| Feature | How do I use it? |
| When sorting mail by Subject, Re: and Fw: prefixes are now ignored | When you sort mail in a folder by Subject, Notes ignores prefixes such as Re: and Fw:, so that sorting is more accurate.
Note: This feature requires the 8.5.3 mail template, and 8.5.3 client, and an 8.5.3 server. If your mail file is local, you only need the 8.5.3 client and mail template. |
| Improved experience in mailfile copy of Contacts | Users can perform actions in the mailfile copy of their Contacts just as they would for Contacts in their local address book, including preference settings. This feature requires the 8.5.3 mail template and an 8.x or newer client. |
| New signature feature | It is now easier to choose different signatures in different email messages. When creating a message, click the Signature button in the action bar above the message, then choose between your default signature, a new signature from a file on your computer, or no signature.
If you select New Signature from File, you can choose a TXT, HTML, JPG, BMP, or GIF file from your computer. If you have not specified a default signature in your preferences, that option will not appear. |
| Change the color and style of Read and Unread mail | You can change the color and boldness of Read and Unread messages in your Inbox. Click File -> Preferences, and then click Fonts and Colors. Click the color to select a new color for Read or Unread messages; select or deselect Bold. |
| Note: The below features require the latest 8.5.3 mail template. |
| Feature | How do I use it? |
| Keep placeholder for original meeting time | When proposing a new time for a meeting, you will see a new option Leave a placeholder for the original meeting on the calendar.
This option is decided on a per-meeting basis, and is turned on by default. To change this setting in your Calendar preferences click File -> Preferences, select Calendar & To Do, open the Display tab, and then open the Views tab. Select or clear the checkbox for By default, leave a placeholder for countered meetings.
The proposed meeting will appear on your calendar in a different color (default is orange), and be prefaced with the word Countered:. If you open or hover over the countered entry, you will see the time that you proposed for the meeting.
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| Update meeting invitees when people are added or removed | When adding or removing attendees from an existing meeting, Notes can now send updates to the existing invitees, informing them of the change and updating the invitee list in their calendar invitation. If it is a repeating meeting, multiple updates may be sent. To enable this feature, click File -> Preferences, select Calendar & To Do, open the Display tab, and then open the Notices tab. Select the checkbox for When I add or remove meeting invitees, update the other participants.
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| New preference to update meetings automatically | Notes can now automatically apply updates to meetings that you have accepted as those updates arrive. To enable this feature, click File -> Preferences, select Calendar & To Do, open the Display tab, and then open the Notices tab. Select the checkbox for Automatically process meeting updates and apply changes to meetings.
Note: You may still receive update notices in your Inbox, depending on the preferences set in the calendar Notices tab.
If you open a notice that has already been processed, there will be text to indicate this, and the Update Calendar button will be renamed Re-apply update, to indicate that changes are already applied. |
| Forward iCalendar subscriptions | You can now email federated iCalendar subscriptions; simply right-click the calendar and choose Email To . . .
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| Duplicate calendar entries are merged automatically | When you add other Notes calendars to your own calendar, duplicate entries are automatically merged into a single entry to avoid clutter. When you open a merged entry, you're asked which entry you'd like to open, since the entry appears in multiple calendars. If you always want to open your Notes calendar entry, so you won't be prompted every time, click File -> Preferences, select Calendar & To Do, open the Display tab, and then open the Views tab. Select the Always take action on my entry when I take action on a combined calendar entry option.
The action bar will also reflect the correct actions for the merged entry. |
| Create or delete room or resource reservations from the web | You can now create single or repeating room or resource reservations via the web. When you create a direct booking via a web browser, you will see a Repeat button, the same as in the Notes client. You can also delete a room or resource reservation from the web by selecting the Delete Reservation button. |
| Feature | How do I use it? |
| Widget catalog as an XPages application | The widget catalog is now an XPages application, with expanded view and search capabilities. For more details about administering this feature, see the Domino Administrator Help. As an end user, the following features are available to you in the XPages-based widget catalog; access to these features depends on the access level provided to you by your administrator.
- Browse the XPages based catalog - You can browse the XPages based catalog by accessing the preset views, such as All Widgets, By Author, By Category and By Type. You can also browse the catalog by different products. Click the "+" icon in the last column of each view to expand the details of a widget. To install an individual widget from the catalog, drag the "Drag to install" widget icon from the view, and drop it to your My Widgets sidebar panel.
