by markus seitz :: 

We've had a couple of complaints that skinning doesn't work in 8.5.1. I was unable to reproduce this issue until Tong (thanks!) sent me his notes.ini. Looks like it's the same old thing after all: at a certain font size Notes falls back to untextured workspace (i don't know why this issue occured after upgrading to 8.5.1 - my guess would be that notes has changed some font settings).

Here's how you enable textured workspace:
(actually there's a policy that prevents me from doing just that)
A picture named M2


It's one of the preferences that take effect immediately.
That's what it should look like afterwards (with skinning disabled):
A picture named M3


Here's the untextured workspace (left is basic, to the right the "new" workspace look in the standard/eclipse client) - this is what you'll also get if the font size is too large:
A picture named M4      A picture named M5

       
Up to at least r7 there's no system setting that would affect the font / font size used for the desktop icons. There's one notes.ini setting though: Display_font_adjustment
See here: To change font settings in your NOTES.INI file

The eclipse client has a new setting:
A picture named M6

This setting is stored in the notes.ini:
FontIncrease=4
UserFontIncrease=4

(0=Normal, 2=Large, 4=Extra Large)

This is also observed by the basic client - there's just no UI equivalent, you'll have to modify your notes.ini to change it.

Here's another trap - if you increase the font size it's working temporarely - until you restart you client.
(before and after restart):
A picture named M7 A picture named M8

(Notice that skinning still works for the twistie - a good indication that this problem is caused by fonts...)

So what if you like the font the way it is? Here's what you do:

- rename you old skinning folder (it's in your data directory)
- download this and extract the skinning folder to your data directory:
- restart your client

Unfortunately it's a different skin and i've just upscaled it (could have done a better job - i'm no good at GIMP), here's what it looks like:
A picture named M9

btw: have i mentioned yet that 8.5.1 is a great release?

And since this entry has been all about  UI  - make sure you read Mary Beth Ravens blog to learn about all the new cool (UI related) stuff in 8.5.1...

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by florian vogler :: 
panagenda has moved - from our previous office in 2340 Mödling, Austria, we have moved into the heart of Vienna,
150 meters next to Vienna town hall and 1.5 km from Vienna's city centre (St. Stephans cathedral, 10 min. with Underground, 15 min. on foot):


View Larger Map

Our new address and contact details are:

Address
panagenda GmbH
Doblhoffgasse 7 / 6a
1010 Wien
Austria

Contact
phone: +43 1 89 012 89
cell: +43 699 1033 6123
fax: +43 1 89 012 89 - 15

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by florian vogler :: 
Short before Christmas, this is an interesting read at the end of 2008 - and the beginning of the new year 2009.
In a letter to IBM, Ian Tree suggests to open source Notes Domino. I do not dare to ask whether this will actually fly, but more so whether it could if it would. What do you think?

btw, Ian also has some nice tech stuff, like this one explaining how to best get a document's response documents using the C-API.

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by florian vogler :: 


Spoiler

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by florian vogler :: 
It's been extensive travel, travel, travel for the past several weeks - thus no blogging at all. I'm just not a road-warrior-blogger ... I keep asking myself and others how to best blog when on the road - with nothing but a BlackBerry and a normal laptop, I personally find it difficult to blog. Ah, and no, I haven't gone as far as starting to twitter from just about everywhere about "my last five minutes three times every quarter of an hour". My feeling is that Twitter asks too much of me at this moment in time, or I am just about too much of an introvert to just Twitter, blog etc. "without thinking" (feels like having to babble without thinking to me, at least - I am not trying to say others don't think before they Twitter or blog; my brain is just too oldschool ;-)).

travel.pngAnyway, on one of my flights short before the European Soccer Championship I found the boarding pass (on the right) in the seat pocket in front of me - and I always thought boarding passes would have to be personal, issued to the name of a passenger ... - jfi, BayernMuenchen is the name of a German soccer club

