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List:       kmail-devel
Subject:    KMail User Interface
From:       Ralf Nolden <nolden () kde ! org>
Date:       2001-05-30 10:31:09
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Hi all,

ok, I have some small but important things that we (tackat, danimo and
I) discussed out that we need for kmail and which we like to do and need
the other's approval. Sorry that danimo changed things this week without
asking and even I didn't see what was going on.

Now, what do we need and why do we need it ?

What we need:

a) the default setting should be long folder list

why: because it's the common look of mail clients and other applications
having a slit view. Besides, the start screen shows up maximised then
which makes a much better impression and looks much more brilliant on
the user interface.

b) subfolders in Inbox and folder drag'n drop

why: in Netscape one can have subfolders in Inbox ( I have that for
example ) and if we want users to switch to konqueror, this has to
include an easy conversion to kmail as well. KMail has the speed and
potential to be the killer app, but an easy migration of the mail
folders ( I tried it here and all my inbox subfolders don't show up but
have all my mails in inbox...34.000 ) is needed. A possibility to
customize the mail folder ( ~/nsmail or ~/Mail ) setting would help a
lot. So you could easily detect on the first startup if the user has
used nsmail before, and just grab his mails and import them. That would
give him a good chance to either use both and he can evaluate kmail much
better, then stay with it. I hope this sounds logical enough to do it :)

c) more columns in the folder view and the mail view for various
purposes

which ones: a column in the folder view for the unread mails and one for
the total mails, just like knode. 
why: this is pretty standard and has prooved to be efficient towards the
user looking at the folder view, also makes the clients look more
consistent.

another one in the listbox of the mails to sort threaded/unthreaded. I
know that can be done via the menu or the configuration but even I had
to look very hard for that feature to find it.

What would be good as well would be that the status of the mail would be
shown in a status column instead next to the mail itself. Also a symbol
in front of the mail entry in the listbox with an icon to show either a
closed letter, an opened letter, a letter containing an attatchment. By
that one can easier detect visually what the status is if he isn't into
the color look for the status - and also makes it easier for red-green
affected and visually impaired people to cope with the mails.

We would like to have these little changes done for 2.2 and would like
to do them with you guys together as we think these are needed GUI
improvements that would make kmail look *a lot* better and make it much
easier for beginners to handle it. Please feel free to comment and blame
me if something goes wrong if you're also up with these ideas.

Cheers,

Ralf 
-- 
Finally, even I have to admit that being myself was the best thing
that ever could have happened to me. - Le Grand Charmeur

**********************************
Ralf Nolden

The KDevelop Project
http://www.kdevelop.org

nolden@kde.org
rnolden@kdevelop.org
**********************************
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