- Search the XPages based catalog - If a full text index is created on the database, two search sections will appear on the catalog. One is on the header bar, which is used to search widgets in the database. The other is in the tag section, which is used to search widgets with a specific tag. The XPages based catalog also provides integration with the Notes search center. If a full text index is created, and the XPages based catalog is open in the Notes client, you can use the Notes search center to search widgets. Search center will search widgets within the currently selected view
- Open a widget in the XPages based catalog - Click the widget title link from a view to open the widget and see detailed information; ratings, tags, and comments can be created for the widget on this page. To install the current widget, drag the "Drag to install" icon and drop it to your My Widgets sidebar panel. Note that the download count of the current widget will not update immediately; a scheduled agent will calculate and update the total download counts.
- Rate a widget - A widget can be rated by clicking stars on the widget details page. Only users with the [Admins] or [RatingAuthor] role are able to rate a widget. A user is only allowed to rate a widget once.
- Tag a widget - A widget can be tagged by clicking the "Edit Tags" icon on the widget details page. Only users with the [Admins] or [TagAuthor] role are able to tag a widget.
- Comment on a widget - Comments can be added to a widget by clicking the "Add a comment link" under the 'Comments' tab on the widget details page. Only users with the [Admins] or [CommentAuthor]' role are able to create comments.
- Download extension.xml file for a widget from XPages based catalog - You can download the extension.xml of a widget by doing the following:
1. Open the widget details page for the widget.
2. Open the Details tab.
3. Expand the Attachment section.
4. Use the extension.xml link to download the file. Please note that the download count is not increased when downloading extension.xml file.
- Add a new widget from XPages based catalog - Users with the [Admins] or [WidgetAuthor] role are able to create new widgets from the XPages based catalog. XPages based catalog provides a XPages based submission form to add/update a widget. You can use this form to create a new widget. There are two ways to open the submission form:
1. Click the 'Add Widget' button from any view.
2. Right click on an existing widget in the My Widgets sidebar panel and select "Publish to catalog". Please note that only users with the [Admins] role can assign widgets to categories.
- Update a widget from XPages based catalog - Users with the [WidgetAuthor] role and a minimum of Author access are able to update their own widgets. Users with the [Admins] role are able to update any widget. A widget can be updated by the following steps:
1. Open widget details page for the widget that you want to update.
2. Click the Edit button.
3. Update the widget info.
4. Click the Submit button. Please note that only users with the [Admins] role can assign widgets to categories. Users with the [Admins] role will see a Comments section at the bottom of the document. Admins can select and delete improper comments with the "Delete selected comments" link in this section. Please note that this link will delete the comments immediately, whether the form is submitted or not.
- Delete a widget from XPages based catalog - Users with the [WidgetAuthor] role and delete permission are able to delete their own widgets. Users with the [Admins] role and delete permission are able to delete any widget. A widget can be deleted by the following steps:
1. Open widget details page for the widget that you want to delete.
2. Click the Delete button.
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| Public widget provider APIs | A set of public APIs are available that developers can use to create custom widget types for use with either supplied or custom applications. After deploying the plug-in containing the new widget type, the new widget types can then be disabled or enabled for users in the same way as the supplied widget types (using either Domino policy or a plugin_customization.inifile). Power users can then create widgets of these additional widget types and deploy them to end users.
For details, see the Domino Administrator Help. |
| Live text recognition in MIME emails | Live Text strings are now recognized in MIME e-mails. This has been an anticipated enhancement for several releases, and is now available. |
| Open a Web page widget in an external browser or named embedded browser | When creating a Web page widget, you can specify that the widget open in an external browser or a named embedded browser.
- The embedded browser option is available for either the HTTP Get and HTTP Post choice when creating either authenticated or non-authenticated Web page widgets.
- The external browser option, is available only for the HTTP GET choice and only when creating non-authenticated Web page widgets.
For the new browser specification options, the choices for Embedded browser are Default, XULRunner, and IE (Internet Explorer).
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| Open a Web page widget in a local Web container | Underlying client architecture enables you to host a Web application in the local Web container, however by default and for security reasons, the local Web container port value changes every time you restart the client.
Notes now lets you create a Web page widget from the current context (in this case, local Web container) based on a local Web application and then manage the widget's URL value in its XML file to resolve to the actual local Web container URL. This enables you to force a Web page widget to open in the local Web container, rather than referencing an old, invalid port. When you create a Web page widget that references the local Web container, the widget stores the port in its url= statement value. This is handled automatically when the Web page widget is created by the wizard. Without this, the Web container changes ports each time you restart the client causing the widget's URL to be invalid. |
| New XPages widget type | A new widget creation wizard is available for creating a widget from an XPages application running in the Lotus Notes client. The new wizard is available from the Configure a Widget from the Current Context toolbar button.
