The problem with tabs in an e-mail client, is that you generally don’t need them for a longer period. In Firefox I usually have 10 to 15 tabs open at all times, but in Thunderbird I usually stick with one. Since the tab-bar takes up quite a lot of valuable horizontal space, it would make sense to hide the tab-bar when you don’t need it. Firefox has a nice feature called “auto hide”. It makes the tab-bar disappear when the window only have one tab open. I’ve browsed through Thunderbird’s settings window, but haven’t found anything similar. Fortunately, I’ve found a “hidden” setting that allows you to turn on auto-hiding.

Here’s how:

1. Open Thunderbird’s Preferences window (Tools -> Options on Windows, Edit -> Preferences on Linux and Thunderbird -> Preferences on Mac)
2. Click on “Advanced”
3. Click on the “Config Editor” button (which is under the “General” tab)
4. Search for “mail.tabs.autoHide”
5. Double-click on the setting so that it becomes “true” (and the font changes to bold)

Voilà!

The Configuration Editor in Thunderbird

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