Notes Designer 8.5.1 is incapable of opening databases on other servers in design mode.
By other servers, I mean ones which aren’t on the local network. Servers which you are responsible for doing work on, over the Internet.
There was no issue in Notes designer releases prior to version 8.
Now, it just chugs away for hours on end just to open where the views are. Occasionally it succeeds.
But clearly one can’t work like this. All I was asked to do today was add a single view column, but had to admit defeat.