OT: Computers for seniors

[Bruce Easton]

I've been using Thunderbird for quite some time now (mac).  I was
initially frustrated that I could not make the interface text&rows
larger&taller via Preferences for the program.  After some
research, I found that I could add a "userChrome.css" file into
Thunderbird's Profiles/<userid>.default directory++ and that
TB would use certain css reserved identifiers in there.  The text
was way too small for me before this.   The contents of my
userChrome.css are:

/* BE  - 01/11/10 - visual interface adjustments for Thunderbird */
/* Global UI font */
* { font-size: 15px !important; }
/* Adjust Thread pane message row height */
#threadTree treechildren:-moz-tree-row { height: 28px !important; }
/* Adjust Folder pane row height */
#folderTree > treechildren:-moz-tree-row { height: 21px !important; }

That's the whole thing.
I think I found that as you increased the font size, it was necessary
to increase the row height as well, otherwise the rows would appear
to start overlapping.
I'm on the current version of TB for mac, but as you can see, I've
been using this css file with it since early 2010.
I think this applies to the Windows version, but I haven't tried it.
Not sure how you could make buttons bigger, but there
is probably some css ID for that too.

++not sure how this is under Windows, but on mac, the
userChrome.css file should go under:
<un>/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<ui>.default/chrome/
(where <un> is my system user name, and where <ui> is
some unique ID - usually something.default that TB creates
[but easy to find - there are only a few folders under Profiles])

I tried Apple mail which works well with phone, and I do use
it for personal use, but I still find that TB is best for me for
business purposes.  If Apple mail had the features in it two
years ago that it has now, I might be using it instead.
(Mainly the mail view that gives similar function as TB's tab
ability allowing easy cut & paste between emails without
popping up new windows.)

(Now notes on Apple's cloud is a whole different thing,
especially under Lion.  I really like being able to start a quick
note on the PC, continue it on the phone somewhere else,
opening and closing that window on both sides and never
having to hit a save button in the process.  Of course that's
just notes as a temporary scratch-pad.  I'm not quite ready
to let anything important be only on the cloud.  It was already
pretty windy one day and that thing had blown away for
an hour or so.)


Bruce




On 2/9/12 12:04 PM, Kenneth Brody wrote:
> [..]

> I use Thunderbird, which is very "clean".
>> [..]
> Unfortunately, a quick check of Thunderbird's settings didn't turn up a
> "make the buttons larger" setting.
>
> [..]