Quoting jesus (jesus@heaven.co.uk) [981020]

"the automating attachment rubbish is most likely
 to be a Server setting: In the Server's Address Book,
 the hapless NotesAdmin should select the following form:"

The solution is to use an external editor. Apparently, this was not possible with LN-4.

010329: Today I received email from Juhani Kantola with good news: It *is* possible to select an external editor - at least with LN 5.0.4a. See the "User Preferences -> Mail and News" and then select the "Alternate Memo Editor":

Juhani Kantola also sent me this screenshot showing how he is using Word as the editor for his message:

Juhani Kantola says that even LN 4.6.3 might have had an option to use Word or WordPro as an alternative - but he could not test it. Can anyone confirm this?

Fortunately, other program gradually allow the use of an external editor. However, this features is still scarce.

before export:
        this line is to be exported
        this line continues the text

after export:
        this line is to be
        exported
        this line continues
        the text

Workaround: Set the textwidth to a number higher than the longest line has characters in it. Then no line should get wrapped. As you do not want to count characters in lines you should just set it to "999". But do not forget to reset it after the export! (Yes, this sucks.)

"For example, you have a file attachment with 150 characters file name. If you choose 'view attachment', Lotus Notes will terminate with error. If you choose 'launch attachment', Lotus Notes can open the appropriate application to read the attachment. If you choose 'detach attachment', Lotus Notes responses nothing." Source: Message-ID: <35C696CC.7AAEAEA8@netvigator.com>

I was told that you can choose a font, though. Kewl.

However, within a "folder" or "view" you can select the fields tab, and you can view the complete header.

Is there a way to customize which headers you want to see? Can you define the display order, too?

The mail notification just says "you have new mail" - no more. There is no information about the sender or subject of the mails. LotusNotes does not even tell you the number of new mails or how many new mails have arrived since the last notifiction.

The notification can either be a sound ("beep"), or a popup message, or both. When you happen to be away from your computer then you might miss the beep. (But your collegues nearby will hear it.) The notification cuts right into what you are doing, so you might lose your edited text or lose the selection on some items you were about to drag&drop.

Even when you are using an "agent" to handle incoming mail this will make LotusNotes notify you - so when you check your mailbox the new mail might already have been deleted by an anti-spam agent.

[010329] Juhani Kantola noted that there are improvements with the new mail notification: ".. they now include a program called Notes Minder, which has some useful functions built in. There's also a program called Notes Buddy by IBM, which has all the bells and whistles you need - including speech capabilities: it reads out your e-mail."

Well, there you go!

When composing the reply text you can view the replied-to mail by clicking on a triangle that appears below the edited text.

LotusNotes also has the bad habit of quoting the previous mail by adding header lines - even empty ones. Example:

Use with PGP requires "export" of the text which is a problem due to the broken export methods.

The Unix client for LotusNotes (at least LotusNotes-4.5 on AIX/HP-UX) is known to die for unknown reasons. Usually you can start it again, but sometimes you have to use a system command to delete the semaphores left lying around. It also seems to corrupt the file "desktop.dsk".

LotusNotes-4.6 is supposed to be better, but it is also very slow as the unix 'port' includes a windows emulation library.

However, the index needs to be updated with every new mail. I was told that the update of the search index does not seem to work with special characters. Sometimes even plain text is not found.

Unconfirmed as of yet.

LotusNotes Hall of Shame [001107]

http://www.iarchitect.com/lotus.htm

Comments:

http://www.iarchitect.com/lotus1.htm

" .. an introductory collection of some of the myriad of problems with the application."

Author: feedback@iarchitect.com

LotusNotes Links on Yahoo [000627]

http://dir.yahoo.com/computers_and_internet/communications_and_networking/software/groupware/lotus_notes/

LotusNotes FAQ [000627]

http://www.keysolutions.com/NotesFAQ/

Q: "How do you add Quoted Reply support to Notes' mail templates?"

A: http://www.keysolutions.com/NotesFAQ/howquoted.html

Mail Filtering [000627]

http://www.keysolutions.com/NotesFAQ/howautomatically.html

An example filter rule for filtering mails automatically. This script will look at *all* mails in the Inbox and recognize messages *to* a mailing list by looking at the "Reply-To" line..

Sub Initialize
Dim session As New NotesSession
Dim db As NotesDatabase
Dim doc As NotesDocument
Dim collection As NotesDocumentCollection
Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
Set collection = db.UnprocessedDocuments
For i=1 To collection.Count
  Set doc=collection.GetNthDocument(i)
  If doc.ReplyTo(0) = "lnotes-l@ozzie.notesnic.net" Then
    doc.PutInFolder( "Mailing List\L-Notes" )
    doc.RemoveFromFolder( "($Inbox)" )
  End If
Next
End Sub

However, this requires that "Your administrator will have to give you access to 'Run Restricted Agents' in the server document for your mail server."

Newsgroups [990203]

Aside from comp.mail.misc there are these newsgroups about LotusNotes:

comp.groupware.lotus-notes.admin        Lotus Notes system administration.
comp.groupware.lotus-notes.apps         Application software for Lotus Notes.
comp.groupware.lotus-notes.misc
comp.groupware.lotus-notes.programmer   Programming for Lotus Notes.

"IBM Cuts Deal with Government to Export Lotus Notes"

"The deal is simple: In return for the licensing exemption, IBM will give the National Security Agency (NSA), the government?s lead agency on encryption, 24 of the 64 bits on the encryption algorithm utilized by Lotus Notes."

http://www.exportprac.com/feblotus.htm

cc:Mail, from IMA [980821]

http://www.ima.com/

A suggested replacement for LotusNotes.

There is a choice: Complain!

Complain to you IT people or tech support. Complain to the makers of LotusNotes.

I have told so many users of LotusNotes. However, most of them are afraid to complain. They tell me these things:

• "Complaining does not make a difference."
• "If I complain then I will lose my job."

And remember: Many people simply deserve bad software as they will never complain. They certainly deserve to use LotusNotes!

* Csaba Raduly  [000414 20:52]:
> Lotus Notes as an internet mail client is horrible
> (and you can quote me if you want :-)

(Paul Roberts) prr2002@lineone.net:

"Lotus Notes Sucks. My company are forcing it on us as
they spent money on it and we are damn well going to like it ...
[...] My hair has gone white and I've lost my appetite.

[010329] Juhani Kantola juhani.kantola@starcut.com

screenshots..

URL:         http://www.back.to/lotusnotes/
Created:     Thu Aug 20 20:00:00 CEST 1998