Participate in Lotusphere 2012 online feedback activities
Mon, Jan 16th 2012 11:43a Velda Bartek If you are at Lotusphere or couldn't make it this year, here are some online activities. Answer Our Online Question of the Day! In the User Experience Lab, we'll be asking a "Question of the Day." Visit us in Asia 4 each day to answer the question and to sign up for a chance to win a prize at the end of the day. If you don't have time to stop by and see us, we'd still like to hear from you. Click here to fill out a short survey to give your answers. https://www.ibm.com/survey/oid [read] Keywords: ibm
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Special sessions in the UX Lab
Fri, Jan 13th 2012 7:03a Velda Bartek Are you curious about product design? Do you want to get more involved? Join us for one or more of the following special sessions in the User Experience Lab (Asia 4). Special Events Monday 1/16/12 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM "IBM Collaboration Solutions Future Product Design Direction" Speakers: Chris Paul, Director, User Experience; Ethan Perry, STSM; Brian Utesch, STSM Abstract: How is the user experience (UX) of IBM Collaboration Solutions products designed? What role does Lotusphere [read] Keywords: collaboration
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IBM Lotus iNotes Survey
Thu, Nov 17th 2011 7:43a Sheri Branco The User Experience Research team is conducting a follow-up survey to get additional feedback on a series of common tasks in IBM Lotus iNotes. We invite you to take a few minutes to complete this short survey and provide input on which tasks are the most important to your job and how well those tasks have been designed and implemented (are they easy to use?) in IBM Lotus iNotes today. Please feel free to forward this request to any additional colleagues who may be interested in participat [read] Keywords: ibm
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VideoFest 2012
Tue, Nov 15th 2011 1:43p Sheri Branco Submissions are being accepted for VideoFest; you're video could be highlighted at Lotusphere 2012! Contribute your video now at VideoFest 2012 -Sheri Branco Lotus Design on Facebook and Twitter [read] Keywords: lotus
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IBM Lotus iNotes Top Tasks - Ease of Use
Tue, Nov 8th 2011 12:03p Sheri Branco Thank you to all of those that provided input on important iNotes tasks in the area of locating/searching and organizing your mail. We would also like your thoughts on the ease of use of those tasks. Please come to the Online UX Lab to provide feedback! Organizing Mail: http://tinyurl.com/iNotesOrganizeEasy Searching Mail: http://tinyurl.com/iNotesEasy2Search To participate in current and future events, log in with your Greenhouse ID (register). Deb Maher and Sheri Branco Lot [read] Keywords: ibm
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IBM Lotus iNotes Top Tasks
Wed, Oct 26th 2011 1:23p Sheri Branco Help us prioritize top tasks in the areas of Organizing and Searching mail within IBM Lotus Notes. Cast your votes here: Organizing Mail: http://www.tinyurl.com/iNotesOrganize Searching Mail: http://www.tinyurl.com/iNotesSearch To participate in current and future events, log in with your Greenhouse ID (register). Deb Maher and Sheri Branco Lotus Design on Facebook and Twitter [read] Keywords: ibm
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Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.
Wed, Oct 26th 2011 7:22a Velda Bartek More than 240 of you have joined the UX team in the Online UX Lab in the last 6 months. We've discussed Notes Traveler, videos, and install. You've voted on XPages, mobile, Connections, and Sametime. Your feedback has become line items in product releases, defects to eliminate some pesky bugs, and focused our attention to improving key tasks. To participate in current and future events, log in with your Greenhouse ID (register). On behalf of the IBM Collaboration Solutions User Ex [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
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Document editing
Tue, Sep 27th 2011 2:03p Velda Bartek Tell use what is most important to you when you create and edit documents. Cast your vote in the Online UX Lab activity (http://tinyurl.com/onlineuxlab) and see what is most important to your peers! If you need a Lotus Greenhouse ID, register here: http://greenhouse.lotus.com Thanks for voting. Your votes will help us focus our design efforts on the Symphony tasks that are most important to you. Velda Bartek Lotus Design on Facebook and Twitter [read] Keywords: lotus
symphony
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IBM Lotus Notes Traveler users far and wide...we need you!
Thu, Sep 15th 2011 11:25a Velda Bartek Notes Traveler users, We're hosting an unassisted usability activity in which you perform 15 mail and calendar tasks. Tell us which tasks are important to you. Tell us how easy it is to complete the task. You complete the usability activity when it's convenient for you. This is your chance to complain, ask for fixes and features, or tell us how much you love Traveler! Go here now to start: http://tinyurl.com/NotesTravelertoptasks Please pass this on to your fellow Notes Trave [read] Keywords: ibm
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Connections Integration with iNotes Attachments
Thu, Sep 15th 2011 7:26a Susan Mckinstry Inserting attachments into mail is a very common practice. What we would like to do is provide a way encourage saving those attachments to IBM Connections and sending them as links instead. This helps save space on the mail server and hopefully prevents people from going over their quotas and *gasp* ending up in mail jail. Our team has been exploring several options on how to do this and we could use some feedback from you. Below are 4 options to achieve our goals. Option 1: Provide a n [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
inotes
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integration
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Connections Integration into iNotes When Sending Attachments
Wed, Sep 14th 2011 3:26p Susan Mckinstry Inserting attachments into mail is a very common practice. What we would like to do is provide a way encourage saving those attachments to IBM Connections and sending them as links instead. This helps save space on the mail server and hopefully prevents people from going over their quotas and *gasp* ending up in mail jail. Our team has been exploring several options on how to do this and we could use some feedback from you. Below are 4 options to achieve our goals. Option 1: Provide a n [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
inotes
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integration
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Making "Find" more findable
Thu, Sep 8th 2011 1:45p Julia Brown We're working on making it easier to find things in Mail, Calendar, and other applications, and we had a few different options we'd like your feedback on! In the first option, we'd have a Find button in the action bar, like this: Option 1: When you click it, it would bring up this dialog, where you can choose a column to sort by and search within: Options 2, 3, and 4 There is another way to find things in Mail, Calendar, etc, called Search This View. When you [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
applications
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A few of the things coming in Notes 8.5.3
Wed, Aug 24th 2011 12:02p Mary Beth Raven Here are a few things coming in Notes 8.5.3: Search mail by sender or subject Sort by subject strips off Re: and Fw: “Slide-in” alerts for new mailSearch mail by sender or subject Search mail by subject (recipient in the case below because it's a screenshot of my sent folder) by choosing a contact menu item: Choosing "sort by Subject" strips off the Re: and Fw: Note: This feature requires the 8.5.3 mail template, an 8.5.3 Client, and an 8.5.3 Server (if your mail file is local, [read] Keywords: notes
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So long, and thanks for all the Yellow stuff....
