Configure The Thunderbird Email Client To Autohide Tab Bar

For netbook users, and others concerned with maximizing their computer's display, "extra" things such as multiple toolbars and tab bars (especially on web browsers when only a single website is open), can cause problems, as all the extras take up space from the content. Every pixel matters.

Firefox users have the option of turning off the tab bar when only a single website is open. To find it, simpy navigate to the Edit menu, then to Preferences. Under the tab labeled Tabs, make sure the Always show the tab bar checkbox is unticked. When you do this, the tab bar will go missing, like this:

Only when you open a second tab will it appear, like so:

Like Firefox, Mozilla's email client – Thunderbird – supports tabs. You can view multiple messages at once in different tabs, or if you have the Calendar extension installed, can view it in one as well. Unfortunately, unlike Firefox, Thunderbird doesn't have a simple way to hide the tab bar when only showing a single place, such as the Inbox.

It does support the feature, however, and has since tabs were introduced in Thunderbird 3, but has never had a simple preferences setting to hide it. We can do it, however, with a little trip to the Configuration Editor interface. To find this, open up Thunderbird and navigate to the Preferences window, by clicking the Edit menu, then Preferences (just as in Firefox).

Once there, select the Advanced tab.

Now choose the General tab (it's probably selected by default, but go ahead and choose it if it isn't).

Finally, click the Config Editor button.

If this is your first trip here, or if you have left the checkbox ticked, you'll see a warning, informing you that it's possible to mess things up by tweaking too many settings.

Go ahead and click the I'll be careful, I promise button, and you should see something like this.

To move to the setting to hide the tab bar automatically (until it's needed), type "autohide" (without the quotes) into the Search box.

The only option that should appear – mail.tabs.autoHide – is the one we want. By default, it's set to false, meaning the setting to automatically hide the tab bar is turned off.

To turn it on, simply double click anywhere in that setting… either the name, the status, the type or the value. It should turn bold (all user-modified settings are in bold), and what once read "false" should now read "true," meaning the setting is turned on.

You can now leave the settings window. When you return to the main Thunderbird window, you'll notice your tabs are now hidden.

Just like Firefox, if you ever need two tabs, the tab bar will appear.

And that's it! It's too bad that Thunderbird doesn't offer the option to hide the tab bar automatically in the Settings Window, as does Firefox, but it's not too difficult. All it takes is the knowledge that the setting exists, and where to find it.