New Thunderbird Address book

[JJC]

While the new address book might look snappy, it lacks a few features that were good on the old one.

1. You can no longer double click on the address book to expand it and edit contacts within. You now have to right click and select properties. Not very user frinedly. Please try to reincorporate the double click.

2 The old version used to show the number of contacts within a certain list. It showed up in the lower left That was very helpful and convenient. It has vanished from the new version. That number was very useful for corroborating lists to ensure 'head counts' are accurate within a list. Now you have to actually count them if you want to be sure all are accounted for.   Can you please incorporate that automatic list count number again.

Thanks for the help

[jcr]

I have also found that the columns that can be displayed (in horizontal layout) do not include the nickname field. I have important additional information about contacts and can no longer see it. It would also be helpful if additional columns can be displayed in the contact sidebar while writing a message.

[wsmwk]

Hi JJC. Thank you for the ideas.  Both #1 and #2 are being worked on.

[vvbga]

I cannot see or edit contacts in address books; nothing happens when I click on the address book name or on properties for that address book. Is this being worked on? Thank you.

[Jay1]

Address book is a disaster. I only want one. And manually editing or adding new on my pc is now impossible. I detest most of the changes. And I donated to the support of Thunderbird. Irritating to have idiot programmers.

[daspferd]

When will CardDAV be able to deal with categories/lists?

Should I file a seperate post for that?

Could you make the phone number clickable?

[keith745]

I am not able to add addresses to existing address lists. I can only remove addresses.

I also miss the separate pop out window which was a useful tool.

[jimf671]

Mesolithic user here: started with Netscape Communicator 3 or 4, so about 25 years of the evolution of this platform. Still VERY happy with it. However, ...

I agree with JJC comments. Also when a contact is selected and opens in the third pane (Classic View selected) it is huge and does not display enough to be useful. Much preferred old layout: it was much more a tool for doing a job of work.

(I use Address Book to manage comms with members of volunteer team with Books and Lists so the way this works is important to me.)

[pattyroll]

Lists seem to be limited to 6 addresses where before you could put in large lists. And you can not add addresses after you have created a list.

[pn2865]

I totally dislike the new format. I don't understand the need to change it. 
Please allow the user to switch to the old format.

[staggart]

Agreed.  The old format was far more flexible and useful.  How do these "improvements" get decided on in the first place?  Do that get run by the user base or just tossed out for us to suffer.

[staggart]

Maybe I'm missing something but the new address book does not allow the left-hand column size to be changed?  It's way too narrow and I can't see the names of my address books.  This UI limitation is substandard and very limiting.  Seems like we've gone backward 25 years with that limitation.

[Katswiri]

Hi all,

I kind of like the new look and got used to the handling. Just one minor suggestion at this point: The address book offers only two options for Important days, "birthday" and "anniversary". While it seems that the English "anniversary" is commonly used in conjunction with a date of death, it seems pretty macabre in German to call a day of death a "Jubiläum" (Jubilee), as if such a day was a joyful event.

Thus I wish the German word "Jubiläum" would be replaced by the neutral term "Jahrestag". Alternatively a third "important day" option could be added by the name of "Day of death" (German: "Todestag").

[Lawrie]

The things I dislike most about the new address book (aside from having lost ALL my mailing lists in the "update") are:
a) If I click on a name the name details pane appears and obscures much of the rest of the addresses that I'm probably wanting to <Ctrl+Click> or <Shift+Click> on.

b) I cannot copy addresses between books, especially as I've now had to make multiple address books to handle the mailing list features I was using in the previous version

c) double clicking on an address used to pop-up a window for editing details - this is FAR, FAR, FAR superior to the annoying, screen-estate destroying details pane that now appears - please at least give us a configuration option to open the pane OR open a window.

d) tbsync: There is something I can't identify going on here - it seems less well integrated.  It certainly has less functionality (mailing lists being one thing no longer supported)