In this tip I first introduce you to the power of the Lotus Notes Properties Box. ? Today I want to explain how you can use a minimized version of the property box to easily access several formatting features.

To minimize the Properties Box you can either double click anywhere along the title bar (the left arrow shown below) or you can click on the minimize icon on the right hand side of the title bar.



The result will be a smaller version of the properties box, which allows you to format text, create tables, insert pictures, and even toggle the yellow text highlighter on and off. ?(my favourite part, since there is no toolbar icon for the highlighters)

I've used some type of email client since about 1990, and don't recall ever using the Preview Pane, but I know some users love it. ? Maybe with today's larger monitors and higher resolutions I should give it another try, but I guess old habits die hard. ? Anyway, some users love the Preview Pane, so today's tip is for them.

If you want to have documents marked are read after you view them in the Preview Pane, you can configure this in your Lotus Notes preferences. ? Choose File-Preferences-User Preferences, and on the Basics Tab, place a check mark (by clicking) next to "Mark documents read when opened in preview pane".

With all the talk about the great new user features of Notes 8, one of the things that is sometimes overlooked is the incredibly powerful new programming model which is going to propel Lotus Notes forward as an incredibly powerful application platform. ? Here is a great resource for more information on this:

"The Lotus Composite Applications blog is a joint effort by the key technical architects and user experience professionals to open a direct line of communication with developers about the capabilities of user facing composite applications."

I've added the following page to my blog to help keep track of available information: Composite Application Development Resources

Would you like to change how your name is displayed in the inboxs of the people you send messages to? ? For example... "Alan Lepofsky" or "alan_lepofsky", or even "Lotus Guy".



The way you control this is via your location document. ?At the bottom right corner of Lotus Notes, click on the Location bar, and choose "Edit Current..."


Then on the Basics tab, look at the "Internet mail address" field.


If you have just an email address, such as alan_lepofsky@us.ibm.com, most email clients will display the value to the left of the "@" symbol. ?You can control what is displayed by entering your email as
"the nickname you want" . ?Make sure to put in the quotes and <>.

Note: Some companies may control this field at the administration level, so your changes may be overwritten. ?
UPDATE: Thomas Adrian explains how this can be setup at the Admin level here.

I was going to write up a nice long, detailed explanation of how to add the new OpenLog JavaScript logging to a Lotus Notes form, but I figured a Flash demo would be much better. So here you go (click the picture):

Sorry for the big ol' Flash file (@ 2.5 MB). Better than bullet points though. And besides, the text instructions are in the OpenLog database Help docs.

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Gary forces me to "Drink the Microsoft Koolaid" (ok it was water)



In case you were wondering, that saying is used when talking about buying into someone else's idea without question, no matter how crazy the idea may be. ?Gary is a friend of mine, well known by Domino developers, who is now working at Microsoft, but focuses on Lotus Notes applications.

Quick overview of my trip so far...

• On the flight from Boston to Seattle I overheard a conversation from the row in front of me

Passenger 1: "So why are you going to Seattle?"
Passenger 2: "To visit a friend of mine, Ray Ozzie"
Passenger 1: "Really?"
Passenger 2: "Yes, my husband and I are friends with him and his wife. ?Do you know him?"
Passenger 1: "No, I just know of him"

• I saw Notes 7 in use by a business traveller on my way to the bathroom.
• There were lots of university students flying home for break, they ALL were using Macs, I did not see a single person under 25 on the plane using a PC laptop.
• The bus from Seattle to Vancouver is inexpensive, and pretty easy to use.
• Two days in Vancouver is not enough. ?My heart belongs in this city for several reasons. ;-)
• Seeing the Spirit of the West perform on St. Patrick's day is a lot of fun.
• Just checked into the Fairmount Olympic Hotel in Seattle.... wow! ?This staff knows how to treat a guest! ?The doorman looked at my luggage tag when he took my bag from the car, and called me by name as he opened the door. ?The receptionist came out from around the counter to hand me my room key, and walked me to the elevator.

Late tonight, I posted the OpenLog 1.5 BETA release. That's the one with the JavaScript error handling for web pages, and RSS feeds for notification. More later, because I'm tired now.

Go play!

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Oh so close...

Congratulations to SGA. ? The IBM PartnerWorld Industry Networks site has nice Financial markets success story on them.
SGA Business Systems builds collaborative solutions that maximize potential of Lotus platform

“By building one hundred percent on Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino, our development costs are always much less than the competition. With Notes rapid development capabilities, we do things in hours or days that usually take days, weeks or even months with other technologies.”
Wayne Scarano, president, SGA Business Systems, Inc.

Learning about Mind Mapping software has been on my list of to-dos for far far too long. ? Well, my procrastination my be getting a kick in the butt. ?On Wednesday, March 28, 2007 at 10:00 AM (PST), Eric Mack, one of the Domino industry's most faithful on this topic will be presenting a free webinar. ? Please see Eric's blog entry for more details, and I hope to see you online at the event.

