[LOTUS NOTES 8.5 GUIDE]

Information Technology Services Mount Royal University [LOTUS NOTES 8.5 GUIDE]

Table of Contents Starting Notes and logging in... 1 The Workspace... 2 The Right Sidebar... 5 Preferences... 6 Sending new mail... 7 Attachments... 8 Administrative web file transfer... 8 Mail signatures... 8 Out of office alerts... 10 Allowing access to your mail file... 10 Accessing another mail file... 11 Text links and hotspots... 12 Organizing your inbox and reducing the size of your mail file... 13 Steps for creating an archive... 13 Compacting an application... 15 Removing attachments... 16 Folders... 16 The Calendar... 17 Adding an entry to your calendar... 17 Setting calendar preferences... 19 Allow others to view your calendar... 23 Ghosted calendar entries... 24 Applications... 25 Creating a To Do... 26 Contacts... 27 Creating a new group contacts list... 28 Using inotes... 29

Starting Notes and logging in Double click the Lotus Notes icon on your desktop. For first time users attempting to log in your username and password will be your first initial followed by your last name (no space). As an example, my username and password would be vwinsor. Note: it is important you do not share your login information with others. Generally, most MRU employees will use synch their Lotus Notes login with their operating system login. To do so from the File menu in Lotus Notes select Security...User Security and from the window that appears select the Log in to Notes using your operating system login option. See screen capture on next page. 1

The Workspace The default Lotus Notes home page (shown in the screen capture on next page) is referred to as the Workspace. The Workspace is used to create links to frequently used applications (i.e. your mail file, calendar etceteras). When you open an application for the first time a link to that application will be created on the Workspace. Note: if you accidentally close the Workspace it can be reopened by selecting the Workspace option found under the Open List. 2

You can right click any application link on your workspace and select Application Copy as Link from the popup menu to paste that link into an outgoing mail message. Note: receivers will require permission to open the application. Once the mail recipient opens the link Lotus Notes will place the application shortcut on the recipient s workspace. 3

The Open List Used to open an application or perform a search. The Open List contains links to your mail file, calendar, contacts, the Mount Royal directory and policies & procedures etceteras. The Open List can be docked by right clicking it and selecting Dock the Open List. Docked List 4

The Right Sidebar The Right Sidebar allows the user to view RSS feeds, the built in Day At A Glance feed and/or Sametime Contacts. The Day At A Glance feature displays all calendar entries for that day. Clicking this menu allows you to create a new calendar entry on the fly or open the main calendar. The View menu allows you to open/close the right sidebar, or choose sidebar panels from the Right Sidebar Panels menu option. 5

Preferences To access preferences select Preferences from the File menu. Preferences are grouped by category. Note: you can also access preferences from the More drop down found above the mail and calendar area etceteras. 6

Mail Unread messages in the inbox will be bolded. Double clicking a message opens it. You can sort messages by Sender, Subject, Date or Size by using the up/down arrow found to the right of the heading. You can preview messages on the bottom or side of the inbox by clicking the Show drop down and choosing the appropriate option. Note: previewing a message does not make it read. To set Out of Office alerts, Block Mail from Sender or to Add Sender to Contacts click the More drop down located directly above the inbox. Sending new mail Click the New drop down above the inbox or click Ctrl + M. The window shown below will appear. To see the Mount Royal directory or your Personal contacts list click the To: link. To display additional mail options select Additional Mail Options from the Display drop down located directly above the inbox. 7

Lotus Notes will start searching the Mount Royal directory and your personal contacts as soon as you start typing the first character(s) of an email address in the To: field of a new message. A popup will appear that you can select to find the matching name or you can click F9 after typing a desired number of characters. The F9 option will allow you to pick from a list of found names. Note: generally at Mount Royal you can type the employee first name followed by a (space) then last name to have the name appear in the To: field (i.e. John Doe). Attachments Click the paper clip icon located above the address field to add an attachment(s) to outgoing messages. Note: the maximum attachment(s) size for outgoing/incoming messages is 15 megabytes. Administrative web file transfer If you need to transfer files larger than 15 megabytes (maximum of 500 megabytes) you can navigate to Mount Royal s file transfer site at the address listed below. You will need to login using your Mount Royal username and password. https://adminweb.mtroyal.ca/filetrans Mail signatures To create a signature for all outgoing messages select File Preferences then Mail. Choose the Signature tab then enter the required signature information in the Rich Text area. Next, check the Automatically append a signature to the bottom of my outgoing mail messages option. You can add text or images to your signature if desired. Clicking the text drop down will allow you to change font color or size etceteras. Note: you should add a couple of returns before starting your signature to allow room for typing at the top of newly created messages. To insert an image/logo into the signature area simply, click the dropdown to the right of the text icon and select Graphics. The T logo will then change to a cactus logo. Double clicking the cactus logo will prompt you to search for the desired graphic to insert into the signature area. See screen capture on next page. 8

