Introduction

IBM Notes client can be launched in numerous ways. Every launch mechanism has a different usage and function to perform.
Some of them also vary according to platform.

Launch Notes from command line

Navigate to the Notes client install path. All the launch mechanisms are actually in the form of commands issued from command line. So, we need to navigate to the Notes client install path.

In this article, we assume that the Notes Client has been installed in the default path. The default install path is listed for various platforms in below table:

Platform	Default Install path	Executable file
WinXP	C:\Program Files\IBM\Notes	notes.exe
Win7-64bit, Win8-64bit	C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Notes	notes.exe
Linux	/opt/ibm/notes/	notes*
MAC	/Applications/IBM Notes.app/Contents/MacOS	Notes*

* Make sure that you use correct capitalization of notes executable.

To execute the below commands navigate to the above install path and execute the commands.
E.g. on Windows # C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Notes>notes.exe mail
In case you have installed Notes client at a different path other than default, then you need to navigate to that install path.

Description of the command	Windows	Linux	Mac
Start Notes Standard client	notes.exe	./notes	./Notes
Start Notes Basic client There are two ways of launching Notes Basic client. * Basic client is supported only on Windows platform.	1. notes.exe -sa 2. notes.exe -basic	NA	NA
Start Notes client and open Mail application	notes.exe mail	./notes mail	./Notes mail
Start Notes Basic client and open mail tab	notes.exe -basic mail	NA	NA
Open a specified database from a specified server	notes.exe serverName!!dbName.nsf	./notes serverName\!\!dbName.nsf	./Notes serverName\!\!dbName.nsf
1. Start Notes 2. Open New Message tab to compose a mail 3. Populate the 'To' field of this message with email id as 'user@ibm.com'.	notes.exe mailto:user@ibm.com	./notes mailto:user@ibm.com	./Notes mailto:user@ibm.com
1. Start Notes 2. Open New Message tab to compose a new mail 3. Populate the 'To' field with email id as 'user@ibm.com'. 4. Set the Subject field with subject as 'Mail Subject' 5. Add the specified attachment to the body of the mail.	notes.exe mailto:user@ibm.com?Subject=MailSubject?Attach=C:\mailAttachment.ppt	./notesmailto:user@ibm.com?Subject=MailSubject?Attach=/home/mailAttachment.log	./Notes mailto:user@ibm.com?Subject=MailSubject?Attach=/Users/userName/Desktop/mailAttachment.html
Start Notes and launch the specified URL in the browser. The choice of the browser being used (Embedded or External) depends on the preference set in Preferences-> Web Browser	notes.exe http://www.ibm.com	./notes http://www.ibm.com	./Notes http://www.ibm.com
Start Notes by specifying the path to the different ini file.	notes.exe "=C:\notes.ini"	./notes "=/home/User/Desktop/notes.ini"	./Notes "=/Users/user/Library/Preferences/Notes Preferences"
Start Notes and launch the local nsf file	1. If nsf file lies in Data directory - notes.exe names.nsf 2. If nsf lies anywhere else other than Data directory- notes.exe C:\names.nsf	./notes /opt/ibm/notes/data/names.nsf	./Notes /Users/user/Library/Application\ Support/IBM\ Notes\Data\names.nsf
Start Notes and then open specified local Notes doc link.	notes.exe C:\Notes\Data\docLink.ndl	./notes /home/User/Desktop/docLink.ndl	./Notes /Users/user/Desktop/doclink.ndl
Start Notes and then open the specified document using its URI.	notes.exe notes://doc uri	./notes notes://doc uri	./Notes Notes://doc uri
Start Notes as an OLE server	notes.exe -EMBEDDING	NA	NA
Start Notes minimized	notes.exe -sa /AUTOMATION	NA	NA
Start Notes and launch the OSGI console	notes.exe -RPARAMS -console	./notes -RPARAMS -console	./Notes -RPARAMS -console
Start Notes after cleaning your cache	notes.exe -RPARAMS -clean	./notes -RPARAMS -clean	./Notes -RPARAMS -clean
Start Designer client. There are two ways to launch Designer client from command line.	1. notes.exe /design 2. designer.exe	NA	NA
Start Administrator client. There are three ways to launch Administrator client from command line.	1. admin.exe 2. notes.exe -sa ADMINONLY 3. notes.exe -sa /admin	NA	NA

Launch Notes with specified db

Users can specify a database to be launched once the Notes client is started. To enable this edit the notes.ini file and add the parameter STARTUPDB and specify the replica id for that database- STARTUPDB=REPLICA_ID

Launch Notes from external Sametime

You can also start Notes using the external Sametime. Initiate the chat with someone and then from Tools menu select Send->As Email...
This will start Notes and open a new Message tab with the chat transcript populated in the body of the email.

Launch Notes from browser using Send Email option

If the user wants to email the link to the web page then it can be emailed from within browser using below options-

Launch Notes on OS reboot

Windows

You can have Notes launched whenever you start Windows by adding the Notes shortcut to Windows Startup directory. Follow below steps to add Notes to your startup directory. ◦ Open following directory - C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
◦ Right click the Notes application icon on desktop and select Copy. Paste this shortcut in the above Startup folder.◦ Right click the Notes application icon on desktop and select Copy.
◦ Locate the Startup folder. It is located in the Start Menu. Click on Start button and find it.
◦ Now right-click on the Startup folder and click on “Open”. If you use multiple profiles on you Windows PC and want the program to start with every profile, click on “Open all users”.
◦ Right click anywhere inside the folder and click on “Paste Shortcut”

Mac OS

◦ Click on Apple icon and then select System Preferences.
◦ Click on Accounts/Users & Groups icon under the category 'System'
◦ Click on Applications category and then select 'IBM Notes' application from the list and click on Add button.
◦ Now whenever Mac is restarted then it will automatically launch Notes client.

Linux

◦ On RHEL go to Systems -> Preferences -> Startup Applications
◦ Click on Add button. In 'Add Startup Program' dialog enter any name for this command and then click on Browse... button.
◦ In 'Select Command' dialog select 'notes' command and click on 'Open' button.
◦ Click on Add button 'Add Startup Program' dialog. Then click Close.
◦ Now whenever RHEL is restarted then it will automatically launch Notes client.

Launch Notes Basic client (supported only on Windows platform)

If you have installed Standard Notes but would like to use Basic Notes client then you can add below parameter to notes.ini. This is supported only on Windows OS.
usebasicnotes=1

About the Author

Swapnil Nimbalkar is working with IBM - India Software Labs, as Staff Software Engineer with Notes Client product team since September 2012. You can reach Swapnil at snimbalk@in.ibm.com.