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Edit- or read mode ?!?
Lotus Notes has two document modes, either read- or edit mode. In read mode you can only read the document, and not alter it. In edit mode you can also alter and save the document. It is the security mechanisms in Lotus Notes that control whether you read- and/or edit the document.
List Fields can be launched on Notes documents in both modes. As long as you has the right to read the document, List Fields can also read it (remember, List Fields inherit the exact same access rights as your Notes ID file has).
Front-end versus Back-end document ?!?
Another subtile thing to be aware of is the differences between a so-called front-end document versus the corresponding back-end document.
When you read or edit a Notes document, you typically do this via a Notes form. The Notes form contain the fields and layout of the document you see. You have probably seen that you easily can switch forms and thus look at the document with different forms. The Notes form represent the front-end document and is in fact a copy of the real data stored elsewhere. The real data - or back-end document - is not stored with the the layout and looks, but separated as more traditional data records.
When you make changes to a Notes document in a Notes form, these changes only exist in the front-end document - until you save the document. Then Lotus Notes copies the the data from the front-end document to the corresponding back-end document.
This is nice when you want to present a document with different looks and features, and makes it easy to change the look and feel of the database without changing the real data. It's also cool to know that Lotus Notes has done this since it's first incarnation back in 1989 and thus making Lotus Notes one of the first database systems to separate display from content.
What if the document is in edit mode and hasn't been saved ?
List Fields can only access the back-end document! This implies that a potential challenge may arise if you launch List Fields on a document in edit mode which haven't been saved immediately before List Fields-launch. List Fields will read the back-end document and show those values to you, and you might not see the most current values! Due to this fact, you will see the following message if you launch List Fields on a document in edit-mode:
This message briefly explain the issues presented in this topic, and you can easily turn off the message by selecting Don't show this again-checkbox. If you want to turn the message back on, go to the Messages preferences dialog box.