On 08/24/2015 04:29 PM, Yasha Karant wrote:
My query applies specifically to Mozilla Thunderbird current, but
could have a more general solution.
I need to convert to a plain text file listing (that could be imported
into a word processor, LaTeX or a GUI front end thereto, etc) what
appears in the display of Thunderbird as the columns Subject From and
Date for an internal activity report that I must write. These
columns appear on the end-user GUI display and allow one to then read
specific messages by "point and click". As I cannot find a
description of the official Thunderbird nomenclature for the various
sections of the GUI display, I am using the above descriptions.
I could use a screenshot application, select a rectangular region,
save each entity as a PNG image, and then use an OCR application to
yield plain text. I would prefer that the screenshot application
simply recognizes the text *AS* text, allowing me to copy and paste
into a text editor, etc., all running under X wndows. Does anyone
know of an application that does this? A brief perusal on the web as
well as a quick read of the information on the "default" screenshot
applications that come with either MATE or KDE does not seem to reveal
a mechanism for this (but rather the PNG or other image, non-text,
route).
The normal mechanism I use -- highlight (select), pointing device
button (to copy), and then point device button (paste) to capture from
say a text HTTP file in a web browser to a word processor application
-- does not seem to work for the above "column" portion of the
Thunderbird display. This normal mechanism does work if I view source
for each message, displaying the SMTP text source and headers in a
box, but is very time consuming as the information that I need is
available in the "columns" of the basic Thunderbird user interface
without having to view the source.
Any assistance is appreciated.
Yasha Karant
Hi Yasha,
I'm a bit confused at the level of automation you need. Do you want a
user to capture a whole folder from TB or just an email?
If it's just one email it may be simplest to have an account that they
forward to and use procmail to get the source.
If it's a whole folder well that's different unless you have access to
the mail server then there are a few possibilities.
Best,
Joe
