APPLICATION DESIGN


Naming a view or folder
The name you choose for a view or folder is visible to IBM® Lotus® Notes® users in the View menu (unless the view is hidden) and in the folders pane. The view name is visible to Web users in the Views list.

Naming tips

Keep these things in mind when naming views:


Aliases

An alias is another name, or synonym, for a particular view or folder. Use an alias to change or translate the view name without causing lookup formulas that reference the view to stop working if the view name is changed. Aliases follow the same naming rules as view names.

Note If you are designing a multilingual database, limit yourself to one alias per view.

Enter an alias in the Alias field of the Info tab of the View or Folder Properties box. You can append more than one alias by entering the vertical bar symbol (|) followed by the alias. Make sure you keep the original alias as the rightmost name.

Main View | Top View | View1

Hidden views

When you surround a name with parentheses -- for example, (All) -- the view does not appear to Notes users in the Notes View menu or to Web users or Notes users in the list of folders and views.

Caution Users can see hidden views by holding CTRL+SHIFT while selecting View/GoTo. Hiding a view is not a security measure, but simply a design option.

Shortcut keys

Windows users can type shortcut letters to select a view or folder. The default shortcut, an underlined letter in a view name, is the first letter in the name that has not already been used by a preceding name on the menu. But if views or folders begin with the same letter, the default shortcut is the first letter that has not already been used by a preceding name. If views or folders begin with the same letter, the shortcut letters may be difficult to see and remember. For example, the shortcut letters (underlined) for these views are

By Author

By Date

You can rename the views or folders and omit the repeated word, but in some cases the word is needed to make the names understandable.

Authors

Dates

If you can't change the names, you can specify a shortcut by typing an underscore before a letter to make that letter the shortcut. For the By Date view, you can make the letter D the shortcut in this way:

By _Date

Cascading views

Creating cascading views lets you arrange lists of views in a hierarchy; that way, a group of related menu items are organized under one item. A user clicks on the higher-level name to display the cascaded list. You probably want to cascade views when you have long lists of views or when you have related views that should be grouped together.

To create a cascading view, enter the name you want to appear on the Create menu followed by a backslash (\), and then add the view name. For example, the Personal Address Book template has two views related to servers:

Server\Certificates

Server\Connections