Team Blog

52 Comments

• Vern Howard said on Feb 26, 2010 7:25 AM:

  I have started using Symphony 3 Beta 2. I find it very easy to use. I have been using OpenOffice and find this is similar. I appreciate the ability to open a spread sheet and doc in the same window.
  
  I have found that it freezes every now and then. I will pay more attention to this and try to document it.
  
  Vernon.howard@gmail.com
  

• Udo said on Feb 27, 2010 8:38 AM:

  The new sidebar design is great. I like the new floating windows of the sidebar.
  
  Clicking the button „more options“ opens a dialog for advanced options. It would be easy to use, if the dialog would also be a floating window. When you open the dialog, you have no access to the document. You have to close the dialog first to get access to the dokument. To see the settings of the advanced options in the dialog, you have to click „OK“ and then you have to open the dialog again by clicking on the button „more options“ for further settings.
  
  The dialogs as floating windows (access to the document while the dialog is open) with an „Apply“ button instead of an „OK“ button, would be a great feature for future versions of Lotus Symphony.
  

• Ariel Sullivan said on Feb 28, 2010 11:17 AM:

  I would like to suggest:
  
  - Eliminate all modal windows, they are just awful;
  
  - Use Lotus SmartSuite infobox style (with ALL text/page/etc properties and not just the most important ones) in the sidebar;
  
  - use text tabs for divisions/sections of the text document, as in Lotus Word Pro, they're better than the navigator
  
  - The tables are for the moment difficult to move, without grips and also without a properties tab in the sidebar
  
  - And where's the equation module? Use professional TEX style, as Word Pro does.
  
  - In the web navigator, give the option to choose which engine to use: IE or other.
  
  Congratulations for your excellent work!
  

• Al Revzin said on Feb 28, 2010 1:23 PM:

  Mac Intel Mini, 1.66Ghz Core Duo, OS 10.6.2, 2GB RAM.
  
  Very buggy. Symphony crashed repeatedly, usually when I tried to change fonts in Writer mode, but also when I tried to paste text - among other procedures.
  
  So, I trashed the Beta and went back to 1.3 which works very well,
  
  Incidentally, in order for Symphony 1.3 to work with Snow Leopard, I had to install and run the program on an external disk drive; trying to install on the startup drive is a no-no.
  

• Ezequiel said on Feb 28, 2010 3:44 PM:

  Yes, I agree with the other comments, this beta is great but it crashes or freezes a lot, but I'm sure that you're going to solve it for 3.0 final.
  

• Tomas said on Mar 1, 2010 11:34 AM:

  Is there a link to see screenshots of the side bar and UI?
  

• Sterling said on Mar 1, 2010 7:55 PM:

  Symphony 3 is basically a new breath of life into the product. The UI is so much cleaner, more responsive, and the annoying blinking when selecting blocks of text is gone. I've so far used only the word processor, but that's my most common use.
  
  The presentation side left a lot to be desired in Symphony 1, but if the UI has improved as much as the word processor I'm sure it'll be more pleasant to use.
  
  Overall, very good work.
  

• Matteo said on Mar 2, 2010 9:20 AM:

  How i can integrate the version 3 beta 2 in Lotus Notes like version 1.3 ???
  
  Thanks
  

• Alfredo Ballon said on Mar 2, 2010 5:46 PM:

  How can I minimize the size of the Slide Thumbnails in 3 Beta 2
  

• ahines01 said on Mar 6, 2010 8:24 AM:

  Love the product. Will switch all office related items to Symphony as soon as final release is ready. Open Office is good, but I love the interface of Lotus.
  
  More documentation on data pilot. I can't get it to group on dates to allow me to look at groupings by months. How is that done now? When I select group by, nothing happens.
  
  Keep up the good work.
  

• Pete said on Mar 6, 2010 10:01 AM:

  I like the layout but am getting performance issues like very slow initial booting and loading and blocks of text or areas of a document that freeze or disappear temporarily during use. A powerpoint file (81mb in size) took many minutes to load today with the whole programme unresponsive and scrollbars flickering erratically.
  
  This is with Snow Leopard on a Mac Mini - running from the main hard drive, unlike the post above. May have to go back to 1.3 for the moment. Hard to tell but it does also seem to affect subsequent running of other programmes even after Symphony is quit.
  

