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How can I make a suggestion that filters have an option "subject OR body contains" or appears anyplace?

  • 3 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 27 views
  • Paskiausią atsakymą parašė Toad-Hall

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Many of my filters contain 2 specifications, e.g., Subject contains life insurance Body contains life insurance

I would like to suggest that there be an option that would look for a string in either the subject or or the body. that filter would read Subject or body contains life insurance

Even better would be if the target string were found in the subject, the body, or the part of the From field that is not the email address, i.e, the senders name in clear text. that filter would read Any text contains life insurance

Many of my filters contain 2 specifications, e.g., Subject contains life insurance Body contains life insurance I would like to suggest that there be an option that would look for a string in either the subject or or the body. that filter would read Subject or body contains life insurance Even better would be if the target string were found in the subject, the body, or the part of the From field that is not the email address, i.e, the senders name in clear text. that filter would read Any text contains life insurance

All Replies (3)

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In the Message filter

if you have one condition or two (or more) conditions and need all to be true then use 'Match all of the following'. This option uses an 'AND condition.

If you have two or more conditions, but only need either to be true then select: 'Match any of the following'. This option uses an 'OR' condition.

Modified by Toad-Hall

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Thank you for your reply,

Let me try to be clearer.

How does one make any suggestion for a feature in Thunder Bird?

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If you are looking for the feature you specified then that feature is already in Thunderbird.

re: quote 'Many of my filters' unquote. The first response from me assumed you were using Message Filters to move emails from Inbox to another folder. In this instance you have to list each section, the subject, the body.

In 'search messages'

  • Edit ~> Find > Search Messages

Use the same information as indicated for Message Filters.

  • 'Match any of the following'.
  • 'Subject' and 'contains' and 'life insurance'
  • 'Body' and 'contains' and 'life insurance '


If you want to use Global Search: If you enclose multiple terms within quotation marks, Thunderbird will search for the words as a phrase.

  • So type: "life insurance" in quotation marks in the search
  • select 'messages mentioning life insurance'

This returns results where that phrase is found in Subject or body or even an attachment. More info on Global Search: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/global-search#w_searching-for-multiple-terms


New Feature request:

If you are looking to ask for any feature which is currently not available to be added, then you may not be quite so fortunate. Development for adding new features has been virtually halted as all development is curently looking into resolving bugs. Thunderbird is a free product and does not have the resources to spend time adding new features.

It is worth searching Thunderbird Add-ons that offer extensions in Thunderbird. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/

Otherwise the best option would be to raise it as a 'bug' here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/index.cgi?logout=1

if other people vote for your idea or maybe the developers feel it is something they could create, even as an Addon.; someone may take it up and create the Addon, but you must realise that this is being done in someones free time often for free, sometimes they ask if you would make a donation to help support them and I know that ExQuilla Addon does request an annual fee.

Modified by Toad-Hall