GETTING STARTED

Getting started
Welcome to the latest release of IBMR Lotus NotesR. Lotus NotesR is a powerful, multifaceted software for MicrosoftR WindowsR, Macintosh, and LinuxR computers that gives you instant access to all the information that is important to you. You can use Lotus Notes to send and receive Internet mail, schedule appointments, browse the Web, contribute to Internet newsgroups, and take advantage of the Home Page for tracking all your important daily information.

Home Page

The Home Page is a great place to start. This page, which was previously called the Welcome Page, gives you immediate access to your mail, contacts, calendar, and more. And you can create new Home Pages, customized to suit your needs.

Help

To get Help while you are exploring Lotus Notes, press F1 (Macintosh users, press Command+Shift+?) or click Help > Context Help from the menu. To see all the Help available, choose Help > Help Topics from the menu.

Database is now application

In previous versions of NotesR, the word database was used to mean a Notes application that you could open, such as Mail or Calendar. In Notes 8.0, the term application was introduced. However, since Notes applications can be comprised of more than one database, you may still see the term used in the Lotus Notes 8.5 user interface and in Help.

Advanced menus

For advanced users, a set of advanced menus can be displayed. Advanced menus are targeted for administrators or designers, and include options such as archiving or deleting applications, or replacing a Notes application design. If you enable advanced menus (View > Advanced Menus), they are on for subsequent Notes sessions.

Opening applications

If you opened your applications from the File menu (File > Database > Open) in previous releases, you may notice that the File menu has changed, and you now use File > Open > Lotus Notes Application.

The first time you open IBM Lotus Notes, the sidebar is in the thin state. The image below shows the sidebar in the thin state on the left, and the open state on the right.

Use control key sequences to select documents

In list views, you can select multiple documents using Ctrl and Shift keys. Selected documents have a check in the margin.

Related topics
What's New in Lotus Notes 8.5?
What's New in Lotus Notes 8 and 8.0.1?
Getting Help
Your home page
Notes applications
Upgrading your mail file design