Working with the Page Properties Box

Before digging into the how to of creating pages, it's important to understand the tabs on the Page properties box. To view the properties of a page, either create a new page or open an existing one. Creating a new page is very simple; by now, you should be familiar enough with the IDE to know that you open the database in Domino Designer and click Pages in the Design list. Clicking New Page in the Designer action bar produces a new, completely blank page that looks like a new blank form. Very much like a form, a page is like a rich-text document into which you can stuff all sorts of objects, except fields. Open the Page properties box (right-click Page Design and choose Page Properties from the context menu). You'll see the following four tabs:

• Page Info ” This tab lets you name the page, set focus options, define Web access, and set link colors.
• Background ” This tab lets you choose background colors or graphics for the page.
• Launch ” This tab lets you define Launch and Frame options for the page.
• Security ” This tab has a single check box, Available to Public Access Users.

The Page Info Tab

When you open the Page Info tab, you'll notice there are four sections (see Figure 8.1).

Figure 8.1. The Page properties box contains settings for the name of the page, the focus, Web access, and link colors.

The topmost section enables you to enter a name (which is required), an alias, and a comment. The Options section controls the focus of the page and determines whether Notes treats it as pass-thru HTML. If you check the Treat Page Contents as HTML check box, you can create an entire page from HTML. The Web Access section defines how the contents are treated when accessed by a Web client. You can define the type of content and specify a character set. The Link Colors section enables you to define colors for active, unvisited, and visited links for Web clients . The defaults are red, blue, and purple, respectively. These default colors are fairly standard among Web browsers. If you check the color settings for Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, you'll see that they both use blue for unvisited links and purple for visited links. Using the Link Colors buttons opens the color palette, and you can change the link colors for the page.

TIP

Unlike the properties boxes for other objects, the Page properties box doesn't have a field for an alias. However, you can create an alias by entering the pipe symbol ( ) followed by the alias. For example, using Link Page LP in the Name field creates an alias of LP for the page. You can see the aliases in the Pages Design view.

The Background Tab

The Background tab has three sections (see Figure 8.2). You can set the background color, choose an image from a graphic file or an image resource, and set various options.

Figure 8.2. The Background tab has several sections that control the display of the background color or image.

You can enhance your page by setting the background to a color or a graphic image. You set the background color by clicking the Color drop-down list, which opens the standard color palette, and then choosing a color. There are several methods of using graphic images as backgrounds as well. The choices for graphic image backgrounds are essentially the same as those for a form. You can paste an image that is on the Clipboard or import an image from a file (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, or TIFF 5.0). You can also choose an image resource by clicking the Browse button next to the Resources field, or by entering a formula by clicking the Formula button.

When you have chosen a graphic image for the background, the choices in the Options section are available. Options are not available for colors; they affect only the way images are displayed. The three options are the following:

• Hide Graphic in Design Mode ” It is sometimes easier to design a page when you hide the graphic in design mode. Depending on their appearance, graphic images often clutter the design surface.
• Hide Graphic in 16 Color Displays ” Sixteen-color displays often don't render images well, especially those created in palettes more than 256 colors.
• Repeat ” By default, images are tiled, so if the background image doesn't occupy the entire screen, it is repeated until the screen is completely filled. The options for Repeat are as follows : Repeat Once, Repeat Vertically, Repeat Horizontally, Tile, Size to Fit, and Center.

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You can combine images and the background color by choosing one of the Repeat options that doesn't fill the entire page ”for example, Repeat Once or Center. Whatever space the image does not fill will be occupied by the background color.

The Launch Tab

Similar to the Launch tab of a form, there are two sections: Auto Launch and Auto Frame (see Figure 8.3).

Figure 8.3. The Launch tab includes settings to launch the page in a specific frame in a specific frameset.

Auto Launch Settings

The Auto Launch list for a page has fewer choices than the list for a form (see the following list of choices). Each of the launch types (except for None, of course) has a page in the accompanying database, Chapter 8 (Chapt8.nsf), which can be downloaded from the book's Web site.

• None (the default) ” Has no special launch properties
• First Attachment ” Launches the first file attachment on the page
• First Document Link ” Launches the first document link on the page
• First OLE Object ” Launches the first OLE object on the page

You can add a file attachment to a page and select First Attachment from the Auto Launch list. When you open the page, the application associated with the attachment launches along with the file itself. For example, if you include a Word document, Word is launched and the attached file is opened. This is like clicking the Launch button on the Attachment properties box. (See the page Launch Attachment in the database for this chapter.)

If you paste a link to a document, a view, or even a database in the page and then set the Auto Launch property to First Document Link, the page opens the Domino object in the doclink. (See the page Launch Doclink in the database for this chapter.)

You can also embed an OLE object that will launch when the page is opened. To embed an OLE object, choose Object from the Create menu. However, as of this writing, while the OLE object launches, you get an error message stating that changes to the object will not be saved in a read-only document. Domino treats a page as a read-only object, so although the OLE application launches, it appears to be less than functional. (See the page Launch OLE in the database for this chapter.)

Auto Frame Settings

In the Auto Frame section, you can choose a frameset and a frame into which to launch the page you are designing. In Figure 8.3, the Auto Frame section is set to the frameset Sample, and the frame is set to LinkFrame. You can choose only from framesets that are in the same database as the page. Whenever the page is opened, it opens in the frameset you've chosen. You can test this with the page titled Links. If you preview this page, it will open into the Sample frameset, even though the Sample frameset has no page specified for either the NavFrame or the ContentFrame. See the page Links and the frameset Sample in the database for this chapter.

The Security Tab

The Security tab has only one setting, which is Available to Public Access Users (see Figure 8.4). A public access user is someone who has either no access or Depositor access to the database. In the database ACL, you can add a setting for users such as these that enables them to read or write public documents. They otherwise have no access to any of the documents or design objects in the database. You can make this setting for specific pages.

Figure 8.4. The Security tab of the Page properties box has only one setting.

CAUTION

Because pages are typically displayed in a frameset, be sure to make the frameset in which they appear available to public access users as well. Similarly, if you launch a page from an outline, the outline needs to be available to public access users.