Add-ons
Fred Karl
About me
| Name | Fred Karl |
|---|---|
| User since | okt. 17, 2007 |
| Number of add-ons developed | 0 add-ons |
| Average rating of developer's add-ons | Not yet rated |
My Reviews
Todo.txt
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
I'm switching from Wunderlist to todo.txt because the Evil Empire (R) bought Wunderlist. This add-on is a wonderful shortcut for the transition. Just install it, and most Thunderbird task features work seamlessly to edit your todo.txt file.
I'd give it five stars, except that it's missing some features. (I suspect some may be there, but if so, they're not documented, So in my book they don't exist yet.)
In particular, I'd like the widely used Simpletask extensions to be included:
due date (due:),
threshold date (t:),
recurring tasks (rec:),
and hidden (h:1) tags.
All of these, except for h:1, implement functions already existing in TB's stock task system.
I'd also add a new tag, message (msg:), to use with phone-call tasks to keep a record of the dates & times when messages were left.
Another thing, just as TB's display of messages can be sorted and then grouped by the sort criteria, the display of tasks should have this capability.
Also, and very important, the stock Thunderbird task list should be enhanced to allow multi-field sorting. The stock version only allows single-field sorts. Since the Todo.txt extension is based on todo-txt-js, which already has multi-field sorting built in, this shouldn't be that hard.
Finally, I'd request what might be called "field labelling." Sometimes it's desirable to substitute labels for fields in displays of tasks. For example, Michael Linenberger's "One-Minute Todo List" (1MTD) uses categories like "Critical Now," "Opportunity Now," and "Over the Horizon." He recommends implementing them by using priorities, and this system works well. The only problem is when you look at the display you see (A), (B), etc. If we could associate these with labels, then the display for high-priority items could read: "Critical Now: Things that must be done today. (<= 5, review hourly)." This would be very useful, especially if the label could be use for group headings.
Report Spam
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Works well but needs some improvement.
It adds 2 buttons to the toolbar for reading messages: Report Spam &amp;amp; Report Phishing. However, on one of my computers the buttons do not appear, and I have to right-click the message and select the appropriate choice from a context menu.
Most annoying, lots of spam has already been reported, and the spam-reporting service I use blocks incoming spam. So when I go to report something as spam, the add-on forwards the spam-laden message to the reporting service, but more often than not it's kicked back to me with a "could not deliver" message.
Lastly, today I made a mistake and accidentally pressed the "Report as Spam" button instead of the "Forward" button. There's no obvious way to fix this and whitelist the sender of the message. Furthermore, I can't find an email address for the app's author, so there seems to be no way to find out about this.
When the add-on works, it's outstanding. These few glitches are a classic case of what makes non-commercial software unpolished.
Google Tasks Sync
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
I am not yet ready to do a full review, as I just started using the add-on. It does seem to be working well, but two things prevent me from going further.
First, the link to documentation still points to a Google Code site. I believe Google has discontinued this service, or perhaps restricts access. Either way, I cannot read the documentation and suggest moving it to a more public place.
Second, I have two Google calendars with names that start with "Personal." "Personal - Long Term" has birthdays, anniversaries, dates for memorials for dead friends &amp;amp; relatives, etc. "Personal - Short Term" has doctor appointments, scheduled car services, meetings with friends, parties, etc. But the drop-down menu in the add-on only shows one choice, "Personal." Since the calendar names are legal for Google Calendar, this seems to be a bug that should be fixed.
I'd also like to be able to specify a time for a task. (E.g., to make a phone call at 11 AM.)
P.S. I would have written to the developer directly, but I cannot find an email address.
P.P.S. Regarding XtremeVision's comment about auto-sync and Tomasz's reply, I suggest always syncing when a new task is added and graying out the sync icon until the user changes a task's content. (E.g., the way LibreOffice grays out the save button after a file has been saved.) Since this is a two-way sync, there might also be an option to activate the icon/button at specific intervals.
ThunderBrowse
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
It works well enough, although I'd like to see both more browser functionality built-in (e.g., ability to use Diigo toolbar) and an easier way to choose between viewing in a TB tab vs a browser tab.
But before I disabled this add-on, TB was using over 100% of available CPU cycles. And boy! Was my computer running hot! I disabled the app, and now TB is mainly using about 25% of CPU cycles.
Similar problems have been reported for a similar app, WebApp Tabs: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/addon/webapp-tabs/.
Allow HTML Temp
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
This is a useful tool that makes it easier to keep HTML off and thereby protect oneself from various forms of spyware. But I'd like to see better integration with TB's junk filtering and untrusted image loading features. If junk detection declares an email as a false positive, you should be able to (1) declare it not junk, (2) download images, and (3) view as HTML in one click. Instead, right now you have to do each thing separately. I realize some won't want to do this, but I'd like this add-on to have the option of doing all three steps at once.
This review is for a previous version of the add-on (3.0.3).To create your own collections, you must have a Mozilla Add-ons account.