On another flight, they had to reboot the audio/video system, and I don't know why, but my video screen showed boot progress ... it took about 15 minutes for the Windows CE based system to reboot, which reminded me of modern cellphones that often need near to a minute - if not more - to (re)boot; any modern phone is a disaster in just about any emergency situation if you need to turn it on in that very moment (not that I encountered any emergency situation whilst traveling, thank god).
reboot.jpg

Anyway, my calendar currently says I'll be in the office for the most part in the next two weeks, so that should allow for some blogging again :)

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by florian vogler :: 
As promised, here are the instructions on how to create your own Lotus Notes skin for (the free, just now released in the previous post) MarvelClient Skinning Edition:

  1. The image files supplied in the download are defined as follows:
    Note: this is the same download as in the previous post

    1. def_background.bmp: the background image - details under 2.)
    2. def_icon_down.bmp: the image for selected icon tiles
    3. def_icon_up.bmp: the image for normal / non-selected icon tiles
    4. def_sitemap_down.bmp: the image for selected portfolio databases (e.g. bookmark.nsf)
    5. def_sitemap_up.bmp: the image for normal / non-selected portfolio databases
    6. def_twistie_old.bmp: a placeholder image which is replaced with def_twistie_new at runtime -
      the def_twistie_old.bmp should not be changed regarding colors/contents/format, but only resized according to the exact size of def_twistie_new.bmp
    7. the size determines the "clickable" area of the final twisty.
    8. def_twistie_new.bmp: the image of the notes twisty / hinky-minky (=to select server for replicas)
    9. def_r6_default.bmp: the replacement high-color icon image for newly created databases
    10. old_r6_default.bmp: the original "default" Notes 6/7 database icon for newly created databases
      note: any transparency in the original icon must be replaced with the color black for MarvelClient to replace the image at runtime.
    11. def_r6_mail.bmp: the replacement high-color icon image for mail databases
    12. old_r6_mail.bmp: the original "default" Notes 6/7 mail database icon
      note: any transparency in the original icon must be replaced with the color black for MarvelClient to replace the image at runtime.

      13. - you can create as many old_r6_* and def_r6_* icon pairs as wanted/needed (ok, performance may suffer it it's several hundred or so ;-))
      - all of the above images can be 24bit or 24bit+8bit alpha (=32bit) bitmap files
      - for the background image, alpha is not supported, but 24bit only.
      - using a 16bit background image creates a (very) weird effect when navigating through notes and back to the workspace
      in other words: 24bit bitmaps for the background only

      The background is not optimized / resized for the current resolution of the client to be skinned - if the background is too large, the client will only render as much on screen as fits the resolution;
      if the background is too small, it will be tiled - whilst for photos this is a drawback, you can certainly also take advantage of this with a tiled background (e.g. Escher or a repeatable pattern - by default, the Notes client uses a pattern, too)

  2. When creating a new skin, tiles can have ANY size LARGER than the default Notes tiles (a little bit smaller, too, however if it gets too small to render the database icon, title etc. into the tile, don't expect the Notes client to not crash ;-)).
    Note: Displaying bookmarks as (virtual) workspace does not support larger images - it's up to you, whether you want to create a skin that works for both the classic Notes desktop and the bookmarks as workspace display or just the Notes desktop.

  3. Unfortunately, at least as of "now", the text on icon tiles is always black for non-selected tiles, blue for selected (we are looking into it) - keep this is in mind when designing the icon tile, as a black icon tile or dark background "shining trhough" will render the database title unreadable

  4. The database / bookmark icon is always at the top left of an icon / bookmark tile. Period.
    (Applies to all other objects, such as position of unread mark display, twisty, and title, too)

  5. All icon objects (database icon, title, twistie) are moved by 4 pixels down and to the right when clicking on icon tiles. So if you design your new set, the selected tile should fit with that "4x4-pixel-shift"

