Tip - Colored email flags for Thunderbird

Flags in mailbox Office and their use in Thunderbird

In our mailbox Office, you can mark your emails with colored flags, which are also referred to as flags, labels, tags, keywords, or categories. Unfortunately, these flags usually only work within one software application and are rarely displayed correctly by other mail programs. You can find details on this at .

Our mailbox user Pascal has found a solution for the mail program Thunderbird, which we are happy to publish here. To set it up, you need basic knowledge of handling Thunderbird configuration files. If you are unsure, please do not make these changes.

Attention

Please create a backup first!

We cannot guarantee the changes you make and do not offer any support for them. All changes are made at your own risk.

Implementation in Thunderbird

1. Quit Thunderbird, otherwise your changes will be overwritten the next time you close it.

2. Open the profile directory of Thunderbird. This directory is usually located in the .thunderbird folder. If in doubt, use your operating system’s search function. On Linux, you will normally find it in your user’s home directory.

3. The profile directory ends with .defaults. In this subfolder you will find the file prefs.js. Open this file with a text editor of your choice and add the following lines at the end:

   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_1.color", "#CC0000"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_1.tag", "Red"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_10.color", "#FFFF00"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_10.tag", "Yellow"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_2.color", "#3333FF"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_2.tag", "Blue"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_3.color", "#006600"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_3.tag", "Green"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_4.color", "#999999"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_4.tag", "Gray"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_5.color", "#6600CC"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_5.tag", "Purple"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_6.color", "#33CC00"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_6.tag", "Light green"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_7.color", "#FF9900"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_7.tag", "Orange"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_8.color", "#CC33CC"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_8.tag", "Pink"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_9.color", "#33CCFF"); 
   user_pref("mailnews.tags.$cl_9.tag", "Light blue");

4. Save the file and restart Thunderbird. From now on, emails marked with a colored flag will also be displayed in color.

5. These flags (or keywords) can be displayed and also deleted in Thunderbird. You will find the corresponding menu under:
   Edit | Settings | View | Tags

Note: This customization was tested with Mozilla Thunderbird version 38.4.0 on Linux.

Further information about flags

The IMAP protocol defines the following flags, which are supported by almost all mail programs and can therefore be considered standard_)