Table of  Content


Welcome to IBM Lotus Notes 7!

Lotus Notes is powerful, multifaceted software for Windows(R) and Macintosh computers that gives you instant access to all the information that is important to you. You can use Notes to send and receive Internet mail, schedule appointments, browse the Web, contribute to Internet newsgroups, and take advantage of the Welcome Page for tracking all your important daily information.
The Welcome Page is a great place to start. This page gives you immediate access to your mail, bookmarks, calendar, and more.
To get Help while you are exploring Notes, press F1 (Macintosh users, Command - Shift - ?) or choose Help - Help Topics from the menu.
With Notes, you can connect to IBM Lotus Domino(TM) 7 servers as well as Internet servers, such as your Internet Service Provider (ISP), to send and receive Internet mail.  When you want to know someone's e-mail address, Notes helps you search the Internet for a person's listing. You can post messages to Internet newsgroups, view HTML from any Web server, and use special certificates for security. And you can do all these things from within one consistent interface. You simply do your work, and Notes handles the rest.

Getting Connected

The first time you start Notes, Notes asks a series of configuration questions. Using your answers to these questions, Notes automatically sets up your connections to Notes databases, your mail, and the Internet. You can repeat the configuration sequence again at any time by choosing File - Preferences - Client Reconfiguration Wizard.
Most people work in Notes on a LAN most of the time, but you can use several methods to connect while away from your organization's network. You can also work offline while disconnected, and use replication to synchronize your information with servers the next time you're connected.
Before you can create any connections, you must have one of the following physical ways to connect:
•    A LAN
•    A dialup modem that is compatible with your operating system, and a direct-dial, analog telephone line
•    A cable modem and digital cable service (also called broadband service)
•    A DSL modem, a digital subscriber (DSL) telephone line, and any necessary connection hardware for the combination
You also need to gather certain information for connecting to mail, Notes databases, and the Internet, depending on both the type of physical connection and the type of mail you want to use.
To set up mail connections
Decide whether you want to use:
•    Notes mail on a Domino server
•    Internet mail, either on a commercial server through an Internet Service Provider (ISP), or on an internal Internet server in your organization
•    Both Notes and Internet mail
For Internet mail, you also need to find out whether your organization or service provider offers the Post Office Protocol (POP) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) for incoming mail, and decide whether you want to use a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server for outgoing Internet mail, or send outgoing Internet mail through a Domino server.
Note  To connect to Notes mail with a browser, you need WebMail or IBM Lotus Domino Web Access.
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To set up connections to Notes databases
•    If you're using a LAN, Notes manages your connections to Notes databases. Ask your administrator for assistance if you have trouble getting to a particular server. Or, if you know the server name and IP address, choose File - Mobile - Edit Current Location and click the "Connection Configuration Wizard" button near the top of the window.
•    If you're connecting using a dialup phone line, you need the names of Domino servers you want to access. If your organization has no network, passthru, or hunt group server, you may also need phone numbers for each Domino server. A network server lets you make one call to connect to all Domino servers and, if your organization allows it, the Internet. A passthru or hunt group server lets you make one call to connect to groups of Domino servers. Ask your Domino administrator what servers your organization has available.
•    If you're connecting using cable or DSL service, you need the names of Domino servers you want to access.
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To set up a connection to the Internet
If you're using a LAN, your organization may give you direct access to the Internet, or access through a firewall using a proxy server. Ask your administrator for all relevant proxy server and gateway information before you configure Notes.
For other physical connection methods, your organization may have a network server available that you can dial to gain Internet access. Or you can dial an Internet Service Provider to gain access.
If you use a LAN, cable, or DSL connection, you need the Internet address of the network server. If you use a telephone line, you also need the server's full phone number.
For more information, see Setting up your Web connection.
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To set up connections to Internet newsgroups or address directories
When you have your connection to the Internet working, check to see whether your Internet Service Provider (or organization's internal Internet server) has a newsgroup (NNTP) or address directory (LDAP) server available. This information is usually available on an ISP's Web site or from your administrator.

