Lotus Nut

Another great addition for Notes Client usability is an easier way for users to create hyperlinks! Finally there is a quick way to do this! Previously, you would have to go through several menu levels or remember ALT+C+H+L and then fill in a properties box that may be confusing for the casual user. But in 8.5.1, this should be easier to accomplish.

After selecting the text you would like to use for the link, you can either choose the Create > Hyperlink menu item:

Or you can choose a toolbar option:

This will then bring you the following dialog when you're creating a new memo:

This will be a welcome improvement for Lotus Notes users!!

Disclaimer: Notes 8.5.1 is still in Beta and therefore subject to change between now and its ship date.

There are two quick things I would like to highlight with the Lotus Notes 8.5.1 Client that's currently in beta.

First of all is the ability to resize table columns from the rich text editor. I love using the "Copy Selected as Table" from within views and then pasting the table into a new memo. Then I like to do some formatting - which would always involve resizing the columns. With 8.5.0 and earlier, when I would want to do this I would have to open the Table Properties and then resize each cell width. Lotus Notes 8.5.1 now allows you to just click on the column separator and resize it via dragging. Very cool!!

The second thing is related to view navigation. How many of you have ever had calls from users who say "MY EMAIL HAS DISAPPEARED! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!" Only to find out they just inadvertently pressed the "end" key and it navigated the view all the way to the right past the visible text. With Lotus Notes 8.5.1, the home and end keys (currently) will navigate to the top and bottom of the view (this is to be more consistent with other Windows navigation behavior).

Disclaimer: Notes 8.5.1 is still in Beta and therefore subject to change between now and its ship date.

Thanks to Alan Lepofsky via twitter, I see that there is now a CCH2 available for Notes 8.0.2. Glad to see that IBM is addressing the (apparently many) issues with the Notes 8.0.2 client in a timely manner.

I'm trying to remember back through the releases since 6.0 and I think I can only remember one or two CCH kits released to address major client issues. But at the same time, there were QMR's released (the 0.x releases) which are now on around a 180 day schedule. So we now are able to get hotfixes in a more timely manner than having to wait 6 months for the next revision.

Also, please note that ND 8.0.2 FP1 should be released in January.

IBM Technote 7014028 has been published with details on Notes 8.0.2 CCH1. Some things to note.

It appears that Smart Upgrade will need to use this string for the target client version "Release 8.0.2 CCH1".

There is also a listing of the SPR's that this CCH1 corrects. I'm also still not thrilled that this has not been released at FixCentral or at Passport Advantage. You still have to call IBM Support and open a PMR to receive this. This fact was also not documented in the Technote. I left feedback on the form stating that IBM should have a section letting customers know how to obtain this hotfix.

I've been meaning to post this for a while. I noticed that at around the same time I started seeing the new design for Notes 8.0.2 and 8.5 startup improvements that something very similar also started happening when logging into Gmail. Does it look familiar to you as well? :)

This actually applies to all Standard versions of Notes and, really, any other Eclipse-based app that has tons of files installed.

Get Defraggler. Now.

Then use it to defrag your Notes folder. After uninstalling an 8.5 Beta and installing 8.0.2 Gold, there were over 2,000 fragmented files in my Notes path! If you want to scrounge every bit of performance out of Notes, you should defrag the folder. Sure, Notes 8.0.2 will load faster without doing this, but fragmentation is a performance killer - especially on slower laptop drives. Defraggler, and some other tools I'm sure, provide the ability to do this. You can defrag single or multiple files (ahem, VM images) or highlight the path the file is in and defrag all files in that path. This gives you a rather quick defrag without having to wait for the entire drive to be defragged.