This time around, I'd like to offer some additional tips for setting up Notes to make life just a little bit easier.

Notes client setup
First, don't forget to make a replica of your mail file. And more importantly, in your Office location, ensure you have scheduled replication turned on, as shown in Figure A.

FIGURE A

Be sure you have scheduled replication turned on. Click picture for a larger image.

Now, when you're in the office, your mail file and other replicas will be kept up to date, so that when you leave the office in a hurry having forgotten to replicate, you won't be that far out of date. There's nothing more frustrating than arriving at a hotel and finding that before you get anything new, the first replication pulls in the last week's worth of stuff you've already deal.

While you're setting up the mail file replica, I'd like to suggest a couple of other things you should do.

First, use truncated replication for offline locations. On the replicator page, different options are stored for each database at each location. On all non-LAN locations, ensure that your mail file options are set to Truncate. Do this as shown in Figure B.

FIGURE B

On all non-LAN locations, ensure that your mail file options are set to Truncate. Click picture for a larger image.

Right-click the line for your mail file and select Options. Under Receive, select the "Receive Summary and 40K of Rich Text" option. This will truncate all inbound items thus speeding up replication. You can see it's selected by the broken yellow page icon on the replicator line. If, when you get truncated documents you find you need the complete document, go to Actions->Retrieve Entire Document. The options for this differ depending on whether you're in the view or actually in the truncated document. Truncated documents are easy to see. They have a blue icon in the Inbox view, and when opened, they show a window title that starts "[TRUNCATED]".

Second, consider extending this option to select Receive only when you're at a location with slow or expensive communications. The locations I have for use with my GSM phone are set up as shown in Figure C, so that I only Receive at these locations, cutting down the phone call time.

FIGURE C

My locations are set up as shown. Click picture for a larger image.

However, remember that if you update your calendar or to-dos while at such a location, the updates are not sent back to your colleagues back in the office until you switch to a location that does send as well as receive or until you change the settings.