• To name or rename a form, choose Design - Form Properties and enter a name for the form.

Keep the following in mind:

• The name is case-sensitive and can be any combination of characters, including letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation.
• If there are no synonyms or cascading name, the maximum length of the form name is 64 bytes. When the full form name includes all synonyms and the cascading name, the maximum length is 256 bytes. If you're using multibyte characters, 256 bytes is different from 256 characters.
• Only the first 64 characters of a form name appear in the Create menu.

A form can have additional names, called aliases. If you create an alias for a form, you can change the form name that appears on the Create menu without having to rewrite every formula that references the form. You can also reassign existing documents to the new form, and rewrite formulas or reassign documents if the form name is translated. The form name and its aliases are separated by a vertical bar (|).

If a form has only one name, it appears on the Create menu and in the document's FORM field. If there are two or more names, the form’s first (leftmost) name always appears on the Create menu, while the form's last (rightmost) name, which is typically the alias, appears in the FORM field. Sometimes a form can have multiple names usually due to translation. In those cases the middle names are ignored. As long as the alias does not change, documents will display using the original form and all formulas referencing the form will continue to work.

Tip If you add an alias to a form that is referred to in an existing view (or folder) selection formula, the formula will not display documents created or edited after the alias is assigned. It is good design practice to assign an alias at the same time you name a form to avoid such problems.

To add an alias
1. In an open form, choose Design - Form Properties to open the Form Properties box.

2. In the Name field (at the Form Info tab), add a vertical bar (|) to the right of any other names. Then add an alias.

In the following example, Interview is the alias and Main Topic is the original name:

Main Topic | Interview

Windows users can select a menu item quickly by typing its keyboard shortcut (an underlined letter). If each form begins with a different letter, the keyboard shortcut is easy to see on the Create menu.

To specify the keyboard shortcut, type an underscore (_) before the letter that you want to use. Each keyboard shortcut must still be unique within the form list. For example, to force the letter "v" as the keyboard shortcut for the Interview form, enter the name as:

Inter_view

A form structures the data for a document that a user creates. In an IBM® Lotus® Notes® client application, a user chooses a form from the Create menu to create a new document. The Create menu sorts form names in alphabetical order. To display the forms in a different order -- for example, with the most frequently used form appearing first -- precede the form name with a number or a letter to force the forms into the correct sequence. If a database has too many forms to display all the forms neatly on the Create menu, you can design a cascading menu to embed the related forms under one menu item. The Mail template uses cascading workflow forms. When users choose Create - Special, they see these form choices:

Link Message

Phone Message

To create a cascading menu for Notes clients

1. Open the form.

2. Choose Design - Form Properties.

3. In the form name box, enter the name of the menu item you want to appear at the top level, followed by a \ (backslash) and the form name.

To define an alias for a cascading form, insert the alias after the form name, as in: Service Request\Hardware | HW, where HW is the alias.

To move a form to the Create - Other menu in the Notes client

If you don't expect a form to be used frequently, move it to the Create - Other dialog box to shorten the list of forms in the main Create menu.

1. Open the form.

2. Choose Design - Form Properties.

3. Select "Include in Menu" and select "Create - Other dialog."

To remove a form from the Create menu in the Notes client

Removing a form from the Create menu hides the form from all users. For example, the Mail template hides the NonDelivery Report and Return Receipt forms because only the Notes Mail Router uses them. For compatibility with earlier releases of Notes, putting parentheses around the form names when you name a form will also remove forms from the Create menu.

1. Open the form.

2. Choose Design - Form Properties.

3. Deselect "Include in Menu."

To hide a form from only some users, open the Security tab of the Form Properties box and create an access list.

To hide a form

Another way to remove a form from the Create menu is to hide it. Hiding allows you to specify conditions under which the form is hidden or displayed. For example, you can hide a form from Notes clients, but display it for Web clients.

1. Close the form you want to hide.

2. In the list of forms, select the form. (Double-click Forms in the navigator pane to open the list of forms.)

3. In the bottom pane, click Design under the Properties tab.

4. Select a hide option.

See Also

Designing forms
Creating and deleting forms
Customizing a form's window title

Glossary