Tue, Aug 23rd 2011 9:13a Mary Beth Raven In August of 1997, I joined Iris associates as the UI designer for a new product -- Sametime. And now, 14 years later, after having worked on several versions Sametime, Lotus Notes, and a few other things, I have decided that it's time for a new adventure. To that end, I am leaving IBM and going to work for Solidworks, a small (by IBM standards) 3D software modeling company. I'll be doing UI design, social business strategy, and community management -- a mix of things that span design and mark [read] Keywords: ibm
ilug
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Design Concept - Interactive getting started
Wed, Aug 17th 2011 12:25p Velda Bartek We have a new design concept for getting started. We've posted a video prototype and other material in the Online UX Lab. We'd love to hear what you think. Join the community, watch the video, and tell us what you think. Velda Bartek Lotus Design on Facebook and Twitter [read] Keywords: lotus
community
facebook
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Sametime 8.5.2 supports Widgets and Live Text
Fri, Aug 5th 2011 10:03a Mary Beth Raven The Sametime ID team has posted to the Sametime wiki additional end user, power user, and administrator documentation for the Sametime 8.5.2 live text and widgets features: http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/stwiki.nsf/dx/Working_with_Sametime_8.5.2_and_widgets Note that this is the same documentation that shipped with Notes 8.5.3, with technical updates so that it covers these features for the Sametime Connect client. [read] Keywords: ldd
lotus
notes
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Sametime 8.5.2 "End Meeting" button - should it end the meeting for THE OWNER?
Fri, Aug 5th 2011 8:42a Mary Beth Raven Hey, Sametime Meetings users. Sametime 8.5.2 introduced an End Meeting button for the room owner Right now, when you click that button, it kicks out everyone *EXCEPT THE OWNER*. Is this the behavior you expect? It allows you to run back-to-back meetings in the same room... but it does mean you have to take an extra step to leave the room yourself (i.e., close the window). What do you think? Tell us here at the Sametime blog: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperwor [read] Keywords: ibm
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A question for you about Notes Advanced search
Tue, Jul 19th 2011 10:43a Mary Beth Raven Sentient searchers, Regarding the advanced search, I have a few focused questions. First, do any of your "Samantha" type users actually use it? You know, this: And next, do people "get" the the Date condition? (It's really just adding a date condition i am asking about right now). Do users appreciate the thoroughness of the choices, or are there too many, or is it just too much? Thanks for any opinions. [read] Keywords: notes
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Calling all video critics
Wed, Jul 13th 2011 3:22p Velda Bartek Video watchers, Come see some new ideas the IBM Collaboration Solutions Information Development team is working on for videos! We're considering using some animations in our videos and we'd like to know what you think. Watch some short sample videos in the Online UX Lab and share your thoughts and opinions: http://tinyurl.com/ibmvideo71211 The discussion is open until Monday, July 25. Velda Bartek Lotus Design on Facebook and Twitter [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
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development
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Many thanks to Joyce Davis for coordinating the IBM Champion selection process
Wed, Jun 22nd 2011 11:42a Mary Beth Raven While Ed Brill had the honor of announcing our first crop of IBM Champions, I want to take a moment to thank Joyce Davis, who coordinated everything - from the announcements, to organizing the nominations, to the thank you items that champions will receive. Joyce -- pictured below having a good time at Lotusphere 2011-- was the driving force behind the program. Some of you may recall last fall, when I held an impromptu "Community BOF" at ILUG (Irish Lotus User Group), I had Joyce join us v [read] Keywords: ibm
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XPages controls from Extension Library prioritization
Tue, Jun 14th 2011 9:23a Velda Bartek Users of XPages, We are considering moving some of the XPages controls from the Extension Library to become part of Domino Designer. We would like to know which XPages controls you would like to see moved. Join us in the Online UX Lab for the XPages controls prioritization activity (http://tinyurl.com/ibmxpagescon) Kathy Howard and Velda Bartek Lotus User Experience Lotus Design on Facebook and Twitter [read] Keywords: domino
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In honor of Sametime 8.5.2 shipping, some geeky new lyrics and another Sametime song....
Wed, Jun 1st 2011 10:42a Mary Beth Raven In honor of Sametime 8.5.2 shipping, here are some lyrics to a song (Stand by Me by Ben E King) that Business partner and Lotus Evangelist Mat Newman and I call "Sametime Me." (For those of you who heard us sing it at Kimono's during Lotusphere 2011, I hope the horror has subsided :)) (with apologies to Ben E. King) When the night has come And your cube is dark, And the laptop is the only light we'll see. No I won't be afraid, Oh I won't be afraid, Just as long as you same, [read] Keywords: lotus
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Join us in an online discussion about Mobile - May 31 to June 3
Tue, May 31st 2011 12:02p Mary Beth Raven Mobilizing for Mobile To help meet the needs of the mobile user, the IBM Collaboration Solutions (ICS) Information Development and User Experience Teams have begun a concerted effort to investigate the best ways of providing an optimum mobile user experience in the following areas; A well thought out mobile application user interface design that allows for maximum ease of use An efficient and easy information/help delivery system that gives additional assistance to users if they still need [read] Keywords: collaboration
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application
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UKLUG 2011 - Thoughts and links to slides etc.
