In The Next Version

This is wonderful thank you! My users who are 'new' will love this.

THanks again. Alan.. Your a have learnt a lot today and would help me in my day to day activities.

warm regards,

Pankaj

thanks for this............i really need this basic understanding on lotus notes.................because i am using the japanese version of lotus notes

How about a link or entry on the ACL? A link to searching might be helpful also.

Sean---

Hello Alan,

can you please give in a further blog informations over replication and save conflicts?

Thanks

Christoph

Alan,

One area which is very difficult for uses coming to Notes is the expiration, archive settings and basically email retention. Most other email systems do not have expiration so this is a big cultural change.

What I have a problem is with aligning the archive seetins with your expiration policies so that you do **not** lose any emails - as my job is basically knowledge management. I still have many issues here which I have not been able to solve.

Tips / best practices will be very useful.

Can you please explain what you mean by expiration? Perhaps your company has modified something in your mail template?

Here's another vote for Replication. Specifically as it relates to locations.

When I'm at the office do I need to replicate my mail, or should I just use the server?

And speaking of locations, when do I want to use which? To me it seems there are only two locations these days: connected and not.

Cheers,

Oran

About expiration: I am IBM user. The emails are set to expire in 90 days and must be manually extended, moved to another folder or archived. This is a confusing area as most other systems treat email as permanent.

@9 Ah, you are an IBMer. Please use the IBM Solution Finder, and you'll see 100s of training videos for all the software we use internally. For example, { Link } provides full training on Document Expiration.

Alan,

Great site, I check it often. I currently have a user base (~1200 people) that really don't have a clue as to what Notes is and how it works (management included). What I've been trying to find is a good, low-level explination of replication and archiving. Those seem to be the two subjects that cause me as an Admin, the most pain.

Take a look at these, they should help.

What is replication

Local Replication

Basic Understanding of Notes

I'd never seen Notes in my life until I started a new job in December. While I've been online and e-mailing for over 20 years, the notes learning curve is steep and I appreciate your site and how it's helped me.

Here are my puzzlers:

• How can I set the default font COLOR in my e-mail messages, er, memos (to navy blue)? I don't like black text.

• I want to right-click a message and set to un-read and/or a button to toggle read/unread mail. Can this be done?

• Can I/you change the term from "New Memo" to "New Message"? Memos mean something very different to me.

• Oh, how I wish I had the ability to easily edit the HTML in an outgoing message before sending it--an edit source capability.

• Can I re-map F5 so that it is refresh as it is in all other Windows programs (not logout)?

• Can I set a preference setting to open New Messages, er Memos open in new floating windows always when I double click to read them? (and not open in tabs). I understand the right click-open in new window, but I just want to dbl-click.

• How do I view the basic, full internet mail headers?

• "Hotspots" confues me every time. They're Hyperlinks to me. That said, I'd like a button on the toolbar to create them ("create link hotspot"). I found some create button buttons, but not what I most commonly do which is inserting web hyperlinks.

• When the program starts, I want it to automatically open with my calendar, my addressbook and my e-mail already opened in the tabs. Can I do that?

• When I click to reply to a message and it opens in a new tab, Can I have the title of that tab to be the actual title of the e-mail, NOT "New Memo"? (e.g., "Re: meeting on Tuesday")

Hi Tom, I can't solve all your requests, but I think I can help you out with several of them, and that should provide a better Notes experience for you.

I'd never seen Notes in my life until I started a new job in December.

> Sorry to hear that, but glad you have now joined our ranks!

While I've been online and e-mailing for over 20 years, the notes learning curve is steep and I appreciate your site and how it's helped me.

> Glad I can help.

How can I set the default font COLOR in my e-mail messages, er, memos (to navy blue)? I don't like black text.

> For now the best answer I can give you is to use Permanent Pen. Look that up in the Help file, or see here:

Link

>I want to right-click a message and set to un-read and/or a button to toggle read/unread mail. Can this be done?

Yes, Link

> Can I/you change the term from "New Memo" to "New Message"? Memos mean something very different to me.

