Finder/Dashboard Disappear

Can anyone tell me why I am in mail, the header at the top and the dashboard completely disappear? Isn't the end of the world, but odd that it only seems to happen in mail

I'm not sure what you mean. By "header", I assume you mean the menu bar, and by "Dashboard"... well that is a pop-up when you press a hot key so that makes no sense at all.

It's possible you have enabled something from the System Preferences that enables the screen to be magnified and scrolled with a hot key. That could push the menu bar off screen, though why with Mail in particular I don't know. Check your settings in the System Preferences under "Universal Access" and see if "Zoom" is turned on.

I tried that and it doesnt appear that that is the problem. Could this be a bug of some sort. I asked somebody today at the local apple store and they didnt know either.