I have mixed feelings about continuing to post anything about the Notes 8.5 release for the Mac. The fact is that I was one of the many people at Lotusphere 2008 who frantically downloaded the beta release when it was announcd. However, I only kept it installed on my machine a total of 5 weeks because … well, it was beta, slow and buggy and I needed to get stuff done. (I’m not condemming the beta version at all – the fact is that it wasn’t a production version, and that’s what I needed at the time.)
My mixed feelings are due to the fact that I’m stumbling on a lot of things that are interesting and wondering “Was that in the beta? Was that supposed to be there? Was this a problem in the beta? Is this by design?” Regardless, I said I’d post some updates, so that’s what I will do.
First off, I LOVE the way you can check up on your quota in your mail file. There’s an indicator at the top of your email navigation (which seems like it should be clickable, but isn’t) and the ability to access a quick pop-up via a menu to give you some more detailed information. For the record, my mail file is MUCH larger than I’d like it to be. Time to delete.
One of the things I rely on (for now) is the ability to export every calendar entry to an .ics file, which I drag into iCal, thus syncing a number of Mac calendars in my life, including my iPhone. Yes, its not the most glamorous way of doing this, but it works and I’ve been too busy to try alternate methods. There are two problems with doing this in 8.5: 1) I can’t select multiples via the gutter and 2) there are two options for the export type, both of which appear to be similar. I’ve tried both types and they appear to do the same thing.
Finally, I’ve seen a few cases where there is a phantom tip bubble. I haven’t figured out a rhyme or reason to it, but occassionally one appears and doesn’t disappear. In this case, a calendar reminder stayed up over my inbox, workspace and a few applications. Minimizing, then bringing up the window again usually takes care of it.
I still have a lot of positive things to say about this release and I’m thrilled that the Mac version doesn’t appear to be an after-thought on this release. This is all helping build up even more excitement for Lotusphere!
Tags: 8.5, lotusphere, mac, notes, quota
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