  6. Repeated: Make sure that def_twistie_old has the same size as def_twistie_new (to fit clickable area) and is only changed in size

  7. If you don't want to replace a particular bitmap / skin a particular object, just remove the respective file

  8. Seeing the results of your changes requires a client restart (to reload the images)


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by florian vogler :: 
We are proud to herewith finally bring panagenda MarvelClient Skinning Edition 2.0 (also referred to as GYWAM 2.0 - Give Your Workspace A Makeover 2.0) to life - for FREE (click on the screenshot to download):


Note the system requirements: IBM Lotus Notes 6.x, 7.x, or 8.x (as of today; Notes 5 on request), any language, and setup / install type supported by IBM; Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, or Citrix / WTS.
A note especially - but not necessarily limited - to Notes 8 users: Textured Workspace must be enabled (which in Notes 8 it is not by default, hence the pastel look) --> User Preferences --> Check "Textured Workspace"; for bookmark maniacs, skinning also works with the virtual workspace (display bookmark folder as workspace).
Background image kindly provided by Ed Brill.
Portfolio icon from Jake Howlett' blog.


A gallery containing the fantastic skins of all skinning volunteers to follow shortly - we would in general very much appreciate, if you would share any customized skins you create with us, so that we can make them available to the community - naturally including appropriate credit (if not fame).
We will also add instructions in just a bit on how to create your own skins here (= on this blog) - Updated: Now to be found here.


In case you are also interested in further Lotus Notes client management features:
The skinning feature is naturally also included in panagenda MarvelClient Enterprise Edition, a solution for central(ized) Lotus Notes Client Management.

MarvelClient is the only Lotus Notes client management solution that works with the original Lotus Notes login dialog and applies changes immediately during client startup in as little as just a few hundred ms - no need for end users to restart their client again to apply changes that were downloaded just now, and a solution that is virtually unnoticable for end users.

MarvelClient Enterprise Edition allows to centrally manage (abstract):

  • Workspace pages (add, move, clear, delete, color, (re)name, ...)
  • Desktop Icons & Icon stacks (add, position, remove, (mass)change, ...)
  • Replicator page entries (add, position, set details, remove, (mass)change, ...
  • Replicas and local databases (add, (smart) remove, enforce, ...)
  • Bookmark folders and Bookmarks (including formula bookmarks; add, remove, position, (mass)change, ...)
  • Dedicated ECL Management (way beyond ECL Refresh)
  • Masschanges for any size of consolidation, recertification, and migration project - up to 1,500 changes per second make sure that end users that come back from e.g. a four week holiday don't have to go on holiday again waiting for a many changes to be processed, that may have piled up during their absence in larger projects.
  • Realtime control over which servers users (and their client ;-)) may/shall connect to
  • Realtime control over which databases may be created or deleted by end users
  • and more.
Thanks for stopping by!

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by florian vogler :: 
If you're as much into coffee as I am and happen to live or stop by in Munich / Bavaria / Germany, make sure you visit Mio Piccolo Cafe!
Directions from Munich Airport
Kaffeeliebhaber, die in München / Umland leben oder auf der Durchreise sind, sollten unbedingt beim Mio Piccolo Cafe vorbeischauen!
Anfahrt vom Münchener Flughafen

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by florian vogler :: 




Giuseppe from DominoPoint.IT is the first to deliver a new skin for the upcoming free Skinning Edition of MarvelClient, which allows you to freely customize the look of both the good old Lotus Notes desktop/workspace as well as the virtual workspace (= display bookmark folders as workspace).

More skins to come - thanks to quite a few volunteers.

Just a little more patience ...

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by florian vogler :: 
Go Play! or watch the video below:


... or watch a Kiwi (think he can) fly (There's at least two "Re: Kiwi" videos that help bear the end ... *sniff*)

Update: And if you're up for a total brainwash, Go listen! (I warned you ...)

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