As you know I have a small interest in Second Life, or more importantly in the ways we may collaborate online in the future. ? ?A while ago I bought the Second Life Official Guide, but I forgot to blog about it. ?Both Tom Duff and Bob Sutor have written about it, so I'll let you read their reviews.

The one thing I will say is this... the book is not a "how to use manual" like you'd expect for a piece of software. ? Instead it really is a "guide", providing you background information on the world, stories about politics, biographies about some famous avatars, suggested places to go (you won't believe the possibilities in Second Life) and more.

One of my IBM colleagues Arne Nielsen has a Notes blog in Norwegian here. ?Great URL!

Okay, okay. I'm finally going to release version 1.6 of OpenLog on Wednesday. That's the version that Rob McDonagh and I presented at Lotusphere, with the JavaScript logging library and the RSS feeds.

I have a feeling I'll be releasing it with a "beta" moniker, although I haven't completely decided yet. If nothing else, I finally worked my way around the cross-domain scripting issue that wouldn't let it work if the Notes server that OpenLog was running on had a different hostname than the one that the web page was being served from (i.e. -- if the page was on http://apache.nsftools.com and OpenLog was on http://domino.nsftools.com, the Ajax POST wouldn't work).

The answer to the cross-domain POST problem? iFrames...

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Tom Haskins wrote an interesting blog entry about Different Motivations for Blogging. He puts blogs into four broad categories:

• Distraction Blogs: relief, mood changing, escape
• Archive Blogs: sharing expertise, solutions, advice
• Conversation Blogs: contributing to collective wisdom
• Democratic Blogs: changing community dynamics

Off the top of my head, that seems to almost cover it in broad strokes. However, I'm trying to figure out if I agree that those are general reasons for writing blogs or reading them. Seems to me that an additional category for writing a blog would be: self-ego gratification. Tom Haskins files that under "Distraction", but I think it might be a category unto itself (not that it matters, really).

via Roger von Oech at Creative Think

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If you're in or near the Atlanta area and you want to run in the Peachtree Road Race this year, make sure you buy an Atlanta Sunday paper this weekend. This is the weekend that the registration forms are in the newspaper. If you don't fill out the form and mail it by Monday (maybe Tuesday), you probably won't get a number.

The form says that photocopies are acceptable as valid registrations. That could potentially mean scanned copies of the form that are printed from your computer and filled out... I'm just saying...

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IBM today announced that customers, partners and users can now download and try IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8, a next generation email and collaboration platform that helps users streamline daily business tasks that run across a variety of computing platforms and technology software systems.

The open beta program gives users a peek at a redesigned interface that includes new time saving features such the ability to quickly view important emails by grouping them into conversation threads, no-cost productivity editors that create open standards-based versions of spreadsheets, word processing and presentations, and search capabilities that let users extend searches beyond email and contacts to Web and file searches without leaving the inbox.

Beta code is currently available and can be downloaded at: www.ibm.com/lotus/getnd8now.

In the days immediately following availability, there have been more than 12,000 downloads of the beta client and server products for a variety of platforms, including Linux and Windows for clients and Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris, AIX and IBM System i for servers.


Wow, 12,000 downloads, BEFORE the announcement even went out to the press! ? ?If anyone (your boss!) ever questioned the power of the blogging community, I think this proves them wrong.

I hoped yesterday's topic was going to generate more responses! ? Thank you to those that did respond, I've found the answers very interesting, and some of them entertaining! ?It's not too late, you can still post your answers, anonymously if you want! ? ;-)

Yesterday I attended an all day event at IBM which focused on career growth. ? We had several sessions about mentoring, personal skills development, career paths, etc. ?One of my favourite parts of the day was a self assessment exercise, where we had to think about things we like and don't like, and that we are good at and still need work on. ?The way it works is that you fill in a grid as follows:

1. Things I like to do, and am good at.	2. Things I like to do, but am not yet good at.
3. Things I don't like to do, but am good at.	4. Things I don't like to do, and am not yet good at.

• Quadrant 1 is the area you certainly want to spend the most time in.
• Quadrant 2 could represent areas where you are learning new skills.
• Quadrant 3 might represent the "necessary evils", or parts of your job that you don't really enjoy, but you are very good at, and do for the good of the company.
• You don't want to spend a lot of time doing things in Quadrant 4! ?You should either change what you are doing, or at least develop the skills that can move the tasks into Quadrant 3.

For fun, let's each list one job related skill, and one life related skill in each quadrant. ?Here are my answers:
1. Public speaking. Playing Ultimate Frisbee.
2. Statistical analysis of company data. ?Golf.
3. Creating presentations. ?Obeying speed limits.
4. Filling out paperwork/redtape/documentation. ?Sticking to a diet.

Now what are yours?

I hope many of you have already downloaded the Notes 8 Beta, installed it, and are busy reporting your findings!

So far I think my favourite feature is the new style for type-ahead mail addressing. ? It is very "Gmail-like" and that is a good thing! ? Not only does it find matches for the characters I enter, but it moves the most recently used entries to the top of the list.





PS: Hi Unc!