New to Lotus Notes? Or have you recently migrated to Notes?

Set Lotus Notes as your default mail client so that whenever you click on any hyperlink (from any newsletter or a web page or in an email that you have recieved) which is intended to send out a mail opens up a new memo in Lotus Notes.

To make Lotus Notes mail client your default Mail Client, follow the steps below.

1. Log into your Notes account and go to File option in the top menu.
2. Choose Preferences and select User Preferences
3. In the window that is opening up, click on Mail and choose Internet.
4. You will find a section called Default Mail account in which the option to choose Lotus Notes as your default mail client is available. Enable it.
5. You will also have another option to check whether Lotus Notes is your default mail client every time you start your system. Even if you accidently change the settings, Notes will prompt you when you start the system the next time and helps you ensure that Notes is configured as your default mail client .
6. Click OK to close the window and restart your system.
7. You will be prompted whether to change Notes as your default mail client. Click yes to it.

This ensures that all mail links are getting opened as a new memo in Lotus Notes.

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Out of Office messaage is set to let those who send you mails know that you are not in office and when you are expected to be back.

This can be configured in Lotus Notes client and an automated reply will be sent to those who mail you informing them about the duration of your absence. You can also choose to write a message yourself that is to be sent out. There are also options to avoid sending these messages to a few selected individuals or to a group by creating exceptions.

To activate this feature, follow the steps below.

1. Click Actions tab in the top menu and go to Tools
2. Select Out of Office from the options list.
3. In the pop up window, you can fill the date when you will leave and return.
4. There is a default message that you see in the Out of Office Message tab or you can choose to write your own message by clicking Special Message.
5. If you dont want these mails to be sent to any particular individual or to a group, click on the Exceptions tab and choose the corresponding options.
6. Click Enable to activate the feature.

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While opening the hyperlinks in your mail from your Lotus Notes inbox, you most often find it opening in a default Notes browser. This browser may not have all the options that are present in a conventional browser. To overcome this you can change the browser settings in your Notes client to open the links in any browser of your choice. To change the configuration, do the following simple steps:

1. Open File menu in the top menu options, go to Preferences and Location Preferences.
2. Click on the Internet Browser tab.
3. Open the dropdown menu in Internet browser and choose the browser that you want.
4. If not available, choose as Other and select it using the field below by giving the path of the browser.
5. Click Save & Close tab in the top action bar.

You should be able to open the links in the browser that you have chosen after these settings are given.

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Good news for Apple Macintosh workstation users.

IBM is spreading its arms into another user segment- the Apple Macintosh workstation users. As a first step it has made its collaboration and messaging services accessible from a Macintosh workstation with the help of Lotus Domino Web Access 7.0.2 Software and a web browser. The software now supports the Firefox 1.5 web browser form Mozilla and IBM claims that this software has greater security environment.

Further to this IBM is planning to release the Lotus Notes 7.0.7 by the end of the year 2006 which can run on a Mac OS X 10.4 based workstation. This is expected to have all the important features of Lotus Notes 7.

Click here to know more on that.

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As mentioned in the earlier posting Lotus Notes Domino falls under the category of servers that support incremental backup. This helps in easy backup of applications and databases with minimum concern about storage memory.

There are several Backup products like IBM’s ADSM back up solution, BakBone’s NetVault, BrightStor ARCserve Backup Agent, Lascon Storage, and Cheyenne’s Arcserve Backup with Notes Agent etc. Most of these products support incremental backup of applications and come with their own unique features.

Cheyenne’s ARCserve is simple to install and configure but seem to have difficulties when large number of servers are to be backed up in a central location. BrightStor ARCserve Backup Agent for Lotus Domino enables backup of a local or remote server without shutting down the server or disrupting user access.

Among the many options available IBM’s Adstar/ADSM back up solution and Cheyenne’s ARCserve Backup with Notes Agent are regarded as the most convenient products used for Lotus Notes Domino backup.

However the pick of the lot is the IBM’s ADSM which has a product line that can suit any kind of enterprise- be it very small or an SME or a large enterprise. It has amazing recovery capability which includes Online, Nearline & Offline recovery. The server speed degradation is also minimal with the use of this product. A centralized backup management system can easily be developed with its ability to support backing up of servers at remote locations also.

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Let us check the Differential and Incremental type of back up today.

Differential Back Up

Differential back up is another kind of back up where only files that have been modified will be backed up. This is quite useful as most of the information backed up is not a repeat of the earlier backups, which help in reducing backup memory usage. However this is not the Ideal method as files that have seen minor changes also will be backed up fully. This is generally performed on File/Print servers but may not be useful in application servers where multiple changes are made to documents everyday.

Incremental Back-Up

Incremental back ups are the most desired among the back up methods. Incremental Backups are performed on servers using automated agents that can identify portions of very large files that have been modified. Only the modified portions of these files are extracted and are backed up. This results in using minimum memory space for the back up process as only very little content may have to be added. Assuming that the back up of an application server has to be taken every day, backing up huge files for small changes in any of the documents can be expensive and unnecessary. It may be useful for you to know that Lotus Notes Domino is one of those kinds that support Incremental back up.

This is the most economical and effective method of backing up servers and is widely used across the globe more than Full and Differential Back Up.

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Server Back-Ups are the key to any organizations Disaster Recovery plan. It helps the organization to function non stop even at times of crisis without losing the information gathered. In this series of posts you can get an idea about Lotus Notes Back-Up capability and how it can help an organization at times of crisis.

Before going onto the details of Lotus Notes backup, let us understand some basics of Back-Up in general so that it will help us when Notes Backup is discussed.

Backups can be classified into different types based on the content being backed up. They are as follows,
1. Full Backup
2. Differential Backup
3. Incremental Backup

Full Backup

Full backup is one type where the entire server content is backed up. This type of backup is not always desired as it takes a huge amount of space. Also it may not be desired because of the fact that it backs up unwanted content like the server Operating System, etc. resulting in the accumulation of unwanted clutter along with the actual content.

What kind of applications in a BPO can be developed using Lotus Notes?

Applications such as Database management system where huge databases of information have to be handled can be developed using Lotus Notes. Knowledge management systems used by the employees can be developed using Lotus Notes. These knowledge bases can be programmed to be interactive and can be extremely helpful for them while handling customers. A CRM application can also be used as it will be helpful in collecting information from customers directly which can be shared with other functions like Sales, Marketing etc which can be useful for them. These are some of the broad categories listed here: there can be several specific applications that can be developed using Lotus Notes.

What are the other features that make Lotus Notes ideal for a BPO?

Having a real time contact among each other is very important in a BPO or a Contact centre. An officer who is interacting with a customer when requiring information should have the ability to get it immediately as he cannot afford to make the customer wait for a long time. This can be achieved if all the employees are able to contact each other instantly. There are many options available for this if a Lotus Domino combination is employed. The instant messaging facility in a Lotus notes can help establishing immediate contact with another user. Another option is the use of Lotus Sametime which can also provide the instant contact support.