I'm using Kubuntu 9.10 and Mozilla Thunderbird as email program. If email has an attachment, MT rarely finds required application to open it in. If I save an attachment and then open it from Dolphin, it works fine. But if i try opening it right from download dialog, MT can't determine appropriate application correctly.
I'd prefer it to use xdg-open or kde-open programs for finding required application. Is there a way to make Thunderbird a bit smarter?
You could find some use in these extensions:
I use them on Windows, mind you, but they're supposed to be cross-platform. The first one is just an improved way of handling attachments by MIME type ("improved" over TB's default UI), while the second one allows you to ignore the MIME type altogether and set the opening application just based on the file extension - it's useful for those e-mails where the attachment has the wrong MIME type (sender's fault).
Note that the first extension isn't available on AMO anymore; the link points to a user-modified version, as suggested here.
As you open file types Thunderbird doesn't recognize from the Open Attachment dialog in Thunderbird, Thunderbird (or maybe it's KDE) will begin to remember what applications open what file types and take care of it for you for future attachments of the same type.
In short, saving them to the desktop and then using KDE to open them is keeping Thunderbird from making the associations it needs.
This is a quote from this article - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Actions_for_attachment_file_types
"Download Actions" settings
Despite what the labelling in this panel might suggest (it says "Thunderbird can automatically save or open attachments of certain types"), these settings simply allow you to change the save/open actions that will be performed when you double-click on an attachment of a specified file type. Changing these settings will not allow save/open actions to be performed automatically for attachments in incoming messages without user intervention. For instance, if you previously used the "Do this automatically for files like this from now on" checkbox to have Thunderbird always open ".doc" attachments with Word, you can undo that file-handling association by clicking on the "DOC" file type and clicking the "Remove Action" button.To add a download action to this list, open an e-mail that has an attachment of the type you want to add, or write a new e-mail and attach a file of the type that you want to add. Open the attachment and choose how you want Thunderbird to open it. Check the box "Do this automatically for files like this from now on".
The MIME Edit extension adds a Tools -> MIME Edit -> Edit menu command that does everything (except for searching) that the download actions window does, plus it lets you create a entry. It can be very useful if you get a bad setting due to opening an attachment that has the wrong MIME type definition, acknowledged "do this from now on for all attachments of that type" and it replaced the good entry with a bad entry.