Thu, May 26th 2011 8:02a Mary Beth Raven UKLUG 2011 (the United Kingdom Lotus User Group) was held 23-24 May in Manchester, UK. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend, speak, and have several meetings with customers ranging from topics such as LotusLive, IBM Connections Connectors for MS Outlook, and Lotus Notes. I gave a talk "Who has the best notes tips" with Mat Newman. I was a bit concerned that there would not be enough new information - but I forget, that the local LUGs are mainly attended by people who don't make it [read] Keywords: connections
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notes
community
mobile
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Calling all Notes To Do users
Thu, May 12th 2011 4:03a Velda Bartek Are you a Notes To Do user? Would you like to be able to use Notes To Dos on your mobile device? In April, you told us about how you are using your mobile device. At that time, you gave us some feature suggestions to support using To Dos on your mobile device. We'd like you tell us which Notes To Do features you want. Voting is now open through Tuesday, May 17. Vote for a feature. Comment on a feature. Add a feature. Thanks for telling us what is important to you. Velda Bar [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
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mobile
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How often are you using different productivity editor capabilities?
Tue, May 10th 2011 12:06p Velda Bartek The Lotus User Experience Research team would like your feedback on frequency of using capabilities within document, spreadsheet or presentation software. This 7 question survey only takes a few minutes to complete. Your input is very important to our process and will be used in combination with other data to influence additional user experience work. To participate, please visit the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/3s9w396 Please feel free to forward this survey invitation to any othe [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
symphony
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Setting a policy to replicate when Notes is shut down - and NOT get prompted
Thu, May 5th 2011 8:06a Mary Beth Raven I really enjoy getting notified that bugs I've entered are getting fixed. Here is one that I just received notification about this morning (which means, the fix has been verified, tho we cannot be 100% sure the fix will ship until we've done a full pass regression). Nonetheless, I have high hopes that this fix will make it out to you in Notes 8.5.3. The issue was that if you as an administrator, set a policy to replicate when Notes shut down, that Samantha was ALWAYS prompted to replicate. [read] Keywords: notes
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Free Article from THE VIEW about tips on easing the transition to Notes (for former Outlook users)
Wed, May 4th 2011 9:06p Mary Beth Raven Hey folks, look! Get this The View article I wrote for free. A recent article in THE VIEW written by offers some great advice on easing the transition from Outlook to Notes so users can be productive right away. And, last week, the Admin2011 and Lotus Developer Conferences in Las Vegas announced that they are making this article available for free. In the article, “7 Ways to Ease Users’ Transition from MS Outlook to Lotus Notes,” I provide a step-by-step process that tells you all you nee [read] Keywords: admin
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Check out a new blog on IBM quality efforts
Wed, May 4th 2011 3:05p Mary Beth Raven Please welcome my colleague, Flemming Christensen, to the "social mediaverse." When a customer, or prospective customer, raises questions about our quality efforts, feel free to point them to his social media presence. Customers should know that we are here to help them optimize the value of their licenses and subscriptions. His Twitter user name is '@FlemChrist' His blog is on Greenhouse here: https://greenhouse.lotus.com/blogs/quality/?lang=en_us (Give it a read, he already has 6 ent [read] Keywords: ibm
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If you do a lot of "Sametime chats" -Please give us some feedback
Tue, May 3rd 2011 2:06p Mary Beth Raven Hi, Sametime users. Are you someone who often has more than a single chat open at a time? If so, Amy Travis, our Sametime design lead, wants to hear from you over on the sametime design blog! Here are her questions - but reply to HER blog entry, please! https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/josefscherpa/entry/are_you_a_chat_juggler1?lang=en A few questions to get you started: 1. About how many chats do you tend to have open at once? What's the most you've eve [read] Keywords: ibm
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Lotus Notes Traveler Android feature prioritization
Tue, May 3rd 2011 11:25a Velda Bartek Earlier in April, many of you participated in a Lotus Notes Traveler Android design discussion in the Online UX Lab. We'd like to continue the conversation using the enhancements you requested during the discussion. We've set up an ideation blog in the Online UX Lab with those enhancement requests. Vote now. Add features important to you. Be sure to come back later in the week to vote for features others have added. Join us now through Tuesday, May 10, 2011. Thanks for par [read] Keywords: lotus
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traveler
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Social Business and the Online UX Lab
Fri, Apr 29th 2011 10:45a Velda Bartek Have plans for Tuesday, May 3, 2011, from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM CDT? Join Mary Beth Raven and I in a conversation on doing business by getting social in the new Online UX Lab. We'll share with you how you can take part in this new approach to discussing your ideas and thoughts on the Lotus portfolio. Register for this Consultant In Your Pocket event today! Many thanks to Chris Miller, Connectria, for setting up the webcast. Velda Bartek User Experience Design Lotus Design on Facebook [read] Keywords: lotus
facebook
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Question for LotusLive Notes Users - Regarding the Notes client setup
Wed, Apr 20th 2011 9:46a Mary Beth Raven Greetings to users of LotusLive Notes! Have any of you deployed the LotusLive Notes client to your users? We are looking at making a few changes to the "setup" pages of LotusLive, and we are looking for feedback on the current set of pages. Were users able to find the "Notes Setup" link? Were they able to run the configuration file? Were they using just LotusLive Notes or did they have more on the web site - e.g. LotusLive Engage,etc (which might make it harder to find the setup link. [read] Keywords: notes
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Where are the champions? Are you one? Do you know one? IBM Champion program
Thu, Apr 14th 2011 8:46a Mary Beth Raven During the Irish Lotus user Group (ILUG) last November, I held a community BOF, and one of the outcomes of the community session was that you wanted some kind of "Evangelist or Expert" program where members of this community can be recognized as a known authority. Such an assignation, you commented, would help all of you to have more (or less) confidence in recommendations posted in forums or comments on Twitter, etc. I'm pleased to announce that IBM is moving forward with the IBM champ [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
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community
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networking
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PlanetWebsphere.net - a new blog aggregator
