Message structure in Kmail

[Duncan]

Frank Weng \(a.k.a. Franklin\) posted on Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:21:53 +0800
as excerpted:

> I just upgraded to Mandriva 2010.1 which uses KDE 4.4.3.
> 
> However I couldn't find how to set the position of message structure.
> Default it is under the message review, and I'd like to set it above the
> review.
> 
> I tried to find it in the KMail configuration about message list layout,
> but nothing about the message structure there.  I remember that it could
> be set in the KMail configuration.  I don't know if developers moved it
> to somewhere else.  Could anyone please give me some hint about this?

Hmm... I don't see the option to position the structure view, either 
(running 4.4.5, latest upstream release, here on Gentoo), tho I do see the 
option to toggle it on/off in the view menu.

(This center part is a bit of a rant on my personal kmail layout niggle.  
Skip to the bottom if you're not interested.)

FWIW, the limited layout options in kmail have always irritated me a bit.  
My news client, pan, is much more flexible, as it has three panes
(group/folder list, message-list, message-body), with a two-section layout 
tab that along with movable dividers, allows pretty much total control 
over the layout.  (Additionally, for low resolutions, it's possible to 
hide/unhide any of the three, or switch to tab mode, where each of the 
three panes becomes its own tab as well, thus allowing use of the full 
display area for each.)

Using ASCII-art (so best viewed with a monospace font and not auto-
wrapped), the pane layout section looks like this:

   +---+---+    +-------+    +---+---+    +---+---+    +-------+
   | 1 | 2 |    |   1   |    | 1 |   |    |   | 2 |    |___1___|
 O +---+---+  0 +---+---+  O +---+ 3 |  O | 1 +---+  O |___2___|
   |   3   |    | 2 | 3 |    | 2 |   |    |   | 3 |    |   3   |
   +-------+    +---+---+    +---+---+    +---+---+    +-------+

Then below that is the tasks to number assignment:

 O 1=Groups, 2=Headers, 3=Body
 O 1=Groups, 2=Body, 3=Headers
 O 1=Headers, 2=Groups, 3=Body
 0 1=Headers, 2=Body, 3=Groups
 O 1=Body, 2=Groups, 3=Headers
 O 1=Body, 2=Headers, 3=Groups

As you can see by the 0s (as opposed to the Os, in some fonts 0s have a 
mark in the center which looks enough like the "selected" radio-button for 
ascii-art to do the trick), I have it setup with a full width headers pane 
at the top, then body and groups list side-by-side below, with, a bit 
counterintuitively, the groups list to the right.

For me that works best, because the full width header list allows all 
those nice columns of info to display without crowding it so much, and 
because I spend a lot more time with the body pane than the group list, 
which I can ignore on the right unless I'm actually accessing it.

Such a layout in kmail is impossible.  The folder list (comparable to the 
group list) cannot be moved to the right, and while it can be short or 
tall, it's always beside the header-pane, not the body-pane, and it's the 
headers that most need the maximum-width to efficiently display all those 
columns!  Bodies tend to be wrapped at ~80 chars anyway (and with a decent 
autowrap function one can force it if necessary), and on a decently wide 
display, they don't need the full width unless you're using a HUGE font!  
But in kmail, there's no way to move the folders list from beside the 
headers list, where I really need the width, to beside the body, where I 
don't!

I suppose I should check for a bug/brainstorm for that and vote for it or 
create one as appropriate.  But the kdepim/kmail devs have their hands 
full right now with the upcoming switch to akonadi, so I guess I'll wait 
until a bit later in the 4.5 series, after that's in and has had a chance 
to settle a bit, before worrying about it, if the resulting rework of kmail 
hasn't fixed it by then.

(OK, back to the question at hand.)

Interesting that you mention that the structure view defaults to below 
your message-body view.  Here, if I have it enabled, it's on top.  But I 
normally don't have it enabled.

Perhaps the option for that got lost somewhere, but it apparently does 
remember the previous config.  I backup my user kde settings dir before a 
big upgrade and upgrade in-place, thus generally preserving my previous 
settings.  Perhaps that's why mine is on top, as that's where I set it 
before, when the option was available, and it kept that after the option 
(apparently) disappeared.

That suggests that it should be possible to set it by manually editing 
kmail's user config text-files, even if the GUI option is gone.  Let's see 
if I can find where...

I think I found it! (Yes, now verified with a quick test. =:^)  

The file is $KDEHOME/share/config/kmailrc.  ($KDEHOME
is $HOME/.kde by default, $HOME being your home dir.)

As that file contains all your individual kmail folder and filter configs, 
it can be pretty long.  Mine's ~120 KB.  So look for the [Reader] 
section.  Even that's surprisingly long, but MIMETreeLocation appears to 
be what you're after.  Mine's set to top.  I bet yours is either set to 
bottom, or unset (either one appears to cause it to appear at the bottom), 
in which case, add the line, like this:

MIMETreeLocation=top

Be sure and shut down kmail before you edit the file, of course.  

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

___________________________________________________
This message is from the kde mailing list.
Account management:  https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde.
Archives: http://lists.kde.org/.
More info: http://www.kde.org/faq.html.