21. Sorting Mail Message
Suck Synopsis:
Notes doesn’t allow people to sort by subject.
My Rebuttal:
They do now in Notes 7. Yes, they probably should have done so before now… but now they do.
22. Checking Your Inbox for New Mail
Suck Synopsis:
Notes doesn’t have a “check for new mail” option and instead relies on “refresh.”
My Rebuttal:
I’m usually the first one to harp on Notes for the way that new mail is notified. The coolest thing was the icon that changed back in the Windows 3.1 days (yes, I used “cool” and “Windows 3.1″ in the same sentence).
Today, Notes throws a little icon next to your clock when you have new mail. It also (usually) displays new messages right in the view without requiring you to “refresh.”
The author’s complaint was updated to admit that Notes does provide a way to check if you have it open. – However, you can control how Notes alerts you in the Preferences area. Also NotesMinder (nminder.exe – found in the “notes” folder/directory on your computer) is still an option for people who want to have new mail alerts sent without even having Notes open, much less the inbox.
23. Stupid Error Messages
Suck Synopsis:
User sees an error message stating “File truncated – file may have been damaged” and doesn’t think they should ever get that message.
My Rebuttal:
I’m really starting to see that an upgrade is needed… maybe some training for your Notes Administrator(s) and Developer(s) too.
A search on Notes.net will give you lots of ideas for why this might be happening. In most cases its fixed by a “fixup” and was caused by either an indexing process or by restoring a file from a backup.
The author seems to be less concerned about the error and more concerned about the fact that he GOT the error prompted to him. I agree that providing some options for help (or reporting to an admin) would be beneficial.
24. When Notes Crashes
Suck Synopsis:
Notes crashes and then tells you to log-off and restart Notes again.
My Rebuttal:
Most of the time when I’ve seen this message, its because the user clicked the icon (to launch Notes) too many times. Assuming that isn’t the case here, yeah, it’d be nice if Notes would allow you to just restart it without logging off (or rebooting). But… its not unique in the fact that it asks you to do that.
25. Changing your password
Suck Synopsis:
Notes tells you your password will expire but doesn’t let you change it right then and there.
My Rebuttal:
As the author mentions, Notes now DOES offer to let you change the password right away (since 6.5.x). He also mentions that the Notes-generated suggestions are too complicated. … Its a password, it SHOULD be complicated. And its just a suggestion, you can pick your own. Even if you wanted it to be “ihatenotes” (although, might I suggest “1hat3NoT3s” instead as a great strong password).
26. Where’s my Waiter
Suck Synopsis:
Notes prompts you with a dialog box when it can’t connect to the server.
My Rebuttal:
Yeah. It does. This message is clear. Its your administrator’s fault for not keeping the server on-line. Or maybe its your fault for not reading an announcement about scheduled down-time. I don’t know.
27. Changing Column Widths
Suck Synopsis:
Column resizing and preview pane behavior is not remembered after you restart Notes.
My Rebuttal:
That was anoying. But its been fixed in 6.5x and beyond. Prior to that, there was a preference that helped with that problem but seemed to work intermittently depending on the actual build, the database template, the server version and the direction of the wind. Regardless, it works slick now (6.5 and up).
28. Entering a Hyperlink
Suck Synopsis:
Notes doesn’t automatically create hyperlinks.
My Rebuttal:
Well, it does and it doesn’t. It doesn’t show you that its created one in-line when you type (ala MS Word). It DOES, however, automatically create hyperlinks when a recipient gets an email message that has one in obvious hyperlink format (with the “http://” and all). — But yes, in-line and obvious would be tres nice!
29. Proportional Scrollbars
Suck Synopsis:
Notes doesn’t support proportional scrollbars.
My Rebuttal:
Wow. Yeah, that’d be cool. — Alright, LotusNotesSucks-guy: 2, Lotus Notes: 27.
30. Remark
Suck Synopsis:
Notes has a silly menu that has something to do with a phone system, but its unclear what.
My Rebuttal:
The functionality in question here is not Lotus Notes (default/standard) functionality. Its some third-party application that integrates Notes with the phone system. Its not really Notes fault at all… but those have been historically bad.
2006 might just be the turning point, though. More of these systems are starting to not only integrate with Notes, but Sametime as well, which is probably a better place since Sametime’s all about collaboration and communication. — Stay tuned for more!
What people here are saying…