I can't imagine how anybody concluded that word wrapping at a maximum of column 78 was reasonable. It seems to me to be hopelessly inadequate, and I'd be grateful for advice on how to at least triple it.
Peter

Open KMail > Settings > Configure KMail > Composer > General.
Uncheck "Word wrap at column".

Thanks for the suggestion, but I was hoping there would be some way of increasing the maximum so as to wrap at a much higher number of columns. I'd like to maximize use of my screen rather than running off the bottom or side while most of it's blank.
Peter

In that case, simply increase the number from "80" to your desired number using the box provided beside the option I pointed you to previously.

Thanks; but, if I could, I would. I can't even get to 80. That's why I was hoping to find some way of increasing the maximum beyond 78. I can only reduce from there. It's now looking as though my setting isn't working as it should. Certainly, I didn't have the problem before upgrading to openSUSE 12. Can you tell me how to put it right? Is something else overriding my KMail composer setting range?
Peter

Indeed, it appears that if you do perform word-wrapping it has a upper limit of 78. Unfortunate.

This limit is likely driven by email RFC specifications. Unfortunately the only thing I can recommend here is simply unchecking automatic word wrapping.

bcooksley wrote:Indeed, it appears that if you do perform word-wrapping it has a upper limit of 78. Unfortunate.

This limit is likely driven by email RFC specifications. Unfortunately the only thing I can recommend here is simply unchecking automatic word wrapping.

Too bad this is stuck with a value of 78 max. I understand it is a matter of specifications.
To mitigate this I propose to we specify the value defined by the specification to 78 in the configuration description, but allow going to a better 100 at least?
Otherwise at 78, it feels writing an email into a terminal