• Shawn said on Mar 6, 2010 2:23 PM:

  I have a moderately complex document, multiple tables, embedded graphics, multiple fonts, and I've had perpetual problems with Open Office not leaving the graphics where they are placed no matter what I do, but I found Symphony was doing a better job, however it is also just arbitrarily changing the font and size of a bunch of text, and when I try to change it back, it wipes out most of the rest of the text.
  

• Graham Churchill said on Mar 9, 2010 4:12 PM:

  Has anything been done to reduce the memory footprint of this program. Resource consumption consistently seems to be the bigest inhibitor to Symphony's use.
  

• Amnon said on Mar 10, 2010 8:25 PM:

  I love the tab system, and would like to be able to save multiple tabs as one file, resembling Microsoft one note. It can be a great tool for documentation and procedure writing in one place.
  

• Barry said on Mar 12, 2010 2:44 PM:

  Many improvements. One minor item needing attention: When using the Spreadsheet module, the keyboard accelerator for Edit > Fill when accessed via ALT + E then "L" appears to be the same as for the Delete command. They both appear to be using an underlined "l" for their shortcuts. It is hard to see the underline for the Fill command - as it is very small - but it appears when you are not mousing into the menu. Thanks...
  

• AHS said on Mar 12, 2010 3:48 PM:

  In comparison with OpenOffice 3.2.0, both Lotus Symphony 1.3 and 3.0 Beta are very slower, the resource comsumption isn't solved, I hope these problems are no longer in the final version, otherwise I will not recommend more use for those who want to use.
  
  Even OpenOffice that many said was slow, now it is not a problem.
  
  Moreover, Lotus Symphony is very good.
  

• Zetheroo said on Mar 15, 2010 8:30 AM:

  Hi all,
  
  I am using Symphony 3 beta 2 in Ubuntu Karmic 64bit and it's working like a marvel! No freezes or crashes here!
  
  I have opened up a host of documents, spreadsheets and presentations and they all go well!
  
  I LOVE the new UI and find this to be so fast and efficient ... makes me want to switch to this over OpenOffice. I have been trying out Symphony since it's beta stage but never could stand the UI, but this just ROCKS!!!
  
  I cannot wait for the final to be released!
  
  Thank You developers!
  

• Zetheroo said on Mar 15, 2010 8:50 AM:

  See here for screenshots and how i got it working in 64bit Ubuntu Karmic: http://techies-r-us.com.au/blog/?p=510
  

• rhuber@alum.mit.edu said on Mar 16, 2010 7:09 PM:

  Absolutely spot on, this is a great step forward. Am using Ubuntu 9.10 on Thinkpad W500, this application is fast and rock-solid.
  
  Perhaps a UI mode selection package (maybe there is one) to select small tweaks for differences in platform would be good - I still have short cuts at my finger tips from legacy packages.
  
  An 'Emacs' like extensibility would be cool too... should be easy to drop in everything we learned here.
  
  Keep going - and thanks to the community to promote open standards. //r
  

• Denise said on Mar 17, 2010 2:30 AM:

  as Ariel mentioned earlier, please use Lotus SmartSuite Infobox style on the sidebar. That feature is something so convenient and separated the SmartSuite from all other office applications.
  
  And yes, WordPro tabs...
  
  And please add the import filter for SmartSuite files (lwp, 123 etc again).
  
  I also missed a button to create a PDF and directly mail it, as I can do in OpenOffice (Or I didn't find it)
  
  Thanks so far and keep going!
  

• Serge said on Mar 17, 2010 9:08 AM:

  UI is very very good, way better than OO. Sympony is faster also. Just wonder if the Lotus team could make the 'crop graphic' tool of Presentations work the same way for Documents and Spreadsheets... That is a show stopper for people coming from MS Office...
  

• Paul Evers said on Mar 19, 2010 1:32 PM:

  When do we get Lotus Approach?
  

• seasoned_geek said on Mar 22, 2010 3:53 PM:

  Have they fixed the PDF generation bugs they were blaming on the rendering engine?
  

• ryan said on Mar 23, 2010 11:36 AM:

  just try to improve on microsoft's Fluent User Interface...something like a cube-like infobox
  

• Didi said on Mar 29, 2010 4:13 AM:

  I'm missing a possibility to open .LWP-files.
  

