10 Minute Guide to Lotus Notes 4.0

Lesson 23

Customizing Notes

In this lesson, you learn to customize Notes by changing SmartIcons, arranging workspace pages, changing mail setup, and setting user location.

Changing SmartIcons

In Notes, you can use SmartIcons as shortcuts for common tasks and commands. However, you might find that you don’t often use the SmartIcons that Notes displays by default. You can modify the SmartIcon bar to include whichever SmartIcons you prefer. To change the displayed SmartIcons, follow these steps:

In your workspace, choose File, Tools, SmartIcons. The SmartIcons dialog box appears (see Figure 23.1). The list on the left shows all available icons; the list on the right shows the icons in the bar that’s currently displayed.

Figure 23.1 Modify the current SmartIcon bar or create your own bar.

To add an icon to the selected icon bar, drag it from the list of Available icons to the list on the right. To remove an icon from the list on the right, drag it to the list on the left.

Don’t Like the Order?

You can move icons around in the icon list on the right. Simply drag each icon to the desired location.

When you finish adding and rearranging icons, click Save Set to save the changes you made to the icon bar. The Save Set of SmartIcons dialog box appears (see Figure 23.2).

Figure 23.2 Save the set of SmartIcons so you can use it anytime.

In the Name of set text box, enter a brief descriptive name.

In the File name text box, enter a name for the icon file. Use eight characters or fewer, and add the .SMI extension for ease in file management.

Click OK to close the Save Set of SmartIcons dialog box. The new SmartIcon bar appears in the drop-down list of SmartIcon bars above the list on the right. You can choose to display this icon bar or any other.

In that top drop-down list, choose the icon bar you want to display and click OK. Notes displays the selected icon bar in the workspace.

Change Positions

You can change the position of the SmartIcon bar, moving it to the left, right, or bottom of the Notes workspace. To do so, open the Position drop-down list in the SmartIcons dialog box and select a new location for the bar.

Changing User Preferences

Notes enables you to change a number of settings that affect your workspace and how you work in Notes. You can control such things as when Notes scans for unread documents, when it should prompt you to empty the trash, and whether it saves a copy of the mail you send. You’ll find these options in the User Preferences dialog box (shown in Figure 23.3). To open the User Preferences dialog box, choose File, Tools, User Preferences.

Figure 23.3 You might change the options in the Basics or the Mail category.

More Information

This lesson covers only the common, most basic options you can customize in User Preferences. If you need more information about customizing User Preferences, see Que’s Special Edition Using Lotus Notes.

Changing Basics Options

Click on the Basics icon to access the Basics category in the User Preferences dialog box (refer to Figure 23.3). There you can work with the following options: Startup options, Local database folder, Empty Trash folder, User Dictionary, and Advanced options. Table 23.1 describes the common settings for each of these areas.

Table 23.1 Basics Options

Option	Description
Startup options	Contains check boxes for commands you can have Notes perform automatically at startup. Choose the Scan for unread check box to indicate Notes should scan for unread mail and documents in selected databases on your workspace when you first start Notes. (For more information on scanning databases, see Lesson 13.)
Local database folder	Displays the path to the folder on your hard drive that holds your database files. You can change the path if you want to store your databases in another folder.
Empty Trash folder	Governs how Notes empties your trash folder. Choose whether you want to be prompted when you close the database, whether you always want it emptied when you close the database, or whether you want to empty it manually. (To learn more about using the trash folder, see Lesson 6.)
User Dictionary	Enables you to view words you’ve added to your User Dictionary during spell checking. You can add, update, and delete any of these words. (For more information about spell checking, see Lesson 21.)
Advanced Options	Contains a list of options that control how you use Notes. A check mark appears beside active options. Click on an option to select or deselect it.

Scared of the Advanced Options?

If you’re unsure of an option’s meaning, read about the option in Notes’ Help system before you activate it. (Lesson 4 covers using the Help system in detail.) If you do check an option and you don’t like the results, open the User Preferences dialog box and deselect it.

Changing Mail Options

You can change Mail options by clicking on the Mail category icon in the User Preferences dialog box. Figure 23.4 shows the Mail options, and Table 23.2 describes them.

Figure 23.4 The options in the Mail category.

Table 23.2 Mail Options

Option	Description
Mail program	Displays the name of the mail program you’re using, such as Lotus Notes or cc:Mail.
Save sent mail	Controls whether Notes keeps a copy of the mail messages you send or prompts so you can decide which messages to keep a copy of.
Local address books	Lists the path and file name of your local address book. You can enter a new path and file name, or you can click the Browse button to search for another path.
Check for new mail every ___ minutes	Tells Notes how often to automatically check for new mail addressed to you.
Audible notification	Controls whether Notes sounds a beep or any other sound upon receipt of new mail.
Visible notification	Controls whether Notes displays a message in the Status bar upon receipt of new mail.
Sign sent mail	Tells Notes to always add your name, date, and time signature to your mail (see Lesson 8).
Encrypt sent mail	Tells Notes to always protect the mail you send so it can be opened only by the person to whom it’s addressed (see Lesson 8).
Encrypt saved mail	Tells Notes to always protect the mail you save so others cannot view it.

When you finish changing settings in the User Preferences dialog box, click OK to close it.

Changing Your Password

Depending on how your Notes network is set up, you may be required to enter your password when you first log on to Notes, or you may have to enter a password only when you want to modify documents and databases. You can change your Notes password at any time to ensure that your mail and databases are safe from others in your company.

Follow these steps to change your password:

Choose File, Tools, User ID. Enter your password if prompted. The User ID dialog box appears (see Fig-ure 23.5).
Click the Set Password button, and the Enter Password dialog box appears.
Enter your password. (A series of Xs appears in the text box to ensure your privacy.) Click OK, and the Set Password dialog box appears.

Figure 23.5 Change your password periodically to secure your system.

23.5 Change your password periodically to secure your system.
Enter your new password and click OK, and the Set Password confirmation dialog box appears.

Case Sensitive

In Notes, passwords are case sensitive. If you enter any uppercase letters when you set your password, you must use uppercase each time you enter your password or you won’t be able to access your Notes workspace.

Enter your new password again and click OK to con-firm it.

Click Done to close the dialog box.

In this lesson, you learned to change SmartIcon bars, user preferences, and your password. In the next lesson, you will learn to link and embed data in Notes.