GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 572742
Window management when reading mail is very inefficient
Last modified: 2016-03-16 15:04:55 UTC
These apply to using new windows (preview pane turned off) to read mail messages- 1) There is no configuration option to allow for the original message window to automatically close when replying to or forwarding a message. This would be useful to reduce the number of user actions needed (having to explicitly close the original message) as well as eliminating an unneeded window 2) When deleting an open e-mail, Evolution automatically opens the next e-mail, whether the user wants to read it or not. A configuration option to modify this default behaviour would make for a more efficient user experience for users who do not like this behaviour. Ideally there would be an option to force the open message to simply close and be deleted without further action being taken by Evolution. Other information:
In the case of replying to or forwarding a message, where my attention is now shifted to writing something, I think it's reasonable to close the message window. No need for a preference there. As for deleting, an argument could be made either way. A use case against closing the window is when I'm breezing through a list of new messages. It would be really disruptive to my workflow to have to manually open the next message everytime I click Delete. This is especially true when skimming my Junk folder. Why is showing the next message the wrong behavior for you? Is it that you tend to skip around when reading mail rather than read them in sequence?
It's personal preference combined with reading style. I do tend to jump around from message to message and even though I have deleted one e-mail I may want to move directly to another e-mail, in the same subject thread or not, that was referenced or perhaps I simply just don't want to read the next e-mail right now. The most common occurrence is when I have saved e-mail in my inbox, which I do for items that need immediate attention, and a new mail comes in. I read the new mail, delete it, and then still have to close the window when the next message that I've already read and don't want to read again, at least not at this moment. Honestly, this drives me utterly mad. Certainly in your scenario and with your reading style it makes sense, which is why I think an option would be very nice for those who don't breeze through multiple messages in succession. Personally, I never open mails in my junk folder unless I know the sender or the subject makes me think the message was inappropriately filtered. For me, this behaviour (automatically opening the next message) is even more frustrating in this context as the next message in line is very likely one I absolutely DON'T want to open. 95% of the time I'm wrong about junk mail so I just want to delete and keep scanning the folder list visually.
Thanks for a bug report. The options for 1) are already in the sources, since 3.16.x or 3.18.x the latest, maybe even earlier. The option for 2) is filled as bug #220999. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 220999 ***