• Chris said on Mar 30, 2010 5:03 AM:

  Can we run Lotus Symphony on Windows 7 platform ?
  
  Could you teach me, please?
  

• Alan said on Mar 31, 2010 2:48 PM:

  Symphony makes word processing easier. For example, to add page numbers, with Symphony just click on "Create" and on "Page Numbering". With OpenOffice.org, you must first go to "footers", create a footer, etc., which is NOT an easy and obvious way to do page numbering.
  
  For those of us who create documents only an hour or two each week, making basic features easy to use is essential. The majority of people who create documents at home a few times each month value being able to create a nice looking document without spending a lot of time learning how to use basic features.
  

• Gary said on Apr 1, 2010 6:32 AM:

  Opening new documents in tabs is great alternative to opening a new window every time.
  
  However can we allow navigation between the tabs with Ctrl+TAB Keys just like in a Web Browser??
  
  Maybe there is a keyboard shortcut that can be enabled for this in the config? If not I think it should be added before its brought out of Beta.
  

• Gary said on Apr 1, 2010 6:52 AM:

  I have discovered that Crtl+F8 performs the Tab Switching.
  
  Could you not have done the logical thing and kept to protocol like most other apps (Swicthing tabs in All Web Browsers, Switching Apps in all Operating Systems) and used Ctrl + TAB.
  

• Pete said on Apr 1, 2010 7:28 PM:

  Am I the only one? MS didn't get it, now they follow MS. Lets say it together: Spreadsheet is primary for manipulation of numbers. Now let's go to elementary school: 2+2 is 4, not 2+2. The main reason I hate Excel and probably never will switch from 123 voluntary, is that 2+2 is treated as a string, not as numbers or formula, totally stupid IMO, when you're dealing primarily with numbers. When I need strings I use Word. I refuse to type "=" every time I want add couple numbers, Pleease fix it.
  

• Pete said on Apr 1, 2010 11:51 PM:

  I can't open my lotus.123 files??? is this a joke? I understand older Excel versions don't open 123 files, but even OpenOffice opens .123 files and this one doesn't ? What am I doing wrong? I understand it's a beta version, but do we really need another copy of open office Calc, which is a copy of Excel. Lotus 123 is a good program on it's own, add some newer functions, update user interface, add new .ods format, but keep Lotus .123 format and its strong points: like "/" commands, numbers being numbers, not strings etc. otherwise I don't see the point. How can Lotus Symphony not open Lotus 123 files??? I hope those are just beta issues, to be fixed in final.
  

• miraceti said on Apr 2, 2010 1:52 AM:

  In my work I do a lot of merging from spreadsheets to documents. The way Symphony does this, compared to OOO, is just so simple and easy it is just brilliant. I can certainly see myself using Symphony. btw I like the layout using the side menu, yes it is taking a bit of getting used to but I think it will be well worthwhile. Also I like the way I can mix page sizes in Symphony, ie Portrait and Landscape.
  

• miraceti said on Apr 2, 2010 5:42 AM:

  I am using Linux Mint 8 and when I try to download clipart from your online repository in the Home page of Symphony it crashes as soon as I click the download button. A small and, for me, insignificant bug.
  

• Katie said on Apr 3, 2010 6:23 PM:

  I love Lotus Symphony. Best word processor I have ever used. I am using version 1.3 and it works perfectly on my computer. It loads quickly and I can't wait for the final release of Lotus Symphony 3.
  
  Thank's IBM.
  

• Ulrich said on Apr 4, 2010 8:58 AM:

  I miss the support for Smartsuite documents. Is this a joke or do you bury the SmartSuite?? In Beta 3.2 it`s not allowed to open documents like .LWP or .123.
  
  Trying to open such a file no error message or a any feedback returns.
  
  Thank´s for your help.
  

• miraceti said on Apr 6, 2010 11:21 PM:

  A bug. I apologise if this is the wrong place to post a bug report, I just cannot seem to find the right place :(
  
  When saving a table (6 columns x 4 rows) containing only text in mixed 12 and 10.5 point Ariel font some of the 10.5pt cells get their formatting changed to 16pt bold.
  

