Folder Of Design Elements
August 23 2005 05:00:00 PM
Add/Read Comments [6]
While most of my blog entries explain features
of Lotus Notes everyone can use, today I am going to take a slight detour
and explain a little known feature of Domino Designer for those of you
that do application development.
By default, Designer groups elements together by their respective types, such as Framesets, Pages, Forms, Views, etc. and lists them alphabetically inside those groups. Did you know that you can put different types of design elements into your own custom folders, allowing you to organize and access items however you would like?
For example, in most of my applications I provide users navigation to multiple views via an outline. That outline is embedded into a page. That page is displayed in a frame in a frameset. I like to group these elements together so that I can quickly access them:
Below are the steps to do this:
1. Click on the "New Folder" icon, enter a name for the folder, and select the root of the "Folders" tree. This will create a new empty folder on the Designer Bookmark Bar (the far left side of the Designer UI)
2. Drag and drop your database's bookmark into the new folder:
Alternate Tip: If you would like you can skip step #1, and instead just drag your database's bookmark directly onto the Bookmark bar itself, and not have it located inside a folder.
3. Click the "New Folder" icon again, enter a name, but this time make sure to select the database bookmark from step #2 as the location for the new folder:
4. Now you can drag and drop design elements into the folder you created in step #3.
The custom folders you create on Designer's Bookmark bar can contain multiple databases. For example, a certain project you are working on may involve multiple databases, and grouping them together may help you be better organized. Similarly, you may be working on multiple projects, or working for multiple clients, and using customized folders for each may make it much easier for you to find what you need versus just using the default "Recent Databases" folder.
A database's bookmark can contain multiple custom folders. You can even have folders inside other folders. This should enable you to organize design elements in whatever way you find most useful.
I have noticed some limitations. First, you can drag and drop the elements from either the Design Pane or from a Window Tab, but not from the lists shown in the Work Pane. Also, I don't think you can drag and drop multiple elements at once. If anyone knows ways around these two limitations, please let me know.
By default, Designer groups elements together by their respective types, such as Framesets, Pages, Forms, Views, etc. and lists them alphabetically inside those groups. Did you know that you can put different types of design elements into your own custom folders, allowing you to organize and access items however you would like?
For example, in most of my applications I provide users navigation to multiple views via an outline. That outline is embedded into a page. That page is displayed in a frame in a frameset. I like to group these elements together so that I can quickly access them:
Below are the steps to do this:
1. Click on the "New Folder" icon, enter a name for the folder, and select the root of the "Folders" tree. This will create a new empty folder on the Designer Bookmark Bar (the far left side of the Designer UI)
2. Drag and drop your database's bookmark into the new folder:
Alternate Tip: If you would like you can skip step #1, and instead just drag your database's bookmark directly onto the Bookmark bar itself, and not have it located inside a folder.
3. Click the "New Folder" icon again, enter a name, but this time make sure to select the database bookmark from step #2 as the location for the new folder:
4. Now you can drag and drop design elements into the folder you created in step #3.
The custom folders you create on Designer's Bookmark bar can contain multiple databases. For example, a certain project you are working on may involve multiple databases, and grouping them together may help you be better organized. Similarly, you may be working on multiple projects, or working for multiple clients, and using customized folders for each may make it much easier for you to find what you need versus just using the default "Recent Databases" folder.
A database's bookmark can contain multiple custom folders. You can even have folders inside other folders. This should enable you to organize design elements in whatever way you find most useful.
I have noticed some limitations. First, you can drag and drop the elements from either the Design Pane or from a Window Tab, but not from the lists shown in the Work Pane. Also, I don't think you can drag and drop multiple elements at once. If anyone knows ways around these two limitations, please let me know.
