But I started working with Notes way back with Notes 2, when documents were closed and mail was sent by hitting escape or double-right-clicking, and I still do. And when you do, the ActionInProgress variable is not set, or if it is, it's after PKZip has decided it's not going to do anything. Which is why it didn't work for me.

So PKZip does work if, and only if, you hit the Send or Send and File buttons on the memo form. If you use Send and File, your saved copy is also zipped. It doesn't work if you close the window with the X on the window title tab, if you hit Escape, or if you right-double-click. And it doesn't work on Save as Draft. The zipped and re-attached file doesn't have an icon displayed and is re-attached at the end of the note, not where the attachment originally was. You have the option of having some Unzip instructions added to the email; if you select this, a second attachment, a piece of HTML, "How to Unzip.html," is attached too. This actually doesn't contain detailed instructions, merely a direction to go to PKWare's Web site for a free reader.

You can, of course, change the content of this file, or, since it's named in a Notes.INI entry, I guess you could use another file by altering the INI entry. But why don't they just add the text to the bottom of the email, as they re-attach the attachment, instead of adding another one?

I have to say that my original conclusions in the April issue of DominoPower still stand. This isn't, yet, a good solution.

Notes Development's ND.Zip
Notes Development (at http://www.notesdev.de) is a long-established company in Hannover, Germany that has been in the Notes business for many years. I have to say up front that my company, Unipart Advanced Learning Systems (at http://www.uals.co.uk) was for some years a partner of Notes Development, selling their ND.Charon fax gateway product in the UK while there was still a reasonable fax server market. That fax gateway was a well-crafted product, so I had some expectations of ND.Zip.

Even though the Web site and the manual are all in German, I downloaded a copy of the product and installed it, selecting English when it asked for a language. The installation was simple and straightforward, but the license key had expired, so I couldn't test the product. I asked them for an updated key. However, I've had no response, so I can't tell you if the product is actually any good. I tried getting another download, only to find the download link was broken on their Web site, so I gave up.

And still more
I received a couple of emails from readers suggesting products in this arena. Neither of these have I explored beyond having a quick look at the vendor's Web sites.

Tom Yohe of Stampede Technologies (at http://www.stampede.com) promoted his own product: "Another product that I believe has the best autozip capabilities is TurboGold Enterprise Edition." Stampede has been active in the Notes world for some years. Tom claims that in development of TurboGold Enterprise Edition that they paid attention to usability issues such as the icons and filenames of attachments, and that they have solved the replication storm issues that can come with suddenly zipping lots of documents in a database.

Tom Lucas, from Arthur J Gallaher, suggested Jasc's QuickView Pro, which now comes from Stellent (at http://www.stellent.com). This isn't specifically a Notes product, but it claims to understand and work with Notes. However, they and their distribution partner AvantStar (at http://www.avantstar.com) seem between them to have missed out on evaluation copies.

Hopefully among all these zipping options, you'll find the software that works best for you.

Senior Technical Editor Mick Moignard has been working with Notes and Domino for nearly ten years. He is a Principal CLP with UALS (Unipart Advanced Learning Systems), a Lotus Premier Partner in the UK. UALS will happily discuss commercial exploitation of this application or any other Notes and Domino application development projects you need help with. Contact Mick at mick_moignard@unipart.co.uk, or via http://www.uals.co.uk.