Opening your mail and reading messages

By default, your mail opens to your Inbox view where you can read Notes mail, and Internet mail if you're set up to use it. You must have a connection to a Notes server and/or an Internet server before you can open your mail database.
Click any of these topics:
To open your Inbox
To update your Inbox with messages received since you opened it
To read a message
To read a message and view Mail Threads at the same time
To view a message and the Inbox at the same time
To work with unread messages
To use other mail views or folders
For information on the expandable minivew at the bottom of the navigation pane, see The Follow Up MiniView or Calendar and Scheduling, depending on which miniview you want to display.
To open your Inbox
The Inbox view shows a list of messages you've received.
Click the Mail icon in the Bookmark bar.

To update your Inbox with messages received since you opened it
Notes mail users and Internet POP or IMAP Offline mail users may update the Inbox in slightly different ways, but perform other mail tasks the same way.
Notes mail users
By default, your user preferences are set to refresh the Inbox automatically. If you turn off the preference, new messages may be received but not displayed. To see whether the preference is on, choose File - Preferences - User Preferences (Macintosh OS X users, Notes - Preferences - User Preferences), click Mail, and see the "Automatically refresh Inbox" check box.
Tip  This preference may cause your Inbox to pause while new messages are displayed. Turn it off for faster performance, and when you want to see new messages, choose View - Refresh.
Internet mail users
Your Internet IMAP Offline or POP mail may be set up to store incoming mail in your Notes mail database. If so, you can read both your Notes and Internet mail in the same "universal" Inbox by clicking the Mail icon in the Bookmark bar.

If your Internet IMAP Offline or POP mail is set to use a separate Notes mail database, you must specify that database as the primary mail for at least one location in order to use the Mail icon in the Bookmark bar.
  1.    If necessary, switch to a location (for example, Internet) from which you want to access your Internet POP/IMAP (incoming mail) and SMTP (outgoing mail) accounts.
  2.    Choose File - Mobile - Edit Current Location, click Mail, and in the "Mail file" field, specify the file name for your POP or IMAP Offline mail database if it's not already specified. Click "Save & Close" in the Location document and click the Mail icon in the Bookmark bar to open your Internet mail.
  3.    Replicate your Internet mail (download it from the server).
  4.    Choose View - Refresh to update the Inbox with new messages.
Note  If you use IMAP Online mail, see To specify your IMAP mail as your primary mail .
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To read a message
Double-click the message in the list (view) in the Inbox. You can select and view any file attachments in an additional window. If messages contain Web links (URLs), you can set a preference to display the links as hotspots you can click.
Tip  For shortcuts you can use to step through messages, see Commonly used keyboard shortcuts for Mail and Calendar.
Macintosh users, see Commonly used keyboard shortcuts for Mail and Calendar (Macintosh).
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To read a message and view Mail Threads at the same time
At the top of a message, you can display the subject lines of all messages related to the one you are reading, allowing you to access the entire conversation from the current message.
In an open message, click the "Show Thread" button on the action bar.
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To view a message and the Inbox at the same time
  1.    Select a message in the list (view).
  2.    From the menu, choose View - Document Preview - Show Preview. The preview pane opens with the document you selected. You can turn the preview pane on and off by choosing View - Document Preview - Show Preview again.
Tip  You can also show and hide the preview pane by clicking the Preview triangle at the bottom of the Inbox list.

Notes remembers that you have the preview pane displayed the next time you open mail.
For more information, see Customizing your Inbox and mail.
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To work with unread messages
In your mail database, messages that you haven't read appear in red (unless you've set colors in the Inbox) and have stars next to their titles.
In the navigation pane, names of folders that contain unread messages appear in bold and show the number of unread messages. Names of parent folders to these folders also appear in bold.
Note  If you open a replica of your mail on a Domino R5 server, the bold folder names do not appear.
To do this    Do this
Open your mail and the first unread message    Click the mailbox ("Quickpick") icon in the status bar and choose "Scan Unread Mail."
   
