Let's look at some of the new features in Notes 8.5. This article is chock-full of screenshots. All figures were captured on the Mac OS 10.5.6.

Notes 8.5 is the first release of Notes on the Mac that uses the Eclipse framework in the standard client release. Eclipse is an award-winning, open source platform for the construction of powerful software development tools and rich desktop applications. Some of the advantages of Eclipse are the ability to create plugins and composite applications.

Mail functionality has been updated in 8.5 In Figure A, you can see the addition of multiple email addresses for contacts.

FIGURE A


This is sorted by frequency. The more frequently used addresses will be at the top. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The icons in the Inbox have been changed. In Figure B, you can see the new icons for mail.

FIGURE B


Now there is a star icon for unread mail. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Calendaring functionality has been updated with the ability to federate calendars. You can subscribe to iCal feeds and add Google calendars as well as other Notes users' calendars. In Figure C you can see my iCal subscriptions.

FIGURE C


The federated calendars are updated each time you open the view. Roll over picture for a larger image.

I checked with DominoPower's editors and this article officially marks the first time "Scooby-Doo" has been mentioned in the magazine.

Contact functionality has changed. You can now forward vCard contacts from the contacts view, as seen in Figure D.

FIGURE D


vCards in the contacts can be forwarded. Roll over picture for a larger image.

OS-specific differences
Now that we have covered the basics, let's examine some of the OS-specific differences of Notes on the Macintosh. I'll start with basic Mac OS X concepts, and then move on to Notes 8.5 on the Mac.

The dock
One of the first items you will notice on the Mac is the dock. The dock is where your active programs are seen as well as any other item you have dragged to it. You can open applications or documents from the dock, by double clicking on them.

The items will bounce when loading or when they need attention. You can remove items by dragging them off the dock. Active applications have a blue circle under them, as shown in Figure E.

FIGURE E


My active applications are in the dock, as well as other docked items that aren't currently running. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You can see my Notes application happily hanging in the dock, waiting with three messages.

Although much of Notes feels the same, the Mac is different. One area where you may find some confusion is troubleshooting and tuning Notes on the Mac. For example, there is no Notes.INI file. So what do you do?

Read my article next week, and you'll find out.

Barry Rosen is currently an IBM Certified Managing Consultant with IBM Software Services for Lotus. During the last three years, Mr. Rosen has worked on several large messaging and migration projects as well as performed Domino upgrades and messaging assessments. Before that, he was a Software Engineer in Lotus Support for over five years. While in support Mr. Rosen was on several teams specializing in mail routing, Lotus Notes Client, calendaring and scheduling, and server core. He focused on clustering, Lotus Notes for the Macintosh, and rooms and resources.