Hi guys,
For those who maybe interested from at least JAWS 2023 you can now reliably rearrange thunderbird columns. I know NVDA has had this ability in one way or another for ages including thunderbird V115 but JAWS was a nightmare at best and impossible in general. So, if you do wish to change the column order do the following:
1 Open thunderbird
2 go to the message list
3 Shift+tab once
4 there use the left arrow key and you get the headders
5 Select the option "select columns"
6 arrow up and down ticking any you want to get rid of all together or to keep
8 Press enter
9 From there you can then use the left or right arrow keys to find the header name
10 once you know what order you want arrow to that header then if you want to place that header before the previous option
11 Press CTRL+Insert+Numpad/ this allows you to drag and drop
12 left/right arrow to where you want to place the column then press that key combo again, ctrl+insert+numpadkey/ then then drops the header there
13 once yu have arranged things how you want just press tab to get back to the message list and things should now show in the order you want.
Note: it is the forward slash you need with numpad. Hope this makes sense.