Started using the Hebrew client of Lotus Notes 8.0.1 this week, as a personal experiment on one hand and from a business stand-point on the other.
Even thou most organizations in Israel are using an English UI of their messaging client (Outlook or Notes), Hebrew is (and always will be) a preferred language in Israel. IBM has been investing heavily into bidi (Bi-directional) these past years – part of the ‘holy’ work my friend Dina Ben-Elissar was doing, at IBM Globalization Center in Israel.
Developing a client is Hebrew includes two major steps: First, language – Hebrew (and Arabic) are written from right to left; second, UI (user interface) – which means the client needs to be mirrored. As with any software product, there’s no 100% QA – that’s the nature of software, and some things can only be found from daily usage.
I hope my usage of Lotus Notes 8.0.1 will encourage other IBMers to follow my suit – it’s a very cool looking client !! (click here for a larger screen shot)
