Notes 9 Public Beta is Fast

Having finally got around to installing the public beta, as a Design Partner I have been using the previous beta code I am impressed by the speed of the client.

Here are a few simple yet beneficial bits of information.

• It moves much more fluidly than the 8.5.x stream. More web speed than Windows speed.

• There is now a Discover tab area which is sort of like a GUI for help and a welcome to Notes on line learning area. Right now the video links are not connected but a number of useful items from mailing, search, calendar and more will be there for all the new users and even find some new pieces for us old guys.

• The IBM Connections plugins and widgets all work in the beta so far as well.

• When in your inbox, click on the Show drop down from the upper right corner of the inbox. The Group by Date option will let you know just how bad you are at inbox zero (50 messages for December in mine) 

• Also under Show is the new Beginning of Message option will show you just what it says, the beginning of the messages.

Two personal preference things which I changed:
If you are not a fan of the shades of grey look, change the theme.
I set it to my Operating System Theme for my Windows7 laptop.
Steps from your Notes client: File->Preferences->Windows and Themes and the Theme option drop down.

The other thing I changed is the new blue icon. I don't mind the change, but since my background is blue as well it blends in and I miss my yellow/orange icon. So with that in mind I created a Lotus icon so I did not need the old notes.exe which housed it. If you want a copy, grab it here it is also on my Downloads tab. I made this using this site in case you wanted any other icons.

No doubt much more will come out in time as I use it further.