NOTES DESIGNER CLIENT TWEAKS
by Jess Stratton
Remember this one? "If it ain't broke, then it doesn't have enough features
yet..."

The Notes Designer client contains some great tweaks, as long as you know
where to find them. The Administrator client gets its own Preferences
section in the Notes client, but the Designer client sadly gets left out of
such convenience (I guess the people at Lotus figured that if we can figure
out where to change the sublevel font in an embedded outline, we can find
anything!). We're not talking all-intuitive, glaringly bright obvious
stuff, either. Some settings are buried deep. Really deep. But the treasure
comes to those that can find it.

We'll start with the Programmer's Pane properties. I think I looked at
these once years ago, changed the font and colors to my preferences, and
then promptly forgot about it again. Upon a recent visit, I noticed some
really cool settings! (In case it's been awhile for you too, to get to the
Programmer's Pane properties, toggle the Design Pane on, and right-click
anywhere. Choose Programmer's Pane Properties.)

The second tab contains a neat little check box: Automatically add "Option
Declare." Nice!

Here's another one: Auto-Indent LotusScript. This option is toggled on by
default. It's what makes that nice looking code, and partners up all the
Ifs, Nexts, and Whiles. We love that, right? Sometimes? Okay, you're not
fooling anyone! You've fought with it before. We've all fought with it
before. You've tried to indent an entire block of code by highlighting it
and hitting the <Tab> key. And we all know what happened. The code got
erased, didn't it? Buh-bye. Sadly, these are the things that we can really
only learn the hard way.

When the auto-indent option is unchecked, you lose the automatic
indentation of loops, however, you'll gain the ability to tab entire blocks
of code. It's your choice.

I've saved the best for last. Did you know you can have the Designer client
start up along with your Notes client? Whether you are creating a database
from scratch, or maintaining an existing database, the client is opening up
at SOME point during our day. Why not just start with it open and ready?

In your Notes client, click "More Bookmarks" to open that folder in the
bookmarks pane. Then, simply drag the Designer icon from the bookmark bar
onto the Startup folder that you'll find in More Bookmarks. Yes, ladies and
gentlemen, it's that easy. To remove it, simply drag it out of the startup
folder back onto your bookmark bar.

The next time you start Notes, the Designer client will open too.
(Incidentally, don't forget that you can drag multiple bookmarks into that
Startup folder. You can add databases, templates, the Administrator client,
or all of the above; it's your choice!)

Send your favorite Designer client tweak to me at jess.42@gmail.com. I'll
compile a list and share the love.