If you're clients are all on Windows, you can display the progress bar when performing a long calculation. There are two types of progress bars -- one large graphical (like when you're copying a database) and one through the status bar at the bottom of the screen (like when you open a very large document over a dial-up connection).

For an example of the progress bar through the status bar, build an agent with this code:

Const NPB_STATUSBAR% = 32
Declare Sub NEMProgressEnd Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long )
Declare Function NEMProgressBegin Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval wFlags As Integer ) As Long
Declare Sub NEMProgressSetBarPos Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long, Byval dwPos As Long )
Declare Sub NEMProgressSetBarRange Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long, Byval dwMax As Long )
Declare Sub NEMProgressSetText Lib "nnotesws.dll" ( Byval hwnd As Long, Byval pcszLine1 As String, Byval pcszLine2 As String )

Sub Initialize
   Dim hwnd As Long
   Dim i As Long
   Dim j As Long
   ' Create the progress bar
   hwnd = NEMProgressBegin ( NPB_STATUSBAR )
   ' Set the bar range - the default is 100
   NEMProgressSetBarRange hwnd, 100
   For i = 0 To 100
      For j = 0 To 9000
         ' Simple delay for the example!!
      Next
      ' Update the bar position
      NEMProgressSetBarPos hwnd, i
   Next
   ' Destroy the dialog when we're done
   NEMProgressEnd hwnd
End Sub

Run the agent and look at the Notes status bar (where you see "Print" messages).

For an example of the large graphical progress bar, refer to this document.