Wed, Apr 6th 2011 6:46a Mary Beth Raven Hi all you Connections and Sametime admins (and others who might be interested in Websphere stuff), One of our Lotus developers (Bob Balfe) recently moved to the Websphere side of the house, and he has started a planetWebsphere blog aggregator similar to Yancy Lent's idea of PlanetLotus. Here's one of Bob's recent postings about what he's doing with it: http://blog.balfes.net/?p=2674 And in general, you can go to www.planetwebsphere.net Please pass the word and, if appropriate, ge [read] Keywords: connections
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planetlotus
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Details for joining the Lotus Notes Traveler feedback day
Wed, Apr 6th 2011 5:25a Velda Bartek Here's the news you have all been waiting for. Join us tomorrow, Thursday, 4/7/11, on Lotus Greenhouse for the feedback day. Members of the Members of the design, development, and documentation teams will be monitoring the discussion all day. You will need a Lotus Greenhouse account to participate. If you have a Greenhouse account, go to the Lotus Notes Traveler - Android design discussion. To register for an account, go to Greenhouse and click "Sign Up Today." Once you are regi [read] Keywords: lotus
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Lotus Notes Traveler feedback day
Fri, Apr 1st 2011 6:02a Velda Bartek Next week, on Thursday, April 7, we're trying something new. It all starts on April 7 at 9 AM Eastern US time. The User Experience Design and Info teams are hosting an all-day forum to provide a chance for us to have a running dialog about Notes Traveler for Android. Since Traveler shipped in December of last year, we've been busy on the next release, responding to customer interest, and adding features. We are still working out the details of where this will be hosted on Greenhouse. W [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
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Why I am not going to BLUG this year
Thu, Mar 31st 2011 6:22a Mary Beth Raven BLUG is the Belgium Lotus user Group and it is a wonderful organization and a great conference at which I have spoken in the past. I am not going this year for personal reasons. You see, my friend Brenda usually runs the local "fast for social action" at our church - to raise money for local agencies. It's taking place pretty much the same time as BLUG, and this year, Brenda is too sick with Cancer to run the show. So, I volunteered to help. Instead of drinking Belgian beer and eating Bel [read] Keywords: lotus
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Many thanks for to Lucille Parker for her years of service and congratulations on her retirement!
Tue, Mar 29th 2011 6:42a Mary Beth Raven Our own Lucille Parker will be retiring at the end of March. For the past few years she has been the UX project manager for several products, most recently picking up Lotus Notes and iNotes, but also worked a great deal on Sametime. Over the years she has contributed in several ways to many projects, ranging from eSuite and Domino.doc, to Lotus Organizer. For the past several years she's worked out of her home in Mississippi, and when her home was damaged in Hurricane Katrina, we were all worr [read] Keywords: domino
domino.doc
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Making the Symphony Home tab more useful (5 of 5)
Sun, Mar 27th 2011 12:23a Mary Beth Raven This is the 5th of five postings asking for your feedback on Symphony design ideas. 5. Changes to the Home Tab We got lots of feedback from our customers that the Home tab hasn't been fully utilized. From our notion, we'd introduce more task-related features to Home. We will providea longer list of recent files. The files name can be largely displayed fully and tooltip can help show their directory. User can use pin & unpin, giving more weights to those important ones over automatic rec [read] Keywords: symphony
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Opening Symphony Attachments from a Notes document (4 of 5)
Sat, Mar 26th 2011 12:04a Mary Beth Raven This is the fourth of five posts asking for your feedback in new Symphony UI designs. 4. Attachment Safeguard against data loss Users who use both Notes and Symphony often open relevant attachments with Symphony, e.g. mail and DB. When they open and modify changes in the file, users simply haven't got any indicator telling it's a temp file. If the interval between open and save is not short or the user gets other interruptions, it's quite possible that the user will save the changes to the [read] Keywords: notes
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Symphony UI design improvements: Object Arrangement (3 of 5)
Fri, Mar 25th 2011 12:23a Mary Beth Raven This is the third of five design improvements that we'd like your feedback on. 3. Object Arrangement The object arrangement toolkit is used a lot in composing Presentation. Unfortunately, users cannot make the best use of our object arrangement in the current regime. Users use arrange, align and group in the toolbar with many clicks, however they seldom find there's "distribute" in context menu and "rotate" in sidebar. Our rule is simple, family features should stay together and we shou [read] Keywords: symphony
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Symphony UI design - Improvements to the Color panelle (2 of 5)
Thu, Mar 24th 2011 12:03a Mary Beth Raven This is the second of 5 postings asking for your feedback on improvements to the Symphony UI design. 2. Color Palette The color palette is a common feature. It's visible in many areas, e.g. font color, background, fill and outline, highlight and what user eagerly to see in sheet tab and main tab color coding. Currently, the color names don't make sense. The color swatch arrangement isn't in order. And it's tedious for user to reuse recent color selection. And substantially, user cannot c [read] Keywords: symphony
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Please comment and vote for Symphony design. Your feedback matters! 1 of 5
Wed, Mar 23rd 2011 12:03a Mary Beth Raven This is the first of a series of 5 posts about Symphony. I'm posting for one of our Symphony designers, Wang Qi Qun, (Chilton). You might have met him in the user experience lab at Lotusphere. The Lotus Symphony team is working on the next release planning. Our focus in the next release is to improve the "First Hour Experience" by correcting top usability defects (we have a list and will fix them batch by batch) and wrapping up affinity issues to introduce a few better experience feature [read] Keywords: lotus
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Sametime Meeting sidebar in Notes - the decision
Tue, Mar 22nd 2011 6:22a Mary Beth Raven Back on Feb. 25 I blogged a question about your use of embedded Sametime in Notes, and asked if you wanted the Sametime Meeting panel displayed in the sidebar by default or not. The result is that our plan is to have the Sametime meetings sidebar panel off by default, and also have a policy that that admins can make it on if they want. That's the plan -- things can always change before it actually ships -- but at least you know the plan. :) [read] Keywords: notes
sametime
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Sametime Status Settings - Some questions for you as we work on some re-designs
Mon, Mar 21st 2011 7:42a Mary Beth Raven Hi, Sametime users. Our Sametime designer, Amy, is thinking about status settings and how they affect behavior. Do you find the "In a meeting" status helpful? Does it change how you interact with other people, when you see that status by their name? For example, are you less (or more!) likely to IM someone if they have that status? We currently support 4 settings: Available, Away, In a Meeting, and Do Not Disturb. Do you ever wish we had more settings? If so, what would you want to have [read] Keywords: ibm
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Please take this 2-task usability test on LotusLive. Thanks.
