if they create userchrome.css? Why can't developers speak plain language? "Not supported" could mean many things.
When I go to the Style Editor, userchrome.css does not exist there. Which leads me to believe that user customizations are absolutely deprecated and we are not permitted to use userchrome.css.
I tried editing some of the rules in the Style Editor, but could not determine any way of actually storing the changes. When I click Save, I get a dialog where I can **EXPORT** the file. But I can't seem to actually save the changes, because CSS files do not appear to exist in the installation directory. It must be compiled into some library.
This is extremely unsatisfying and super frustrating. Just getting straight answers to things is super difficult, nothing stays the same for more than a couple months, and up to date information either does not exist or is not found by any search engine.
So, please help. I just need to change one setting, the font weight of unread messages. Since Thunderbird is allegedly open source, I thought I would have some ability to make such changes. But the Style Editor doesn't seem to actually be an editor, but merely a read-only interface to precompiled rules? If I wanted to change the font weight of unread messages, would I be forced to compile my own version of Thunderbird? I'm not competent to do that, and it would probably either prevent updates, or the updates would break my changes.
Please help, I am super desperate. I need to see the date, sender, and subject all at the same time. That doesn't seem like an unreasonable ask.
I would gladly pay for an email client that gives me control over my data *and* allows me to control the UI, but apparently that doesn't exist.
Chosen solution
Here is what ended up working
/* unread message list */
#threadTree tbody [data-properties~="unread"] {
font-family: "Trebuchet MS";
color: #87d9fa !important;
font-synthesis: none !important;
font-style: "bold" !important;
}
/* folder pane top-level account names */
#folderTree [data-server-type="pop3"] > .container > .name {
font-family: "Trebuchet MS";
color: #87d9fa !important;
font-synthesis: none !important;
font-style: "bold" !important;
}
/* folder pane unread mailbox text */
#folderTree .unread > .container > .name {
font-family: "Trebuchet MS";
font-synthesis: none !important;
font-style: "bold" !important;
}
I worked around the bug in this forum server where it interprets a hash sign as a numbered list... by using the HTML entity,
ampersand hash 35 semicolon
Read this answer in context 👍 0All Replies (3)
I will clarify the basics. I am not skilled in CSS and have no idea what CSS to write to do as you wish. Regarding the userchrome file, it MUST be userChrome.css, not userchrome.css. It must be in a chrome folder in the profile. By 'not supported' Mozilla means that what you do there may not work at some time in the future; they reserve the right to change the internal code. Looking back, most CSS has stood the test of time . I do have a bit of CSS that I use for color, and tweaking it may fit your need for font size:
- threadTree tbody [data-properties~="unread"] {
color: #0000ff !important; font-style: italic !important; font-weight: bold !important;
}
That first line is a hashmark preceeding threadTree... the forum editor doesn't show it properly
Modified by david
OK, I already knew all of that. But I finally figured out what the issue is. I kept putting userChrome.css inside the email account profile where my actual mail is stored. It's on a different hard drive than Thunderbird itself, because I know better than to put any of my personal data on the same drive as Windows.
So I went to Troubleshooting Information > Profile Folder > Open Folder. It took me to the AppData folder where the global user profile info is stored. Creating \chrome\userChrome.css in THAT folder actually fixed the issue.
I'm too smart to accept the default location for my personal files, but not smart enough to figure out that 99% of people are not smart enough to do that. Therefore, none of the instructions I have seen made the distinction between the global profile and the specific email account profiles. The assumption made by everyone is that the email accounts are always in the global profile folder.
I did see instructions to use Troubleshooting Information, but ignored them because I knew where my email account data was already, and didn't need to be taken there.
Where the instructions for everything always fail is that they don't explain WHY we should do something. As if we are philosophical zombies who can only follow instructions, and have no ability to comprehend anything we do.
I'm a teacher and a technical writer, so this stuff ticks me off 10,000 times more than it does the average user. Developers should not be allowed to write documentation. AI should not be allowed to write documentation unless it is thoroughly reviewed by someone trained in education and/or technical writing.
Modified by dryodryo
Suluhisho teule
Here is what ended up working
/* unread message list */
#threadTree tbody [data-properties~="unread"] {
font-family: "Trebuchet MS";
color: #87d9fa !important;
font-synthesis: none !important;
font-style: "bold" !important;
}
/* folder pane top-level account names */
#folderTree [data-server-type="pop3"] > .container > .name {
font-family: "Trebuchet MS";
color: #87d9fa !important;
font-synthesis: none !important;
font-style: "bold" !important;
}
/* folder pane unread mailbox text */
#folderTree .unread > .container > .name {
font-family: "Trebuchet MS";
font-synthesis: none !important;
font-style: "bold" !important;
}
I worked around the bug in this forum server where it interprets a hash sign as a numbered list... by using the HTML entity,
ampersand hash 35 semicolon
Modified by dryodryo
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