Instant IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.3 How-to Paperback – March 25, 2013

Ehhh...there are a handful of things in here that aren't patently obvious to the average computer user. But on the whole, this book is incredibly underwhelming. I'm a savvy Outlook user who is now forced to use Notes; I was hoping this book would be a primer to get me started on becoming a power user here, too.I just paid $11 for a Kindle version of this book; it took me half an hour to work through the entire thing. What I wanted, but didn't get, just for starters:- Keyboard shortcuts- How to handle calendar messages in the inbox- Archiving tipsMeh. Find another one. It's written well-enough, but if you're a sophisticated user you'll be disappointed.

Very very basic information at a high price

IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.3 How-to is a short book by computer standards. It's 68 pages and includes a lot of illustrations. This meant that I could literally read it during a one-way trip to work on the bus.For the most part however its short length is good because it manages to introduce many concepts not found in books several times its size and deals with them quickly in a non talky way. It's straight down to business.The book doesn't identify a single audience but rather targets simple, intermediate and advanced users. This allows you to get a lot of long-term use out of the book but it also means that for "simple users", reading through the book cover-to-cover isn't really an option. For example, the book jumps straight from a chapter on mail customization into replication and then modifying INI file settings.Simple users are much better off picking the chapters that are marked "simple" and sticking with them. This is easy though because the chapter headings include tags which indicate the level at which they are pitched;Arguably, the best chapter is the last one where Barry talks about how to settle Outlook users into Notes. Having been on Notes for so many years myself, I've forgotten how alien it can sometimes seem to newbies but I'm always reminded as soon as a new ex-outlook employee starts. That last chapter will hopefully change all that and get those new users up and running in no time.The book doesn't shy away from many of the more complex user-topics, like managed replication and widgets and it covers some very useful material in other areas too, like managing multiple signatures on your mail.This is a great little book which every IT and HR department should have. It's a great "up and running" guide to Lotus Notes 8.5.3 and because of the advanced content, it has long term benefits too.

Instant IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.3 How-to is the latest Lotus Notes title out of Packt Publishing. If you are new to the How-to series, they are the Packt equivalent to the O'Reilly pocket guides.This short to-the-point book will likely be a welcome sight to end-users who tend to have little to no interest in the massive tomes that are usually published. Each chapter follows an easy to understand format of problem or topic, followed by "Getting ready", "How to do it", "How it works", and finally "There's more". When used properly, this formula can make it easy for the reader to find quick answers to specific topics or problems. Sadly, these sections really are not used to their full extent in many chapters. For instance, the chapter Mastering Calendar and To-Dos uses calendar federation as its "How to do it" with the real calendar mastering tips in the "There's more" section. Maybe it's me, but it just doesn't read smooth.Now, that said, it doesn't mean that this book is bad. In fact, there are many very useful tips. I would go so far as to say that I would be quite happy if every one of my customer's end-users had this book on their desk. You just need to look past this books quirks and you'll find some wonderful nuggets of information.Disclaimer: Packt Publishing provided a free review copy of the book for the purpose of this review.

I think book has value - it's only about 60-70 pages - many good tips to get up and running quicklyhttps://www.packtpub.com/article/customizing-your-ibm-lotus-notes-experience