Using Notes and Domino 

Notes and Domino allows to you to use your browser to access Notes databases such as your mail (which includes your calendar and to-do list), discussions, and teamrooms. Notes databases are stored on Domino servers.

Notes and Domino displays a view of a Notes database and may let you switch to other views in that database or other databases. In Notes, a view looks like a table, where rows represent documents, and information from each document is displayed in columns.

You can learn more about Notes views, documents, view categories, forms, and other elements by reading the Notes 5 Help (or Lotus Notes 6 Help), which is itself a Notes database on your organization's Domino server. You can point an instance of Notes and Domino at the appropriate Help and read it using your browser. For more information, see Pointing to a view in a Notes database.

Your administrator may have already configured this instance of Notes and Domino for a specific purpose. If you click the View menu, and see a drop-down list of views, Notes and Domino is preset to display multiple views you need to do your work. If the title bar says "Notes Mail," for example, you are likely to see a set of nine or more views including your mail inbox, calendar and to-do list. If the title bar says "Notes View," you may see a menu of different views in different databases, or you may be free to specify the views you want. If instead you see no View menu, but the title says "My Notes Calendar," Notes and Domino is ready to use the identity you logged in with to point to your own calendar view in your own mail database.

If you see the Edit icon in the title bar, you have permission to add your own views to the View menu, or modify the views that the administrator has made available. For more information, see Working with items on the View menu. If you see no Edit icon, ask your administrator to configure Notes and Domino to show the source Notes database you need.

• Switching to a different view of a database
• Paging through additional documents in a view
• Reading a document from a view
• Adding a document to a view
• Editing an existing document in a view
• Deleting a document from a view
• Getting additional Notes help
• Using Notes mail

Working in mail views

Using your Notes calendar

Using your Notes to do list

• Switching to another identity to use a mail database
• Using a Notes discussion
• Using a Notes Teamroom
• Selecting an application to launch when documents open
• Working with items on the View menu
• Pointing to a view in a Notes database
• Changing view styles
• Changing view columns
• Changing the title of your instance of Notes and Domino

Switching to a different view of a database

The View menu does not appear if your instance of Notes and Domino has a title beginning with "My," for example, "My Notes Mail." It also does not appear when Notes and Domino has only one view specified in edit properties.

1. Click the View menu to drop down a list of views.
2. Click the item representing the view you want to access.

For the selected view, the server name, for example acme.domino.com, and the source database name and path, for example discussions\sales_discussion.nsf, are displayed at the bottom of Notes and Domino.

Paging through additional documents in a view

There may be many documents in the current view in the Notes database you are accessing. If there are more documents than Notes and Domino is set to display in one screen, you can click the arrow icons to page through screens.

Reading a document from a view

Click the icon to the left of any document's title and select Open.

Depending on how this view is set to launch documents, the document may open in a separate browser window, or in the Notes client software if it is installed on your computer. For more information, see Selecting an application to launch when documents open. Actions you see in the document depend on the internal design of the database.

Adding a document to a view

If the view is set up to allow creation of documents, click the New Document icon to add a document to a view. In some views, this icon may have a more specific name, such as New Memo in a mail view or New To Do Item in a To Do view.

Editing an existing document in a view

Click the icon to the left of any document's title and select Edit. If you have the appropriate access, you can change and save the document's content.

Depending on how this view is set to launch documents, the document may open in a separate browser window, or in the Notes client software if it is installed on your computer. For more information, see Selecting an application to launch when documents open.

Deleting a document from a view

Click the icon to the left of any document's title and select Delete, then click OK.

Getting additional Notes help

To learn more about Notes features such as mail, discussions, and teamrooms, point an instance of Notes and Domino at the Contents or Index view of help\help5_client.nsf (if your organization uses a Release 5 Domino server or help\help6_client.nsf (if your organization uses a Release 6 Domino server). This is the standard path and filename for Notes Help on any Domino server. Notes 5 Help (and Lotus Notes 6 Help) were written for users of the Notes client software, but many of the features you encounter through Notes and Domino are similar or the same.

Using Notes mail

When your administrator configures an instance of Notes and Domino to display your full mail database, the title in the title bar appears as "Notes Mail," and the View menu will be preset to let you switch between areas of your Notes mail database. If views are preset, you will see these items: Inbox, All, Calendar, Drafts, Meetings, Sent, and ToDo. The All view shows all documents (mail, calendar, and to-do items) in the entire database. See the sections below for more information on the rest of these views.

