Add a Category Field to the Journal Entry Form
Now open your Journal database. It should look something like Figure A. If you don't have the Design choice beneath Agents, you don't have the Designer client. You'll need to find a friend who does.

FIGURE A


Make sure you have a Design choice beneath Agents. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Click on the green arrow (Lotus calls it a "twisty") next to Design so you can see all the choices beneath it like Forms, Views, and so on. Next, select Forms. In the right-hand pane, you'll see three forms listed: Clean Sheet, DocInfo, and *Journal Entry. The asterisk next to Journal Entry simply means that it's the default form for the database. So I'll refer to it as Journal Entry from here on out. We're going to make a small change to the Journal Entry form, and then create a new categorized view. No other changes are required.

Open the Journal Entry form. You should see a window that looks like Figure B. You're now in the form editor. It works a lot like Notes Mail, Microsoft Word, and other editors you've probably used. Click once on the blank line between the Subject box and the Body box. These boxes are fields on the form where the user enters the subject and body of the journal entry. Type the word Category followed by a colon (:) and a space. Then, select Field from the Insert menu. Doing so will put a box (really, a field) next to the word Category labeled Untitled.

FIGURE B


Here's the form before you add a Category label and Categories field to this form. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You'll also get a pop-up dialog box like the one in Figure C. This box allows us to assign properties to the new field. Go ahead and fill out your dialog box to match Figure C. In the formula window, simply type the @DbColumn string exactly as it appears in Figure C. A complete explanation of the string is beyond the scope of this article, but basically it lets you choose from a list of categories you've used before.

FIGURE C


Configure the Categories field to match these properties. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The configuration of the Categories field is now complete. Now, let's clean up the form a little. Put a blank line above and below the Category line so things don't look so cramped. You can also change the color. Simply select the whole Category line. The field property box will become a text property box and you'll see a section at the bottom where you can change the color of the text you selected. You can choose a color for your Category line, as shown in Figure D. I chose gold, but your taste may vary. After you've finished making the changes, select Save, and then Close, both from the File menu. Leave the property box open; we'll need it again soon.

FIGURE D


Choose a color for your Category line. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Create a categorized view
The next step in setting up categories in the Journal database is to create a view that shows the categories. In the left-hand pane, select Views. You'll see one view listed to the right, *($All). You're going to make a copy of that view and then modify the copy. Select *($All). Now select Copy from the Edit menu and then Paste from the Edit menu. You'll see a new view, Copy of ($All). Open Copy of ($All). You should see something like Figure E.