Go to the next or previous unread message in a view or folder (such as the Inbox)    Press TAB to go to the next or SHIFT+TAB to go to the previous unread message, or use the toolbar.
Show only the unread messages in a view or folder
Note  By default, your mail box is set to show all messages in its view. You can choose to see only unread messages in the Inbox, All Documents view, and any folders you have created using the current mail template.    Click "View Unread" at the top of the view. To show the read messages again in the view or folder, "View All."
    Note  If you change to another view, the option you chose is saved and will still be enabled when you switch back to the first view. For example, if you choose to see only unread messages in your Inbox, and switch to the Sent Mail view, your Inbox retains the "View Unread" setting.
See your newest unread messages at the top of the view    Click the arrow in the Date column heading to change sorting.
Mark all messages you show in the preview pane as read    Change this preference.
Note  It is recommended that you enable the database property "Do not mark modified documents as unread" for your mail database. Setting this property ensures that changes made to the mail database do not affect the unread status of a message, and that unread status will be changed only by you.
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To use other mail views or folders
You can use any view or folder in mail by clicking the view or folder icon in the navigation pane. Notes remembers which view or folder you were using and opens it the next time you open mail.
Caution  Except in the Sent view, if you delete a message from a view or folder, such as Mail Threads or the Inbox, it also disappears from all other views and folders.
For more information, see Deleting mail.
For more information, see Customizing your Inbox and mail.
Notes mail has these folders and views:
Selection in navigation pane    Description
Inbox    Shows all messages that you receive. Messages remain in the Inbox until you move them to a different folder or delete them.
Drafts    Shows all messages that you save without sending. You can go back to these messages, edit them, and send them later.
Sent    Shows all messages that you have authored, sent and saved, by the name of the first recipient. Sent messages appear with an envelope icon in all views and folders.
Follow Up    Shows all messages that are currently flagged for follow-up action.
Trash    Shows messages that you marked for deletion in your mail.
    For information, see Deleting mail.
Views - All Documents     Shows all messages that are currently in your mail database.
Views - Mail Threads    Shows all messages grouped with their replies so you can view an entire conversation at once.
Views - Chat Transcripts    Shows text logs of chat conversations. With instant messaging, chat participants can save chat transcripts to their Mail in this view.
Folders    Shows a list of all personal folders you create.
Tools - Rules    Shows all rules that you create to filter new messages.
    For information, see Filtering new mail using rules.
Tools - Stationery    Shows all stationery that you create for sending messages.
    For information, see Creating and using stationery for mail.
Tools - Archive    Appears only if archiving is set up for your mail. Shows all your archive policies, and lets you open the archive database.
Tip  You can create additional folders in your mail database.
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See Also
Mail and Address Book
Previewing documents
Viewing an attached vCard file
Sorting mail in a folder or view
To turn URLs into hotspots
URLs supported in Notes
Using different locations
Exporting documents into text files
Why can't I find Tools, Rules, or Stationery in my mail?
Mail preferences