• Paul B said on Apr 8, 2010 5:24 AM:

  I love the interface - prefer it in many ways to Office 2007/10, and it's streets ahead of OpenOffice - but its lack of proper support for the Windows 7 taskbar is a show stopper for me. Get that right and I'd be tempted to switch.
  

• IBM'er said on Apr 9, 2010 2:51 PM:

  It blows! I have been using it for a 1 month now, and finally gave up and went back to Open office.
  
  Suggestions:
  
  Do not try to re-invent the wheel. the menus should be the same as the "other", I do not have to think "WTF is the menu item?", I should say "Great, just like the other app". e.g Cell format, import/export and about 15 more. Do not complicate the damn thing, simplify it. thinks outside the box, way outside the box!
  

• fajar said on Apr 11, 2010 2:54 AM:

  i hope IBM Lotus symphony not same as open office, coz open office very difficult
  
  I hope 2 question
  
  1. where i can download this software?
  
  2. in word i can use Alt+F3 to correct font ex: big / little all, where i get this tool, please give me answer, thanx/
  

• David Z said on Apr 11, 2010 12:51 PM:

  Perhaps I've not found the function yet, but is there a way to draw frames as in Word Pro? Also, to group frames, even temporarily so you can move them all without changing their relative positions? If not, those would be nice improvements. A promising release, it begins to approach the functionality of Word Pro, thanks!
  

• stivi said on Apr 12, 2010 8:05 AM:

  what can make symphony the best suite?? APPROACH , what else?
  
  there are many "word"and "excel" like sw out there, i dont really
  
  need another one of them.
  

• early said on Apr 14, 2010 2:53 PM:

  I downloaded the new software and tried to install it. Suddenly it gave me an error message "VM Plugin missing" and rolled back the installation. I downloaded 1.3 and installed it.
  

• Vince said on Apr 23, 2010 6:58 AM:

  Needs more work. I opened a spreadsheet that uses the OOO MONTHS() function, Symphony doesn't recognize it.
  
  In the Help panel, it crashed when I clicked Search Scope. Installed on Linux Debian 5
  
  Will uninstall and try again in the future.
  

• Marc said on Apr 29, 2010 3:38 AM:

  I gave it a try and it looks quite nice, but it is kind of slow on Linux platform (Phenom II X4).
  
  I am a Eclipse user as well and I have to admit that the GTK-SWT port is much much slower than for example the Win32. It would be great if IBM would contribute to a QT-port of SWT. There are people already working on it (see here http://www.compeople.eu/blog/?p=39&cpage=1 )
  

• Paul C. Hantman said on May 6, 2010 1:49 PM:

  I'm a new user running Release 3.0.0, Revision 20100331.0928
  
  Perhaps this is pilot error, however I cannot send e-mail via Symphony. Help says that I should select File - Send - E-mail. When I click on File I do not see the Send option (in focus or greyed-out).
  
  What am I doing wring?
  
  Thanks,
  
  Paul
  

• Shiva said on Aug 11, 2010 12:04 AM:

  Will Lotus Symphony can be ported on Embedded Platform with GTK Support?
  

• Martin said on Nov 27, 2010 7:55 AM:

  The lack of support for opening SmartSuite files (lwp, prz, 123) was a downer on the ver 3.0 release.
  
  The Lotus Symphony team should at least provide a converstion tool (or plugin) so we can transform all our SmartSuite files to ODF in batch mode.
  

• John retired IBMer said on Dec 4, 2010 10:12 AM:

  I downloaded "Symphone 3.1" It would not allow we to load my "Lotus 123" files. They worked find Windows XP but not in Windows 7. Is there a solution?
  

• paolo mastrocicco said on Jan 6, 2011 9:40 AM:

  i don't know until i try it
  

• paolo said on Jan 6, 2011 9:41 AM:

  don't know untill i try it
  

• Ulrich said on Jan 26, 2011 4:41 AM:

  Hallo,
  
  I've tested this product. It's nice, but I need the support of opening the files of SmartSuite's files .123 and .lwp. Without this support this product is useless for my company. I've it uninstalled. Please inform me if this support works.
  
  Many greetingses from Berlin.
  

• Juan Carlos said on Dec 28, 2011 12:08 PM:

  I have windows 7 and Lotus does not work well on x64, Please let me know when SmartSuite's files .123 and .lwp.are going to be supported by Symphony (at least for reading).
  

Add Your Comment