Category Archives: Lotus Notes

Question of the week of 1/30/12 – Student Email conversion

Posted by on January 31st, 2012
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‘Question: When will students’ email be converted to Outlook?

Answer: The target date for all UNMC email (students, faculty, staff) and UNMC Physicians mail to be sent to Exchange/Outlook is March 6. This “GO LIVE” date will mean that all mail addressed to userid@unmc.edu will go to Outlook, but messages received/sent prior to March 6 will remain in Lotus Notes until late June. You can continue to access Lotus Notes, and you can forward items to Outlook after Go Live. You would, however, need to use the internet email address format (userid@unmc.edu rather than the user name/its/unmc/edu format). Watch for additional information on the migration in future learnit blogs, “Countdown to Outlook” articles in UNMC Today (beginning 2/1/12) and the ITS web page http://www.unmc.edu/its .

Question of the week of 1/23/12 – Synching contacts

Posted by on January 31st, 2012
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Question: I tried synching contacts according to your instructions from the previous tip, but my screen looks different.

Answer: Depending on which screen you are not seeing, please check the following:

  1. If you don’t see the “Enable synchronize” options on the Access/Delegation tab in your Preferences, go to File > Preferences and click Contacts.
  2. If you still don’t see that option, you may need to replace the design of your application template by going to File > Application > Replace Design
  3. If you don’t see the Open button to find the replicator option, you probably “docked the Open” list and see it as a shortcut bar. You can either undock the shortcut bar by right clicking on the shortcut bar and you will see Open, OR you can can simply click the Replicator button listed on the shortcut bar (two curved arrows usually about the sixth icon down from the top).
  4. If you don’t see the replication and sync button , you may need to “restore defaults” by clicking the Open button and right click and select “restore defaults.” However, if you have customized your shortcut bar (added other calendars etc), they may have been deleted. You may want to have your workstation person assist you, but basically you can rename your bookmark.nsf file to bookmark.old before restoring defaults. After you get the default Open options, you should see the replication icon. Go ahead and start replicating your contacts and enable and set up a schedule for it to replicate automatically. After doing that, you can close Notes and delete the bookmark.nsf file and rename bookmark.old to bookmark.nsf.
  5. Another problem people have encountered is they are using an old Notes template which needs to be updated. If you do not see the archive symbol on messages older than two years, it probably indicates an old template. A workstation person will probably have to assist you in updating that. You can call the Helpdesk at 559-7000 to arrange a workstation person to visit your workstation.

Question of the week of 1/16/12 – Outlook conversion dates

Posted by on January 24th, 2012
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Question: When will we start using Outlook for our new email system and will everything in Lotus Notes appear in Outlook?

Answer: We are targeting to “Go Live” with Exchange/Outlook on March 6. When we “Go-Live” faculty and staff Exchange email will likely include:

  • Email (dated from Jan 2012 to present approximately 2 months)
  • Calendar Entries (Jan 2011 forward ~ over 1 year)
  • Contacts (only if synched) – Video Instructions on how to Sync your Contacts and written instructions

Keeping any Notes data beyond the “go live” criteria will require some type of manual intervention.

  • User forwards Notes email to Exchange (after go-live)
  • User creates personal PDF library (Can start this any time if you have Adobe Professional 9.0 or later and the Notes client on a PC
  • User creates PST files (readable by outlook) using a System Admin tool ~ may require help from your departmental system administrator.
  • Contract option at department’s expense (Pricing pending)

After the go-live date, ITS will work with each department administrator to identify unique needs beyond the go-live criteria. (Lotus Notes will be accessible through June 30, 2012.)

Specific training for those who manage calendars will be setup in the February timeframe. Continue to check www.unmc.edu/its for migration news and updates.

Question of the week of 1/9/12 – Why doesn’t my email size shrink?

Posted by on January 9th, 2012
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Question: Why is my email size not shrinking after deleting hundreds of messages?

Answer: If you’ve been slaving over deleting your email and converting messages to PDF, you may notice that your email size still isn’t shrinking that much. Maybe you’ve experienced a similar frustration after starving yourself with your New Year’s diet and not seeing immediate results on the scale. You have to keep up those good habits and eventually you’ll see some progress. Some of the reasons for not seeing your mail size decrease are:

  • Deleted email goes to your trash and is emptied after 96 hours (unless you empty trash yourself)
  • If you converted mail to PDFs, those messages remain on Lotus Notes. You still need to delete them.
  • Mail is compacted from the Lotus Notes server, which usually happens nightly. However a more complete compaction takes place on the weekends. So it may take up to a week to notice any significant reduction in your mail size.

Please BE CAREFUL when deleting mail. In some cases staff have accidentally deleted all email messages or folders and have later asked to have messages restored, which creates extra work for everyone and not all messages may be restored. Deleted messages automatically go into the trash folder for 96 hours, allowing you to restore the messages if necessary. In most cases people realize their deletion mistake within that time frame. If you remove a folder, however, it cannot be recovered from trash. ITS recommends deleting only folders that you are sure you do not need to keep.

Don’t be too concerned about deleting messages and instead focus on messages you need to keep. Copy those messages into folders called “keep” or rename your folders with “keep” before the folder name so you can easily identify them. It is likely only mail after 1/1/2012 will be migrated, so deleting old emails is not that productive. You will be able to convert messages to PDF or forward messages to Outlook for several weeks after the initial migration.

Just be patient and you’ll eventually see positive results, and you’ll get that elated feeling similar to when you clean your closets or your basement….or when you lose a few of those extra holiday pounds!

 Click here for some excellent tips from PC Week to get better organized in the new year and to change your business practices for saving files.

Question of the week – Email clean up:Convert PDF options missing from Action menu

Posted by on December 27th, 2011
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Question: I watched your videos and read your instructions on Converting email messages to PDF. I have Adobe Acrobat installed on my PC but I don’t see those options under Actions in Lotus Notes.

Answer: I normally ask to make sure you don’t have a Mac, as these options do not appear on a Mac. But you mentioned you have a PC. So perhaps you had Lotus Notes installed after Adobe Acrobat. If so, those options may not appear under Actions. In that case you may have to re-install Adobe Acrobat again. In a couple of cases here at UNMC people have had to uninstall both Acrobat and Lotus Notes and re-install both, making sure Acrobat is installed AFTER Lotus Notes. If that is the case, you may need to contact your workstation person to assist with reinstalling Lotus Notes.