Feedback for UI changes in Thunderbird 115 “Supernova” (Calendar, Layout)

[Falqun]

After upgrading to Thunderbird 115 “Supernova” and using it for a bit I found the following and wanted to provide feedback:

* The new layout puts tabs under the Toolbar, and Toolbar entries _dependent_ on the chosen tab _above_ the tab. Its a bit confusing since I would expect anything that changes with switching tabs below the tabs, within the area which is tabbed. Switching place for those two might resolve this.

* The new layout seems to leave a lot of space unused / not usable; The space in the tab bar, the space in the toolbar filled with white space and a huge search bar. It would be nice to have the option to combine those two bars and put them next to each other.

* The address book is not consistent with the new layout: it still has buttons for a new address book and new contact, etc. (the toolbar for the address book if you will) within the tab, not in the top most bar as the calendar or the inbox. The chat does not follow the new design as well.

* The calendars left side panel can be sized to small for the new UI element - it will be cut left and right and is somewhat unreadable if sized to small.

* The left calendar side panel has now dots on the days which contain appointments (not sure what exactly makes them eligible to be a dot in there, not all appointments seem to show this). Dots in the colour of the calendar, and multiple dots, each for one appointment, would be a cool overview for a given day. Other wise the whole thing just becomes dotted for each day.

(Might be useful to know a bit about my setup: Win10, vertical layout, small density, dark theme, 1440p 16:9 display.)

[Falqun]

Also sorry for not tagging, maybe it will still be useful if I tag this comment.

[Raimoraimo]

Agreed, the UI looks "modern" but not well put together. How can we revert to the old UI? 

My context is Windows 11, 2560x1440 on a 4k screen, due to eyesight I would actually prefer a 110-125% Windows custom scaling factor, but the new Thunderbird looked absolutely ridiculous like that (no problem with the old one).

[i_talic]

Instead of one normal spacing option that looked perfectly you have created 3 so-called Density options (Compact, Default and Relaxed), each of which is merely useless. The first one is too dense, the second one is wasting more space than needed, and the third one is out of discussion at all. 

Please set the spacing that used to be standard in previous version as the Default option. 

[mhb]

It's a horrible GUI.  How can I get the old thunderbird back?

[kgbstrat]

Agree. toolbar above the menu is very confusing. Also, with multiple email accounts, the navigation is a jumbled mess with no way to sort or group folders together. Previously, I group all inboxes together, spam folders together, and subfolders to make it easier to find exactly what i wanted. Now it's only grouped by account, separating them all, with the subfolders under the specific account. No way to reorder, sort, group, etc. And, the change in font makes everything look the same. Very frustrating.

[i_talic]

You actually can group them. By going to Folders and checking Unified Folders.

[kgbstrat]

I had to stop using Unified folders as TB would crash frequently (e.g. when deleting an email). Confirmed that it was only when using Unified folders. This was before the current release, so hopefully it is fixed. There is a multi year thread on the bug report forum about this. 😞

[idontcare]

The new UI is a disaster. It does not look modern and the positioning of elements and bars does not make any sense. To me it looks like you just "wanted to change something" but did not have any ideas for improvement.

[CoolNQuiet]

I have to agree that not leaving the standard menu bar on top is disorienting. Virtually every program I regularly use has the menu on top - or has tabs on top and the menu right below them (i.e., Firefox). (Should I expect this stupid change in Firefox as well??) The "new" arrangement in Supernova is counter-intuitive for people that use Windows and Windows programs most of the time.


Also, and this has bugged me in the past, why in the world would any update (for any program) change the font? The Windows fonts themselves don't change so someone must have altered the way they behave in Thunderbird or invented their own. Somehow, for some who-knows-what-bizarre-reason, the font that has always been there is now - thinner I guess is the best way to describe it. Not the letter spacing, not the letter size (though those may have changed slightly), the actual lines that create the letters are thinner. Kind of like going from bold to regular - though not quite as dramatic. Before the update I was good, now I have to squint a little to read it and changing the density and/or font size doesn't fix the problem since it's the lines on the letters themselves that have changed. Great going guys - you changed something for the worse that really didn't need changing in the first place.

[nostromo123]

"* The address book is not consistent with the new layout: it still has buttons for a new address book and new contact, etc. (the toolbar for the address book if you will) within the tab, not in the top most bar as the calendar or the inbox. The chat does not follow the new design as well."

Messes up the themes!

[Cesare_Beccari]

With the new interface I spent a lot of time uselessy to find a way to set attributes to messages with a click. I used to do that for marking messages to "unwanted" or spam. Now, new messages are marked for that but not moved to unwanted folder unless you ask (this was also the behavior in the former version). But now you have to open a menu to do that, while before it was simply to click on a column. I understand that every modification of a UI is a mess at start, but I don't like to spend hours to find how to do it simply

[mhb]

The zoom shortcut keystroke method is still broken, at least in the linux debian family version.
Previously you just hit ctrl+ and ctrl- to zoom.  Now, bizarrely you can still do that, but only once you've clicked the view menu (not necessarily selecting anything).  You have to do that in each window that opens.
I somehow doubt anyone from Mozilla reads this thread as they haven't bothered to reply so I'll repost it as a bug.