Not without knowing how to change the design of a Notes database. If you are a developer, this is very easy. BTW, we have changed this in Notes 8 to say "New Message", you're not the only person to ask for this!

>Oh, how I wish I had the ability to easily edit the HTML in an outgoing message before sending it--an edit source capability.

Not sure I understand this one. What would you want to change?

> Can I re-map F5 so that it is refresh as it is in all other Windows programs (not logout)?

No, and not all other Windows programs do this, not even all Microsoft programs! F5 means something different in each one. For example, PowerPoint it starts a screenshow. And F5 means different things in Apple and Linux. Anyway, we hope in the future to allow you to remap all the Notes shortcuts to fit your individual needs. However, it is not as easy as it sounds though, since Notes is supported in something like 40 languages and as I mentioned, many platforms not just Windows.

> Can I set a preference setting to open New Messages to open in new floating windows always when I double click to read them?

Not in Notes 7, but we will have several new options for how windows/tabs are handled in Notes 8.

> How do I view the basic, full internet mail headers?

View - Show - Page Source

> Hotspots" confues me every time. They're Hyperlinks to me. That said, I'd like a button on the toolbar to create them ("create link hotspot").

I agree, I think this is more confusing in Notes than it needs to be. See these posts which may help:

Link and

Link

>When the program starts, I want it to automatically open with my calendar, my addressbook and my e-mail already opened in the tabs. Can I do that?

Yes, you can! Link

> When I click to reply to a message and it opens in a new tab, Can I have the title of that tab to be the actual title of the e-mail, NOT "New Memo"?

Interesting, I never had that bother me before, but I can see why it would be nice. I don't know of a way to change it, but you can hit CTRL+S to save the new memo, and you will notice that that title changes.

Thanks, Alan -

Once again, you're super helpful. The source editing of an HTML message is something I find myself doing often in Outlook Express at home. If you create a new message in OE and select View, Source Edit, it gives you a tab that displays the raw HTML for the e-mail that you're creating. Edit the code in one tab, flip back to the preview to see how your work looks. Call me geek, but it's easier sometimes to hack the html to make it appear the way I want it to, or even insert special formatting to create a very pretty HTML message like a newsletter might do (tables, images, etc). Or to strip things out of ugly repeated forwards. That's what I'm looking for.

Thanks again!

As someone using Notes for many years, I still do not understand why Notes will "freeze" upon accessing the network. As in, freeze the entire UI. If you try to alt-tab away, the Notes GUI will go white (no refresh). On a slower system, it can even lockup your entire gui?

As far as I can tell, network updates must not be happenening in a separate thread. For that matter, IS the Notes client actually multithreaded?

Notes in general feels slow and bloated as a pure email client. Yes, it does "so much more than just email". But many users would kill for a native Win32 client (no bloated Java please) that does simple email. Yes, that would be called Outlook 2007, or Thunderbird, but unfortunately, that requires iNotes on the server side..which isn't happeneing here.

Hi Dan, one cause I can think of for that is your virus checker downloading and searching large attachments in email. Try disabling the realtime attachment checking, and let me know if you notice the syndrome disappear.

I'm coming in very late to this party, Dan, but IBM's NotesBuddy might be what you seek. It's a combination IM/e-mail widget that does what Notes does.

{ Link }

Hi,

I recently started using Lotus Notes. I want to to set the default font as "Verdena" for all my outgoing mails.

is it possible. I tried going to preferences > Basics > Default font... but it just changes the view in my system.

But when i send mails to others.... it is in some default font.

Can i get a reply on gaurav.hyd@gmail.com

@19 - No, this is not possible. Your best bet is to use the Permanent Pen feature, which is covered in the Notes help.

P.S. I think it's a little rude to ask for help and then ask for someone to go out of their way to contact you. But that's just me.

hi, i've already been using lotus notes for more than a year now and local replication for me has quite been an easy task but not until my mailbox has been moved to another server. how do i replicate my new server mailbox and still get it replicated to my old local replica? because now, when i create a new replica for my new mailbox it will be put in a new file. hope someone can help me with this one. thanx.