Thu, Mar 17th 2011 12:02p Mary Beth Raven The Lotus User Experience Research team is looking to evaluate the ease of use of lotuslive.com. LotusLive is a suite of business networking and collaboration cloud-based services hosted by IBM Lotus Software. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A CURRENT USER. YOU DO NOT NEED A USERNAME OR PASSWORD! Please take a few minutes to complete two tasks on this website and provide us with input for future improvements to the website. To participate, please visit the following URL, and follow the instructions on [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
lotus
facebook
networking
password
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Book review: Delivering happiness: A path to profits, passion and purpose, by Tony Hsieh
Sun, Mar 13th 2011 10:02a Mary Beth Raven This is the first book review blog I've done, and the reason I read the book is probably just as interesting as the content of the book or this review. The book: Delivering happiness: A path to profits, passion and purpose, by Tony Hsieh CEO of Zappos.com, Inc. I'm reading it be cause my boss asked me to- he read it, bought a bunch of copies and handed them out to us to read. We haven't had a chance to discuss it yet (but in true IBM fashion, we DO have a Connections Community created w [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
lotus
notes
community
office
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Contratulations to one of our team: Baby news!
Sat, Mar 5th 2011 10:03a Mary Beth Raven Congratulations to our user researcher Deb Maurer Maher and her husband on the birth of their son Adrian! Many of you have met Deb at Lotusphere in years past. (She was not there this year for obvious reasons :)) We all wish her a wonderful maternity leave and will welcome her back when she returns. [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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That Sametime meeting sidebar panel issue: We’ll be deciding soon
Wed, Mar 2nd 2011 1:47p Mary Beth Raven Thanks to all of you who provided comments on my posting about the Sametime meetings sidebar panel and whether to show it by default: http://www.notesdesignblog.com/NotesDesignBlog/NDBlog.nsf/dx/are-you-planning-to-use-notes-8.5.3-and-sametime-embedded-8.5-need-your-opinion.htm Ouou We've had discussion and more support investigations and we'll probably be deciding soon and I'll let you know. [read] Keywords: notes
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Congratulations to Jodi Rajaniemi and Mary Beth Raven on the issuance of a patent today!
Tue, Mar 1st 2011 8:22a Mary Beth Raven Congratulations to Jodi Rajaniemi and Mary Beth Raven, who along with IBM colleagues Paul Moody, Doug Conmy, Ram Krishnamurthy (and a few others no longer at IBM) On the issuance of a patent entitled: SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ILLUSTRATING A MENU OF INSIGHTS ASSOCIATED WITH VISUALIZATIONS Patent #: US 7900160 Its about a way to visualize mail threads and get at them in an accessible (as in, for blind people) manner. The idea hasn't made it into our Mail threads in Notes or iNotes, at le [read] Keywords: ibm
inotes
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#SKILUG trip report
Mon, Feb 28th 2011 5:25a Mary Beth Raven I had the pleasure of being one of several presenters at this weekend's #SKILUG - a Lotus user Group that was a bit of a new approach to a conference. This conference had sessions, but also, tried to integrate lots of family activities as well. First, many thanks to Bill Malchisky of Effective Software Solutions for organizing this first-ever event. We had an excellent afternoon of sessions on Friday, ranging from Chris Baker talking about LotusLive, and Pete Janzen talking about Domino D [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
notes
sametime
xpages community
outlook
wiki
62
Are you planning to use Notes 8.5.3 and Sametime embedded 8.5? Need your opinion
Fri, Feb 25th 2011 1:03p Mary Beth Raven Updated with a correction in bold! We are working on the next release of Notes (8.5.3) and I am looking for feedback if you think you'll be upgrading to it when it is available (I do not have info on when that will be). Specifically, If you are thinking of moving to it when it ships, and if you use the Sametime Sametime Server 8.5 (or higher), otherwise you will have a non-functional sidebar panel. -- here is my question: Do you want the sidebar panel for Sametime meetings to be visible [read] Keywords: notes
sametime
server
17
Update on the sounds for Notes and Sametime
Fri, Feb 25th 2011 12:42p Mary Beth Raven Hi Folks, Thank you for your responses to my posting asking about a soundscape for Notes and Sametime. Based on the responses (and partly on the lack of responses) - it doesn't seem like there is enough interest to work on a soundscape. We are still investigating just changing the default "new mail" sound on a mac. [read] Keywords: notes
sametime
mac
32
Notes tip: Expand public groups in an email message lets you see who is in a group (and delete the undesirables)
Wed, Feb 23rd 2011 7:02p Mary Beth Raven When sending an email, If you want to see who is in a group, and maybe delete one or two of them, here is what you do. First, type the group name (the example below used "ux_All" which is all the UI designers at Lotus). Then on the action bar, go to More - Expand Public Groups (as shown in the screenshot below) Wait a sec.. then you will see all the names in stead of the group name. Thus, you can check if these are the people you really want. This way you can check and see if the person [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
email
29
Request your opinion regarding sounds - for Notes and Sametime
