[kdepim-users] Re: [opensuse] Kmail preview pane

[Stan Goodman]

On Sunday, April 03, 2011 12:11:41 PM Ingo Klöcker Ingo Klöcker 
<kloecker at kde.org> wrote:
> On Sunday 03 April 2011, Stan Goodman wrote:
> > On Sunday, April 03, 2011 12:28:38 AM Ingo Klöcker Ingo Klöcker
> > 
> > <kloecker at kde.org> wrote:
> > > On Saturday 02 April 2011, Stan Goodman wrote:
> > > > I am using this laptop for mail for the first time since
> > > > installing 11.4. In Configure Kmail > Appearance, I have
> > > > checked "Show message preview pane beneath message,
> > > 
> > > Hmm. There is a "list" missing after message. The option reads
> > > "Show the message preview pane below the message list".
> > > 
> > > > but it doesn't show anywhere.
> > > > 
> > > > Checking "Show message preview pane at the side" causes the
> > > > Message listpane to expand and  replace the Message pane
> > > > completely, and a new pane to open at the right, in which the
> > > > MESSAGE is displayed. The preview information still appears
> > > > nowhere.
> > > 
> > > Either you misunderstand the option or I misunderstand your
> > > message. You write "a new pane to open at the right, in which the
> > > MESSAGE is displayed". This pane is the preview pane. What do you
> > > expect the preview pane to be? Are you looking for the old
> > > "message structure pane"?
> > 
> > It is a given that it is I that misunderstands.
> > 
> > I am indeed looking for the message structure pane, or whatever
> > current feature it is that offers the same functionality.
> 
> Unfortunately, this feature has been removed because it was assumed
> to be useless and confusing to users.

The KDE Development Team Strikes Again! 

I relied on that "useless feature" and will miss it. Did anybody think 
to aks the users if it was useful? I don't recall that. I think removing 
it was a foolish move, since displaying the structure was not forced on 
anybody, but was optional and even flexible.  Bad move. More Windows-
like, which was probably the real reason for eliminating it. There seems 
to be an element in the Team that consideers MS-emulation to be a 
virtue.

Is there no way to isolate the HTML copy? A script maybe?

> > > > In other words, there is no way that I can see a preview,
> > > 
> > > What kind of preview do you expect? Would it be better if the
> > > "preview pane" would be called "message pane"?
> > 
> > I had concluded from Bob's response that "preview pane" is a new
> > synonym for "message pane". I do not intend to quibble over
> > nomenclature, but yes, that would have been clearer. As it is, the
> > message is now its own preview (or a preview of what?), which does
> > not, to me, add clarity -- even if, for some reason, that pane
> > needs to have two names.
> 
> It was always called preview pane. I think the name originated from
> some feature requests which asked for (optional) removal of the
> message pane in the main window. Somehow the message pane in the
> main window got called "preview pane" to differentiate it from the
> message viewer you get by double clicking on a message or by
> pressing Enter.

In four years of using Kmail, I never noticed the terj "preview pane"; 
color me blind.

> To me the name "preview pane" never made any sense because the
> message pane is a fully featured message viewer and not some
> crippled preview. The only difference to the separate message viewer
> is that the "preview" pane is smaller.

Exactly.

> > > > and no way
> > > > that I can view any HTML attachment, which I sometimes need to
> > > > do. How to make a more rational layout?
> > > 
> > > I don't understand what you want to achieve. What kind of HTML
> > > attachment do you want to view? All attachments should be listed.
> > > If you want to show an HTML message as HTML then you need to
> > > enable "Prefer HTML to Plain Text" for the folder temporarily.

That's a step backward. Clearly, I am not going to reconfigure Kmail per 
message received. Vagrant thought: It used to be that Linux was touted 
because of, inter alia,  its flexibility. Even more to the point, 
openSuSE chose the chameleon (no, it is not a gecko, or a generic 
"lizard") as its symbol to reflect flexibility (rather than the rigidity 
typical of Microsoft0. But that was then, this is now.

> > I despise HTML in email, but I receive a lot of messages (e.g.
> > blogs with a more complex structure) that are not simple
> > plain-text, but contain HTML and images. And the HTML often has
> > links that are not available in the plain text.
> 
> I also receive the odd HTML message I cannot read as plain text. As I
> wrote above I temporarily enable HTML for viewing those messages.
> 
> > I often save the HTML of such messages,
> > which I do not see how to do now.
> 
> This worked? Amazing. It's always surprising to see features used in
> ways you, the developer, didn't think of. :-)

The developer comes with his own bias, which is why he ought to ask 
users. That ought to be self-evident, and it woud be, for anybody who 
actually had users in mind.

> With the removal of the message structure pane I also don't see how
> to do this now.
> 
> > I have several such in my inbox
> > now, which I know to have a complex structure, and I see no
> > indication of this on my screen. Where is it that I can see the
> > structure, and access the HTML copy of the message?
> 
> Nowhere unfortunately. Sorry.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Ingo

-- 
Stan Goodman
Qiryat Tiv'on
Israel
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