9

Out of office alerts Setting an out of office alert will inform users attempting to send you a mail message that you are out of the office. To create an out of office alert select Out of Office from the More drop down located directly above the inbox. Complete all required fields and click the Enable and Close button when completed. Allowing access to your mail file You can give permission to another user(s) to access your mail file by following the steps listed below. 1. From File.Preferences, select Mail then the Access and Delegation tab. 2. Click the Add button. 3. Click the Mail, Calendar, To Do and Contacts option. 4. Select the person or group you wish to have access to your mail file. Then assign the access level you wish them to have. Click OK. See screen capture on next page. 10

Accessing another mail file You can access another user s mail file (assuming you have permission to) by using the following method. With your inbox open select the Open Other Mail option from the Navigator. From the Open Mail File window shown below select the user from the directory then click OK. See screen captures on next page. 11

Text links and hotspots You can create a text link or image hotspot in the body of outgoing mail messages. To do so select the text or image (images can be pasted into the body of the mail message) and from the Create menu select Hotspot.Link Hotspot. The window shown below will appear. If you are creating a link to a web address (i.e. mtroyal.ca), type http://www.mtroyal.ca in the Value text field. For an email address (i.e. jdoe@mtroyal.ca), type mailto:jdoe@mtroyal.ca. 12

Organizing your inbox and reducing the size of your mail file It is extremely important to control the size of your mail file on the mail server to avoid exceeding established quotas. If you do exceed your quota you will receive a warning message to reduce your mail file size. Note: the majority of Mount Royal user s will have 2000 megabytes allocated for their mail file. To remain under established quotas employ the following methods: Archiving is very useful in saving space on the server where your mail account exists. Creating an archive makes an exact copy of your mail file on your computer s hard drive. To access the archive once created click the plus symbol to the left of Archive on the Mail Navigator. Steps for creating an archive 1. From the Actions menu select Archive then Create Criteria. Name the archive appropriately and select the Enable this criteria option. Can select H: drive as well if desired. 13

2. Click the Selection Criteria button. 3. Select the Only in these views or folders option and select the desired folders that you wish to apply archiving to (include Inbox, Sent and personal folders only). Click OK. Note: if you select the selected by user option from the drop down you will not need to select any folders or views. 4. You must still set up a schedule to have your archiving run automatically from the Schedule tab select the Schedule archiving option and select a day(s)then a time to run archiving on. To archive selected documents at any time choose Actions Archive Archive Selected Documents. Note: if you choose the Selected by user option under Archive Selection Criteria you will not need a schedule. 14

Compacting an application Compacting an application recovers unused space so that application can operate most efficiently. Be sure to close all open tabs before attempting to compact. Note: all applications are automatically compacted overnight. Steps 1. Select the appropriate application link on the Workspace (i.e. Mail). 2. Click File Application Properties. 3. Click the Info tab (i). 4. Click % used. 5. If the percentage of an application in use drops below 90% (it contains more than 10% unused space), click Compact. To view the quota information for a particular application simply open the application (i.e. mail), then from the Tools menu select Quota Information. 15

Removing attachments Because attachments can be quite large it is recommended that when you receive a mail message with an attachment(s) that you open the message and rightclick the attachment(s) icon then choose Save and Delete to save the attachment(s) to your hard drive. This method will save space on the mail server but still allow you to store the attachment on your system for future use. Folders Creating folders is an extremely useful method of organizing your inbox. You can create a new folder by right clicking the Folders option from the Navigator and selecting New Folder. You can drag and drop messages into a folder or create a mail rule to have the folder automatically populated. You can create a mail rule to automatically save incoming messages to a folder based on criteria that you set. To do so select Rules from the Tools option in the Navigator, then click the New Rule button. The window seen below will appear. Select the appropriate options from the drop downs and click the Select button to specify the folder to save the message in. When completed click OK. Note: be very careful when creating a mail rule as you may accidentally delete messages you did not intend to. 16