Your administrator also has the option of configuring an instance of Notes and Domino to use the identity you log in with to point to just your mail Inbox ("My Notes Mail"), just your calendar ("My Notes Calendar") or just your to-do list ("My Notes To Do"). In this case, you see only the specified view (there is no View menu) in Notes and Domino, and if you have permission to edit, you see only one page of options related to the view specified.

Working in mail views

When your instance of Notes and Domino is configured to display a view in your mail database, you can click a New Memo icon to create a mail message.

The Inbox view shows new mail messages. The Drafts view shows messages that are edited and saved but unsent. The Sent view shows messages that are sent and saved (if you launch the Notes client software, you have the option of not saving all sent messages).

Using your Notes calendar

When your instance of Notes and Domino is configured to display your calendar, you can click a New Meeting icon to create and send a meeting document. Calendar documents appear in the Calendar and All views.

Using your Notes to do list

When your instance of Notes and Domino is configured to display your to do list, you can click a New To Do Item icon to create a to-do (task) document. To Do items appear in the To Do and All views.

Switching to another identity to use a mail database

Your administrator may configure an instance of Notes and Domino to show your mail, but also to give you an option to log in with someone else's name and password, for example if you need to manage another person's mail, or access your own temporarily (for example, while visiting a co-worker, you might switch their instance of Notes and Domino to point at your mail for convenience). If you can see the Edit icon, and if you see a Switch ID button among the properties after you click it, you can log in using any valid name or password combination.

Using a Notes discussion

When your instance of Notes and Domino is configured to display a discussion database, you and others can create new documents, and by using the Launch Application icon, responses, and responses to responses.

Tip: If you can see the Edit icon, useful views to add to a discussion database are By Author and By Date.

Using a Notes Teamroom

When your instance of Notes and Domino is configured to display a teamroom database, you and others can post documents as in a discussion database, and by using the Launch Application icon, take advantage of workflow features to manage documents and work with tasks.

Tip: If you can see the Edit icon, useful views to add to a teamroom database are By Author and By Date.

Selecting an application to launch when documents open

Instead of opening or editing documents in your instance of Notes and Domino, you can click the Launch Application icon to open or edit the selected document in a separate window.

If you can see the Edit icon, you can change what happens when you click the Launch Application icon. By default, the separate window is another browser window. However, if the local machine is already running the Lotus Notes (rich) client software in the Windows operating system, the separate window can open Notes. The Notes client software may provide additional actions for the selected document.

1. In the title bar, click the Edit icon.
2. If this instance of Notes and Domino offers a list of views, select a view, click the (smaller) Edit icon, and click Next.
3. Under View documents in, select Lotus Notes, if available.
4. If necessary, click Done.
5. Click Save to keep or Cancel to discard this change. If there is a list of views, this change applies only to the selected view.

Working with items on the View menu

If you can see the Edit icon, you can work with items on the View menu in your instance of Notes and Domino.

Note: The View menu does not appear if your instance of Notes and Domino has a title beginning with "My," for example, "My Notes Mail." It also does not appear in an instance of Notes and Domino, for example one called "Notes View," that offers a list of views in edit properties but initially points to only one view; the menu appears as soon as you add at least one more view.

1. In the title bar, click the Edit icon.
2. Do any of the following:
• To edit the properties of an item in the menu, click the item and click the (smaller) Edit icon. Then customize any of the properties you want as described under Pointing to a view in a Notes database.
• To rename an item in the menu, click the item, click the Edit icon, and change the View Title field as described under Pointing to a view in a Notes database.
• To create a new item from an existing item, click the item you want to copy, click the Copy icon, and then set any of the properties of the new item you want, as described under Pointing to a view in a Notes database.
• To change the order of items in the View menu when there are two or more, click an item and click the Up or Down icon.
• To remove one or more items from the menu, click the item(s), click the Delete icon, and click OK.
3. Click Save to keep or Cancel to discard changes to the View menu.

Pointing to a view in a Notes database

If you can see the Edit icon, you can specify the source view and database for an item on the View menu in your instance of Notes and Domino.

Note: The View menu does not appear if your instance of Notes and Domino has a title beginning with "My," for example, "My Notes Mail." Also, if your instance of Notes and Domino is Notes Mail, you can specify views only in your own mail database.

