Working with Application Menus

In the previous section we discussed how to name design elements and the fact that newly created forms automatically display in the application menu. By default, the form name will be displayed under the Create menu. However, to provide additional structure to the menu, you can implement a cascading menu. A cascading menu is a submenu that appears in the Create menu and can help group related forms together.

For example, let's say you have a Notes database to manage end-user service requests. Using this database, users can request workstation assistance, ask for help with moving furniture, request a name change, schedule an office move, and request a password reset. These could be grouped together into a submenu called Service Request (see Figure 4.32).

Figure 4.32. Cascading menu of database forms

Cascading menus are created by inserting the submenu path and a backslash "" before the primary name of the form (see Figure 4.33). This can be done when the form is first saved or by modifying the form name in the properties dialog.

Figure 4.33. Creating a cascading menu for a form

To create a cascading menu after the form has been saved, open the form properties dialog and change the form name.

Similar to cascading forms being displayed in the application menu, cascading views can be used to group related views. To create a submenu of views, specify the main view name, a backslash, and the name of the view.