I've worked (kludged?) around it for now, but I'd like to know the correct fix for this...

I'm running 4.10.3 on a laptop with 1366x768 resolution. Just this morning, the config dialogs for KMail, Kontact, KOrganizer, etc., are all slightly too large to fit between the top of the panel and the top of the screen. In other words, the OK/Cancel, etc. buttons at the bottom are behind the panel and are inaccessible by the mouse. I have (and always have had) the panel set to always be visible and as of yesterday evening the dialogs were entirely visible. I can resize the dialogs with the mouse horizontally but not vertically.

My workaround is to click the system menu, go to More Actions | Special Window Settings and from the Size and Position tab, force a size that will fit. No other option on that tab will work - Only Force. Of course, that apparently forces *all* dialogs, not just the too-big ones.

So...

1. What made the dialogs grow in the first place?
2. Is my "fix" the right approach or is there a better way? Surely there's a real fix... ?

Thanks!

The dialogs minimum size ("xprop | grep -i min", click the dialog) will be too large for the screen.
Possible solutions:
- move the panel(s) to a vertical edge
- use a decoration which allows the titlebar to be on a vertical edge
- shrink the titlebar
- shrink the default font (kcmshell4 fonts)
- use another GUI style (they do not all use the same paddings/spacings/sizes for UI elements)
- file a bug against the window applications (kmail) to consume less vertical space
- use the rules ("kcmshell4 kwinrules", the "special window settings") to force the minimum size of windows to be "small" (like 64,64 or so) which will however cut off your buttons nevertheless, i assume.
- move windows using alt+[left mouse button] to get the desired objects into sight (pressing alt, you can move the window by clicking anywhere into it)

I understand all of those are valid approaches (and will file them for future use - Thanks!), but my current setup -- unchanged -- was working yesterday without any issues, then today the dialog was too large. I changed nothing overnight. I'm trying to figure out what changed and the proper way to put it back.

Thanks.

ok, please check the minimum size the window propagates in "xprop"
if it matches its current (window - decoration) state and you say the titlebar and borders didn't change, you're on the wrong board and have to ask kmail devs what could have changed (ie. there's maybe one more row in the dialog)

xprop says --

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xprop | grep -i min
_NET_WM_ALLOWED_ACTIONS(ATOM) = _NET_WM_ACTION_MOVE, _NET_WM_ACTION_MINIMIZE, _NET_WM_ACTION_SHADE, _NET_WM_ACTION_CHANGE_DESKTOP, _NET_WM_ACTION_CLOSE
                program specified minimum size: 775 by 743

...and my window rule is 1000, 730, which just barely fits heigh-wise. 13 more pixels might fit vertically, but it would be close.

I did a yum update a few days earlier but I can find no trace of KMail in any of the yum queries I do. If it's actually kdepim, then it might have gotten updated:

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# rpm -q kdepim-4.10.3-2.fc18.x86_64 --info --last
kdepim-4.10.3-2.fc18.x86_64                   Wed 05 Jun 2013 06:40:42 PM CDT

Maybe it was changed from an update? I really haven't read up on xprop, so I can't be sure of what the output is implying.... ??

Thanks.

I can't say from where "that" dialog (haven't seen it and actually don't use kmail) comes, or whether this was caused by changes to the dialog itself or the GUI style (more padding between items etc) but the grepped output of "xprop" says:

make me at least 775px wide and 743px high

and that excludes the titlebar! So with a 20px titlebar and 2px bottom frame width, the window would have a minimum height of 765px, leaving no space for a panel.

I'd suggest to consider a vertical panel on the left or right (or make it autohiding or coverable by windows) - the alternatives were to try whether the dialog becomes smaller with other GUI styles or file a bug against the dialog author to somehow stay below 700px (the rule config already includes the titlebar)