I'm planning the content for the security section of the Notes Help (end-user) for an upcoming release. So if you have suggestions for ways to improve it, please let me know. Thanks!
Kendra Bowker | 25 April 2008 02:39:05 PM ET | | Comments (0) | Permanent Link
Feeds are becoming a fact of life for pulling information from one site to another. Are you using feeds in your day-to-day work? Have you tried the feed reader that is built into Notes 8? If you have experience with the Notes 8 feed reader, what do you think about it?
We would love to hear about your experience with feed readers.What do you use and do find the technology useful for keeping up with the information you need to do your job?
Julianne Forgo | 24 April 2008 11:39:52 AM ET | | Comments (4) | Permanent Link
Lotus and IBM® Redbooks® have partnered together to create a new collaborative wiki for Lotus Domino Web Application Development.
Jen Heins, with ITSO, led a team of residents, made up of IBMers and partners, to collaborate over the last four weeks to populate the wiki with Best Practices for Building Domino 8 Web Applications so that the wiki provides value from day one! Here are some of the topics you will find in the wiki.
- 0.0 Preface
- 1.0 Primer
- 2.0 Getting started
- 3.0 Understanding the Domino design elements
- 4.0 Building Domino Web applications
- 5.0 Extending rich client applications for Web clients
- 6.0 Server configuration
- 7.0 Developer tools and resources
- Looking ahead to version 8.5
Over time, users will be able to easily publish new and updated information, resulting in more accurate and current content. We expect to see this wiki quickly expand to include information for Domino 8.5 as it becomes available.
Jennifer Heins | 7 April 2008 11:13:24 AM ET | | Comments (0) | Permanent Link
We want to hear from you. And we're putting the depth and breadth and height of the internet's reach to work for us to meet that end. You can now give us feedback in the following ways:
1. Feedback links at the bottom of Help topics.
2. E-mail.
3. Product wikis.
4. Blog comments.
5. And introducing commentable information centers.
Don't know about all of these feedback methods? Read on!
1. Long-time Lotus documentation readers already know that they can send feedback to us by clicking the feedback links at the bottom of each Help topic. And you can still send us feedback that way, but we are implementing a few changes in this area that may be of interest to you. You used to click one of the following links:
Help Feedback -- Captures feedback on the product documentation.
Product Feedback -- Captures feedback about the ease-of-use of the product.
You were directed to a different form to complete depending on the link you chose. We are working to replace these two links with a single link called Feedback that you can click to open a form from which you can choose which type of feedback you want to submit.
Why the change? We are hoping that the additional descriptions that are provided about the two different types of feedback will help you to determine which type you really want to submit. We get such great information from you through these feedback forms; please keep them coming!
2. We created an e-mail account to which you can send us your contact information. We do not ask for customer contact information on our feedback forms; we think their anonymity helps foster honesty. But, if you want to be contacted for potential customer visits or roundtables with the documentation group, you can send us an e-mail with your contact information. The documentation team's e-mail address is:
lotusdoc@us.ibm.com
3. We have created product wikis in which you, our software community members, can find and share useful information about our products. We encourage you to share what you know and find out what you don't by visiting them. The following Web page describes our current product wikis and provides links to them:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/community/wikis.html
Don't see your product on the list? Check back in future; it is going to grow.
4. Go on, comment on a blog post. Even this one... if only to lament that Elizabeth Barrett Browning is not alluded to often enough on Weblogs!
5. With the release of Lotus Connections 2, we will use a new type of information center, which is commentable. Each topic will contain a make a comment link that you can click to provide a comment on the topic's content. The best feature of the commenting capability is that your comment is added to the page and is visible to everyone else who reads it. This means that if you add a comment to inform us of a missing step, point out misleading information, or to share information or tips about how to tweak a task for a specific configuration or environment, you will be sharing that information not only with the topic's writer, but with your peers as well. Another great feature is that the information center writers are notified by e-mail when a comment is added to a page. As a result, the writer can determine if a Help topic needs to be corrected or clarified and can make any necessary changes for the next information center update.
