VERSION 8

Previously codenamed Hannover, IBM went Gold in August after a very successful public beta programme which anyone could download. Running on the Eclipse platform IBM have changed the look and feel of the client, added a whole host of facility and improved the Domino server (read our technical article
“version 8 is not all about the client”).

New client features include:

Email

Improved navigation can make end users more efficient.

IBM has redesigned the user interface to make your mail file even easier to use. Vertical and horizontal preview panes are now available together with visual clues that show messages with threads (click on the indicator and view the e-mail thread).

Calendaring & Scheduling

Greater control over meetings and improved user interface.

New daily and weekly views in the Calendar allow users to customize the look of Lotus Notes 8 to better fit the way they work.

Lotus Notes 8 makes rescheduling meetings easier. Users can deselect invited persons and leave only the most critical attendees on the invitation list. This makes it easy to find a time that works for the people that have to be involved.

Contacts

The new Contacts interface in Lotus Notes 8 allows users to store and view photographs of their contacts.

New contact card views open in a separate window to help users keep critical information at their fingertips.

Users can also search for recent collaborations with specific individuals.

Productivity Tools

Create, edit and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

This includes a complete set of office productivity tools which support the Open Document Format (ODF) standard. If you have used Open Office then you will know how to use this already. These productivity tools include word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation capabilities as well as compatibility with the MS Office suite.

Composite Applications

Create mashups of business applications which can improve personal effectiveness.

Composite Applications allow you to bring together different data sources and present the information in one place. These can be Notes databases, Java, web applications or even a CRM to name a few ideas.

Read the IBM ND8 Brochure here

Read the IBM white paper on version 8 here

Read the IBM Lotus Notes & Lotus Domino Roadmap here

For further details of version 8, take a look at the IBM Lotus version 8 website www.ibm.com