New Notes 6 variables

In the October issue of LDD Today, Professor INI looked at new server variables introduced in Domino 6. This month, we'll continue on a similar theme and discuss new Notes workstation variables.

When comparing last month's column to this one, the most obvious difference you'll notice is that there are far fewer new workstation variables than server ones. Also, strictly speaking, not all of the following workstation variables are actually new. Some were included in previous releases. However, Notes 6 is the first release in which these variables are fully supported and documented. So they are indeed "new" in that they are now available for your use—provided, of course, you're an experienced Domino administrator and/or Notes user, and ideally only work with Notes.ini while under the guidance of Lotus Support. (As you might suspect, there are other new, unsupported Notes.ini variables in Notes 6. Professor INI is not at liberty to discuss them here, but if possible, we'll try to cover at least some of them in future columns.)

Two new variables in Notes 6 concern accessibility:

• MSAACompatibility. Due to changes in the accessibility interface between Notes 6 and R5, some screen readers announce no values when reading a Notes 6 document, but they repeat field names. You can avoid this by instructing Notes 6 to emulate R5 behavior. To do this, add MSAACompatibility = V5 to your workstation's Notes.ini file.
• MSAAFieldNameHelp. By default, when Notes 6 provides information to an accessibility aid, it uses the field's name as the field description if the description is blank. Similarly, Notes 6 uses the field description as the field name if there is none. Some usability applications, however, may require that the field name and field description be distinct. To turn off this default, add the variable MSAAFieldNameHelp = -1 to your client Notes.ini file.

Two other Notes.ini variables that we introduced in Notes 6 concern full-text search: FT_Max_SearchResults and FT_Summ_Default_Language:

• FT_Max_Search_Results specifies the maximum number of results that can be retrieved at one time on a database without an index. For example, FT_Max_Search_Results=10000 allows a single NotesDatabase or NotesDocumentCollection FTSearch to return up to 10,000 entries. The maximum setting for this variable is 2147483647; the default is 5000.
• FT_Summ_Default_Language determines the language for a document summary in search results whenever the language in the document is not supported. For example, FT_Summ_Default_Language=french sets the document summary language as French. You can also specify FT_Summ_Default_Language=default to select your Notes default language, if supported. If you omit this variable from your Notes.ini file, Notes uses English.

The setting UserInterface (not currently documented in Notes/Domino help) can be useful to international users. This variable identifies the language of the localized client. Normally, you can't use this variable to change from one language to another (for example, switching from French to German). But if you remove UserInterface from your Notes.ini, your Notes dialog boxes, menus, messages, and infoboxes appear in English. (Templates, however, remain in the local language.) This can be helpful if you contact support people who speak only English.

Another variable we're "revealing" in Notes 6 is DisabledPorts. This setting indicates which ports are disabled for your workstation (or server; DisabledPorts applies to both Notes and Domino). Ports are enabled/disabled in the Ports tab of the User Preferences dialog box in the Notes client and in the Server document's Port tab for servers.

Notes 6 also includes Sched_Dialing_Enabled, which enables/disables dialing out to check Busy Time. Sched_Dialing_Enabled=1 (the default) enables dialing out to check Busy Time; Sched_Dialing_Enabled=0 disables it.

Finally, there's a Notes.ini variable called Incoming Mail Sound, which specifies the tune that plays when new mail arrives. (The file is a sound file, usually a WAV file.) This is simply the Notes 5 variable NewMailTune, renamed for Notes 6.

For detailed information on these and all other Notes/Domino 6 variables, see the Domino Administration help, which you can download from the Documentation Library.


Do you have a Notes.ini question? Send it in to Professor INI. We'll answer as many questions as we can in future "Ask Professor INI" columns. Keep in mind, however, that we may not be able to answer every question, nor can we quickly respond to requests that require immediate attention. If you need an immediate response to a question, we recommend you post it in the Notes/Domino 6 Forum or the Notes/Domino 4 and 5 Forum where someone from the general Notes community might be able to help, or contact Lotus Support Services.