Wed, Feb 16th 2011 7:42a Mary Beth Raven Sametime users: Do you ever set a different sound to alert you to different kinds of Sametime invitations? (E.g. one-on-one chat compared to a click to call compared to a broadcast announcement?) (Did you even know that you can set up Sametime to have these different sounds? We default to the same sound.) In Sametime Connect you can go to Preferences - Notifications - and set different sounds, as shown in the following screenshot: And in Mail on the Notes client, you can set a sound to [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
notes client
sametime
mac
16
Correct external Link for Cours on LotusLive Notes in a service -only environment
Wed, Feb 9th 2011 10:43a Mary Beth Raven IBM Education just posted a new free course for customers on how to configure and manage a Hosted-only customer. This was put together with feedback from a number of teams and should help customers. The next phase is one of Hybrid which they are starting. TITLE: New course available on configuring and administering IBM LotusLive Notes in a Service only environment (as compared to a hybrid part service and part on-premises) Course purpose: This self-paced course focuses on the funda [read] Keywords: ibm
ldd
lotus
notes
8
New article on the View website: Seven Tips for Transitioning Outlook Users to Notes
Wed, Feb 9th 2011 10:03a Mary Beth Raven Dependable Deployers of Lotus Notes: Here's a link to an article in the View that explains seven tips for transitioning Outlook users to Notes. http://bit.ly/fXUfTV This article takes a more administrator- oriented approach than the wiki article I published several weeks ago, which you can find here: http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/Tips_for_moving_from_Microsoft_Outlook_to_IBM_Lotus_Notes_8.5.2 Good luck with your deployments. Keep the feedback coming. [read] Keywords: ldd
lotus
notes
outlook
wiki
16
New self-paced course on Comfiguring and administering IBM LotusLive Notes
Tue, Feb 8th 2011 8:23a Mary Beth Raven IBM Education just posted a new free course for customers on how to configure and manage a Hosted-only customer. This was put together with feedback from a number of teams and should help customers. The next phase is one of Hybrid which they are starting. TITLE: New course available on configuring and administering IBM LotusLive Notes in a Service only environment Course purpose: This self-paced course focuses on the fundamentals needed to deploy and administer LotusLive Notes in a s [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
notes
8
Please do a 3-task usability test of Connections 3.0 -- using Lotusphere Online!
Mon, Feb 7th 2011 8:43p Mary Beth Raven Please take a few minutes to complete 3 Lotus Connections tasks on Lotusphere Online 2011 and provide us with input for future improvements to the website. To participate, please visit the following URL, and follow the instructions on the screen. https://s.userzoom.com/m/MSBDOVM0NTc_ Or http://bit.ly/gBLPMf Note: Please remember to use your Lotusphere Online account to log into the website. Feel free to forward this invitation to any other people who may be interested in participati [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
lotus
lotusphere
email
The best show floor give-aways and the best gifts of Lotusphere 2011
Mon, Feb 7th 2011 11:42a Mary Beth Raven I always enjoy checking out the showcase floor and seeing what our business partners are doing. In recent years, I have collected fewer give-aways because I (and my kids) have enough "stuff. " However, this year, the magnetic "bucky ball" toys at the Panagenda booth were a must-have. I also really enjoy how people bring little gifts to give around-- gifts that might symbolize their country, their own personal interest, or something they know I might like. MANY THANKS to all of you who g [read] Keywords: lotus
lotusphere
notes
17
Quick Summary of the UX lab at Lotusphere - and did you like the new setup with round tables?
Fri, Feb 4th 2011 10:43a Mary Beth Raven Many thanks to all the Lotusphere 2011 attendees who came to visit us in the User Experience lab. We had steady activity - not dead, not too crowded. We tried something different this year-- We have fewer "one on one" usability stations and instead we had 4 round tables that could fit about 6 people. We also had a "back room" for meetings (we were trying to minimize the noise). So, any opinions on this slightly different format? Don't forget to fill our your conference evaluations, (a [read] Keywords: lotusphere
show n tell
21
If you’re at #LS11, check out the Linux installfest on Thusday at 12:15
Mon, Jan 31st 2011 6:43a Mary Beth Raven Linux Installfest at Lotusphere 2011 Interested in Linux? Have questions on installing, partitioning, or with Lotus apps on a Linux Desktop? Then, attend this session. We’ll demonstrate or help you install and configure a full Linux desktop running Lotus applications (e.g. Notes, Sametime, iNotes, Symphony) to help you be productive and get to your data. Experts available to answer questions on Lotus servers, VPN & thin client access, RDP, VNC, and WiFi: installation, configuration, and [read] Keywords: inotes
lotus
lotusphere
notes
sametime
symphony
applications
desktop
linux
wifi
21
Thanks for the Planet Lotus "blogger of the year" votes... and a few comments
Sun, Jan 30th 2011 9:23a Mary Beth Raven THANK YOU all who voted for the NotesDesignBlog as Planet Lotus blog of the year. I appreciate it, and I want to thank the other members of the blog team who contribute. That includes John Lance (with his unmistakable "John Lance here..." style postings, Margo Ezekiel, Kathy Howard, Sheri Branco, Deb Maher, Velda Bartek and others. Today is Business dev day at Lotusphere and there is lots of talk about "Social Business." I think this blog is a great example of how "social business" is [read] Keywords: lotus
lotusphere
blogger
planet lotus
8
Where were you when the shuttle exploded?
