Big picture of Lotus Notes?

Question

I'd like to check Lotus Notes as a replacement for Outlook in stand-alone mode, ie. using local files instead of talking to a remote Domino server.

Googling for this didn't return much, and the books I found on Amazon usually just show how to use the Lotus Notes client: Does someone know of a good article that gives the big picture of how Notes works?

IOW, I'd like to know where to go from the 8.5.2 trial EXE that I just downloaded, and how to get a runnning PIM application that I can sync with a smartphone, including contacts, calendar, to-do's, and notes.

Thank you.

The big picture for Lotus Notes is that its a dying product. — duffbeer703, Sep 27 '10 at 12:01
Agree with duff - may as well go back to DOS at the same time if you're intent on causing yourself pain and unnecessary work. — Chopper3, Sep 27 '10 at 12:07
Man. I came to this thread solely to post witty assaults on Lotus Notes. But you guys already beat me to it. — Christopher Karel, Sep 27 '10 at 13:45
It looks like it. I just spent over an hour just to know what to do with the "File not found" cryptic message when I click on any icon ("Mail", "Calendar", etc.) after installing the Lotus Notes client with no Domino server :-/ So it looks like for smartphones, it's either Outlook or Google. — user15318, Sep 27 '10 at 14:15

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 14 '12 at 23:48

I find it strange that this string of posts have made it past the serverfault moderators (purely cause I have been rapped on the knuckles before). Lots of emotion, little fact in the responses. I'm now off my soap box.

To answer your question directly, you cannot use a Lotus Notes Client to manage this in a stand-alone manner. The synchronisation you speak of is all part of the Domino Server, which the Lotus Notes Client would then connect to.

If you are looking for a mail only replacement, then I would also recommend a cloud solution - the choice of vendor would be made depending on the size of the organisation etc.

The reason, in my view, to use Domino, would be for integration to custom applications as the environment is very customisable. In your instance, it sounds like this might not be right solution for you.

You're right about your first sentence, but mainly because this is an old question before we really had an accepted code of conduct. — Mark Henderson, Aug 14 '12 at 23:52
:) OK. I stumbled across the question and figured even though it's old, it should get the main q answered. Tks Mark. — atom, Aug 14 '12 at 23:53
For sure. We encourage answering old questions. We even have a badge for it. — Mark Henderson, Aug 14 '12 at 23:53

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 27 '10 at 12:56

3

I have to used Lotus Notes for 5 years. I expect Hell to be kind of the same experience.

You can say a lot of things about the trio Outlook/Exchange/Sharepoint but whatever the problem you have, it will be worst with Lotus Notes.

answered Sep 27 '10 at 12:56

Fleole

187
1
8

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 27 '10 at 12:13

2

Avoid like the plague! JUST DON'T USE IT. It is a BIG failure.

You should do like what we did in our company (multinational, thousands of employees), and move to google apps.)

answered Sep 27 '10 at 12:13

Yousf

229
1
5
13

Would have given a +1 for the advice re Notes, but -1 for advice re Google. – symcbean Sep 27 '10 at 12:39

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 03 '11 at 11:09

The best place to get help or the big picture as you say is to use built-in Lotus Notes help.

If you have a full install of the Notes client you should already have this setup. So try pressing F1 to trigger the contextual help sidebar.

Alternatively you can open the full help application by hitting CTRL-O to open applications, nav to the "Help" subdirectory, and click select the relevant help page.

If you want to wire up Lotus Notes to access an IMAP mail box, make sure your location is "Online" (to switch locations nav to File > Locations > Switch to Location...). Then click on Tools > Client Reconfiguration Wizard.

Thanks for the comments. I'll pass on Lotus Notes, then :) – user15318 Mar 03 '12 at 11:59 — user15318, Mar 03 '12 at 11:59
In my experience, the documentation is awful. – Falcon Momot Aug 15 '12 at 00:51 — Falcon Momot, Aug 15 '12 at 00:51

Big picture of Lotus Notes?

4 Answers4