STFU && RTFM

In migrating many of our users to Lotus Notes 8, we have recently found that some of them have experienced problems with week numbering, as 2009 has 53 weeks. Week number 53 is shown as week 1. This error carries over to 2010, meaning that week 1 is shown as week 2, and so on. Users using Lotus Notes 6.* and 7.* are not experiencing the problem.
 
This is apparently caused by a setting in the operating system, but can be fixed in Lotus Notes. Here’s how:
 

1. In Lotus Notes, open File -> Preferences, then expand Calendar and To Do, and select Regional Settings like so:
   
2. Then move the radio button from “Use my operating system regional setting” to “Always use the ISO standard” like so:
   
3. Accept the warning that some settings do not take effect until you have restarted Lotus Notes.

That has solved it for me, and for the users that have experienced this problem.

After upgrading a user to Notes 6.5.4, she got an error saying “Illegal Circular USE:DocumentConversions” when opening her mailfile. She reported that she’d get this problem when opening folders.
 
The key to solving this problem, is knowing that the user has been upgraded from Notes version 5 to Notes version 6.5.4. From one version of Notes to the next, new functionality is implemented using design changes to the mailfile. When a user upgrades from one version to the next, the design need to be upgraded as well.
 
If, after replacing the design, the problem still occurs, you should try refreshing it as well. This has solved the problem for me a couple of times.

I have written about Lotus Notes before. I have written about solutions to problems, and to what I like and/or dislike about it.
 
My main problem with Lotus Notes is a combination of two; on the one side, it has major usability issues, though these are adressed, to some degree, in version 8. My main issue with Lotus Notes is still there: They’re trying to do too much. Here’s a short, and most likely incomplete, list of the features of Lotus Notes:
 

• Mail
• Calendar
• Webbrowser
• Text editor
• Presentation editor
• Spreadsheet editor
• Database handler
• Instant Messaging client

 
The problem of having it do all of these things is that it bloats the software. Version 6, when installed locally, used 50-60 MB of RAM when running. Version 8, when installed locally, uses in excess of 250 MB of RAM. Let that sink in for a moment. From version 7 to version 8, it seems nothing was removed in the way of functionality, but a lot of stuff was added.
 
Now, I might be strange, but I am not a big fan of stuffing too much functionality into a single, limited package. These days, it’s almost surprising that your average cellphone does not make coffee, or at least heat your food.
 
Me, I like purpose-built. I use a digital camera when I want to take photos, a GPS when I want to navigate, and by golly, I use an Mp3-player when I want to play music. It is that simple. This is a train of thought I am missing in many large software suites.