The Calendar To open your calendar, select Calendar from the Open List. The calendar will (depending on view chosen) look similar to the image shown below. To change the calendar view select one of the options found below Views on the Calendar Navigator. Adding an entry to your calendar From the New drop down you can select the type of entry you wish to enter in the calendar. The options are as follows: Appointment, Meeting, Reminder, All Day Event, or Anniversary. You may also double click the day and time slot on the calendar to add a new entry as well. Note: try not to use the repeating calendar entry option as it often causes issues later. Calendar entries will be color coded depending on the type. The default settings can be changed through the Colors tab of the Calendar and To Do option found under Preferences. Also, note if you are setting up an all day event you will be considered busy for that entire work day and will not be able to schedule other appointments. 17

When creating a meeting entry in your calendar you will have to complete the window shown below. Once completed you can save and send the meeting invitation or save it as a draft. Note: initiators of meetings are automatically assigned meeting chair status. Meeting invitees can either accept, decline or propose a new time for the meeting (depending on settings). To determine free times for meeting invitees click the Find Available Times tab at the bottom of the meeting window. Note: the free time calendar shows free or busy time only. It does not give details for busy time. Clicking the Summary option allows you to determine who can attend the meeting at that date and time as well as looking up suggested times for the meeting on the selected day. 18

Setting calendar preferences 1. From File Preferences select Calendar and To Do. 2. Click the Views tab. From this window you can also set the start and end time for your work day and the days in your work week. You can also set the option to automatically remove cancelled meetings from your calendar as well. 19

Setting alarms To set alarms for calendar entries select the Alarms tab and enter the desired choices. 20

Scheduling Clicking the Scheduling tab allows you to set the days and times you are available for meetings. 21

Clicking the Display tab allows you to set the default entry type, duration of appointment and meetings. 22

Allow others to view your calendar To allow another user to view your calendar the following steps are recommended. 1. From the Calendar and To Do option found under Preferences select the Access and Delegation tab. 2. Click the Add button. 23

3. From the window that appears select the person or group you wish to give access to and select the Access level you wish to give them. Click OK. Ghosted calendar entries Meeting invitations that you have received but have not yet responded to will be stored in your calendar as a ghosted entry (gray background). To disable this option de select the Display new (unprocessed) notices option under Calendar and To Do preferences. Ghosted calendar entries will not be considered busy time in your schedule. 24

Applications Essentially everything you work with in Lotus Notes is an application. Applications are stored on one of the Mount Royal mail servers. For your mail file you will be assigned either Notes 1 or Notes 2 as your primary server (all users with a surname from A to K will be on Notes 1. Those with surname from L to Z will be on Notes 2). Note: should a server fail you will be migrated to its partner. For Notes 1 it is Notes1 1 and for Notes 2 it is Notes2 2. If this occurs your desktop client will seem to be in a frozen state for about 30 seconds while it reconnects to the failover server. Once transferred to the failover server, you can continue using the client normally. To search for an application from the Open List select Applications then Search for an Application. Enter the search string in the search text field and click the Search button. To open the desired application, double click the application link in the matching list. 25

Creating a To Do You can create a to do in Notes to remind you of tasks that need to be completed etceteras. A to do can be assigned to yourself or to others. A to do can also be saved to your calendar if desired. To create a to do select To Do from the Open list. From the New drop down select To Do and complete the appropriate fields seen in the screen shot below. Save and close when completed. Once saved you can right click the to do entry and select Copy Into New Calendar Entry to save it to your calendar. 26

Contacts To create a new contact in your address book select Contacts from the Open List and from the New drop down select New Contact. The following window appears. Complete all desired fields and click Save and Close. Note: you may also right click a message in your inbox and from the popup menu that appears select Add Sender to Contacts. See screen capture above right. 27

Creating a new group contacts list Group contact lists are useful for messages that you send to a specific group on a regular basis. To create a group contacts list simply select New Group from the contacts window. Assign the group a name and select group members from the Members link; once completed click Save and Close. Note: groups can be edited at any time. To reference the group in a new mail message simply select your contact s list from the To: link and then select the desired group. 28

Using inotes Lotus Notes can be accessed through a web browser using the address https://notes.mtroyal.ca or through the Employee Resources tab at http://mymru.ca. 29