Creating and Attaching Notes

On many forms, you can create notes to be attached to records or collections of records. For information about note types and classifications, see Working with Notes.

Creating a Single-Use Note for a Specific Record

To create a note that applies only to the current record and that will be used only once in the system, follow the steps below.

1. Open a form and select a record where you want to add a note.
2. Select Actions>Notes for Current to open the Object Notes form.
3. In the Subject field, specify an appropriate subject identifier. This subject line does not print on reports. It is used only to distinguish this note from other notes.
4. Specify whether the note should be classified as internal. For more information about external and internal notes, see "Internal/External Notes" in Working with Notes.
5. If you want to attach an external file, click Attach File. In the dialog box that opens, browse to the file you want to attach and click Open. The filename and path displays in the Note field. For more information, see "More About Attaching External Files," below.
6. In the Note field (if you did not attach a file), enter the text that constitutes the actual content of the note. This is the text that can be printed as part of reports.
7. Save the note record and close the form. This also attaches the note to the current record in the original form.

Creating Class Notes for a Collection of Records

Class notes, which are attached to all records in a collection, can only be reusable notes. Thus, follow the steps under "Creating or Selecting Reusable Notes," below.

Creating or Selecting Reusable Notes

To create a note (or select an existing note) that can be reused again for other records:

1. Open a form and select a record where you want to add a note.
2. Select either:
   • Actions>Notes for Current to open the Object Notes form, for notes attached to a single record, or
   • Actions>Notes for All to open the Class Notes form, for notes attached to all records in a collection.
3. On either the Object Notes or Class Notes form, click Attach/Detach Reusable to display the System/User Notes form.
4. Decide which kind of note you want to create or select, and then use the fields under that heading:
   • System note - can be viewed/selected by all system users, printable in some cases
   • User note - can be viewed/selected only by the user who created it, never printable
5. To use an existing note, just select the Attach check box next to that note and click OK to return to the previous Notes form.
6. To create a new reusable note:
   • Specify an appropriate subject identifier. This does not print on reports. It is used only to distinguish this note from other notes.
   • If you want to attach an external file, click Attach File. In the dialog box that opens, browse to the file you want to attach and click Open. The filename and path displays in the Note field. For more information, see "More About Attaching External Files," below.
   • In the Note field (if you did not attach a file), type the text that constitutes the actual content of the note. For system notes, this is the text that may be printable as part of reports.
   • Select the Attach check box and click OK to return to the previous form.
7. If you return to the Object Notes form, specify whether the new note is Internal (see the explanation of "Internal/External Notes" in Working with Notes) and then save the note record. This also attaches the note to the current record in the original form.
8. If you return to the Class Notes form, click OK to save the note on all records in the collection and close the form.

More About Attaching External Files

As described in the steps above, you can use notes to attach files created in other applications. These files can include any type of file that your work environment supports. For example, you can attach files that represent text documents, spreadsheets, graphics, even multimedia files.

You can attach a file to a new note or an existing note. The file must already exist in a location that is accessible to any users who might access it from the note.

CAUTION: Attaching a file to an existing note replaces any text content the note may have with the path and file name for the attached file. If you have note text that you want to preserve, either copy the text to another note, or attach the file to a new note.

Once a file has been attached to a note, you and others can open the attached file by clicking on the Open Attachment button.

Notes that have files attached do not print in reports and other printing utilities.

Related Topics

Working with Notes

Deleting Notes

Detaching Notes and Files

Reading and Modifying Notes

Class Notes Form

Object Notes Form

System/User Notes Form