Lotus Connections 2 Beta customers are getting a first look at the commentable information center. If you're a Beta customer, we'd love to hear your first impressions!
Michelle Miller | 3 April 2008 10:00:00 AM ET | | Comments (1) | Permanent Link
Many years ago I worked as a temp in a psychiatrist's office. His patients included some of New York's elite, some who merely thought they were elite, and some from whom we had to hide sharp instruments. (Of course, I didn't find that out until the birthday cake knife was already missing, but that's another story.) Anyway, one day a lady called for an appointment. Unbeknownst to me, this particularly lady had booked appointments on multiple occasions, only to call again a few days later and cancel them. So I booked the appointment for her, and when the psychiatrist saw her name on his schedule he called me into his office and read me the riot act. The conversation went something like this:
"I don't want you to book any more appointments with her."
"Why?"
"Because she's crazy!"
"You're a psychiatrist! All your patients are crazy!"
Before you point out the obvious, let me assure you that I know that many people who see psychiatrists are not really "crazy," and it is not a word I would choose to describe patients today. But I was very young at the time, and totally incredulous. Which brings me to my next point.
On occasion I have had the opportunity of asking end users if they find our Help useful. On more than one occasion, the conversation has gone like this:
"Do you use the online Help?"
"No, not often"
"Why?"
"Because, there are too many words!"
Now I don't know how you write help without using words, but I can appreciate the sheer volume and sensory overload when you open some (not all) of our Help topics. So I decided to take an objective look at some of my Help topics, and see if I could do away with lots of words, without impacting the information that was really needed. Looking around for a likely candidate, I decided it was time for an overhaul of my Domino Web Access Help.
I really like Domino Web Access. It is a quick way to get to your Notes mail and calendar using a browser. And now that there is a new Lite mode (introduced in Notes 8.0.1), it is a really quick way to stay in touch on the road, without being bogged down by the full feature set you might need in your permanent office. Unfortunately, as the Full mode of Domino Web Access has grown and added features over the years, so has the Help. And now it does indeed appear that there are "too many words."
So I am reorganizing and reconstructing the Domino Web Access Help to provide users with a more streamlined set of topics that include some (but not a lot) overview information, a set of task topics that address the most frequently used tasks, and a set of frequently asked questions. Then, just for good measure I plan to throw in some reference topics (sort of like reference cards only in a Help topic). The end result, I hope, will be a new streamlined Help that provides a easy-to-find source of information--without using too many words.
Dana St. Clair | 28 March 2008 11:50:59 AM ET | | Comments (0) | Permanent Link
Ever wish you had a focused, customized set of documentation rather than having to use a huge set of technical information? Ever wish you had the power to create documentation with only the information you need? Checkout the IBM Custom Content Assembler!
IDC recently kicked off a proof of concept of a new application that lets you search and assemble content into custom PDF and HTML files. IBM Custom Content Assembler helps you to easily find and organize information and store it in a topic cart. Then, you can compile the topics into your own custom guide. Combining and ordering the topics allows you to create a customized content set which you can print, view in a browser, or save locally. With an editor, you could incorporate the HTML file into other content, customize the file, or edit it.
This proof of concept is providing IBM® Lotus® Connections 1.02 technical and learning content.
To get started, click here: http://info2.lotus.com/cca
Follow the instructions on the home page to create your own guide for Lotus Connections.
Also, checkout Michael Priestley's recent posting that featured this proof of concept and the application's workings. Michael is DITA Architect for IBM Software Group.
http://dita.xml.org/blog/dynamic-content-publishing-with-dita-plus-lots-of-dita-source-examples
The application provides a mechanism to provide feedback on the features you worked with and the types of custom content you might use. Just click on the feedback link and tell us what you think and what functionality you would like. The feedback is greatly appreciated.
William McCook | 17 March 2008 02:47:52 PM ET | | Comments (0) | Permanent Link
If you haven't heard the good news about IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5.1 being named tops in the corporate IM platform world then please take a look at the article below. You'll notice that the Sametime Installation documentation received a 4 using a Scoring Key of: 5: Exceptional; 4: Very good; 3: Average; 2: Below average; 1: Subpar or not available.
