Identity Chooser

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

by Alchoran on Sept. 19, 2014 · permalink

I've been using Thunderbird for many years and this is the most useful add-on I've had the pleasure of installing. Anyone who has multiple email accounts has probably made the mistake of sending outgoing mail from the wrong account, and this greatly reduces the possibility of doing that.

Instead of just opening the composition window when you want to write a new mail or forward one, Identity Chooser "forces" you to select the sending account you wish to use via a slide out menu. It takes a fraction of a second to do, but all but eliminates the problem of using the wrong sending address. It doesn't appear to be foolproof as you could still select the wrong address by mistake, but that's where the ingenuity of the developer truly shines.

When using this add-on the top portion of the composition window adopts a user-adjustable color for visual confirmation that you are using the right account. I changed the colors so that my "regular" accounts are various shades of green, while those that I use less often and would prefer to not use by mistake are various shades of orange and red. If you do accidentally select the wrong account those visual clues should be enough to let you know of your mistake.

I have no complaints about the program at all, but I am disappointed that it took me so long to find it. I tried numerous search terms and it never showed up and it was only when I put "avoid wrong sender address in Thunderbird" in Google that I discovered it. It would be nice if such a useful add-on could find a more prominent placement in both searches and on the add-on page.