Note this down. (Lotus Notes)

Member Name: johnsy32

Product:	Lotus Notes
Date:	27/02/05 (2030 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lots of tools for electronic communication

Disadvantages: other e-mail applications are better for the end user

I've been a user of lotus notes for about two years and it was forced upon me because
of joining a new company that uses Notes as their means of electronic communication. I'm not going to go too much into detail on the technical features, but I will give you my experience with the program and the features I work and how they meet my needs and the needs of the company I work.

On my first opinion of actually opening Lotus I was a bit shocked at the design. I've noticed that a lot of big organisations use lotus notes as their means of e-mail, but I had never had any experience with it and the only e-mail applications I had been using was Microsoft versions. The icons featured in Notes are very different to those I have seen in any other programs and it seems they have tried as much as possible to move away from the Microsoft way of programming. I see Microsoft as a standard for other programs.

As the end user of Lotus notes, and not an administrator, I can't really comment on how well it works for being an administrator by setting it up, running and maintaining the administrative side of things. I can though comment on how well each of the main features works. The main and most used features are mail, calendar, address book and to do list.

The mail feature works like other e-mail applications and web based e-mail web sites,
with all the options associated with sending e-mail. You have an inbox for any e-mail received, which lists your e-mails by date (this can be changed), a sent folder, a trash folder, a drafts folder, a rules folder, an all document folder and a stationary folder. The stationary folder is very useful as you can save formats of e-mails for when you have to do repeat e-mails that look the same. The calendar is a very useful option that comes with Lotus notes is the calendar, you can have you own personal calendar where you can include all your own dates and you can look at the company calendar to see what things are
happening and when. The views of your calendar can be changed, so it's like any other
sort of calendar program. The address book is the place to store your own e-mail address plus you can access the company address. The company address book can be associated and link to the send to field when you create an e-mail message so that when you enter the first few letters of an e-mail address, it will look up the rest of the address for you. A handy feature is the to do tool that you can add items to so that you are reminded to do something, you have the option to tick items off as you go along.

The things I really like about Lotus Notes are that when you start lotus notes it is password protected and the password protection works by matching up with the PC that you are on. You cannot access you e-mail on any other computer, good for some, will be bad for others! Once you have started notes you are given a welcome page that can be customised to
your specifications to show things from you inbox, to do list and calendar, all on one page to give you a great overview. You can even set it up to show a web page on your welcome page, I haven't got internet rights at work so I'm not able to take advantage of this.

Here is a quote from the Lotus notes help files, which is found under the description 'What is Lotus Notes?" I think it helps with the understanding with what Lotus Notes can do for you.

"Lotus Notes is powerful, Multi-faceted software for Windows® and Macintosh® computers that helps people work together effectively. With Notes, people can work together regardless of technical, organisational, language, or geographical boundaries. Lotus Notes is designed to perform tasks that normally require many applications to complete. With Lotus
Notes, you have the power of the Internet combined with the versatility of Notes databases at your fingertips."

Lotus notes does the job well, and have a lot of features. I'm not really a fan, but I think I've been institutionalised by Microsoft products. I am able to send e-mail and receive e-mails and it's not something I have to pay for, so I am happy to use it. Communication within a company and to anyone connected with your company is what drives business and improves systems, so any mail application is a good idea.

Lotus notes is very easy to pick with some previous experience, and other information
can be found from the great help files that covers everything that you could possibly need to know. There are lots of settings to play around with, but I tend to leave them alone! So the I.T. department can get on with other things, they are always so busy ;o) There is so much on offer with Lotus notes that I wouldn't be able to cover it all. The company has a web site and all the relevant technical information can be found there. This is a great program so if you are thinking about using Notes for your company, you're employees will only need no or minimal training to use this program. It is very popular so something must be right!

Summary: