Lotus Notes is the groupware of choice for my employer. It is coupled with my BlackBerry via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This allows me to keep my e-mail in-box, calendar, to-do list, address box and journal synced between my desktop and handheld.

Lotus Notes works somewhat differently than other types of productivity software. Here are some of the tips and resources I’ve taken advantage of to enhance my usage.

1. You can quickly create a new e-mail memo by pressing Ctrl+M anywhere in Lotus Notes.
2. You can create numbered lists within lists. To do this, enter the sublist with the first list, then select it and press F8. This indents and numbers the sublist within the main list. You can also do this on the fly by pressing F8 at the line you with to indent. Pressing Shift+F8 will return you to the previous level.
3. Lotus Notes Calendar and Scheduling explained!
1. Part 1
2. Part 2
4. Here’s a great way to save space in your Notes form or memo — create a collapsible section. This feature allows you to put portions of text into sections users can expand if they want to read the whole paragraph. In Edit mode, highlight the text you want to collapse, then select Create, Section. That’s it– the text automatically collapses into a section. Clicking on the twistie (point) beside the section expands the text.
5. You can move to Notes documents while you’re still in another document without going to the view. All you have to do is click the Next icon in the SmartIcon bar or press Enter when you have the first document in read mode. You immediately go to the next document in the view.
6. The previous tip explained how to move to the next document in a view without going to the view. You can also do this to get to the next unread document in the view. With the document in read mode, just click the Next Unread icon from the SmartIcons bar. The first document closes and the next unread document in the view opens.
7. Like most programs, Lotus Notes allows you to do some things quickly by pressing certain keys or combinations of keys.
   

   Shortcut	Description
   Alt+A	Access actions from within a document
   Alt+accelerator key	Access top level menus (for example, Alt+F opens File menu)
   Alt+Down	Open drop-down controls such as the Select Names dialog box from name fields, combo boxes, date pickers, color palettes, and collapsed list box controls.
   Alt+Minus	Opens a Size menu for pane borders. Press the s key to activate the menu, move the Up or Down arrow to select the border to move, and then press the Left, Right, Up, or Down arrow to move the selected border.
   Alt+Spacebar	Opens a menu that lets you perform standard window operations such as Restore, Minimize, and Maximize. Use the Size and Move commands with the arrow keys to size or move the Lotus Notes window.
   Arrow keys	Navigate days via date picker in calendar
   Arrow keys, Left and Right	Navigate tabs or a horizontal list
   Arrow keys, Up and Down	Navigate a vertical list, such as a menu, navigator, calendar time slots, or items in a list view
   Alt+B	Access Open menu and open the applications and bookmark list
   Ctrl+F7	Access the sidebar
   Ctrl+F	Opens the Find dialog box from views
   Ctrl+F1	(Linux® only) Get Help on current feature
   Ctrl+F7, then Up and Down arrow keys, then Enter	Move to selected window panel
   Ctrl+F8, then Up and Down arrow keys, then Enter	Move to selected window tab
   Ctrl+Page Up and Ctrl+Page Down	Navigate pages in calendar
   Ctrl+Shift+L	Open list of available shortcuts
   Ctrl+Tab	Navigate forward in tab order
   Ctrl+W	Closes current tabbed page
   Enter	Expand or collapse a category or folder
   Esc	Closes current tabbed page, collapses current thread, or exits current element
   F1	Get Help on current feature Linux users: Use Ctrl+F1 instead.
   F6	Cycles through all panes in the open perspective. (In views such as mail and calendar list views, for example, moves focus from view navigator to list view to preview pane (if open) to mini-view and back to view navigator.)
   Minus	Collapse a category or folder
   Shift+F10	Open a context menu
   Shift+Plus	Expand a category, folder, or thread
   Shift+Tab	Navigate backward in tab order
   Tab	Navigate forward in tab order
   Tab	Give focus to Refresh schedule information icon in Scheduler in a meeting entry. Then, to access the Scheduler, press Tab again to give focus to entire Scheduler, and press Spacebar to give focus to the first item in Scheduler. Then do any of these: Press Tab to give focus to different items within Scheduler. Press Ctrl+Left arrow and Ctrl+Right arrow to move the time bar when it has focus. Press Esc to remove focus from the Scheduler, and then press Shift+Tab to give focus to previous items in the meeting entry.

8. For security reasons, it’s usually not a good idea to leave your Lotus Notes open when you leave your desk for any length of time. Rather than having to close and then re-open several times a day, you can just hit the F5 key – the next time you try to do anything in Notes such as opening or sending a message you will have to type in your Notes password.
9. The easiest way to get text from an e-mail message in Lotus Notes to an MS Word document… copy and paste. For example:

1. Select the text you want from the message

2. Press Ctrl-c (to copy)

3. Go to the document in Word

4. Press Ctrl-v (to paste)

10. Notes allows you to work in more than one database at the same time. When you have several databases open simultaneously, you can move between them by pressing Ctrl+Tab.

Related articles

• Updates on Lotus Notes & Domino (Lotuspehere 2012) (ebiztechs.wordpress.com)