[Bug 142853] New: suggestions for usability improvement

[John]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=142853         
           Summary: suggestions for usability improvement
           Product: kmail
           Version: 1.9.5
          Platform: SuSE RPMs
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: wishlist
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: kdepim-bugs kde org
        ReportedBy: gentoobug herakles homelinux org


Version:           1.9.5 (using KDE KDE 3.5.5)
Installed from:    SuSE RPMs

Some settings controlling reading need to be set to a hierarchy. I have several email accounts, and I don't necessarily want to access them each using the same rules. Some of those addresses are specifically for use with mailing-lists, the one I'm using for this is for reporting bugs

Within each account, I may have numerous folders. Some are for mail from mailing lists, such as CentOS, RHEL5-beta-list and so on, mostly these are discussion lists, and I want to read them threaded.

OTOH, personal mail I want sorted in order of arrival, with the most recent at the top of the list. A stack, if you like.

What I think should be done is this:
1. Kmail have settings set by a user for all email. These would be defaults for the user.
2. Each account have overriding settings set by the user as defaults for this account
3. Each email folder have further settings set by the user to fine-tune how email for this folder is treated.

These settings should be accessible from a properties menu item for the particlar object. This doesn't preclude an on-screen facility to quickly change some properties such as c. below.

Settings that are obvious to me that need to be handled in this way include
a. Identity: most users can use email address of the form user+something example com and get incoming mail sorted properly. It needs to be easy to send _from_ the correct address.
b. Threading behaviour.
c. Viewing selection, to show or not show unread, and so on.
B. and c. might be combined as in the Mozilla family.
d. Selection of "reply to" address. Not all lists are standards-compliant, and not all list managers (the people, not the software) configure lists as I think they should.
This might be better handled in filtering except that I don't know that it would work well with imap.
e. The ability to not display some text in subject lines, mostly [this] which serves most to hide more useful stuff from the subject lines. It might be displayed on mouseover, in case there's ever something useful there:-)

a. is sort of done, but it's not done consistently. An email account is basically a special folder, and should generally be handled as one.
b. and c. are the biggest annoyances, and just about enough to stop me from using kmail (I use Thunderbird and Mozilla/Seamonkey more) because they do not persist, and if they did they'd often be wrong because I don't want all folders treated the same way.

d. & e. would go far to alleviate my grievances with many people who (mis)manage mailing lists.