We also listened to you our customers and with IBM Lotus Sametime 8.0 we revamped and hopefully improved on our "very good" content. Here is a link to the Lotus Sametime 8.0 Information Center. We would like to hear your thoughts on your Sametime installation experience using either the Sametime 7.5.1 or 8.0 versions of the product documentation. We are always looking to improve on a good thing... hope you agree.
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/sametime/v8r0/index.jsp
IBM Lotus Sametime tops corporate IM platform review
By Barry Nance, Network Lab Alliance , Network World , 09/03/2007
Messaging has come a long way from the early days of rudimentary chat programs, the DOS and Windows "NET SEND" command and the Novell NetWare "SEND" command.
The ideal corporate instant-messaging environment lets users communicate anything they choose, from simple typed messages to documents to video. It tells employees which colleagues are available for an impromptu meeting and which don't wish to be disturbed. The ideal IM environment offers impenetrable security that thwarts intrusion attempts, as well as IM-borne malware. It's nimble and responsive; intuitive to use and administer; and integrates seamlessly with other IM products and protocols, such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).
Full story... http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2007/090307-test-im.html
David Sayer | 11 March 2008 01:58:09 PM ET | | Comments (0) | Permanent Link
For 8.0.1, IDC updated the pilot Notes and Domino Information Center to include an 8.0.1 version of the Domino Administration Help. The help includes the documentation for My Widgets, introduced in 8.0.1.
Here is a snapshot of the My Widgets TOC:
Amy Smith | 4 March 2008 11:15:00 AM ET | | Comments (1) | Permanent Link
We use the metaphor of a filing cabinet or bookshelf for our documentation, but sometimes, it feels more like a closet. With every release, we add more new things, pushing the older things to the back. Especially for mature products with a long documentation history, it can feel like an overstuffed closet, filled with things we never use, but are nevertheless reluctant to throw away.
There are the special occasion outfits -- elegant clothes meant to impress a single audience with the perfect look. There are the outfits that were part of a style trend, and now appear dated and out of fashion. There are the separates that looked so good you had to buy them, only to discover they couldn't be worn with anything else you owned.
How much of our documentation appeals to only a single limited audience? Would it be easier for people to find more commonly used information if this special occasion information didn't clutter up their search results? Thank goodness we didn't fall prey to the trend of using Flash for every introduction page, which would have been like having a closet full of top-stitched polyester leisure suits, but there are some other trends that influenced particular documentation. And we incorporated information from other sources into our documentation, whose style and content don't quite match the rest of it.
The Domino Designer documentation closet is overdue for a good cleaning, and we're taking the opportunity of switching to the Eclipse platform to give everything in it a good, hard look. Do we love it? Do we use it? Do we need it?
We don't plan on throwing anything away. But like a closet cleaning, where you give things you're not using to friends and charities that will, we'll consider repositioning information, taking it out of one set of documentation and putting it somewhere else so that it's easier to exclude from searches, or including links to information maintained by others rather than duplicating that information.
Best of all, like a freshly cleaned closet, once all of our documentation has been migrated into Eclipse, everything will be visible and easy to find. There will be plenty of room for new things. And you may discover treasures you never knew were in there!
Jennifer Dunne | 4 March 2008 10:30:00 AM ET | | Comments (0) | Permanent Link
Try out the IBM Custom Content Assembler!
We are kicking off a proof of concept of a new application that lets you search and assemble content into custom PDF and HTML files. IBM Custom Content Assembler helps you to easily find and organize information and store it in a topic cart. Then, you can compile the topics into your own custom guide.
We are providing IBM® Lotus® Connections 1.02 technical and learning content for this proof of concept.
To get started, click here: http://info2.lotus.com/cca
Follow the instructions on the home page to create your own guide for Lotus Connections.
As always, your feedback is welcome!
Kathleen Murphy | 21 February 2008 05:30:00 PM ET | | Comments (0) | Permanent Link
