I no longer use SeaMonkey-ppc
Its slow web browser is impractical on my G4
I have returned to Thunderbird

SeaMonkey

Note

The following relates to my experience of SeaMonkey-ppc but some of this may be applicable to the latest version of SeaMonkey on other platforms.

Introduction

For a few months towards the end of 2012 I used SeaMonkey-ppc as my main browser and email client. I changed my 733 MHz G4 with Leopard from Thunderbird 3.1.20 and Firefox 3.6.28 to SeaMonkey-ppc. SeaMonkey-ppc is based upon the latest SeaMonkey code. Its email client is more user friendly and has fewer bugs than Thunderbird but its web browser is slow and gets even slower with a few hours use.

I have returned to Thunderbird as it is not possible to use SeaMonkey as an email only client - links in emails will only open in its own browser.

Bookmarks Import

Bookmarks import during the install process works well for bookmarks imported directly from other browsers but importing from previously exported files can be tedious. It did not work for my exported Safari bookmarks until I manually edited the 'html'. I think the same result could be achieved by going via an alternative browser such as Firefox.

Safari exports bookmarks in this form:

<DT><H3>News</H3>
<DL>
<DT><A HREF="http://www.cnn.com/">CNN</A>
<DT><A HREF="http://espn.go.com/">ESPN</A>
<DT><A HREF="http://www.npr.org/">NPR</A>
</DL>

SeaMonkey refuses to import exported Safari bookmarks unless they are converted to this form:

<DL>
<DT><H3>News</H3>
<DT><A HREF="http://www.cnn.com/">CNN</A>
<DT><A HREF="http://espn.go.com/">ESPN</A>
<DT><A HREF="http://www.npr.org/">NPR</A>
</DL>

This can be done with a text editor by:

  1. Deleting all tabs
  2. Changing all occurrences of:
    <DT><H3
    to:
    <DL>
    <DT><H3
  3. Changing all occurrences of:
    </H3>
    <DL>
    to:
    </H3>

Address Book Import

Address book import normally works well importing from other mail clients but it can refuse to import previously exported files including its own. This can be overcome by using ldif throughout. Other workarounds include going via another mail client or manually editing to the following minimum format and giving the file an ldif extension before importing to SeaMonkey:

objectclass: top
cn: Peter Pan
mail: peter@never.com

objectclass: top
cn: Tom Black
mail: tom@colour.com

objectclass: top
cn: Mary Pop
mail: mary@who.com

Java

Java Plug-In 2 for NPAPI Browsers appears to have a bug which adversely affects the combination of an html base tag and an applet. This results in the failure of this test page to display the time. Further details.

British English Dictionary

The usual device of increasing the maximum version in install.rdf permitted installation from a local file. It was recognised by Add-ons manager but could not be selected to check spellings. However the following did work:

  1. Type something in an email or web form
  2. Check the spelling
  3. Select download more dictionaries
  4. Select dictionary
  5. Ignore 'Not available for SeaMonkey 2.13' warning
  6. Click greyed out download button
  7. Ignore any other warnings, install and restart
  8. Check a spelling and select English/United Kingdom

Dock

I am making some progress in my quest to equip the Dock with separate icons for Mail and Browser - details later hopefully.

Style

I am using the following style to change my mail window appearance - for the time being see my original Thunderbird style page for instructions.

/* Non-bold unread indication with compatible background and style improvements */

treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text { font-weight: normal !important; color: #000 !important }
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell(isServer-true) { padding-left: 18px !important; padding-top: 1px !important; background-color: #9f9 }
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell(selected) { background-color: #99f }
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(unread) { background-color: #9ff }
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell-text(hasUnreadMessages-true) { background-color: #9ff }
treechildren::-moz-tree-cell { margin-top: -1px; padding-bottom: 2px !important }

/* Reduce Folder Pane width */

#folderPaneBox { margin-left: -34px }

/* Remove splitter from collapsed Thread Pane */

#threadpane-splitter[state='collapsed'] { margin-bottom: -9px }

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