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Setup Guides - DoubleNotes

Because DoubleNotes is designed to run continuously, synching large amounts of records can cause problems with system performance. If you have problems with this, we recommend limiting the number of records being synchronized.

ALWAYS Backup Your Data Before Configuring DoubleNotes.

1. How do I configure DoubleNotes?
2. How do I sync with DoubleNotes?
3. What's the best way to do an initial sync?
4. DoubleNotes screens:
   1. The DoubleNotes Settings window
   2. The Contact Manager Settings window
   3. The configuration tabs
      1. Applications
      2. Notes Data
      3. Notes Login
   4. The You Are Now Ready To Synchronize window
5. Issues and things to watch out for:
   1. Changes not being made
   2. CPU usage
   3. Deleted/completed records not synchronizing
   4. Duplicate records
   5. Errors
   6. Installing, uninstalling and updating DoubleNotes
   7. Palm HotSync issues
   8. Synching with Outlook

1. Back up your data in Lotus Notes and in your contact manager.
2. If DoubleNotes is not installed, install it now.
3. Run DoubleNotes.
4. The DoubleNotes Settings window will open. Click Next.
5. The Contact Manager Settings window will open. Select your contact manager and click Next.
6. The configuration tabs for DoubleNotes will open. Configure DoubleNotes.
7. Click Apply, OK and Next.
8. The You Are Now Ready To Synchronize window will open.
9. Click Finish.
10. A prompt will appear saying, "Are you ready to begin the initial sync process?"
    • If you are ready to begin synchronization and you are sure that your data is backed up and that you have taken steps to prevent duplicate records, choose Yes. DoubleNotes will prompt you to reread either your contact manager or Lotus Notes. Choose the one that has your important data in it.
    • Otherwise, choose No and see What's the best way to do an initial sync?.

If DoubleNotes is running, you should see an icon for DoubleNotes in the Windows system tray, in the lower righthand corner of your computer desktop by the time. When DoubleNotes is actively looking for changes, this icon usually shows movement.


What's the best way to do an initial sync?

1. Back up your Lotus Notes and contact manager data.
2. Is your important data in Lotus Notes or your contact manager?
   • If all of your important data is in your contact manager, delete all of the data currently in the Lotus Notes Address and Calendar.
   • If all of your important data is in Lotus Notes, set up a new database in your contact manager and set DoubleNotes to synchronize to this database.
   • If you have important data in both places and none of it is similar, then continue with DoubleNotes configuration. You would not need to worry about duplicate records.
   • If you have important data in both places and some or all of it is similar, then you will experience duplicates. Consider synching one way, deleting the data from Lotus Notes or synching to a blank contact manager database.
3. Configure DoubleNotes. See How do I configure DoubleNotes? for more detailed information about the DoubleNotes configuration.
4. When you click Finish in DoubleNotes Setup, a prompt will appear saying, "Are you ready to begin the initial sync process?"
   • If you are ready to begin synchronization and you are sure that your data is backed up and that you have taken steps to prevent duplicate records, choose Yes. DoubleNotes will prompt you to reread either your contact manager or Lotus Notes. Choose the one that has your important data in it.
   • Otherwise, choose No.
5. If you choose No, a prompt will appear saying, "DoubleNotes needs to complete this configuration process including the initial sync before it can work properly. DoubleNotes will be disabled until this is done." Click on OK.
6. The DoubleNotes icon should now appear in your Windows system tray. It will be paused.
7. At this time, you may reconfigure DoubleNotes and change your settings or clear data from Lotus Notes and/or your contact manager to prevent duplicates.
8. Right-click the DoubleNotes icon in the Windows system tray and choose Advanced.
9. Select either 'Reread Data From Lotus Notes' or 'Reread Data From [Contact Manager]' depending on where your important data is.
10. If you are offered the choice to purge and reload your data, choose Yes. Important: If you choose Yes, your data will be deleted from Lotus Notes and reloaded from your contact manager. If you choose No, your data may duplicate.
11. DoubleNotes will now reread from either Lotus Notes or your contact manager.

DoubleNotes screens

You can access these screens either by running DoubleNotes Setup or by right-clicking the DoubleNotes icon in the lower righthand of your computer screen by the time and choosing DoubleNotes Setup.

Note: Do NOT run the DoubleNotes Setup program if DoubleNotes is already running.


The DoubleNotes Settings window
This is the first screen that comes up. It has a checkbox on it. Checking this boxes tells DoubleNotes to run when you start your computer. If you want to run DoubleNotes manually, then you would want to uncheck this box.


The Contact Manager Settings window
The dropdown menu on this screen allows you to select which contact manager you wish to synchronize with Lotus Notes. Lotus Notes is NOT listed here. This is because the DoubleNotes program is designed to sync a contact manager with Lotus Notes. Therefore, it is assumed that Lotus Notes will be used.


The configuration tabs

Please see DoubleNotes tab definitions for a complete list of tabs, their default settings and what these tabs do. Tabs specific to DoubleNotes have been listed below:

Applications
This tab allows you to choose which areas you wish to synchronize. Unchecked one of the selections here will result in that area not synching between your contact manager and Lotus Notes. For example, unchecking Datebook will keep your Lotus Notes Calendar area from synching with your contact manager and will keep your contact manager's activities from synching with Lotus Notes.

Notes Data
This tab allows you to select which Notes file you are synching with for your calendar and for your addresses. By default, your Lotus Notes Mail and Calendar file is located on your server, and your Address file is located on your local computer. Unless you know that these settings are wrong, DO NOT CHANGE THESE. If these settings are wrong, please contact our Technical Support department.