Hi Cecel, is your new mail file the same replica, just on a new server... or a brand new mail file? If it is has the same replica ID as your mail file did on the old server, than all you need to do is go to your Notes client's replication page, select your mail file, and then change the option for "which server to try" to the new server. I will send you a screen shot.

Dear ALLAN,

A GREAT Thanks To you for this great Informations for the Lotus Users & beginners..It's really very much usefull for me.i have joined this group very late.I have a query:

If, i receive a mail from my college or friend from personal mail id like: abc@yahoo.com

This address will shows as hyperlink if I click this address it’s routed to html page & ask for my proxy username & password. Is it possible : when will I click on the address my new memo automatically open. Kindly suggest what kind of process I can adopt for this activity.

Hello Mayank. When you say "this address will shows as hyperlink", where are you talking about? In the header at the top of the email, or in the body of the email? If you click on Reply, does it not create an email back to the sender?

hi, thank you for this tutorial on lotus notes! i am a microsoft outlook fan so coming to this new job and using lotus is very difficult for me. i have one question: is it possible to move my inbox messages to my hard drive instead of it remaining on the database? thank you very very much for your help!

I am not sure what you mean by "move to your harddrive". You can have your entire mail file local on your machine, you don't have to access it on the server.

@25 - You can export messages from Notes, but it's not a full fidelity operation. Meaning, you can export it as text but when you open it it's just plain text. Your other option for getting stuff out of the mail database on the server is to set up Archiving.

@26 - In Outlook you can drag an e-mail message to your hard drive and it is stored as a file (message text and all attachments), then you can delete the message from Outlook and the copy remains on your hard drive. Notes does not have this ability as far as I know.

Interesting, I've never seen that, nor heard anyone ask about it. I guess the world is trying to go in the exact opposite direction. We want content stored in central places (like Quikr, SharePoint, etc) not on people hard drives! You can drag an email message to Activies, and I'd imagine we'll add the ability to Quickr soon as well.

@28 - Most of the world doesn't have Activities or Quickr, so we have to make do with the tools we do have available. :-) Absent an integrated central document repository copying the information to the hard drive is an effective way to keep the message and attachments together and make them portable.

Hi, When I reply to my mail. The Original Mail which I am replying was not there in my Inbox. I am new to Lotus Notes. Can Anyone help me?

And How to format the Replying mail color?

Srinivasan, see if these two tips help you:

http://www.alanlepofsky.net/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/view-unread

http://www.alanlepofsky.net/alepofsky/alanblog.nsf/dx/permanent-pen

I too am new to Lotus Notes after having used Outlook for quite some time, so far I am missing Outlook...

When I receive a new mail notification (sound and icon in the System Tray) I do not see any messages in my Inbox, even if I press refresh. It seems like I have to manually initiate a replication in order to get my new messages to appear in my Inbox. I don't think this was the case before I set up my replica, have I messed something up?

Todd, I think it's a rather simple configuration change that you need to make. Your Location document sets where Notes looks for mail (on the server or local on your computer). It sounds like you created a local replica and are using that, but you didn't tell Notes that's where you want your default mail file to be. So the Notes client is asking the server whether you have new mail, and reporting on that, but you have a different copy of your mail open. :-) Check your Location document (the Mail tab) and set it to Local. Then your notifications should start behaving.

It's important to understand that Notes is a general purpose application framework. Your mail is just another application as far as Notes or Domino are concerned, and mail doesn't get any special treatment. Outlook and Exchange, on the other hand, only do e-mail. If you keep that at the forefront you'll be a lot less frustrated with Notes. :-)

In order to get Notes to automatically download your mail you'll have to configure replication, which is also done on the Location document. I typically set up a normal replication interval of 30 minutes, and a high priority interval of 5 minutes. Then on my Replication tab I right-click my mail and mark it high priority.

Charles, thank you for stepping in and helping Todd's so thoroughly. Todd, are you up and running happily now? You mention missing Outlook, is there anything else we can help you with? What version of Notes are you using? Do you have Sametime integrated? Are you using just mail, or does your company use Notes applications? Are you using Calendar and Scheduling?

Hi, A small question about LN6 to see if anyone can advise.

