Can someone explian what the difference is between a Synonym and alias? Im referencing an older version of a notes book and it keeps referencing Synonyms separately from alias’s
Subject: re Synonym vs Alias
A synonym is used in a keyword field. An alias is used on the name of a design element.We always use synonyms and aliases to facilitate the translation of the templates.
Synonym example:
In Mail Preferences, there is a checkbox field called SpellCheck which has this visible text:
Spell-check messages before sending
The field uses a synonym, and looks like this in designer:
Spell-check messages before sending |1
When the text gets translated, any text to the left of the vertical bar (which separates the synonym) can be translated into one of more than 25 different languages that we support. The value of the synonym (“1”) gets saved in the field SpellCheck. Any template code that references that field only needs to look for the value of “1” (rather than text strings in multiple languages).
Alias example:
The item FORM on any mail message is very important in much of the template code, to differentiate the Message form from the Reply form, for example. In the Mail template, the Create menu shows a form called “Message”.
The form name in the template looks like this: Message | Memo
Whenever a mail message is saved, the FORM item contains the string “Memo”. The string “Message” can be translated into any language, and still the FORM item would contain the string “Memo”. All template code that needs to reference this form looks for the string “Memo”. If we decide to rename the form in a future release, to, say, “Mail Document”, the alias would remain the same (“Memo”).
As a rule, this is how to read a form name in Form Properties:
The word or string at the far LEFT (before the first vertical bar) is the string that will be visible in all of the User Interface. The word or string at the far RIGHT (after the last vertical bar) is the alias – or the word/string that gets saved in the FORM item on the document. The alias should never change because that is the text that would be used in all code that references that form.
Subject: Response
Hi, Lori. In a general respect, the definition of an Alias and Synonym are the same in IBM Notes both terms meaning another name. Typically a synonym would be used as alternate name for a choice entry in field such as Dialog list field. Aliases are typically used as alternate names for Notes objects like forms and views.