Creating, Modifying, and Troubleshooting Pages

Pages are similar to Notes forms or static HTML pages. A page provides all the basic capabilities of a form with one major difference: Forms can be used to collect information and store it in Notes documents, whereas pages can only display information. Keep in mind that if you need to display and/or store information, you should use a form. Otherwise, a page can work just as well and loads more quickly and with less overhead.

Creating a Page

To create a page, follow these steps:

1.	In the Designer, open the database in which you want to create the page.
2.	Click Pages in the Design pane to see a list of existing pages in the database.
3.	Choose Create, Design, Page or click the New Page button.
4.	Choose Design, Page Properties, which opens the Page properties box (illustrated in Figure 4.13) to the Info tab and define the following important properties: Enter a name (and alias if desired) for the page in the Name field. To enter an alias, enter the pipe character (|) after the name and type in the alias. It is always a good idea to use an alias. If you are using the page on the Web, click Treat Page Contents As HTML to have everything converted to HTML. Figure 4.13. The Page properties box.
5.	If you want to change the page background, such as the color or the image, click the Background tab.
6.	Click the Launch tab to change the launch options for the page. If you want the page to always open in a particular frame, be sure to choose the frameset and frame on this tab.
7.	If you want the page to be available to users who have been granted only Public Access, click the Security tab and click the Available to Public Access Users check box.
8.	Save the page.
9.	Test the page to ensure that it performs as expected. If the page is open, you can choose either Design Preview in Notes or Design Preview in Web Browser to view it in the proper client. If you are in the Pages view, simply click one of the preview buttons (shown in Figure 4.14) to launch the proper clients. Keep in mind that if you are building hybrid applications, you should view the page in both the Notes client and a browser. Figure 4.14. The Preview buttons provide a shortcut for viewing design elements. [View full size image]

Troubleshooting Pages

The following is a list of common page problems and their resolution:

• Page opens in wrong frameset— Open the Page properties box and check the Frameset and Frame Properties of the view.

• Background image “tiles”— Open the Page properties box and check the Do Not Tile Graphic option on the Color tab.

• Page color is incorrect— Open the Page properties box and check the color on the Color tab.

• Page does not publish correctly on the Web— Open the Page properties box and check the Treat Page Contents as HTML option.

• Items on page are not appearing when page is opened— Check the hide-when properties of the vanishing items.

• Hidden items on the page are appearing when the page is opened— Check the hide-when properties of the items that are appearing.