Inserting workbooks in documents and forms To exchange information between Lotus Notes and Excel, you can insert an Excel workbook as an embedded object in a Notes document or form. In documents, a workbook is inserted as an embedded object in an editable rich text field. You can also insert a workbook as an embedded object when you create a Notes form. For example, if you want to create multiple Notes documents that contain the same embedded workbook, insert the embedded workbook when you create the Notes form. In this way, the embedded workbook already exists within each new Notes document or form you create from the existing form.
Importing Excel data into a document or form To include data from a workbook in a document or form, you can import the data. When you import Excel data into a document or form, only the data is copied into the document or form. The workbook itself is not included in the document or form, and no link is maintained with the original workbook that supplied the data.
Excel data with Notes field exchange
Note If you want to use Notes field exchange in the Notes document, the document must already contain the Notes/FX fields you want to use to exchange information. You cannot insert fields in a Notes document; the fields can be inserted only in a Notes form. When you add Notes/FX fields to the form with the embedded workbook, each new Notes document or form you create from that form is ready for Notes/FX field exchange.
Fields and properties correspond with each other Some properties are one-way: changes made in the embedded workbook are reflected in the Notes field, but changes made to the Notes field do not appear in the embedded workbook. For example, the Excel workbook file property Created is a one-way field that corresponds with the Notes DateCreated field. Changes to the Created property in Excel automatically appear in the DateCreated field in the Notes document; however, changing the DateCreated field in the Notes document does not affect the Excel Created property.
Other properties correspond to two-way fields: changes in the Excel workbook are reflected in the Notes field, and changes in the Notes field are reflected in the Excel workbook. Two-way fields are updated in the embedded workbook when you open or activate the workbook and in the Notes document when you close the workbook and return to the Notes document. For example, Title is a two-way field. When you change the Excel workbook file property Title, the change appears in the Title field in the Notes document. When you change the Title field in the Notes document, the changes appear in the Excel workbook file property. Fields that correspond to custom workbook file properties are also two-way fields.
Custom file properties can be used in views In Excel, you can create a custom file property that's linked to a named range of cells. You can then create a corresponding field in Notes, so that the contents of the named range appear in your view.
The NotesFlow Action menu in an Excel workbook
Lotus NotesFlow is a set of workflow features that allows transparent interaction between a Lotus Notes database and other programs such as Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. You can use NotesFlow to route forms, send reminders, request and process approvals, and run scheduled batch processes.
When Excel is participating in NotesFlow, an Action menu appears to the left of the Excel Window menu. The Action menu displays each of the available actions as commands. The commands available on the Action menu depend on how the Lotus Notes form is designed. When you design a form in Lotus Notes to use the NotesFlow feature, you publish the actions you want to make available in other programs that support NotesFlow.
The Lotus NotesFlow features require Lotus Notes 4.0 or later. For more information about how to use Lotus NotesFlow, refer to your Lotus Notes documentation.