Fri, Jan 28th 2011 7:23a Mary Beth Raven Twenty five years ago, I was in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute library, watching the takeoff with a bunch of other students. Before the lift-off, I had mixed emotions - because I had actually filled out the paperwork to apply to be the first teacher in space (I had been a high school English teacher at the time), but then never sent in the paperwork, because I decided to go to grad school instead. And then the explosion. Shock, horror. Silence. And now, 25 years later, I take m [read] Keywords:
Tips for Moving users from Microsoft Outlook to Lotus Notes 8.5.2
Fri, Jan 21st 2011 2:23p Mary Beth Raven I am pleased to announce that my wiki article has been published Tips for Moving from Microsoft Outlook to Lotus Notes 8.5.2 See it here. Help spread the word. http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/Tips_for_moving_from_Microsoft_Outlook_to_IBM_Lotus_Notes_8.5.2 The article includes tips for Mail, calendar, Contacts and "general": Here is an overview. Tips for mail The tips differ depending on whether you are coming from Outlook 2003 and 2007 or Outlook 2010. Here is an over [read] Keywords: ldd
lotus
notes
notes client
desktop
email
microsoft
outlook
server
wiki
Sign up to influence Notes Next at Lotusphere in the UX lab
Thu, Jan 20th 2011 9:23p Mary Beth Raven Calling all Lotusphere Attendees, don't miss you chance to influence Notes Next! Join us in the User Experience lab to participate in our UX prioritization exercise. We need your help in assigning priority to each item on our list of potential UX changes for Notes Next. The Notes topics include: Team Calendar/shared Calendar Mail and Web mail Test drive sidebar plugins for Connections: Files and the Status updates And more! Please contact me at sbranco@us.ibm.com to schedule a round-ta [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
lotusphere
notes
Lotusphere sessions app for the android - get it!
Tue, Jan 18th 2011 6:43a Mary Beth Raven My colleague Joe Jaquinta Grant is doing a Lotusphere schedule app for the Android. (Web link here, Android link here). He's pulling the data form the Genii Software session database . This is not an official app from IBM, but an IBMer having fun with Android. You won't see him at Lotusphere, unfortunately, but you can thank him by posting a response to this post. Just in case: Web link: http://www.androidpit.com/en/android/market/apps/app/jo.android.ls/Lotusphere-2011-Scheduler [read] Keywords: ibm
lotusphere
database
21
Several of the 26 patents -- their titles so you have an idea of our ideas
Tue, Jan 18th 2011 6:03a Mary Beth Raven One of the respondents to my blog post about how the User Experience design team had 26 patents granted last year, asked for some info on the actual patents. So here it is. First, let me apologize and say that I forgot one of our colleagues who had a patent issued in China. Congratulations to HE Xiao (Frank) for CN9-2010-0101: An interaction method of establishing authenticated wireless connection based on touch screen device Congratulations to Eric Masselle, with three patents granted [read] Keywords: mobile
wireless
26 Patents were issued to members of the Lotus User Experience team in 2010!
Mon, Jan 17th 2011 12:04p Mary Beth Raven 26 Patents were issued to members of the Lotus User Experience team in 2010! Most of these patents were filed as co-inventors with members of the development team. Here's the list of who was issued how many. Mary Beth Raven 1 Amy Travis 1 Jodi Rajaniemi 1 Ethan Perry 1 Patrick Commarford 1 Tracee Wolf 1 Velda Bartek 1 Andrew Joslin 1 Joseph Russo 2 Christopher Paul 3 Patrick McGowan 3 Eric Masselle 3 Marty Moore 3 Andrew Schirmer 4 [read] Keywords: lotus
development
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Help me welcome hundreds of college students to Loutsphere 2011!
Sun, Jan 16th 2011 9:03p Mary Beth Raven The first day of Lotusphere 2011 is "college day." (New this year! Thanks to a great deal of work and partnership between Group Business Software and IBM.) On Monday, hundreds of college students will be attending Lotusphere for the first time. They'll be there thanks to a big effort from Group Business Software to entice them to come. Lotusphere is only a part of their plan to educate college students about Lotus software, including Xpages development. I have signed up to be a host for t [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
lotusphere
xpages community
development
email
facebook
twitter
25
Need your input re: Notes Recent Contacts and Type-ahead
Tue, Jan 11th 2011 11:03a Mary Beth Raven We are working on some improvements to Recent Contacts. They are used to populate the "type-ahead" list when you address mail or Calendar entries. My first question is - does the term "Type-ahead list" make sense to you or your users? If not, what term do you use? Type-ahead - this is what we call the list of names you get when you start addressing mail, as shown below: Next, do users make the association between the "Type ahead list" and Recent Contacts? The Type-ahead comes [read] Keywords: notes
34
Update on my Sametime "Sidebar Panels" question from November 30
Mon, Jan 10th 2011 2:43p Mary Beth Raven Back in November I had a question about our use of the term "Sidebar Panels" for both the Notes Sidebar and the Sametime Connect Client. (see here: http://www.notesdesignblog.com/NotesDesignBlog/NDBlog.nsf/dx/quick-question-about-sametime-connect-client.htm ) Our decision, based partly on your feedback, was that we're going to change the term to simply "panel" (not sidebar panel, not application panel) for both Notes and Sametime. Thanks for your feedback. I believe you'll start seei [read] Keywords: notes
sametime
application
I invite you to listen to the Nerd Girls Podcast
Sun, Jan 9th 2011 9:22p Mary Beth Raven The Nerd Girls (a group of pretty savvy hi-tech women) have a podcast for you (thanks to Chris Miller), in which we discuss Lotusphere 2011, community growth and more! http://www.idonotes.com/IdoNotes/idonotes.nsf/dx/idonotes-episode-90-nerdgirls-at-ls11.htm [read] Keywords: lotusphere
community
podcast
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Please do a 3-task usability test of Lotus Connections 3.0 over on the greenhouse web site!
