Notes on Productivity Home Page

This article appeared in my LinkedIn Pulse Feed: Christophe Jost makes the case that Notes & Domino are a valuable tool in the software publisher's toolkit. As the creator and publisher of a powerful productivity suite based on IBM's Notes & Domino collaboration platform, I can agree with most of his points. We enjoyed the ability to code once and have a solution that worked immediately on Windows, Mac and Linux clients. With the coming Notes on iPad solution from HCL there is now a 4th platform for immediate deployment - presumably without modification of code. With Customization and xPages, Web Apps can be created for a 5th platform. The only thing missing would be a native mobile app but the previous two can go a long way to helping an enterprise enable its workforce.

At the same time, we must consider if the ship has already sailed for Notes & Domino. Many would say yes. The exodus from the platform -- both customers and vendors -- continues. And yet, I can tell from the new trials of our products that there are countries with active Notes and Domino users. While HCL are doing some amazing things and there is renewed and hopeful buzz around this. A key to reaching new customers will be not just new features in the product but a commitment to marketing, only time will tell how that will play out.

READ: No Brainer - Domino/Notes revival seen from a software publisher's perspective

Today, I exchanged emails with a long time Notes & Domino Consultant Champion. (How long, you ask?  We both remember setting up Domino on OS2/Warp from a stack of floppies!)

Anyway, we were talking about the powerful search functions that are native to Notes and how these augment the value of any Notes database as well as eProductivity.

I mentioned that I had never been able to get the Domino Domain Search to work. (I have tried on a a few occasions over the years with no success.) In fact, it's one of the few Domino tools I have never gotten to work fully. Probably my error.

I thought I would ask here if anyone has gotten the Domino Domain Search to work, and if so, what they think of it.

I have hundreds of neatly organized Notes database (most, using the free eProductivity Reference Template) and to be able to search across all of these at once would be powerful not only for me but to recommend to customers...

I'd like to learn how to setup Domino on a Linux VM on my Synology NAS, and I could use some guidance from an expert in the Yellowsphere

Specifically, I'd like to learn how to:
1. Prepare a Linux VM to receive Domino, including mapping Program and Data directories and any access rights required
2. Install Domino for Linux, along with Fix Packs
3. Access the Domino console remotely
4. Start/Stop Domino server and properly shutdown Linux
5. What else should I make sure to learn?

I've setup Domino on Windows hundreds of times. (I've even set up Notes on OS/2 back in the day.) All of my recent experience, however, is with Windows. I have no experience with setting up Domino on Linux. The concept of mapping drives, rights, and administration are foreign to me. If I was comfortable with this stuff I would follow some of the blog posts I've found on setting up Domino in Linux. Frankly, when I see things like Daniel Nashad's script I realize I need some context and I think a conversation with an expert would be helpful.

I can provide
SERVER.ID, NAMES.nsf, and Domino Installer for Linux. To save time, I can even have the Linux OS (Ubuntu) operational in advance.

We can use GoToMeeting to share screen and keyboard/mouse.

Anyone interested in helping me out?

I have a low-use Domino server that I want to retire. At the same time, I want to keep some of the Domino databases active for the future to replicate with my Notes client. Again, this is low use - 2 people, possibly 3.

I have a Synology DS918+ NAS which has support for Virtual machines and for Docker. I've been considering either setting up Domino to run in a VM or possible a Docker setup. The Synology NAS

I wonder if anyone reading this blog has experience setting up a Domino Instance in a small VM or in a Docker Instance on a NAS? If so, I welcome any insights you care to share.

Eric

I am interested in the suitability of IMSMO in a < 10 user test environment in which the Notes client as well as the Outlook client will be used to manage Mail, Calendar and Tasks in a Mail file on the Domino Server.  

I would like to connect with someone in the Yellowverse who has successfully deployed IMSMO. I need to test something and would value talking with a fellow peer, IBM Champion or IBM business partner.

I'd like to better understand the opportunities and caveats from those who have gone before.

I welcome your comments and feedback based on your experience.

Thanks.

Eric

I have a question to ask and a tip to share

Background
I want to move some information contained in an IBM Lotus Notes Notebook (notebook.nsf or journal.nsf) into a Microsoft OneNote file. The documents in my Notebook.nsf contain rich text, attachments and embedded objects -- all of which I would like to preserve in OneNote.

The Notes to Office 365/Outlook migration tools I've found migrate mail/calendar/contacts and some do tasks, but none so far migrate notebook.nsf which is separate from my Notes mail file.

Question
Are you aware of a tool or method to migrate documents from a Lotus Notes Notebook into OneNote other than using "print to OneNote" or Copy/paste for each document?

I would appreciate any tips or recommendations you can share.

