Kmail problems

[SigurdF]

Hi,
I hope someone is around who can help me with Kmail.
After Mozilla declared that Thunderbird is perfect (what ever it means) and need no longer development I have changed to Kontact with it's email client Kmail. To start with Kmail I have to say that it is not yet very user friendly. There are some settings that are a bit difficult to find. But with the FAQs and the handbook on the KDE website I solved some problems. Still there are two things that bother me:
1) Every time I start a new session with Kontakt and included Kmail and if I want to send an email I have to type the password for my email account. Under Sending I have marked that it shall remember my password. It does not work when I terminate the session and start a new one. How can I change this that it will remember my account password always?
2) In Kmail the body text of an email is wraped when the text line reaches the right border, as it is here in this window. That is fine. Only when I want to write a new email in the Composer the line continues and continues and continues. It does not wrap at the right border. But when I have sent the email and see it in Kmail it does wrap the text at the right border. The setting of word wrap at 78 characters is not a good option. How can I change the behavior of the body text in the composer?
Kind regards,
Sigurd

[Snowhog]

I'm assuming (because you haven't told us) that you are running Kubuntu 12.04. Kontact/Kmail depends/relys/uses Kwallet. If you've disabled Kwallet, then you would experience what you are describing with the password not being saved.

[SteveRiley]

Well, actually, I have noticed something similar with KMail on 12.04. It appears to forget stored passwords for IMAP and SMTP servers after a period of time. I currently have two inbound and outbound accounts: one for my (soon-to-be retired) Gmail and one for my self-hosted domain. At unpredictable intervals, KMail will prompt me to enter the password for my self-hosted account when I check for new mail or send a message. But, curiosly, never for the Gmail account.

I think, but can't positively recall now, that this behavior appeared either with KDE 4.8.4 or beta 4.9. Honestly, it hasn't bugged me enough to investigate, but perhaps I should experiment a bit.

(I am using KWallet, and the wallet itself has no password.)

[SigurdF]

Hi Snowhog,
hi SteveRiley,
You are right. The first item with the password is not soooooo important. But I was in the System Settings and KDEWallet is turned on. In the KDEManager I found under mailtransportation 3 passwords. That is curious because I only have 2 mail accounts with 2 different passwords. So I erased one password (one was doubled). Let's see what will happen now.
More bothering is the second item in Composer. Do you have any idea how to solve this?
Kind regards, Sigurd

[Snowhog]

Here, the composer settings are being observed. I have it set to 78, and when composing emails the lines 'wrap' when this character limit it reached.

Again, what version of Kubuntu, Kontact/Kmail, and KDE are you running?

[SigurdF]

Hi Snowhog,
As I said above the word wrap at 78 character is not a good option. It looks like the early 90s. I cannot imagine that it is so difficult to get a dynamic word wrap based on the width on screen. I mean I can live with that. But you lose the overview about the text you have written.
Sorry, I use Kubuntu 12.04 and Kontact/Kmail 4.8.4 and KDE 4.8.4 and Linux 3.2.0-26-generic.
Regards, Sigurd

[Snowhog]

Okay, now I understand: Fixed word wrap vs dynamic based on the composer window size.

The problem with that is not all email programs 'honor' dynamic word wrapping of received emails. So, if the recipient's email application doesn't, and your composed email is set up for dynamic word wrapping, then the recipient sees your email as long single lines (one for each that includes an end-of-line/return).

[TheBigAmbulance]

I've been thinking about abandoning TB myself. But the lack of HTML email has been holding me back in fully going to Kmail. Has that gotten any better?

[Snowhog]

KMail supports HTML email. It's simply a configuration setting: KMail > Settings > Configure KMail... > Security > HTML Messages and check Prefer HTML to plain text.

[SigurdF]

Hi Snowhog,
I think you don't understand. I only talk about the body text area of the Composer of Kmail on my computer. There is no dynamic word wrap. The line goes on and on and on.
But when I have sent the email. I can see a copy in my sent folder of Kmail. There is a dynamic word wrap for the body text area of the email.
Why is there no dynamic word wrap in the body text area of the composer as it is in the kmail window
Regards, Sigurd

[SigurdF]

Hi TheBigAmulance,
I just changed from TB to Kontact with Kmail. I have to say that Kmail is okay. It is as good as TB. Some things even are a little bit better. But it looks like that there are still some small issues too. I mean I can live with that. But if possible I would like to solve these issues.
Kind regards, Sigurd

[SigurdF]

Hi,
I think Problem 1) is solved. I got the advice to erase the passwords for transportation and POP3 in the KDE Wallet what I did. In the settings of Kmail I typed the passwords for POP3 (receiving) and SMTP (sending) again and I marked remember again. Now it looks like Kmail remembers the passwords always.
Any ideas for Problem 2)?
Kind regards, Sigurd

[andystmartin]

KMail supports HTML email. It's simply a configuration setting: KMail > Settings > Configure KMail... > Security > HTML Messages and check Prefer HTML to plain text.

And, the HTML support in KMail is very unstable. With these options turned on, I get frequent KMail crashes.

I see that I got an update to 4.8.4a recently, I will try again to see if the stability has improved.

[SigurdF]

Hi andystmartin,
I am sorry. But I cannot confirm your statement. On my computer Kmail and HTML support are running very well. I never had any crash. Only this little problem with the composer.
Regards,
Sigurd