Deleting all messages of a collapsed thread in thunderbird

[rlengland at verizon.net]

On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at  9:25 AM, joachim.backes at rhrk.uni-kl.de wrote:

> Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>> On Wed, 2008-06-18 at 15:21 +0200, joachim.backes at rhrk.uni-kl.de 
>> wrote:
>>> Hi, I'm running F9 with thunderbird-2.0.0.14-1.fc9.i386 and have the 
>>> following question:
>>>
>>> Is it possible to delete all messages of a thread, which is 
>>> collapsed, without opening the thread?
>>
>> Try this: close the preview pane and drag the thread to the Trash. 
>> Note:
>> this is just speculation as I haven't tried it.
>
> Hi Patrick,
>
> I'm sorry, but does not help: Only the uppermost (the thread leader 
> message) will be moved to the trash.
>
> JB
>
>>
>> poc
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Joachim Backes <joachim.backes at rhrk.uni-kl.de>
>
>

This is a little bit of a workaround but it works for me.

If you install the extension called Buttons 
<http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/buttons.php> in Thunderbird, one of 
the new buttons you can place on the tool bar will delete an entire 
thread.

I hit F8 in Thunderbird to remove the display or preview pane (leaves 
only the list of email by subject line)  highlight  any one of the email 
items in a thread, and the whole thread is removed.

HTH, good luck,

~~R