We all know that Notes let us create tabbed tables. But you have limits to how nice you can create the tabs.
In an application I am working on, I wanted full control of the tabs, and I found out it was actually pretty easy to create my own tabs. I just used a computed background, something I actually never used before.
By the way, I stoleborrowed the graphics from Yahoo Mail for now, until I get the final graphics created…
The application displays information about the (insurance) claim selected in the drop-down box. Each claim has one or more claimants (affected people/parties), and I display them in the tabbed section. You can see the tabs in the screenshot below.
What I simply do is to keep track of the currently selected claimant, the number of claimants, and then I built a table with 3 columns in the first row and one merged cell as the second row.
In the center cell in the first row, I set the background to the "active colored" (lighter) tab. I use @Formulas to set the background in the two other cells:
@If( @TextToNumber(CurrentClaimantNumber) > 1; "CCdb_InactiveTab.gif"; "" )
and
@If( @TextToNumber(CurrentClaimantNumber) < @TextToNumber(LNPClaimantCount); "CCdb_InactiveTab.gif"; "" )
The inactive tab is the darker one. Then it is just a question about writing code that trigger when the lables (computed-for-display fields) are clicked, to update the current claimant value, load the claimant data and refresh the form.
I hope you get some inspiration from this. Oh, and this is all Notes 5…
