500 Tips
Business Software
Lotus Notes

Something Old, Something New

To display the number of unread documents in a database--a good way to tell if documents have been added since your last visit--select View/Show Unread. The number of unread documents will appear in the database icon.

Stack the Odds

Organize replica icons by selecting Desktop/View and checking Stack Replica Icons. Click on the arrow in the upper-right corner of an icon (which indicates stacking) and you'll see a box listing all the replicas, with the active replica checked. Click on a replica name to make it the active one.

Take Forward Action

Forward documents to other users without going into e-mail. With a document open, select Actions/Forward from the Notes menu to generate a memo with the document as the body. Then click on the Send button.

What a Pane

The Preview Pane, while useful for viewing the contents of a document without opening it, is invisible when you open a database. To activate it quickly, just drag the bottom border of the desktop screen upward.

Movin' On Up

Get a grip on the new menus in R4. Select Help/Release 3 Menu Finder, choose an R3 option from the drop-down menus and the equivalent R4 command appears in the yellow box.

Get Special Treatment

If your Notes administrator has designated any important databases as "Special," you can add the icon to your desktop with just a few clicks. Select File/Database/Open Special; select a database name to invoke a brief description of the database in the yellow help box. Click on OK and the database icon appears on your desktop.

Serve Refreshments

Do deleted documents still appear in the document view, while some new mail doesn't appear in your inbox? Choose View/Refresh or click the circular arrow in the top-left corner of the view pane.

Accept a Helping Hand

Good database managers and designers often create a How To Help document. If one exists, you can get to it by selecting Help/Using This Document.

Roadside Assistance

Get help even when you're on the road by installing Help Lite. Located in HELPLT4.NSF, it contains the same type of information as the Help Database (HELP4.NSF), minus some documents and the Visual Index view to save on disk space.

Sight Unseen

Print documents without opening them. From the view containing the document(s), click on the column to the left of the document(s), choose File/Print or press Ctrl+P, click on Printer, select a printer, click on All, then Print selected documents and finally OK.

It's 'About' Time

Click on the About button to see if you added the right database to your workspace. If the designer provided the database with an About help document, it'll appear in the dialog box.

Get Personal

Find out if a database accepts private folders by selecting the database and choosing File/Database/Access Control. If the Create personal folders/view option is checked, you can store folders in the database.

No Fear

If your workspace is cluttered with databases, blow away the ones you don't use by selecting them and hitting the Delete key. Although the icons are removed from your desktop, they remain on the server (so you can recover any you've blasted by mistake).

Color Your World

Add color to tabs in the Notes workspace by double-clicking a tab and selecting Tabs in the Workspace Properties dialog. Click on the down arrow in the field Tab color and select a color.

Frank Footers

Use explicit headers and footers--such as title or page numbers--on your printouts. Select Edit/Properties, click on the Properties for drop-down arrow and select either Database (if the header or footer will be used for all documents) or Document (for selected documents). Click on the Printer tab and select Header and/or footer. Use the icons and dialog boxes to compose the headers and footers.

View to a Print

Did you know you can print a view without printing all the documents in the view? With a database open, go to the view you want, select File/Print, go to View options, select Print View and click on OK.

Be Selective

Here's how to hide documents you don't need: Click on the column before each document you want. Now select View/Show Selected Only to see a view with just those documents.

Missing Out?

Make sure you haven't overlooked an important document by checking View/Show/Unread Only. Disable View/Show/Unread Only to see the documents again.

Scenic Route

Use the Visual Index to get an overview of R4's help database. Click on Visual Index in the View pane to find icons of topics. Click on an icon to bring up a detailed interactive graphic. For example, the Desktop graphic has balloons with question marks pointing to areas on the graphic. Click on a balloon to get help on a specific area.

Assume the Position

Position the Preview pane in the bottom right, at the bottom or on the right of your desktop. Select View/Arrange Preview, and choose the location.

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