Lotus Notes is a crime against humanity. In exhibit 001-G we see how Notes is unable to commit.
“Notes isn’t JUST an email program,” its proponents will crow, “it’s a full-featured highly capable application platform!” Of course it is. The idea that email is really just an afterthought and not a core competency seems somehow positive, almost comforting to them. It probably also explains why Notes often forgets what version you’re actually using and takes you down little walks on memory lane.
My current email toolbar looks like this:
But sometimes when I select an archived mail folder I get the Notes 6.5 toolbar:
Now the 6.5 toolbar was nice (for Notes). I remember being very happy when it arrived: you could finally “Reply to All” a little more sensibly and, in a Notes first, you could see the time of the message and sort by the message subject (these snazzy new features only took 17 years to make it into the product). But I can’t say I ever really missed it.
But Notes don’t want you to forget its nobel roots. That’s why when you move to an even older folder you are sometimes granted an audience with the Notes 5.x toolbar:
What’s truly impressive is that Notes also brings you back to the limitations of the version 5.x. No longer can you sort by subject, easily reply to all or see the time the message was sent. But you do get to see how nicely a forest green toolbar looks in a pale blue interface.
Yes, I know, this is clearly a configuration issue – something our local mail admins could probably fix. The fact is however that there isn’t a soul on earth that wants to configure multiple toolbars across mail folders – especially when those toolbars lack basic functionality. Nobody needs this, nobody wants this, nobody should ever have to dig through the slimy innards of Notes to figure out how to get rid of it.
