This article describes the Appearance panel (Thunderbird 140 and newer) which can be found at Thunderbird app menu ☰ > Settings > Appearance. It allows you to toggle your message list layout between Card and Table view, change the view's settings, and set your default folder sorting order and threading options.

1. Card or Table view for the message list

Please refer to Getting Started with the Thunderbird main window (Supernova and newer) for more information on Card and Table view.

Card view

• Click Card view to select Card view and then:
  • Click 2 rows. The first row has the sender's display name (not the actual email address), time and at the top right the Message Actions menu, ⋮ (also known as the kebab menu because the three vertical dots resemble a kebab). The second row displays the subject.
  • Or click 3 rows to get a 3rd row, which adds information about the message thread (if there is more than one message in that thread), tags and starred status.

Table view

• Click Table view to select Table view and then:
  • Tick ✓ allow horizontal scroll if you would like horizontal scrolling for wide content like tables.

2. Select default threading for new folders: Unthreaded, Threaded or Grouped by Sort

• Click Threaded to make all new folders threaded by default.
• Or click Unthreaded to make all new folders unthreaded by default.
• Or click Grouped by Sort to sort by groups.

3. Default Sort field: Date, Subject, From, and so on

There are many options for default sort order for new folders. The most popular options for Default Sort by: are:

• Date
• Subject
• From

Once you have picked a Default sort field, you can then choose Ascending or Descending.

4. Select folders to apply new settings to

You choose to apply the new settings to your current folders as follows:

• Click All existing folders to apply the new settings to all folders, not just the new ones. Don't worry, you will be given a chance to cancel applying the changes.
• Or click Choose… to apply the new settings to a particular folder (click Folder…), or a particular folder and its subfolders (Folder and its children…). Again, you can cancel.