10 Minute Guide to Lotus Notes Mail 4.5 - 14 - Understanding Lotus Notes Links and Pop-Ups In this lesson, you learn how to create links within Notes to Notes documents, databases, or views. You also learn how to create Pop-Ups. Creating Document, Database, and View Links Links are pointers to other documents or other Lotus Notes databases. If want to send a mail message and refer to a page in the Help database, you can create a document link in your mail message. When the recipient receives your mail, he can double-click the Document Link icon and see the page to which you are referring. This saves you from cutting and pasting information into your mail message. You can only create links in the rich text field (the body) of your mail message. Links work in the same way that hypertext works in the Help database (as you learned in Lesson 5) except that an icon represents the link. There are three types of Lotus Notes links that you can create and include in your mail messages or Lotus Notes documents. See Table 14.1. Table 14.1 Types of Links This Icon Named Does This Document Link Connects to another Lotus Notes document. It can be a mail message or a document within an entirely different database. Double-clicking a document link results in the linked document appearing on the screen. Database Link Connects to another database opened at its default view. View Link Connects to another database view (other than the default view). It's important to understand that links will only work when they are linked to documents, views, and databases that others have access to. If you link to a document that has been deleted, or to a database not available to or accessible by the person to whom you are sending the link, it simply won't work. Document Links The examples in this lesson create links to the Help database. Be sure to use the server copy of the Help database, not a local copy. If you have access to discussion databases, or other types of Lotus Notes databases, try these exercises using those databases instead of the Help database. To create a document link: 1. Begin a mail message by filling in the header (address, subject line, and so on) information. 2. In the body field of your message, type a sentence telling the recipient what information your document link contains (this is a courtesy, not a requirement). You might type something such as I'm learning how to create a document link. If you want to learn how to, click here. 3. Press the Spacebar at the end of your sentence. Choose Window, Workspace from the menu to return to your workspace area without exiting this mail message. 4. Double-click the Help database icon to open the database. Do a quick search for Doclinks. Double-click to open the Creating a link document. 5. With the Help document open, choose Edit, Copy as Link, Document Link from the menu. 6. You created your document link. The next step is to paste it into your mail message. Choose Window, New Memo from the menu to return to your memo. 7. Place your cursor at the end of your sentence, remembering to leave the blank space. Choose Edit, Paste to insert the Document Link icon into your mail message (see Figure 14.1). 8. Send your mail message. Press Esc to close the Help database. Figure 14.1 A document link within a mail message. You can see the results of your document link by looking at the copy of the mail message you just sent. Open the Sent view of your mailbox and double-click the copy of the mail message you just created. If you want to display the name of the linked document, click the document link and hold down your mouse key. The name of the linked document appears as shown in Figure 14.2. Figure 14.2 Click and hold to display the name of the linked document. If you want to see the linked document, double-click the Document Link icon. Panic Button: A Weak Link? Remember, the success of links is dependent upon the proper rights, or access, to a document or database. Be careful using document links with mail messages. For example, no one has access to your Inbox but you. You won't have success sending a document link to "Bob" so he can see the message you received from "Mary" that is in your Inbox. Bob can't access your mailbox. In this case, you would forward Mary's mes- sage to Bob. Lotus Notes automatically creates document links when you use the reply option of Mail. Look in your Inbox and locate a mail message you've received as a reply. It's easy to identify replies; the subject line always starts with R. Double-click to open a reply. You see a document link located at the end of the subject line. Lotus Notes automatically placed that document link; it points to the message that this message is replying to. Double-click the document link, and you can see the original message. This is an extremely helpful Mail tool that lets you easily work your way back through the path of mail messages. Database Links A database link will connect to the default view of another database. To create a database link: 1. Begin a mail message by filling in the header (address, subject line, and so on) information. 2. In the body field of your message, type a sentence telling the recipient what information your document link contains. 3. Press the Spacebar at the end of your sentence. Choose Window, Workspace from the menu to return to your workspace area without exiting this mail message. 4. Click the Help database to select it (it's not necessary to open the database). 5. Choose Edit, Copy as Link, and Database Link from the menu. 6. Choose Window, New Memo from the menu to return to your memo. 7. Place your cursor at the end of your sentence, remembering to leave the blank space. Choose Edit, Paste to insert the Database Link icon into your mail message. 8. Send your message. You can test this link by looking at your copy of the sent message in Sent mail. When you double-click a database link, it opens the default view of the database. View Links A view link works similar to document links and database links. To create a view link, follow the previous steps, but open the view to which you want to link when you copy your view link. Choose Edit, Copy as Link, View Link as your menu commands. Creating Pop-Ups A Text Pop-Up hotspot displays pop-up text. This is handy when you send information to several people, and only parts of that information are needed by some of those people. For example, if you're inviting a group to a meeting, and you want to supply directions to the building, a Pop-Up can do the job for you. Some people might not need the directions, others may. By using a Pop-Up, those who need the directions can click a word and additional text appears with directions to that location as seen in Figure 14.3. Figure 14.3 A Text Pop-Up hotspot. A Text Pop-Up can only be created in the rich text field (body) of your mail message. To create this kind of hotspot: 1. Begin a mail message by filling in the header information. 2. In the body of the mail message, type your message. Determine which word you would like to become the text hotspot word (Figure 14.3 uses the meeting room name). 3. Highlight that word by selecting it with your mouse. Choose Create, Hotspot, Text Pop-Up from the menu. 4. The Text Pop-up Properties box appears as shown in Figure 14.4. Figure 14.4 The Text Pop-up HotSpot Properties box. 5. Fill in the text you want to pop up when this hotspot is clicked. 6. Close the Properties box. Finish and send your message. You can see the effects of your Pop-Up by looking at the copy of your message in Sent mail. You can use text Pop-Ups to be humorous or sarcastic within a mail message. The pop-up text can include the "real" meaning behind your typewritten word. In this lesson, you learned how to create document links and how to follow the path of a mail reply using document links. You also learned how to create text Pop-Ups. In the next lesson, you learn more about linking and how to embed files into your mail message.

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