Thunderbird on a netbook looks a little cramped. Here's how to free up some screen space.

1. Ditch the menu bar
Install the Compact Menu 2 extension. It replaces the menu bar with a toolbar button.


Before


After (unclicked)


After (clicked)

That's one whole line saved!


2. Auto-hide tabbed windows
By default, Thunderbird displays tabbed windows even if you only have one tab open. To fix this go to Tools / Options / Advanced / General and click on Config Editor. In the Filter window type mail.tabs.autohide and double-click the option to set its value to True.


Before


After

Another line gone - unless you open a tab.


3. Compress message headers
The Compact Header extension compresses message headers to a single line and adds an icon to toggle them on and off.


Before



After

Clicking the little "+" sign will toggle the header. (With the full header on you'll find more configuration header options under the Other Actions icon.)


4. Add more actions to the toolbar
I like to have the Reply, Reply All and Delete buttons on the toolbar (especially as they're now hidden on the message header). Placing them there is simple: right-click on the toolbar, choose Customize and drag the Reply, Reply All and Delete buttons into place. Rearrange to suit your taste and tick the Use Small Icons selection too.

Any more space-saving Thunderbird tips? Drop me a comment!