matnewman.com

Thank you Iris, Lotus and IBM ... 20 Years ...

Mat Newman  July 3 2015 22:45:07
That first moment - back in 1992, when I imported my first 1-2-3 spreadsheet into a Notes database and created a form and some views - I knew I was working with something special.

As I mentioned a couple of years ago, my journey with IBM software - and in particular Lotus Notes - has been one for me that has been both personally and professionally fulfilling.

This year is particularly poignant. Today, I celebrate 20 years as an IT professional.

20 years ago today - as a young guy with a passion for IT - I started my own business. And the first cash I earned was consulting for (what was then) Lotus Notes.

The past 2 years have seen that early enthusiasm for IBM/Lotus software evolve.  Yes, July has become significant for me from an IBM perspective as:
  • July 1995 is the month IBM bought Lotus, and
  • July 2013 is the month I officially became an IBMer.

So 20 years ago Lotus became part of IBM, and 2 years ago, so did I ;-)

There now are too many places, too many faces, too many events and too many fantastic memories during that 20 year journey for me to single out specific names and moments.

You know who you are. You know what we did and what it meant. And I thank you for the great time we had together.

Thank you Iris/Lotus/IBM ... and YOU! Here's to another 20 years!

(hug)

Comments

1Cali  07/04/2015 1:36:02  
Thank you Iris, Lotus and IBM ... 20 Years ...

Happy Anniversary!

2Ursus Schneider  07/04/2015 1:41:04  
Thank you Iris, Lotus and IBM ... 20 Years ...

Well done, here's to 20 more :o)

3Ursus Schneider  07/04/2015 1:41:06  
Thank you Iris, Lotus and IBM ... 20 Years ...

Well done, here's to 20 more :o)

4Nicki Faulk  07/04/2015 2:44:19  
Thank you Iris, Lotus and IBM ... 20 Years ...

Happy Anniversary, and may you have many more! :)

5Rolf-Thore Johansen  07/08/2015 21:34:22  
Nearly ... 20 Years ...

I just posted a message on Facbook: I hate Lotus Notes:

"As user of Lotus Notes since 1996, v4.54 on IBM OS/s, now IBM Notes 9 Social Edition Version 9.0.1FP3 SHF109 Revisjon 20150120.1241-T00109SHF-FP3 (Release 9.0.1FP3 SHF109) Standardkonfigurasjon L-GHUS-968PRV,

I still stic to this exclusive application, and I love it more and more. Get yours updates, use IBM Verse and Connections, get "Social" as others do. Start collaborating that understands you."

Congratulations...

6Peter Groh  07/29/2015 5:49:17  
Thank you Iris, Lotus and IBM ... 20 Years ...

Hi Mat,

although more and more enthusiasts are leaving the domino community ... here is one who started almost same time as you with lotus domino. When i first got in touch with lotus notes 2.1 i was impressed about the possibilities just with the @formulas.

Now .. 23 years after bedoming not just a coder than a consultant with responsibility to several smaller and very big infrastructures it is unfortunate to see more and more companies migrating.

Hope we can spend at least 7 more years !

Cheers

7Marlo  08/03/2015 15:34:27  
Thank you Iris, Lotus and IBM ... 20 Years ...

Hey Mat,

Thank you also for the inspiration! The best is yet to come!

8Yimin Rong  08/21/2015 0:20:05  
Thank you Iris, Lotus and IBM ... 20 Years ...

Hi Matt,

I've been using version 8.5 on Windows 7 Pro at work. Some things that I notice that really affect usability:

1) Mouse scrolling is not location sensitive. In Notes, the last pane that had focus will be the receiver for mouse scroll events regardless of where the cursor is. For example, you can mouse scroll over an email preview and have the email list scroll instead. To make the email preview respond, you have to click it first. And vice versa, to make the email list respond, you need to click it first.

So here's a typical sequence, exclamation marks indicate where the user was encountering unexpected behavior:

- mouse scroll over an email preview

- email list scrolls instead!

- click the email, mouse scroll over it

- now you've lost the place in the email list!

- mouse scroll over the email list

- email preview scrolls instead!

- click the email list, mouse scroll over it

- now you've lost the place in the email preview!

- etc.

In every other Windows application, the window underneath the cursor responds to the mouse scroll events, regardless of whether it has focus. If this can be fixed, it would improve usability by so much!

2) We get meeting requests from Outlook users. Sometimes they delete them or reschedule them, or otherwise mess them up. Every time you open an item in preview connected to these messed up meetings, Lotus Notes opens a popup: "The repeating instance document corresponding to this notice cannot be located." which interrupts the workflow. So it' like a minefield iterating through the email list using the cursor up/down keys. The only reason for a popup to interrupt the workflow is if the user will be doing something that might be destructive. Previewing a message shouldn't qualify.

3) Email preview headers take up a lot of space and they don't scroll with the document. You get this tiny little window to read the message body. There are lots of ways to workaround, but really this is just plain targeting the 95% who don't need the header taking up all the room, and don't want to be doing extra clicks to open emails or compress headers or whatever. Note that meeting request headers do scroll, so the behavior is inconsistent!

4) When you hover over an email address in the mail preview, it opens a small window displaying details. But you can't do anything with it! For example, my expectation is that I can select and copy an e-mail address , or add it to contacts or something, but currently you can't do anything with it.

5) No way to easily "Reply" or "Reply All" from Sent items. Yes, this is useful, for example, if you forgot something important and need to include it. It shouldn't reply back to you, as some email clients do, but duplicate the To: and CC: in the sent item. Right now you need to forward, then copy all the addresses, then change the subject from FW to RE. Again, target the 95%.

These are the big ones I notice. I apologize if these can be corrected by simple changes in settings. But Preferences, Help and Search are another set of issues...

Thanks for reading.

/YR

9Annie  09/16/2015 4:46:50  
"Plan- " + Date

Hi Mat,

Quick question for you. I can mostly just use the @functions in Designer. If a date is filled in, I want it to read Due - 9/15/15 and if it is not filled in yet I want it to read Planned - 9/15/15 (in my view). Can you tell me how to do this or do I need code? Thanks!

10Lotus_the_bleak  09/24/2015 9:28:46  
Everyone is leaving Lotus notes...

... including companies with enormously expensive contracts. Lotus is so bad that people routinely download Thunderbird and painstakingly set it up.

Cheers to no more years of Notes or Sametime. The elephant in the room was exposed so long ago it's mind boggling

11Chas  10/20/2015 1:38:36  
Thank you Iris, Lotus and IBM ... 20 Years ...

Not another 20 years please!

The spellcheck can't pick up regrads as a misspelt word. Sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't. This is the worst email program ever!

Also the search box searches all mail and not the folder you are in - you have to go throughthe menu and you can't put a shortcut on the toolbar.

Mat Newman

THE Notes (formerly IBM/Lotus Notes) Guy. Productivity Guru. Evangelist. IBM Champion for IBM Collaboration Solutions, 2011/2012/2013. Former IBMer. HCLite. Views are my own.

#GetProductive #GetHCLNotes

Mat Newman




Home  | 

Get Serious. Get Domino.