Lotus Notes tips and tricks

Here are some tips and tricks to help you make the most of Lotus Notes. If there are any of your own you'd like to share, please let us know by emailing communicate@its.monash.edu.au

General

1. Configure the Lotus Notes client to operate in up to three different locations
2. Save commonly-used search terms to make searching Mail, Calendar or To Do entries quicker
3. When using the web client from home or another site off-campus and have a slow internet connection, select the "Lite" version for faster processing 

Email

4. Use the 'Insert' shortcut key on the keyboard to flag an email as read or unread
5. Use the F9 shortcut key on the keyboard to 'refresh' or act as an 'autocomplete' function
6. Stamp your email message with a 'please reply by a particular date'
7. Recover an email if Lotus Notes has crashed while composing a new email and it wasn't saved
8. Subscribe to news updates or RSS feeds

Calendar

9. Let Lotus Notes find the best meeting times for you
10. Stay up-to-date with meeting changes by using the Calendar Autoprocessing tool
11. Create repeating or random Calendar entries
12. Retrieve and accept a meeting invitation you previously declined
13. Add your own notes to an entry in your Calendar
14. Have Lotus Notes import public holidays into your Calendar

Contacts and To Do

15. Migrate exisiting contacts to Lotus Notes
16. Export your Lotus Notes contacts to another program
17. Assign categories to your To Do items to make managing your tasks easier

1. Configure the Lotus Notes client to operate in up to three different locations.
This can be particularly useful for mobile users with a laptop and staff wanting to use Lotus Notes from a location not on the Monash network. For useful step-by-step instructions about how to set up an offline and home locations, see 'Configuring Notes for Offline use (GE11)' (pdf, 487kb).

2. Save commonly-used search terms to make searching Mail, Calendar or To Do entries quicker.
If you frequently search using the same criteria, you can save the search in the Search Centre. Please refer to learning topic 'Searching in Notes (GE12' (pdf, 329kb).

3. When using the web client from home or another site off-campus and have a slow internet connection, select the "Lite" version for faster processing. 
The Lite version of the Lotus Notes web client is a quick-to-load, cut-back version of the full web client. It allows access to email and contacts only (not calendar or tasks) so is best if you wish to quickly check and reply to messages.

You can switch to the full web client version by clicking on the relevant tab on the toolbar. This will give you all the features and functionality of the desktop client.

4. Use the 'Insert' shortcut key on the keyboard to mark an email as read or unread.
Using the 'Insert' shortcut is a quick way to mark an email as read or unread, without having to open up the email.

5. Use the F9 shortcut key on the keyboard to 'refresh' or act as an 'autocomplete' function.
Scenario 1: F9 acts as a 'refresh/autocomplete' shortcut. If you are in your Inbox (or any other email storage folder) you can presh F9 to have the server check for new messages.

Scenario 2: When composing a new email, type part of someone's name in any of the 'To:', 'cc:' or 'bcc:' fields as press F9. If you have provided enough information, the F9 key will autocomplete the entry to the person's name you intended. For example, if you type in 'Simon Lans' and press F9, Lotus Notes will autocomplete to the address 'Simon Lansbury/ITS/Staff/Monash'. This works whether or not you've sent this person an email before.

Note: If using a MAC, you will need to press Fn + F9. For Linux, the F9 key works the same as it does in Windows.

6. Stamp your email message with a ‘please reply by a particular date’.
You can do this in the Delivery Options - please refer to the learning topic 'How to compose a mail message (MA04)' (pdf, 357kb).

7. Recover an email if Lotus Notes has crashed while composing a new email and it wasn't saved.
Sometimes when you open Lotus Notes, you will receive a pop-up message about recovering emails.

The reason this appears is because there has been a crash while you you were composing a new email and it wasn't saved properly.

When you are presented with this message, click Recover All and Lotus Notes will give you a series of new emails that were being typed at the time of the crash.

If you have already re-typed and sent these emails, close them and select Discard when you are asked if you want to save or send them.

8. Subscribe to news updates or RSS feeds.
Lotus Notes allows you to subscribe to feeds and news sources. For instructions, please see 'Subscribing and using RSS feeds (MA33)' (pdf, 256kb).

9. Let Lotus Notes find the best meeting times for you.
Lotus Notes allows you to find a meeting that suits all invitees within the 'Find available times' tab. Please refer to the learning topic 'Schedule meetings (CA02)' (pdf, 210kb).

10. Stay up-to-date with meeting changes by using the Calendar Autoprocessing tool.
Enabling Autoprocessing means that invitations will automatically appear in your calendar if the time is free, and any changes are also automatically processed for you. Learn more about 'Autoprocessing of Calendar invites (CA14)' (pdf, 26kb).

11. Create repeating or random Calendar entries.
If you have regular, recurring meetings, Lotus Notes can set this up for you in your Calendar. For step-by-step instructions, please refer to the learning topic 'Schedule meetings (CA02)' (pdf, 210kb).

12. Retrieve and accept a meeting invitation you previously declined.
If you declined a meeting that you are now able to attend, the invitation will still be in your 'Entries and Notices' view. To search for the invitation, find some useful criteria in 'Searching in Calendar (CA13)' (pdf, 387kb). Once you have found the entry, open it and choose to accept the invitation.

13. Add your own notes to an entry in your Calendar.
You can add your own notes for a diary event for which you have been invited and accepted, without the notes affecting the entry on the organisers' Calendar or any other invitess' entries. Refer to 'Respond to meeting invitations (CA06)' (pdf, 252kb).

14. Have Lotus Notes import public holidays into your Calendar.
You have the choice of which public holidays Lotus Notes imports, determined by country and also Monash public holidays. For more information, see 'Adding public holidays to your calendar (CA08)' (pdf, 64kb).

15. Migrate existing contacts to Lotus Notes.
The interim solution that has been developed for migrating contacts to Lotus Notes is applicable for both Modzilla Thunderbird and Microsoft Outlook. Read step-by-step instructions at the learning topic 'How to migrate your contacts to Lotus Notes (TR04)' (pdf, 646kb).

16. Export your Lotus Notes contacts to another program.
Exporting your contact list is a useful function if you wish to use your contact list to create a mailing list in another program (such as Microsoft Word or Excel).  For instructions to guide you through the process, please refer to the reference guide 'Exporting contacts (CO11)' (pdf, 99kb).

17. Assign categories to your To Do items to make managing your tasks easier.
Creating categories makes helps you to sort your To Do items and keep up-to-date. To learn more, see 'Categorising your To Do list (TD05' (pdf, 238kb).