Tip
You may be able to convert documents in your Notebook.nsf into emails in the mail file. I recently helped a client who was migrating from Notes to Outlook accomplish this. The client had several eProductivity Reference Databases (essentially a GTD enabled notebook.nsf) to convert. I worked with a colleague to create a program to migrate documents from that file into the user's Lotus Notes Mail file as email messages. Our program did all of the conversion, making it a one click operation. When done, the client had a single email in his mail file for each source document in his notebook.nsf. This allowed him to migrate his emails and his Notebook.nsf documents into Outlook (all as emails). From there, the client will have to find a way to move his emails from Outlook into OneNote but I assume there is a path for that.

If you can help with the question above, I would appreciate it.

I have a Domino server which I've kept on the shelf for the past 10 years because it runs a legacy application that I use occasionally. It's been running just fine -- nonstop -- for more than a decade. It doesn't need much processing power nor does it need much disk space. I've thought about how I might preserve it and keep it running and I have considered using either a VM or a mini ATX server.

Last year, Hackaday, one of my favorite hacking sites, had an article on how to load a limited version of Linux on a Linksys Router. That got me thinking that it would be cool to have a Domino server inside of a Linux router sitting on my bookshelf.

That reminded me of a post by Daniel Nashed about running Domino an on Xbox.
Small computers have come a long way since then, so I've been thinking about what it would take to run a Domino server on a Raspberry Pi.

Why would I want to do that? 1) Because it just well may be possible, and 2) to allow a seldom used dedicated Domino server app to continue its life in a low power machine.

A quick Google search did not turn up anything but I'm sure someone much smarter than me has had this same idea.

It's possible to mount a USB hard drive on a Raspberry Pi and even SD cards have plenty of storage so that shouldn't be an issue.

I found this blog that documents how to install Lotus Domino 8.5 on Ubuntu which may be helpful (or not).

I'm not a Linux guy, but I did manage to set up Ubuntu once on an old ThinkPad. I'm not afraid of learning something new, though. No idea if I will build this but I might try, just to see what can be done. (If you have links to share, either on getting started with Linux or working with Domino on Linux, please share in the comments.)

So, I post this idea to the YellowVerse to see what conversation or links it may generate.

The Workspace is a view that shows all of your IBM Notes apps and databases -- Mail, Notebook, Contacts, and much more -- like so:



I've been astonished to find that many Notes users don't have access to the Workspace by default. Most of my life life in Notes is lived out of this view, and I can't imagine working without it.

Continue Reading "The most useful view in IBM Lotus Notes that you're not using" »

Imagine if, instead of taking a few clicks to do a task, you could to it in a few keystrokes? I'm sure you're all familiar with the shortcuts for copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V).

Imagine doing those manually instead of using the shortcuts, every time. Now are you getting a sense of how much time those little keystrokes save you?

How to use the Alt key (a.k.a. the "magical shortcut to darn near everything" key)

Hold the Alt button.

Notice that this does two things:

1) causes certain letters in your menu items to be underlined, like so:



2) causes numbers to appear over your first nine action bar buttons.

While holding the Alt key, you can press one of those numbers or underlined letters. For example, holding Alt and pressing T will open the Text menu, like so:



See how the k in "Strikethrough" is underlined above? That means that pressing K will activate the Strikethrough formatting.

To recap that example:
Press Alt+T+K
Start typing
You get this: Stricken-through text

Try it! (To turn off strikethrough, just press Alt+T+K again).

The secret Master Shortcut Formula

To access any function on any menu, just hold the Alt key and press the underlined letter of the thing you want to do. This also works with any numbers that pop up when you hold Alt. Go ahead and explore -- find the shortcuts for your favorite functions.

Hint: Alt+W is really handy.

Have fun!

-Nathan

Our company recently purchased several iPhone 5c's for testing purposes and I spent a good portion of the day setting up my  phone and testing various productivity solutions to see how well they integrate with eProductivity.  I set up Lotus Traveler to synchronize my email, contacts, and calendar. Next, I set up the IBM Traveler Tasks application and the IBM Traveler Companion App I was disappointed to learn that IBM Traveler does not provide a solution for the IBM Notes Notebook as this is a key element in any personal information management (PIM) system.  I use my Notes Notebook as my go to Reference Database.  The Reference Database is a key tool in my toolbox and I find myself using it on my smartphone on a regular basis.

Continue Reading "Deja Office for Lotus Notes" »

[Guest blog post by  Jason Spencer]

Eric Mack reached out to me recently and offered to show me how he uses IBM Notes. I wanted top see eProductivity in operation anyway so this was my chance to learn from its creator

My first One on One coaching session with Eric Mack focused on an introduction to eProductivity which I found impressive. Eric Mack and David Allen have created an optimized software package and user interface for IBM Notes.

(As an aside, I believe that it  would behoove anyone working in software development to preview the demo and see what a completely optimized life management tool looks like.) Over a three day period, I implemented all 57 exercises to properly demo the software. In my next post, I will describe more about this experience.

