Lotus Notes Template Mods

Back to home

Jump to:

• ByPerson view
  
• Turning a Notes database mod into a button
  
• See where the sender filed a note
  
• Display an icon for notes with return receipts
  
• Block return receipts
  
• Add TO and CC indicators to your inbox folder
  

ByPerson view

How to recreate the By Person view:

http://reszrl1.research.ibm.com/projects/infonet/infonet.nsf/Page/byperson.htm?OpenDocument#_Section1
http://lmarks.raleigh.ibm.com/agents/byattach.htm

Turning a Notes database mod into a button

See this: http://blogs.webahead.ibm.com/pilot/weblogs/comments/kacharya@us.ibm.com/tip_of_the_week_see [31-Mar-07]

See where the sender filed a note

I discovered a rather disconcerting feature of Notes recently (or possibly of the IBM mail template, I'm not sure). If someone sends you a note using Send and File it's possible to see what folder they filed it in:

1. Select document
2. Right click and select Document properties.
3. Choose the second tab with all the fields in
4. Look for a tmpSendandFileFolder field

I generally do use Send and File to send Notes and, as far as I'm aware, don't have any filenames that I'd be embarrassed for people to see but I do find the principle a bit alarming. I would never have guessed that that particular function left any trace of itself lying around and in general, I would always assume that that sort of information would be private to my local Notes. The fact that it isn't leaves me wondering what other information I might be sending out unawares.

Display an icon for notes with return receipts

Here's how to display a little house icon in the inbox view when a new email has a return receipt on it. The easiest way is to create a new column for this icon.

1. In Designer, open the ($Inbox) folder in your mail database
2. Create a new column to the left of Who (doesn't matter where actually).
3. Make its value:

   @If(ReturnReceipt="1";69;@If(Importance="3";11;""))

4. This code also uses icon 11 to show low importance ("FYI") emails with a blue "i" icon.
5. In the Properties box, check Display values as icons
   
   
   
6. Click the green tick to accept the change.
7. Adjust the width of the column to suit
8. Close and save Designer.

To see other icon (the house icon is #69), see the list of Notes icons

Block return receipts

Return receipts can reassure people that you received their email message. But have you ever wanted to block a return receipt? If so, you're in luck. You can have the option of blocking a return receipt before it is sent by doing the following:

1. In Domino Designer, open the ($Inbox) folder of your mail database.
2. Select the QueryOpenDocument event in the Objects window.
3. Select Formula in the Programmer's pane, and then copy and paste the following code into the pane:

@If(@IsAvailable(ReturnReceipt);
      @If(ReturnReceipt = "1";
            @If(!@Prompt([YesNo];"Return Receipt"; "OK to send Return Receipt?");
                  @SetField("ReturnReceipt";"0");
                  "");
            "");
"")

Once you save the change, you're all set. The next time you open a message with a return receipt requested, you will be prompted whether or not to delete the return receipt.

Note: This doesn't appear to work if you use the Preview Pane to view your mail.

Add TO and CC indicators to your inbox folder

You'll need the Notes Designer Client. The standard client is not sufficient. Download the Designer client from Software XL Portal at http://w3.ibm.com/software (click the Sales XL link in the left-hand nav bar, then click Downloads).

The following is added to a new column in your Inbox:

'Me' -- Mail is TO me and ONLY to me
'To' -- Mail is TO me and also To/CC other people
'Cc' -- Mail is CC me.
Blank -- Mail has arrived in my mailbox, but my address is not directly in the headers

The formula is as follows:

ToOnlySymbol := "Me";
ToSymbol := "To";
CcSymbol := "Cc";
UserName := @UserName ;
InTo := @Contains(SendTo;UserName) ;
OnlyME := @If ( InTo & (@Elements(SendTo) = 1) & @Elements(CopyTo) = 0 ; 1 ; 0 );
CName := @LowerCase(@Name([CN];UserName));
@If (OnlyME ; ToOnlySymbol; InTo ; ToSymbol ; @Contains(CopyTo;UserName) ; CcSymbol ; @Contains(@LowerCase(SendTo);CName); ToSymbol; @Contains(@LowerCase(CopyTo);CName);CcSymbol;"" )

The process to implement the new column is as follows:

1. Copy the formula to the clipboard
2. Open your Mail database and go to your Inbox.
3. Click View > Design (if you don't see Design in the View menu, you don't have the Designer client installed)
4. In Designer, click Folders in the left-hand tree for your mail database
5. On the Right pane of the window scroll down until you see ($Inbox). It will be towards the bottom. Double click it.
6. Click OK when you see the warning message.
7. In the top-right pane, click in the heading of the column "Who" (if there are two "Who" columns, select the left one)
8. Right click the column heading and click Insert New Column. This inserts a blank column to the left of the "Who" column
9. In the bottom-right pane, click the Formula radio button. You should see "@DocNumber" in the text area.
10. Delete the "@DocNumber" and paste in the formula from above
11. Press Ctrl-S to save the design. The change is instantaneous. Go back to your Inbox and see the new column.

Cleanup steps:

• Reduce the size of the text in the column
• Reduce the size of the column

To reduce the size of the text that is displayed, go back to the Designer. The column you created should still be selected.

1. Open the Properties (settings) box if it isn't already open by clicking the smarticon or pressing Alt-Enter.
2. If the properties box is named "Programmer's Pane" instead of "Column" click the heading and change it to "Column"
3. Click the third tab in the properties box.
4. Change the size of the text. For example, 8 pts instead of the default 10. You can also change the color and font if you like.
5. Save via Ctrl-S then go back to your Inbox to see the changes

To reduce the size of the column, simply drag the right-hand border of the column heading of the column you just created. You can make it just wide enough to fit the text as seen in the Inbox. You'll have to do this iteratively - change the width, save with Ctrl-S, view the Inbox, repeat until you're happy with the size.