Changing web browser preferences in IBM Notes

There are two possible settings for opening and displaying hyperlinks in IBM Notes. By default, the embedded web browser opens when you click a link in IBM Notes. You can change your preferences if you don’t want that to happen.

How can I open links in my usual browser?

Although IBM Notes comes with an embedded web browser, if you want all the hyperlinks in IBM Notes to open in a browser you have set as your personal default, then you can go to File/Preferences and make this setting under Web Browser.

Simply choose Use the browser I have set as the default for this operating system and confirm your choice by clicking OK.

You may select only one of two specific browser choices in IBM Notes:

  1. Use the browser embedded in this client
  2. Use the browser I have set as the default for this operating system

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With choice 2 the browser opens in a separate browser window and not in IBM Notes.

When using choice 1 (the IBM Notes embedded web browser), the web pages open as tabs in the Notes client:

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The advantages of using the IBM Notes embedded web browser

One of the advantages of using the IBM Notes embedded web browser is that you can switch back and forth between database content (calendar, mails and the like) and between the internet and intranet using window tabs. Tip: You can easily email links by simply dragging and dropping a window tab into a mail. All internet pages can also be managed as bookmarks. On top of all this there is one more major benefit: Should you take a different device on a business trip, you’ll still have all your bookmarks with you and can use them in IBM Notes. And when you use the embedded web browser, the address bar keeps a history of all the web addresses that you type.

Other browser settings

You can also set a new home page as you select your browser choices under File/Preferences:

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You can also change the internet search engine that the embedded web browser uses in the search bar:

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To do this, simply go back to File/Preferences/Search and select a search engine:

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Note: All screen shots refer to IBM Lotus Notes versions 8.5.3 and later. Settings may have different names and/or be located somewhere else in older versions.