Note: For an XPages application running through a web browser, use a Web Page widget rather than this new XPages widget type.
The first four steps for creating the widget using the wizard are as follows; the remaining user interaction is intuitive and similar to the other widget types, as documented in Notes Help.
1. Open the target XPages application from which to base your widget. Note: To search the XPages application from a default value or Live Text, perform a search inside the application and configure the widget from the search results page.
2. Click the Configure a Widget from Current Context toolbar button to start the wizard.
Note: If you use a local XPages application as the widget source, the widget will not be functional in a Notes roaming user context nor will it be functional for other users you share it with through either e-mail or by publishing to a widget catalog.
3. Select a configuration option.
- Perform a full text search on this XPage - This option creates a widget, based on the search that was performed, that opens the XPages application and either defaults to a preset search value or accepts a Live Text search value for which to query. This option only displays when configuring a widget from a search results page.
- Open this XPage - This option creates a widget that opens the specific XPage currently being viewed. This provides a simple way to add an XPages application to the Notes Sidebar, in addition to a new tab or window.
- Open Notes object - Use the default Notes URL, for example notes://mydominoserver/XPagesDiscussion1.nsf/allDocuments.xsp?OpenXPage or optionally specify another value.
4. Click Next, specify a widget name, and so on. |
| Feature | How do I use it? |
| Language tag enhancements | A priority list for language tags, which contains the 5 most recently used languages, is now available in both the Text Properties infobox (Right-click -> Text Properties), and in the toolbar (Toolbar -> Language.
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| Lotus Notes single user to multi-user migration assistant tool | You can now use a supplied tool to migrate a Notes single user install to a Notes multi-user install within any Notes 8.x release on a supported Windows platform, prior to upgrading to a new release. For details, see the Domino Administrator Help. |
| Lotus Notes Install Cleanup Executable (NICE) tool | Use the supplied Notes Install Cleanup Executable (NICE) tool to clean a failed installation, failed un-installation, or a failed upgrade. You can also use the tool to uninstall an existing version of Notes, and clean up extraneous files, prior to performing an upgrade installation. For details, see the Domino Administrator Help. |
| Add or remove components from Notes install kit using UpdateSiteMgr | The Notes install kit's trimUpdateSite and addToKit customization tools have been merged into a single UpdateSiteMgr tool. The addToKit and trimUpdateSite tools will no longer be supplied. For details, see the Domino Administrator Help. |
| Notes installation and launch on Citrix XenApp 6 | Initial installation and launch testing has been completed for Notes 8.5.3 with Citrix XenApp 6; XenApp 6 requires Windows 2008 R2. Installation instructions available for installing and configuring Notes with previous Citrix XenApp versions apply for installing XenApp 6. |
| Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) for Eclipse-based clients, including Lotus Notes, Symphony, and Sametime | This code drop introduces Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) for supplied and third-party Eclipse-based client applications, enabling SPNEGO authentication for integrated Notes application clients. This includes Notes and its embedded Eclipse-based features such as Widgets and Live Text, Feeds, Lotus Connections, and Composite Applications, as well as embedded Sametime and embedded Symphony.
It also includes adjunct products that are based on Eclipse but not embedded within Notes, such as IBM WebSphere Portal with SiteMinder and stand-alone Lotus Connections 3.0 with SiteMinder. For details, see the Domino Administrator Help. |
| TAM SiteMinder form-based authentication has changed | TAM and SiteMinder form-based authentication type accounts used for single sign-on are now subject to additional checks. By default, the login form on the authentication server must be accessed using SSL, and the server must be contained in a list of trusted sites. The Accounts preference page has been enhanced to include the ability to change these settings. A Preferences -> Accounts -> Trusted Sites preference page is also provided.
The client Accounts user interface, including Accounts preferences and New Accounts dialogs have been changed, and a new Trusted Sites dialog has been added. New client plugin_customization.ini file settings have also been added. For details, see the Domino Administrator Help. |
| Dojo upgraded to version 1.5.0 | Notes and Domino 8.5.3 Dojo has been upgraded to version 1.5.0. |
| New replication option | A new replication option, Enable Purge Interval Replication Control, on the Space Savers tab, prevents older deletion stubs and document modifications from replicating to an application.
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