Advanced editor pops up after only one click so how do I get this to stop?

Question

When I write an email I typically don't keep typing all the way to the right margin. Instead
I choose to keep the line of words narrow by routinely hitting
"enter." Hence, it's like creating a new paragraph after every line
as I am doing now. Then when I go to edit, such as to take out
a word, I will move the cursor and place it in a white field next
to that word. I would then backspace to delete the word. However,
as soon as I click the advanced editor pops up. I am very careful
to only click once. After attempting to consistently repeat this annoyance,
it seems that it is most likely when I have previously used the enter key and
it be most likely to happen with that first edit. A single click later in the white
field is not likely to trigger the advanced property editor. I'm with others that
write about this being a very annoying event, and it has just started after a year
of using thunderbird. I have a lot of folders. If I re-install I would not want to loose those
folders. A follow up question may be, how do I back up these folders?

Answer 1

Clicking once in a white space does not open the advanced editor.
This is only initiated if you click twice in a white space.
However, the point that some people keep clicking twice either because of their computing habits in a word processing package or otherwise has been taken on board by the developers. As you say, people like yourself found the pop up irritating and wanted it removed from so easily being selected.
You will be pleased to hear that if you update to 31.1.0 then you will find that accessing the advanced property editor has been prevented from opening using the double click.
The Thunderbird program is not stored in the same place as the Thunderbird Profile folders.
So updating via 'Help' > 'About Thunderbird'
click on 'Check for updates'
will not have any effect on folders.
You could also uninstall the current Thunderbird via Control Panel > Programs and Features and then download from here:
* https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/all.html
However, it is always a good idea to backup your Profile just in case :)
You can use MozBackup tool to backup a Profile or use ImportExporttool to backup emails or you can manually copy the Profile folder.
Suggest you save all backups to an external storage device for safe keeping.
Here is info on Backup:
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
* http://kb.mozillazine.org/MozBackup
ImportExporttool:
* https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/