I have downloaded LOtus Notes v5. I have some nsf database files that
I would like to open and view. How do I do this?  (when i click file,
open, and search my and find the files, it says I can't open, because
the files are read-only.)

Have you tried File - Database - Open (and then browse to the nsf file and open it)?

Yes, I have. It comes back with an error message.
Ihave also tried to import the files, but once they are imporeted,
they appear completely blank.

Have you tried checking the file at the operating system level to see
if the files are set to read only there?

On Windows, right click the file and choose Properties. Look for the
"Read only" tickbox. If it's ticked, untick it and choose OK. Then try
again.

On a Unix-like system, you might not have permissions to write to the
file.

If the NSF is residing on a CD, most probably you won't be able to
open them because Notes needs to update the file in order to open it.
Copy the file(s) to your hard disk, preferably into your data folder
(like C:\Lotus\Notes\Data), and make sure that you uncheck the
read-only attribute (which will be checked by default when you copy
any file from a CD to hard disk) on the file.