Tip: For any of these fields that is followed by a check box icon, for example the Server field, after typing a value, you can select the check box next to the field to fill in the next field, for example the Database filename field, with values corresponding to the previous field. Then you can select from those values for the next field.

1. In the title bar, click the Edit icon.
2. Click the Add icon.
3. Under View title, specify the text you want to display in the View menu for switching to this view in this database. Examples of useful items to display on the View menu are "Mail - Inbox," "Sales Discussion - By Author" and "Lotus Notes Help - Contents."
4. Under Server, specify the server name, for example, dominoserver.acme.com.
5. Under Database filename, specify the database file name and path, for example help\help5_client.nsf, mail\yourmail.nsf, or sales_discussion.nsf.
6. Under View, specify the name or alias name of the view element in the source database, for example "Contents" or "Index" in the Help database, Inbox in your mail database, or AuthorView (alias for the By Author view) in a discussion database.
7. (Optional) Under View category, specify a category in the view to display in Notes and Domino (documents in the rest of the view are hidden). Only some types of views in some databases are designed to use categories; if you see a list of them, the selected view has them.
8. (Optional) Under Protocol, change from the default to HTTPS (SSL), a secure protocol, if you know that the Domino server containing the database that is the source for the selected view uses that protocol. If you don't know, set this view to detect the server's protocol automatically.
9. Click Done.
10. Click Save to keep or Cancel to discard changes to the selected view.

Changing view styles

If you can see the Edit icon, you can change view styles. In addition, if your instance of Notes and Domino has a View menu, you can change styles separately for each view on the menu.

1. In the title bar, click the Edit icon.
2. If this instance of Notes and Domino has a list of views, click the view whose style you want to customize, click Edit, and then click Next.
3. Do any of the following (all are optional):
• Change the number of Rows per screen to display, for example, 15.
• Turn on the Alternating row colors check box to help make the view easier to read.
• Turn on the Icon for creating new documents check box if you want to be able to create new documents in the selected view. This check box requires you to specify the name of the Notes form (part of source database design) to use; for example, in mail you may use the Memo form or in a Discussion database the Main Topic form. If you don't know the name of a suitable form, ask your administrator.
• Under View documents in, select an option for launching documents as described under Selecting an application to launch when documents open.
4. Do any of the following for specific types of views (all are optional):
• For the view in "My Notes Mail," turn on File size column to display the file size of each document.
• For the view in "My Notes Mail," turn on Attachment icon column to display an additional icon next to any document that contains a file attachment.
• For the view in "My Notes Mail," select Inbox or All documents.
• For the view in "My Notes Calendar," under Show, select a number of days from 1 to 31.
5. If necessary, click Done.
6. Click Save to keep or Cancel to discard changes to the selected view.

Changing view columns

If you can see the Edit icon, you can change the way columns display for the view. In addition, if your instance of Notes and Domino has a View menu, you can change columns separately for each view on the menu.

1. In the title bar, click the Edit icon.
2. If this instance of Notes and Domino has a list of views, click the view you want to customize, click Edit, and then click Next.
3. Do one or more of the following (all are optional):
• Under Column for showing people awareness, drop down the list and select a column containing people's names to display as links you can click for instant messaging. For example, in a Discussion database, unless it has been customized in some way, Column 0 in a By Author view contains peoples' names. The column must be designed to contain names as data, and the portal must be configured to work with a Sametime server (if unsure, ask your administrator).
• Under Column for launching documents, drop down the list and select the column to click when you want to open, edit, or delete a document.
• Under Columns to hide, click or CTRL-click one or more columns. Some databases are designed to show many columns that may not fit well in Notes and Domino; you can hide ones you don't need.
4. If necessary, click Done.
5. Click Save to keep or Cancel to discard changes to the selected view.

Changing the title of your instance of Notes and Domino

If you can see the Edit icon, you can change the title displayed in the title bar of your instance of Notes and Domino. In addition, if your instance of Notes and Domino has a View menu, you can type a different title to appear in the title bar for each view on the list.

1. In the title bar, click the Edit icon.
2. If this instance of Notes and Domino has a list of views, click the view whose title you want to change, then click Edit.
3. In the Application title field, change the title to whatever you want (for example, Acme Company's Sales Discussion, or Jane Q. Public's Calendar, or My Most Important To-Do List), as long as you don't leave the field blank.
4. Click Save to keep or Cancel to discard changes to the title.