Menu options for opening attachments in external application vs tab

[Raft8670]

TB should offer three menu options for each file:

(a) Open as tab (aka Preview)

(b) Open in external app

(c) Save As...

with one of them being set in Settings as the default by the users. It's a very simple enhancement really, and an established way of doing things.

If TB can't do (a) for certain file types, it should only offer (b) and (c). 

At the moment we are forced to choose one of these or 'Always Ask' per file type in Settings and our choice applies to all files of that type. If I must choose, I have to go with opening all files (eg PDFs) in my external app and miss out on TB's quick preview feature which I would use in most cases. Alternatively, I can save the PDF and open it from the file manager, but that's too many unnecessary clicks.

TB v115

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[MattAuSupport]

Are you sure you want this preview given Thunderbird will be limited to image files in a few formats, plain text and PDF files.  There will be no OpenOffice/LibeOffice file, no Microsoft Office files and no native apple images as they are video and use proprietary codecs that are simply not installed on Windows or Linux

As for save and open,  I really think they are already on the right click menu for attachments as are a couple of other options you do not mention. (The image is taken from Thunderbird 115.5,  but I do not recall the options changing much for years.)

[Raft8670]

To clarify, I didn't mean (c) was missing. It's there. And if TB cannot preview a file type it would just offer (b), as it does now. 

I just meant that there should also be both (a) and (b) for file types that TB can preview (eg PDF). We shouldn't be forced to preview PDFs in TB.

[MattAuSupport]

"We shouldn't be forced to preview PDFs in TB."  we are not now,  you get to view PDF files in a tab by default.  By changing the default handler in settings (I choose to use Adobe reader) all my PDF files open in Adobe.

You can set Thunderbird to show attachments in understands at the end of a message.

Then use the config editor in settings to change the following to true if they are not already.

mail.inline_attachments.text to true
and
mail.inline_attachments to true

The first displays text attachments, including HTML.  It might mess up message display,  that is why HTML is not enabled by default.  Image will appear as a collection of images at the end of the email.

[Raft8670]

What I am suggesting is that we could be given the option per message. There are times I am happy with a file (image, html, pdf etc) opening in TB by default. There are times I want a specific file to open externally -- eg because I want the extra functionality of a dedicated application.

[PapaLune]

First, thanks to Raft8670 for making me discover that it’s possible to configure the opening mode of each type attachment in parameter. I hadn't seen the function and I was tired to see my pdf always open in a Firefox tab where we are not able to work inside it.

Open choices, yes. But, like says MattAuSupport, right click yet offers "open", "save as", "detach" and "delete".

All that remains to do is to add, in right menu "open in a TB tab" and I think everyone will be satisfied

[Raft8670]

> All that remains to do is to add, in right menu "open in a TB tab" and I think everyone will be satisfied

That would be true if the default action you specify for that file type in settings is 'Use x application'. But if your default is 'Preview in Thunderbird' then the additional option you need in the context menu for an attachment would be 'Open in external application'.

This idea is about giving users the option to open a specific attachment in a way other than the default specified in Settings, whichever that missing way may be.