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Instant messaging 

Note  The features described in this topic are available only if your company has an IBM Lotus Sametime server, and only for Windows versions of IBM Lotus Notes.
IBM Workplace Managed Client users: If your company uses IBM Workplace Collaboration Services for instant messaging, features may differ from the IBM Lotus Sametime instant messaging features described here. For information on instant messaging with Workplace Collaboration Services, see the Instant Contacts section of  IBM Workplace Managed Client Help.
Notes instant messaging allows you to see your co-workers online and have chat sessions with them.
The following terms will help you get started with instant messaging.
Chat:  A real-time text conversation. You can chat with any of your online colleagues. See Starting a chat for more information.
Chat transcript:  A text log of a chat conversation. With instant messaging, chat participants can save chat transcripts to their Mail database or file system. See Saving a chat or instant meeting transcript to Mail and Saving a chat or instant meeting transcript to a file for more information.
Groups:  People in your Instant Messaging Contact List are organized in groups. See Adding a group to the Instant Messaging Contact List for more information. The two types of groups are:
Private groups:  Groups that you define. You can add people from the company's Lotus Sametime directory to your private groups.
Public groups:  Groups from your company's Lotus Sametime directory. Your system administrator defines the contents of public groups.
Instant meeting:  An online chat meeting that, if your Lotus Sametime server has Web conferencing capability, can include audio, video, screen sharing, and a whiteboard. You can start an instant meeting immediately, from a chat, a mail message, a meeting document, a group To Do document, the Instant Messaging Contact List, or the main menu. Once an instant meeting starts, anyone can invite other online people to join the meeting. See Starting an instant meeting for more information.
Instant Messaging Contact List:  A list of your colleagues. You create your Instant Messaging Contact List. See The Instant Messaging Contact List for more information.
Lotus Sametime directory:  A master list of all people associated with your company with whom you can exchange instant messages. Your system administrator maintains your company's Lotus Sametime directory. You access the directory when you add names to your Instant Messaging Contact List or invite people to instant meetings. See Searching the Lotus Sametime directory for more information.
IBM Lotus Sametime server:  The server to which you must be connected to use Notes instant messaging. See Connecting to a Lotus Sametime server for more information.
Online awareness: The ability to see the online status of others in your mail views and mail messages. For more information, see Showing or hiding online awareness for names.
Online status:  Your online status tells other people if you are available for online chats and instant meetings. See Managing your online status for more information.
Online status message:  The text that appears when people point to your name in the Instant Messaging Contact List. You can use the default online status messages or create customized ones. See Customizing your online status messages for more information.
Screen sharing: In an online meeting, screen sharing allows you to share your screen or a computer program with other participants (available only if your Lotus Sametime server has Web conferencing capability).
Whiteboard: In an online meeting, the whiteboard allows you to present files, draw images, and enter text (available only if your Lotus Sametime server has Web conferencing capability).
See Also
Working with instant messaging.

Automating Tasks Using Simple Agents 

You can program Notes to perform tasks automatically using agents (also known as macros). Agents can help you perform repetitive tasks, such as managing documents and sending memos. (The out-of-office mail feature is an example of an agent, one that comes ready to use in Notes.)
This Help system covers the creation of simple agents. See Lotus Domino Designer 7 Help for information on creating more complex agents using Notes formulas, Lotus Script, or Java.
What agents can do
Agents can complete almost any action you can do manually in your databases. Use simple agents to automatically complete tasks such as:
Replying to mail
Forwarding mail
Sending documents
Copying documents from one database or folder to another
Deleting documents
Changing read status
By using search options, you can also set up simple agents to work with selected documents in your database.
How agents work
Agents are stored in databases. When you create an agent that only you can run, it's called a private agent; when you create an agent that you and other users can run, it is called a shared agent.
When you create an agent, you can set options to specify:
When the agent should run. You can run the agent manually, automatically based on a schedule, or automatically based on an event such as when you receive new mail or when a document has been changed.
Which documents in the database the agent should run on. You can target all or any subset of documents in the database for the agent to run on.
What actions the agent should complete. You can choose actions from a list or use Notes formulas or  programming scripts and languages to create actions.
The Access Control List and agents
You can create and run an agent in any database stored locally, but before you can create agents to run on a database located on a Domino server, you must have sufficient access privileges. The Access Control List (ACL) of a database determines not only whether or not you can create an agent in the database, but what the agent can do, and how the agent interacts with other agents.
See Also
Creating an agent
When naming agents
Editing, copying, deleting, or moving an agent
Viewing a list of agents
Automation and Agent troubleshooting


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