How can I create a simple keystroke macro for Thunderbird?

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I’m trying to speed up the time it takes me to respond to emails. I don’t have received messages automatically quoted in my replies, as many times I don’t want that to happen, but there are times when I do want the message appended and a horizontal line separating the new message from the older one. To do that in TB, I normally have the following sequence of keystrokes:
Ctrl-A
Ctrl-R
Ctrl-Home
Enter (Return)
Alt-i
Alt-o
Up Arrow

I’d like to create a simple keystroke macro that would execute all those steps with a single keystroke or click. I’ve done this within various other programs, but don’t know if there’s a way to make this happen within TB. Any thoughts on this will be appreciated.

Thanks.

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Here is a simple AutoIt script. After the script is activated, it waits 3 seconds, during which the user is expected to give focus to the correct window. Then, if the active window has “Mozilla Thunderbird” in the title bar, it simulates the keystrokes you specified.

Something similar could probably be accomplished with PhraseExpress, AutoHotKey, etc.

To activate the script by hotkey, create a shortcut to the script and specify a “Shortcut key” in the shortcut’s properties.

I could send you this script as an .exe, but you should not accept executable files from strangers.

Code:

Opt("WinTitleMatchMode", 2)  ; 1=start, 2=substr, 3=exact, 4=advanced, -1 to -4=lowercase
Sleep(3000)
If WinActive("Mozilla Thunderbird") Then
	Send("^a^r")
	Send("^{HOME}{ENTER}")
	Send("!i!o{UP}")
EndIf

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Even simpler. Here is a barebones VBScript that does the same thing — except that it does no checking at all. Save the script as a plain text file with the file name extension .vbs. Run the script, and within 3 seconds activate the target window. The script will then simulate the keystrokes that you specified.

Code:

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WScript.Sleep 3000
WshShell.SendKeys "^(a)^(r)"
WshShell.SendKeys "{HOME}{ENTER}"
WshShell.SendKeys "%(i)%(o){UP}"
Set WshShell = Nothing

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