• Announcing v1.6 documentation

    By symetrik design 2 decades ago

    Announcing v1.6 documentation.



    Bruce/Vince - would you guys kindly upload the document into the Docs section of the project and/or put it in the Wiki.



    I was thinking that some of the stuff that I stated in the review (see previous post) might be good to put into the Wiki.



    Anyways, I really needed some user training doc. I somehow stumbled onto a Word doc put together by Dave Lundy at Shepherd.



    This document updates all screenshots and changes in functionality whether placed there by OpenNTF or IBM/Lotus in the default template.



    I also added some basic functionality (of Lotus Notes) to the document, like what is a workspace, an icon legend, etc. etc. You are not going to show anyone documentation based on ONLY the OpenNTF.org Mail Experience template and ONLY it's functionality are you?



    The aim is to have a prepared document for Admins to give to their users on how to use and customize Lotus Notes Mail (utilizing the OpenNTF.org Mail Experience template).



    It's in Word Format, so it can be easily modified or updated. I've spent countless hours scouring the web for the best quick guide help on Lotus Notes. Some of the help was already in the document, some of it I was able to copy from existing Quick Guides, some of it I borrowed from the Lotus Notes Help database, and some of it was created by scratch. I meticulously created some of the images with Photoshop and XnView.



    It's not perfect, and I'm not a professional technical writer, but it's better than what people have at the moment. Again, I hope this documentation helps people understand how it works, and spreads wider use of the template.



    Enjoy!!!



    http://www.symetrikdesign.com/documents/Using_the_OpenNTF_v1.6_Mail_Template.doc



    Thanks

    David

    • This is fantastic!

      By Bruce Elgort/NotesOSS 2 decades ago

      David,



      Thank you for putting this together. I will get it posted in the documentation section as both a Word document and as a PDF.



      Kick ass!



      Bruce Elgort

      http://www.bruceelgort.com

      • Done

        By Bruce Elgort/NotesOSS 2 decades ago

        I have copied the documentation to the Docs section.



        Thanks again,



        Bruce Elgort

        http://www.bruceelgort.com

        • By symetrik design 2 decades ago

          No problem guys. I am glad I can help. Of all the years of shareware and freeware that I've used and open source software that I've used on my own Linux webservers, I've never really contributed anything because I'm not a coder.



          I've posted alot of help to discussion forums over the years, but getting back to doing some Domino consulting and finding this site and the template that you guys have developed has given me an opportunity to make a significant contribution back to the community.



          It's one thing to have a great tool like your template, but knowing what it does and how it can be utilized if a different thing all together. That's why I put the doc together and contributed it here.



          Once this template is rolled out at the organization that I'm consulting to, it will SIGNIFICANTLY improve user acceptance of Lotus Notes in general.



          I went around to users desks in 3 countries interviewing them about Lotus Notes for 3 different weeks. This shop requires mission critical uptime of Lotus Notes for their business. They also have a business process workflow in which they send mail to multiple groups and realistically in plain English they use their mailboxes as document stores. In other words, they have a ton of email and they need to be able to navigate the volume of mail they receive each day, as well as manage cataloging it with folders, sorting, searching, etc.



          On top of this, they migrated from Exchange a year and a half ago.



          I got alot of really nasty negative comments about Lotus Notes. There were alot of unhappy people shooting the messenger. ha ha ha. It wasn't too much fun.



          And to see how they use email and to watch THEIR comparisons and complaints of missing functionality, I kind of agree with them. Outlook/ Exchange is a much better User Interface.



          With the new features in the 6.5 default template, your enhanced modifications, and some documentation - we can begin to start swaying a more favorable opinion back to Lotus Notes and like I said, SIGNIFICANTLY improve the lives of people doing every day jobs.





          I tell you one thing though, I have respect for the people that create documentation. It's a lot harder than it looks to come up with dialogue/verbiage and to get diagrams and images and layout to look decent.



          Thanks Again.