Continue Reading "IBM Notes as a "Trusted System" for Getting Things Done" »

Journalist and professor Jason Spencer is on a quest to use IBM Notes as a productivity platform. I've invited him to share his experience with Notes on Productivity readers.

Jason's first and second guest blog posts are here, here and here.  Jason's fourth installment update is below.

Setting up IBM Notes with the Getting Things Done White Paper

Yesterday, I tried to set up IBM Notes and organize my work according to the best practices of David Allen's GTD methodology. I ran into some snags which I documented.

Today, as I continue my productivity journey, I decided to see if David's white paper on using Notes would provide some relief to the challenges I encountered with vanilla Notes. I spent a day setting up my vanilla copy of IBM Lotus Notes using David Allen’s Getting Things Done white paper for IBM Notes. If you have never used a GTD White Paper before from the David Allen Company, you should know that their white papers give you a complete Getting Things Done Setup for that specific piece of software, turning confusion into clarity.

Continue Reading "Guest Blog: Using the GTD Setup guide for Lotus (IBM) Notes" »

Two weeks ago I shared a link to productivity blogger Jason Spencer'

Jason is a journalist and professor at the Art Institute of Houston and he recently reached out to me to share his interest in IBM Notes as a productivity platform . He said that he was planning to do a long term experiment by migrating his life to IBM Notes/Smart Cloud. I like the way he explores and writes about productivity topics he's passionate about so I encouraged him to share his experience and I invited him to submit guest blog posts about his experience for the benefit of the Notes on Productivity readers.

Jason's first and second guest blog posts are here and here.  Jason's third installment update is below.

Challenges Implementing Getting Things Done with IBM Notes
I'm a long time proponent of David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) approach to work and life. In fact, knowing that David uses and recommends IBM Notes as his knowledge platform of choice is what first led me to consider switching from Outlook. When Microsoft emasculated their productivity tools I got fed up and decided to explore the tool that David Allen uses. I understand that David also uses eProductivity but I wanted to first understand what it is about Notes that has kept this program around for over two decades. Using my knowledge of GTD, I decided to see if I could implement this approach to productive work within my vanilla Notes 9 Social Edition Setup.


Continue Reading "Challenges Implementing Getting Things Done with IBM Notes" »

[Two weeks ago I shared a link to productivity blogger Jason Spencer's rant against Microsoft for their emasculation (his words, not mine) of their productivity tools.

Jason is a journalist and professor at the Art Institute of Houston and he recently reached out to me to share his interest in IBM Notes as a productivity platform . He said that he was planning to do a long term experiment by migrating his life to IBM Notes/Smart Cloud. I like the way he explores and writes about productivity topics he's passionate about so I encouraged him to share his experience and I invited him to submit guest blog posts about his experience for the benefit of the Notes on Productivity readers.

Jason's first guest blog post is here. Jason's second installment update is below.]

IBM Notes True Cross Platform Support
Despite all the challenges I faced setting up IBM Notes, I chose Notes as my primary life management application because IBM has tried to make Notes a truly ubiquitous cross platform PIM. IBM chose to pursue simplicity in Note’s mobile device support-- like Google Apps for Business, IBM Notes Traveler (the IBM Notes push email and PIM solution for mobile devices)  embraces Microsoft Exchange Active Sync Protocol for maximum interoperability. Furthermore, IBM Notes Traveler offers software for iOS and Android; and support for Blackberry and Windows phone platforms.  Similarly, Notes also offers a robust web interface far more comparable to its native client then Outlook Web Access 2013 (OWA) to Microsoft Outlook. When it comes to desktop operating systems, you can run the full IBM Notes Client natively on all major operating systems --Windows, Mac, and Linux flavors of Red Hat and Ubuntu.


Continue Reading "IBM Notes True Cross Platform Support - Guest post by Jason Spencer" »

[Two weeks ago I shared a link to productivity blogger Jason Spencer's rant against Microsoft for their emasculation (his words, not mine) of their productivity tools.

Jason is a journalist and professor at the Art Institute of Houston and he recently reached out to me to share his interest in IBM Notes as a productivity platform . He said that he was planning to do a long term experiment by migrating his life to IBM Smart Cloud. I like the way he explores and writes about productivity topics he's passionate about so I encouraged him to share his experience and I invited him to submit guest blog posts about his experience for the benefit of the Notes on Productivity readers.]


Here is Jason's first guest blog post...

Technology Challenges Setting Up IBM Notes

Originally I started working with IBM Notes Smart Cloud edition which includes a free copy of IBM Notes 9.0 Social Edition and huge cloud base document Management Suite for only $10.00 a month. First off, the technical support and the hosting provided by IBM is fanatical – they will, if you have the patience, hold your hand through everything, including adding your own custom domain.

Continue Reading "Setting Up IBM Notes / Smart Cloud - Guest Blog by Jason Spencer" »