Save time searching

If you are like me, you spend much of your time using Lotus Notes but still need to search for data on different websites.  These could include product information sites, help documentation, customer applications or even a dictionary site looking up the meaning of an unknown word.  In the past this involved opening up my web browser, navigating through multiple layers of bookmarks, clicking on the search field then finally entering the text and clicking search.  Occasionally, the text I needed was in an email or document that I could copy saving me the pain of typing.
 
With the Notes integrated Search Center, you can quickly search the web from inside Lotus Notes.  You can not only search the web, but also email, Notes Databases along with other types of data.  In addition to allowing users to manually enter text, you can execute a search from the context menu of a text selection.  You can select text, right click, and choose any of the search engines under the search menu.

Add custom search engines in seconds

Lotus Notes ships with two default search engines, Yahoo and Google.  Though these are the search engines I use most often, they are far from a comprehensive list.  Notes allows users to quickly add their own search engine from any website using the embedded browser.  Simply follow these steps to create search engines from your favorite or most useful web sites.

1. Open the Notes embedded browser


2. Navigate to a web page that contains a search engine.  For this example, we will use www.ibm.com as our search example.
3. Search for any term using the search option on the web page.For this example, we will use the search term "Lotus"
4. After the results are displayed, simply click the "Configure a Widget from Current Context..." menu action.



5. Select the "Add Search Engine: [Title of Search Page] Search Engine based on a paramter" and click the Next button.
6. Enter a Title for your search Engine and use the combo box to select your search term and click Finish.

Share the wealth

The only thing better than customizing your Notes client to be more productive is to share it with your peers.  The Search Engine wizard not only adds your new search engine to your Notes Search Center, but also creates a widget in your widget sidebar.  By leveraging the widget framework, users can quickly and easily share their custom search engine with others.  The widget framework also allows administrators to automatically provision custom search engines to all their employees.