Thierry de Coulon wrote:
> On Monday 19 December 2016 10.40:36 Leslie Turriff wrote:
>> 	Okay, I tried using this new method, but it doesn't seem to
>> work for me either.  I still get the documents sidebar.

> Maybe I found a way - seems to work for the moment.

Set Settings > configure > sessions > save session
...check include window configuration

> 1) setup Kate with no side bar/document windows

That's it, restart Kate.

> 2) save the session under the name "default"

Why? You just configured Kate to save sessions on exit.

> 3) set up Kate to start with a new session and not to save any

Startup behavior (new/save/select) doesn't matter.

> 4) Kate does *not* name it default.katesession,

Kate changes the settings of the session you have open. If you make
the above changes to the default session, they will be saved as
default.katesession

> I rebooted the computer

Totally pointless.