Notes Login
Your password for Lotus Notes is entered here.

The You Are Now Ready To Synchronize window
This screen completes the setup. It will tell you what Category Field you have selected and what this means. If this is an initial configuration, pressing Finish here will immediately ask you if you wish to synchronize. If you are not ready, or if you have similar data in both Lotus Notes and your contact manager, click No, and see What's the best way to do an initial sync? instead.

Issues and things to watch out for

Changes not being made
Please see below for a list of common reasons why DoubleNotes might not be synchronizing additions or changes to your data.

1. ACT! changes not synching to Lotus Notes. Right-click the DoubleNotes icon and choose About DoubleNotes. Make sure that you are on version 2.0, build 2546, or higher. Versions prior to this had a bug where ACT! data would not transfer.
2. ACT! notes not synching. In order for notes on a contact to sync between ACT! and Lotus Notes, this contact must not be open in ACT! when the synchronization occurs. This is because, if the contact is open in ACT!, ACT! locks the contact open so that DoubleNotes can't read or write data for that contact. DoubleNotes can only see changes/additions/deletions in contact notes if that contact has been closed in ACT!. (For instance, by switching to the Contact List view instead of the Contact view.) If you have the contact open when DoubleNotes syncs, this note will not transfer. On subsequent syncs, even if the contact is closed, this change will not be made, because, on the prior sync, DoubleNotes read the change in ACT! and recorded the fact of the change without being able to sync the data. Therefore, on subsequent syncs, it doesn't update this data because it sees the change as already having been synched.
3. Deleted records not synching. See Deleted/completed records not synchronizing.
4. DoubleNotes is paused. Right-click the DoubleNotes icon. At the top of this icon, it should say either Pause or Resume. If it says Resume, then DoubleNotes is paused and no changes will be made until you click on Resume.
5. Lotus Notes calendar data has not yet replicated. By default, the Lotus Notes mail and calendar file is on your server. The calendar data you see in your Lotus Notes program is actually a replicated copy of the server data. Changes to the Lotus Notes calendar will not appear to have synchronized until after the server has done this replication.
6. Lotus Notes needs to be refreshed. In Lotus Notes, changes will not appear automatically. If you have your address book or calendar open, changes will not be displayed unless you refresh the view. You can refresh the view by pressing F9, or by going to the View menu and choosing Refresh.
7. Not giving DoubleNotes enough idle time to sync. DoubleNotes only synchronizes if the computer has been idle for one minute. If the computer has not been idle for one minute, DoubleNotes will not synchronize. This is by design in order to ensure that DoubleNotes does not interfere with your use of the computer.
8. Notes on a contact not synching to GoldMine. If you have selected the option on the Notes tab in DoubleNotes to synchronize the notes from the contact's history tab in GoldMine, then you cannot add notes to a contact in Lotus Notes.

For DoubleNotes to be the most effective, you need to:

• Use the same version and build as on the Downloads page of our website. To check your version and build, right-click the DoubleNotes icon in the Windows system tray and choose About DoubleNotes.
• Make sure you have 3,000 records or fewer in your database. This includes calendar items. If you have more than this many records, then DoubleNotes will run slowly. If you do have more than 3,000 records, you should consider reducing the number of records being synched.

To synchronize deleted records, you would need to right-click the DoubleNotes icon in the lower righthand corner of the computer screen by the time and choose Advanced, then click on Clear Deleted Records. DoubleNotes will look to see what records have been deleted since the last time this option was selected or the first synchronization with DoubleNotes, whichever comes last. If you have not done this in a while, this process can take several minutes. It will then give you a prompt with the number of records deleted and will ask you if you want to delete these. This prompt will come up for each area synchronized.


Duplicate records
Duplicate records are very common with DoubleNotes, especially on the initial sync. This is because, by default, DoubleNotes moves all of the data from Lotus Notes to your contact manager and all of the data from your contact manager to Lotus Notes. If you have similar data in both your contact manager and Lotus Notes, this data will be duplicated on the initial sync. See What's the best way to do an initial sync? for help with avoiding duplicate records on the initial sync.

Other common causes of duplicates are:

• Uninstalling and reinstalling DoubleNotes. This process deletes the .dat files that DoubleNotes uses to tell it which files have been transferred. When these files are missing, DoubleNotes will read all files and transfer them. You would need to take specific steps to make sure that duplicates do not occur. See What's the best way to do an initial sync?
• Syncs not completing. If the DoubleNotes synchronization process does not complete (for instance, if there is an error or if the process is cancelled partway through) then the .dat files are not created. This results in all the records before the sync was cancelled being duplicated. If there is an error, please contact our Technical Support department.

1. Right-click the DoubleNotes icon in the Windows system tray.
2. Choose Pause.
3. Right-click the DoubleNotes icon again.
4. Choose Exit DoubleNotes.

If you have installed or uninstalled DoubleNotes, please see What's the best way to do an initial sync? before attempting to run DoubleNotes again.


Palm HotSync issues
In some cases, when DoubleNotes is set to sync with Palm Desktop, you may receive an error when trying to synchronize your Palm handheld. This error will say that HotSync cannot open the Datebook because it is already in use. If you are having this problem, then you would want to:

1. Make sure that you are on the current version and build of DoubleNotes. Right-click the DoubleNotes icon in the Windows system tray and choose About DoubleNotes. The version and build number here must match the version and build number on our Download page. If it does not, then you would want to update DoubleNotes.
2. If you are the current version and build of DoubleNotes, then right-click the DoubleNotes icon in the Windows system tray and choose Pause. HotSync your handheld. After this is finished, right-click the DoubleNotes icon again and choose Resume.