I sent an email to a client and I asked five questions. I used verdana 11 font. They replied - using OE - to each question in RED font - straight after the original question. I needed to query the answers so I added my comments in BLUE, and replied. The reply they received had dropped all the colours and fonts and everything was in black, default san serif etc. Is this normal for LN? Our techy guys say it is and it can't be changed. Advice appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

Mike

"Is this normal for LN? Our techy guys say it is and it can't be changed. Advice appreciated." See this is where Notes unfairly gets a bad name! Of course Lotus Notes can send email with colours, fonts, etc. You need to make sure you are sending HTML emails, not plain text. See this link as an example of the settings you should look at.

Thanks for that. Our default setting is for "HTML & Plain Text" but even using permanent pen and or text highlighting it still refuses to retain the settings when it goes 'external'? It keeps it all if it stays 'internal'. I don't know if it is connected but if I try and copy/paste text from an internet page it throws up an error saying that there are no Web Navigator Templates installed? I suspect that when they say it can't be changed what they really mean is they can't be bothered to change it.

Regards

Dan wrote back on 2/19/2007 that "his Notes Freezes upon accessing the network. As in, freeze the entire UI. If you try to alt-tab away, the Notes GUI will go white". The suggested answer was that perhaps virus checking was scanning a large attachment. I too experience this problem. I'm using Notes 7.0.2, although I've seen the same problem in 6.x. It seems that almost any time I do something in Notes, like type a "to" name, or send an email, Notes appears to freeze in this manner. If I give it long enough (a half minute or more) it will often do what it is supposed to do, although sometimes I get a time out message. Typically, after waiting 15 or 20 seconds or more I get fed up and press Ctrl-Break. This stops the activity and brings my GUI back. I can then do was I just did (type a "to" name, click send, etc) and Notes responds instantly. All will be well for a while, then it happens over again. This happens several times a day. I'm running from a local replica. Help!

Hi Jonathan. I suggest asking your question in the Notes forum, that way more people will be available to help you. http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nd6forum.nsf/

BTW, nice to see a Canadian Magna employee! (I'm from Toronto)

Hi, I am unable to view the replied mails from my inbox.

tried the buttons "view all" but no luck. Where have they gone ?

Are you saying when you reply to an email, the original disappears from your inbox, or are you looking for the new email (the reply) that you just created? I think you mean the first, which sounds like the common "Show unread" problem, but you say you've already tried that.

I just started having this problem. I am in my inbox, and I reply to a new email. When I go back to my inbox, that email is gone. I can see it in All Documents view but it is no longer in my inbox. I have already tried to view all, view unread and that is not it.

I am using lotus notes 7 if that makes a difference.

I need my emails to stay in the inbox as I need to move them to the appropriate folder after I reply.

Thanks

Which column in your inbox are you sorting on?

Hi Alan,

I'm sending mail from a linux box directly to a domino server (python script) in my intranet and after 4 days I discovered a way to specify which letterhead logo I want! can you believe it?

Now, when I have to add attachments (some excel spreadsheet) it's looks like an 'unknown file' attachment. Inside notes, when you add an attachment file its mime picture appears with its filename below. How do I can specify a picture for that file from outside notes?

Roberto, for technically support questions, please use the Lotus Notes/Domino Forums.

IBM developerWorks Lotus Notes/Domino 6 and 7 Forum

IBM developerWorks Lotus Notes/Domino 8 Forum

Hell all the expert,

How to open the local replica mail box by default?

I had Note 6.5 for 2 months and now I have Note 8 for one week. I created replica on local for my mail box. However when open my mail box, Note 8 always open the server mail box. I have to right mouse click on mail icon (on the right hand side docking), select Open Replica, and then be able to select Local mail box. My question is: How to configure note 8 so that whenever I open the mail box, it defaultly open the local replica for me?

Thanks

Alpharetta, Note 8

@46 - Alpharetta, open Notes then click File > Locations > Manage Locations. Your current location will be highlighted. Click the Edit button under the location list. Select the Mail tab and change the "mail file location" from on Server to Local. Verify your replica is in the path specified, which defaults to \mail\user, and is referenced starting from the Notes data directory.

