Lotus Notes Basics - Dialog Lists

In this previous post, I explained how check boxes and radio buttons can be used to enter choices.



Today we'll look at a third field type, Dialog Lists.

This type of field is recognized via the drop down arrow to the right of the field.   The arrow indicates that you may click to be presented with a "pop up window" or more technically, a "dialog box" that lists the available choices.



The dialog box might allow you to select a single value or multiple values.  This is up to the developer of the application.



Similarly, the developer may also allow you to enter choices that are not currently in the list.




Now here is an interesting twist... you don't actually have to use the dialog box!

- With your cursor in the field, you can start typing and matching values will be filled in for you.  For example, "r" will cause "Red" to be filled in, "y" for "Yellow", etc.
- If the field accepts multiple values, you can separate your choices by entering a comma.  (technically, the developer can decide to allow you to use a comma, semicolon, new line, or blank line, but comma is the most common)
- If you don't know what the available values are, you can press the space bar to cycle through the list of choices.