Thank you for your comment Corion. I tried to take the recommendations into account and ended took two approaches: #1 - using GetItemValue 
use strict;
use warnings;
use Win32::OLE;
use Data::Dumper::Simple;


my $Notes = Win32::OLE->new('Notes.NotesSession')
    or die "Cannot start Lotus Notes Session object.\n";
    
my $db = $Notes->GetDatabase("server", "c_dir/theDBase.nsf")
    or die "Could not open database.\n";

my ($Version) = ($Notes->{NotesVersion} =~ /\s*(.*\S)\s*$/);

#
print "The current user is $Notes->{UserName}.\n";
print "Running Notes \"$Version\" on \"$Notes->{Platform}\".\n\n\n";

my $Count = $db->AllDocuments->Count;
print "\nConnected to ", $db->{Title}, " on ", $db->{Server};
print "\nThere are $Count documents in the database.\n";


my $AllDocuments = $db->AllDocuments;
my $doc = $AllDocuments->GetFirstDocument;

while ( $doc ) {
    my $NextDoc = $AllDocuments->GetNextDocument($doc);
    my $abst = $doc->GetItemValue("Abstract");
        
        if ($abst)
        {
        warn Dumper($abst);
        print "abstract = $abst\n";
        }
        $doc = $NextDoc;
    
}

[download]
This yields the following results : 
There are 49765 documents in the database.
abstract = ARRAY(0x1a8fd4c)
$abst = [
          ''
        ];
abstract = ARRAY(0x1a4b4bc)
$abst = [
          ''
        ];
abstract = ARRAY(0x1a8fe4c)
$abst = [
          ''
        ];
abstract = ARRAY(0x1a8fddc)
$abst = [
          ''
        ];
abstract = ARRAY(0x1a4b45c)
$abst = [
          ''
        ];
abstract = ARRAY(0x1a8fe0c)
$abst = [
          ''
        ];

[download]
#2 - using GetFirstItem 
my $AllDocuments = $db->AllDocuments;
my $doc = $AllDocuments->GetFirstDocument;

while ( $doc ) {
    my $NextDoc = $AllDocuments->GetNextDocument($doc);
    my $abst = $doc->GetFirstItem("Abstract");
        
        if ($abst)
        {
        warn Dumper($abst);
        print "abstract = $abst\n";
        }
        $doc = $NextDoc;
    
}
}

[download]
Which yields the following results : 
There are 49771 documents in the database.
$abst = bless( {}, 'Win32::OLE' );
abstract = Win32::OLE=HASH(0x1a4b53c)
$abst = bless( {}, 'Win32::OLE' );
abstract = Win32::OLE=HASH(0x1a4b4cc)
$abst = bless( {}, 'Win32::OLE' );
abstract = Win32::OLE=HASH(0x1a4b4ec)

[download]
I am close, which Senior monk can give me the final push ?! I cleaned up the thread, for readability's sake. thank you bart,Corion so far for the assistance.

In reply to Re^2: Lotus notes, the blessings but not the insight by budoka
in thread Lotus notes, the blessings but not the insight by budoka

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