tactical vim

The core problem is that the autocomplete while composing emails in Thunderbird uses a different LDAP filter than when you’re just looking in the address book. Depending on how your Exchange/Active Directory admins set up the attributes – and the design of the login names, we have 3 different styles in my company – you may “miss” finding people depending on how you type parts of their name.

Once your LDAP server is set up in Thunderbird it will have preferences based on the name you gave it; I’ll use MYSERVER below, replace with your correct name.

1. Open the Thunderbird Preferences, select the Advanced -> General tab
2. Click Config Editor (dismiss the warning if it appears)
3. Rightmouse click and chose New -> String Value to add these items (so repeat the process for each pair below):

Preference name: ldap_2.servers.MYSERVER.attrmap.DisplayName
Preference value: displayName

Preference name: ldap_2.servers.MYSERVER.autoComplete.commentFormat
Preference value: [displayName]

Preference name: ldap_2.servers.MYSERVER.autoComplete.nameFormat
Preference value: [displayName]

Preference name: ldap_2.servers.MYSERVER.autoComplete.filterTemplate
Preference value: (|(mail=*%v*)(displayName=*%v*)(givenName=*%v*)(sn=*%v*)(cn=*%v*))

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle. (Go Joe!)