I use Yahoo Mail.

But when I am on a page and click on an email address an email application should start.

I think that kmail should serve this function, but I do not want this application to download my mail to my pc, I only want to be able to send mail.

At the moment kmail seems to be downloading email. They take up space on my drive.

Advice please

Ps. If I can't stop it downloading, how can I deactivate it and remomve the mail from my machine

moved to Kontact and Pim

If you don't want Kmail to receive mail that don't assign it a pop3 or imap in settings -> konfigure Kmail -> accounts -> receiving setting (also you can uncheck the receiving options)

ps - kindly split (when appropriate) and post your queries into the appropriate forums

I have a IMAAP folder in kmail. If i expire the messages will they also be removed from Yahoo Mail.

Can I empty the inbox in kmail without affecting the Yahoo inbox. There appears to be no empty button in kmail

I have now removed the connection to yahoo in kmail.

I would like to check and see if any mails are stored on my machine, but I can't find the folder

Storage of the mails depends on the type of account. IMAP is stored only if you have enabled disconnected / offline mode.

As far as I understand it, when using IMAP, the client will try to sync changes made with the server; if you mark something as read in kmail, it will inform the server that you've read that item; if you delete an email in kmail it will inform the server to delete the email; if you move an item to a different folder in kmail then it will inform the server of the change. As such you shouldn't do anything in kmail that you don't also want applied on the server.

You might think of IMAP as having local client interface with cache to some remote email server. The client downloads items as it sees fit to present the user with a view of what exists on the server. The client keeps this view in sync with the server by refreshing periodically, and keeps the server in sync with any changes the user makes by notifying the server of all actions performed.

This is in contrast to POP where the client downloads the full set of e-mail for local manipulation each time and is usually and by default accompanied by deleting downloaded e-mail from the server. I'm not sure if there's a way to disable this deletion, but if there is, that may fit closer to what you intend as it may allow you to read and manipulate the email locally without affecting the email as stored on the server. I don't think that option is available, though, as that would require the client to keep track of changes made to the email over time so that when it refreshes its list with the server (which in POP requires downloading the full set of email) it knows what email it has already seen (and moved or deleted)