Fri, Dec 17th 2010 4:02p Mary Beth Raven The Lotus User Experience Research team is looking to evaluate the ease of use of Lotus Connections 3.0 on Lotus Greenhouse, and would like your feedback! Please take a few minutes to complete three Lotus Connections tasks on this website and provide us with input for future improvements to the website. To participate, please visit the following URL, and follow the instructions on the screen. https://s.userzoom.com/m/MSBDOVM0MzM_ Note: Please remember to use your Lotus Greenhouse account [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
lotus
email
19
A funny story about my latest patent
Wed, Dec 15th 2010 11:02a Mary Beth Raven Laughing Lotus community, I received notification this morning that a patent that I filed with Mary Ellen Zurko (Security Architect for LotusLive) has been granted! YAY! The funny part is the title. It is "Instance Message Auto-scheduling" It makes no sense. It is supposed to be "Instant Message Auto-scheduling" But in writing up the filing papers, a typo was made. I noticed it in our filing papers, and pointed it out to the legal team. But they said that since the paperwork was und [read] Keywords: lotus
community
instant message
security
15
Meet Chris Samoiloff, One UI developer
Tue, Dec 14th 2010 1:02p Mary Beth Raven The Lotus User experience (UX) team has many people who quietly toil away while I flit about the globe giving conference talks. Thus, I've decided it is time that you "virtually" meet some more of them! Meet Chris Samoiloff, One UI developer Chris Samoiloff has been working on Lotus One UI for four years, starting with the first internal iterations of it. She really enjoys working on the end-user facing parts of a program. She worked with Michael D Harris to create an internal referen [read] Keywords: lotus
office
server
Special Topic at the Lotus Tech info and Ed community meeting on Dec 14
Thu, Dec 2nd 2010 11:20a Mary Beth Raven At this month's Technical Information and Education community meetings, we'll be LISTENING more than speaking, for a change. "Listening more" was one of the suggestions that came up at a community BOF I held during the Irish Lotus User group (ILUG) conference last month. So here are are, prepared to listen. So after the updates and member spotlights, we'll have our special topic - basically a "town hall"/Open mic kind of thing. Please join us. December Lotus Technical Information [read] Keywords: ibm
ilug
ldd
lotus
community
development
facebook
23
Quick question about Sametime Connect Client 8.5.1
Tue, Nov 30th 2010 4:02p Mary Beth Raven Hi Serious Sametime users, Sametime 8.5.1 uses essentially the same code as the Notes 8.5 sidebar. To that end, we've noticed a terminology bug - the Panel menu refers to "sidebar panels" (as shown below), when the term should have been "application panels" in the Sametime Connect client. Has anyone who uses the Sametime Connect client noticed and and has it been a problem at all? I am asking because we are wondering if it might, in the long run, make sense to users to think of the pan [read] Keywords: notes
sametime
application
bug
desktop
google
25
Good bye, Hermione our Tortoise -shell cat
Mon, Nov 29th 2010 10:40p Mary Beth Raven Our family rescued Hermione about 10 years ago, from a local shelter. My daughter Barbara named her after the Harry Potter Character. We have loved our torti-cat Hermione (we usually call her "hermie") for many years, and many friends have had the opportunity to meet her. This year, about Nov 5, she was let out and simply never came back. We keep hoping that she might, but after so many weeks, it is unlikely. So, it is with a sad heart that I finally let go and assume that she is gone. Yo [read] Keywords:
25
Features in the Notes basic client - from Notes 8 to 8.5.2
Mon, Nov 29th 2010 10:20a Mary Beth Raven From time to time I am asked which of the new features pertain to the Notes basic client (rather than the "standard" client, which has the Eclipse shell with the sidebar etc.) So, here is a list - one symphony format and the other in pdf, with what I believe to be the new client features from Notes 8 up through Notes 8.5.2. Symphony: http://www.slideshare.net/MaryRaven/whats-newinnotes852-basic29nov2010 PDF: http://www.slideshare.net/MaryRaven/notes-basicfrom8to852 [read] Keywords: notes
symphony
eclipse
13
Oops, we are working on fixing delivery failures to LotusDesign@us.ibm.com
Mon, Nov 22nd 2010 11:02a Mary Beth Raven Friendly Feedback-Givers, As you probably know, you can submit Lotus feedback comments to LotusDesign@us.ibm.com. This email is listed at the bottom of the feedback form that you get to from the Lotus Notes "Help - Submit Feedback" Menu item. Here's the web form: http://www-12.lotus.com/ldd/doc/cct/nextgen.nsf/feedback_choice?OpenForm&Context=hlpmenu+notes_std+8.5.1 It seems that we've gotten so many ideas that we're over quota for our LotusDesign@us.ibm.com email account-- so ha [read] Keywords: ibm
ldd
lotus
notes
email
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Two categories for Teamstudio Spotlight awards this year: Notes app and Mobile app... so submit!
Mon, Nov 22nd 2010 10:40a Mary Beth Raven Don't forget to submit your app to The Teamstudio Spotlight Awards! This year they are offering two awards, one for the most impressive Notes app, and the other for the most impressive mobile app. I hope they get lots of submissions and that it will be really difficult to pick the winners (no, I am not a judge, but I do enjoying seeing the ideas.) Good luck. Find more info at: www.teamstudio.com/rockyournotesapps [read] Keywords: notes
mobile
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We are adding Widgets support to Sametime, need your opinion
Thu, Nov 18th 2010 9:02p Mary Beth Raven Wonderful Widget makers We are adding support for creating Widgets to the Sametime client. This question is for those application developers and admins who will be building widgets either from Notes or from Sametime. The issue is -- in all our wizards etc. we refer to putting widgets in "the sidebar panel" - but if it is in the Sametime Connect client, then it is not a sidebar, its an application panel. So if we changed the wizards to use the generic term, would that be confusing to folk [read] Keywords: notes
notes client
sametime
application
widget
widgets
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Vegetarian cashew chili recipe
Wed, Nov 17th 2010 9:40p Mary Beth Raven I tweeted that I'd just made a vegetarian cashew chili for our group's Thanksgiving pot luck at work... So here is a recipe... but please bear in mind that it changes each time I make it... I am *NOT* an engineer that follows strict instructions when it comes to cooking :) Tonight's recipe was this: 1 bag (160z? ) dried kidney beans 2 tbps olive oil 4 or 5 green peppers, chopped 3 or 4 onions, chopped 3 cloves garlic, chopped 5 stalks SLICED celery 28 oz diced tomatoes from a can [read] Keywords:
