Thunderbird Email Lesson 4: Write and Reopen a Draft

Your goal

Write a greeting and two sentences with no recipient. Save, close, and reopen the same draft; correct one sentence and save again.

Before starting

Use your own authorized practice account or a harmless practice document. Identify the active application and the focused control before each command. Keep these instructions in a separate window. Never include passwords or private messages in your learning notes.

Follow the product and device version named in each procedure. A plus sign means hold the modifier while pressing the final key; “then” means release before continuing. These procedures are documentation-based and have not been tested here with the actual assistive software or signed-in reading accounts.

Write, review, and save a draft

Start here: Thunderbird’s main mail window, with an account connected. This first exercise will not be sent.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Press Ctrl+N to open a composition window. Confirm that a new message is active, rather than a folder or browser search field.
2. Leave To empty for this exercise. Tab until Subject is announced. Type “Email practice — draft only.” Tab to the editable message body.
3. Type a greeting, two practice sentences, and your name. Press Enter between paragraphs. Read back what you wrote using your normal text-reading method.
4. Use Shift+Tab or Tab to review Subject and the recipient area. Confirm that no recipient has accidentally been added. Return to the body if you need to correct a sentence.
5. Press Ctrl+S. Wait for saving to finish. Close only the composition window with Ctrl+W; if asked whether to save changes, choose Save.
6. In the main window, use F6 to locate the folder pane. Use arrows to reach this account’s Drafts folder. Move to its message list with F6, select your subject, and open it with Enter.
7. Verify that the subject and both sentences are still present. Save again after any changes.

Check your result

You can reopen your unfinished message. It remains a draft and has not been sent.

If something goes wrong

If Drafts appears empty, check the account and clear any active filter. If the composition window is still open, return there and save again. Do not use Send to make a draft appear in a folder.

Try it yourself

Change one sentence, save, close, and reopen the same draft. Explain how saving differs from sending.

Documentation: Writing and saving messages.

Your practice assignment

Write a greeting and two sentences with no recipient. Save, close, and reopen the same draft; correct one sentence and save again.

Check your work before marking complete

• Identify the starting application, account, device, or keyboard layout used for this task.
• Demonstrate each part of the goal above and describe the result after each action.
• Return to the saved item, passage, or starting setting when the task calls for it.
• Explain one problem you encountered or could encounter and the recovery step you would use.
• Record whether you worked independently, needed a prompt, or used the written alternative.

If the application, membership, or device is unavailable: complete a written walkthrough of this exact assignment. Include the starting context, ordered actions, expected results, and one recovery step. Label it “written alternative — not tested on the device.” The completion record is self-reported, not an instructor-verified skills assessment.

Keep your notes locally, for example thunderbird-lesson-4.txt. No assignment upload is required. Use your anonymous Student ID to save lesson completion below; you can undo it.

Assignment upload (paused)

Open this lesson in Safari if a future upload feature requires a browser outside an in-app view.