Using Notes V7.2 -- noticed the label or heading within the window tabs is missing -- i.e. I ca not tell which window tab is which. Does anyone know of a setting to restore the label in the window tabs ?

I've never seen that behaviour. Can you please send me a screen shot of what you are seeing. Since you are an IBMer, send it to me internally please.

Using v7.02 or 6.5.4 clients, the priority replication settings keep defaulting back to 30 minutes from the 5 minute settings when Notes is shut down - but not every time it is shut down... This means that the user does not recive notification of incoming email until replication occurs.

@47 To: Charles Robinson, RE: "Default replica to open"

Thanks a lot for your advice. I am able to set the default replica with my Note 8. This is really helpful.

Best Regard,

Alpharetta

Do you have policies in use that are changing the setting?

Hi,

Thanks for this great site. I have a question on the permanent pen feature. Is it possible to configure Notes so that the permanent pen is automatically switched on when I reply to a mail? I'm using version 6.5.2.

Thanks,

No I'm sorry, you can not. 6.5? Time to upgrade! Although even in 8.5 lotus still does not allow you to configure you email reply fonts :-(

Yep, still with LN 6.5. This is what my entire organization uses :( .

I have to say though that this article has helped reduce some of the prejudice that I have against LN. Notes may be much more than a mail client, but my exposure to it is restricted to emails and calendars and I still feel Outlook scores over Notes in this regard from an end-user usability perspective. But then, its just me.

@55 See here. { Link } You're missing out on a lot of great calendar stuff by not being on a current version. Hopefully your company can upgrade soon.

@55 See here. { Link } You're missing out on a lot of great calendar stuff by not being on a current version. Hopefully your company can upgrade soon.

Hi,

I managed to upgrade to LN 7.0.2. However after upgrading I can't find the following options in the applications though these are mentioned on the help file. Can you advise on what could be the problem?

1. The message marking feature under Tools -> Preferences -> Mail is not available. I still see only the 'Colors' tab that was available in LN6.5

2. The 'Show Mail Thread' under the 'Actions' menu is not available.

3. Under Calendar, the option to 'Cleanup Calendar' is not seen.

The interesting is, the same options are available in another PC with the same version of Notes. I re-started my PC after installation to no avail.

Please let me know if there is any solution to these problems.

Thanks.

I was able to solve the above problems by upgrading the design to the LN7 version. I expected this to have happened as part of the installation process when upgrading to version 7. Apparently not :)

-Thanks.

@58/59 see here { Link }

hi, i want to retain my workspace as default homepage but i want my inbox to open automatically after i log in (not as a bookmark under startup) is that possible? im using LN 6.5 still. thanks! Mitch

Hi Mitch, yes you can. See this tip: { Link }

Hi, I'm currently using Notes 8. Recently, I found out a fairly weird problem. The new mail notification icon, which normally stays in the windows system tray as long as the new mails remain unread, will disappear the moment I switch to the Notes program. That is, if Notes is the active program on my desktop, the new mail icon will show up and disappear in a second from the system tray even if there are still unread new mails in the inbox.

It wasn't like this in the past. The new mail icon would remain in the system tray until after I double-clicked and opened all the unread new mails. My company IT couldn't figure out the solution for this issue. They told me that their Notes worked the same way. :(

I recall at one point the Wikipedia on notes was called an advertisement by some administrator. I quickly removed that warning due to the open source-ness. Lotus Notes related software like this one { Link } was axed from Wikipedia, though. Is information about something worth buying inherently an advertisement?

Hi..

This question might be stupid..but I'm not aware of..so trying to find an answer from xperts...

When a new mail arrives...a mail icon appears in the task bar or system tray indicating arrival of a new mail....thi is not happening?? do i need to change any of the settings or any work around....pls help me...

I have jus verified that my mail prefrences has got the option enabled -> Diaply icon in the system tray. Still it doesnt show..

I've lost the right hand column in notes that allows me to select e-mail(s) with a check mark. Can you refresh my memory on how to get that back?

OOPs make that the far left column in Notes Mail