Working with the Properties Box

The Design Document properties box, or InfoBox, is where you can view attributes of the selected design element in Domino. This properties box has settings for design inheritance on the Design tab. Properties boxes are available for all design elements.

Accessing the Properties Box

To display the properties box, either click the leftmost toolbar button or right-click the object and choose the Design Properties from the context menu. The properties box has a set of tabs, each of which represents specific properties according to the categories available for that design element as shown in Figure 3.2. As you select different design elements, the properties box changes to reflect properties specific to that element. In this manner, the properties box is context sensitive. The properties box has a drop-down list in the title bar. Clicking the drop-down list gives you access to the other properties boxes for the object. For example, if you have a Field properties box open , you can click the drop-down list and see Text, Form, and Database as choices. If the field is in a table cell , Table also is listed as a choice. The drop-down list exposes the context of each object. See Figure 3.3.

Figure 3.3. The drop-down list in the properties box allows you to select other design elements. The options shown are also context sensitive.

If you examine Figures 3.2 and 3.3 more closely, you'll note that multiple tabs are available. Clicking each tab reveals a new set of properties for the current object. For example, in Figure 3.3, clicking the Paragraph Alignment tab just to the right of the drop-down list shows the list of available alignment settings in Figure 3.4.

Figure 3.4. The Paragraph Alignment tab lets you set alignment and spacing of lines.

Different objects have different numbers of tabs on the properties box, depending on the attributes of the object. The Design Document properties box has four tabs, whereas the Database properties box has seven tabs. The properties box plays a pivotal role in setting design attributes throughout Domino Designer and consequently will be seen throughout this book.

The properties box has some interesting aspects when it comes to the design elements displayed in the Work pane. While looking at the forms listed in the Work pane, if you highlight a listed form and select the properties box, you will get a very different properties box than you will if you open the form in Design mode and select the form properties. The properties box that you see when in the view provides four tabs, as shown in Figure 3.5. These tabs are consistent for all the design elements highlighted in the view.

Figure 3.5. The Info tab of the Design Document properties box for a form displays the date and time the form was last modified.

The Info tab provides information about when the document was created and modified. It also provides information about who last modified it and when. The size of the object is also listed.

The Fields tab provides a list of all the elements within the form design, including the fields used on the form itself. The Fields tab, shown in Figure 3.6, includes an $UpdatedBy field with a list of the people who have worked on the form design. You will find the same sort of information available for all design elements. This can be helpful when multiple people are working on the design of a database and you want to check out the edit history of a design element.

Figure 3.6. The Fields tab of the Design Document properties box for a form displays the elements of the form design.

The Design tab (see Figure 3.7) displays the properties for design inheritance. See Chapter 2, "The Release 6 Object Store," for more information on templates and design inheritance.

Figure 3.7. The Design tab of the Design Document properties box for a form provides various settings for refreshing and replacing the design.

The last tab, the Document IDs tab (not illustrated ), displays the note ID and the document ID for the design document.

NOTE

You'll notice that the properties box for the design elements is titled Design Document and that the Fields tab displays the contents of each of the fields in the design element. Each design element is stored as a note in the same way that a document is stored as a note.