KMail: Message list aggregation - how does it work?

[David Hurka]

Hi KMail (and other) people,

I am using KMail for about a year now, and it helps me a lot. But now I want 
to give some feedback on the “aggregation” feature of the message list. In 
short: It is complicated.

It seems to be possible to group by date, thread, and sender/receiver; on two 
different levels. Great so far, but it is difficult to learn how to control 
the behaviour. The Aggregation menu provides 7 presets, but which one should 
one use?

- There is no tooltip in the menu explaining the design/purpose.
  (Are tooltips in menus possible?)
- There are basically 5 settings (seen in “Customize Message Aggregation
  Modes”), but the available presets change several of them at a time, so
  trying different presets doesn’t explain how it works. If one has only
  few emails, no difference is visible at all. 
- The names of the presets are not really explanatory about the differences.
  (“Activity by Date, Flat” <-> “Flat Date View”,
  “Activity by Date” <-> “Current Activity”)
  I would expect presets to be named just by their purpose.
  (like “Standard Mailing List”)

Currently I’m missing a reason to hide settings behind presets. But maybe 
the obstacle is just in my way of thinking. Can you explain the idea behind 
the aggregation presets? Thank in advance.

Cheers,
David