[Lotus Notes Sucks: Example 21]

Sorting Mail Messages

Problem

Lotus Notes allows me to sort my email messages by the sender, date and size:

Analysis

But I can't sort by subject header. My employer sends me a mail message everyday telling us about various work related activities. These messages all begin with the same abbreviation in the subject header. These messages are no good the day after I receive them—to keep them is like keeping last week's TV Guide. The problem is that sometimes they pile up. If I could sort by subject header, I could delete them easily. But Lotus Notes won't let me.

Some of you out there are probably thinking, "Write an agent." My response is, I don't want to write an agent. I want to sort by subject header.

Update

An email message from Jon B.:

Recently while fighting with notes, I discovered something that should have been implemented on Day 1, or at least by Release 6. You can sort by subject, but not on the INBOX. In the default template for 6.5.3, you can create new folders for categorizing your mail, or for sorting messages based on rules you write.

Right click the new folder you created
Sselect Design folder. The screen splits into several windows, some containing code that appears to be the internal commands for the mail interface.
On the small dialog box appears above everything else, select the Subject bar on the right.
Click the tab in the small dialog box that has the two up and down arrows
Select Click on column header to sort.
Click the Close button (X) on the tab that opened for designing your folder, and click Yes to save your changes.

As much as I hate to discredit your Notes issues, I think this issue should remain in the list, but could be appended with this information as a method for working around the default obstacles Lotus has presented the user. I can't understand why this feature is not present in the default view, or why it cannot be applied to the inbox.

User Interface Guideline Violations

Interface does not follow established conventions, such as allowing the user sort his mail in a useful manner.
Forcing the user to deal with stupidity.

Conclusion

Lotus Notes sucks.