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This content covers features introduced in Thunderbird 3
The "Folder Pane" refers to the main navigation element that appears on the left side of the main Thunderbird window. Here, users traditionally find a hierarchical view of their accounts and folders. Beginning in Thunderbird 2, additional views on those folders ("Recent Folders", "Favorite Folders", and "Unread Folders") were added, accessible via the scroll-arrows at the top of the pane.
Thunderbird 3 replaces the architecture underlying the Folder Pane, and the result is dramatically increased abilities for extensions to modify and extend the pane's display. Extension authors are encouraged to experiment with alternative views on the traditional folder view, in an effort to find new ways of presenting the user with the necessary navigation data.
See Folder Pane interfaces for information on the related APIs.
Check out these tutorials for examples:
- Adding items to the Folder Pane - Extensions can now append their own items to the navigation panel, even if those items don't correspond to traditional mail folders
- Adding views to the Folder Pane - A tutorial on how to add additional views to the navigation pane in addition to the four provided.
- Styling the Folder Pane - A reference on the CSS properties that the folder pane provides.