Version:           4.3.0-154.1 (using KDE 4.3.0)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    SuSE RPMs

My system:
Linux 2.6.27.25-0.1-default i686
openSUSE 11.1 (i586)
KDE 4.3.00 release 155
Kontact/Kmail 4.3.0-154.1

My problem is that the options for changing the persistent headers have disappeared from the menu in Kmail.

After trying to solve this problem, I went to a clean config of Kmail, on the same computer but as a different user. Everything is as it should be and all the menu options regarding the headers are where they are supposed to be.

So I set out to configure Kmail as I like it, checking after each change to see if the menu had changed. When I get to the Layout, and choose "Do not show a message preview pane", this is when the menu options for headers disappear.

OK, so it seems logical enough just to select "Show the message preview pane " and assume everything goes back to normal. Well, it doesn't. Everything goes back to normal with the layout, except that the header menu options are still missing!

Being who I am, I looked at the kmailrc file to see what happens when I make this change to the layout.

When I start up Kmail for the first time, when everything is as it should be, there is no code in the kmailrc file for the location of the preview pane.

When I select "Do not show a message preview pane" a new line is added to the kmailrc file readerWindowMode=hide. This is when the menu options disappear, though I cannot see the connection because this line does not have anything to do with menu options.

When I select back to the default "Show the message preview pane ", the line is changed to readerWindowMode=below, but the menu options are still not there.

In order for me to get the menu options back, I deleted this line completely, so the kmailrc is as it was when I first started out. The menu options are back and the preview pane is in the default layout position.

So I got everything back to normal, except that I don't want the preview pane!

As long as I choose my preferred header style before I choose the layout it is no problem. If I want to choose another header style later on, I have to deleted the readerWindowMode=hide line, choose the header, choose the layout, and off I go.