The Menu Bar has commands, as listed below, that you can assess to carry out various actions during form design.
Some of the commands are only useful when the form designer is in off line mode. Off line mode is when the form design is launched by clicking the "Xforms Designer" link from the administration screen. In off line mode, the form designer opens with no form loaded and can be used to test out various xforms features that the designer supports. All saving done in this mode are not persisted to the database.
File
New Form
Used to create a new form.
Open
Used to open an existing form.
This, when complete, is supposed to enable one send the form to the printer.
Save
Saves all changes to the database. If you close the form designer without saving any changes, they will be lost.
Save As
This is only used in off line mode to save the form into the xforms source, layout xml, and language xml tabs.
Open Layout
This is only used in off line mode to open form layout whose xml text should be in the xforms source tab.
Save Layout
This is only used in off line mode to save form layout into the xforms source tab.
Open Language Text
This is only used in off line mode to load form language xml text which should be in the language xml tab.
Save Language Text
This is only used in off line mode to save form language xml text in the language xml tab.
Save As XHTML
Converts the xform in xhtml format and saves it in the xforms source tab. This is only used when you use the form designer in off line mode.
Close
Closes the form designer and takes you back to the previous page.
View
Refresh
When the properties tab is selected, this loads new questions as have been added to the form schema since the xform was last refreshed. It also removes questions that have been deleted from the form schema. The same can be done by right clicking on any form item in the forms panel and select "Refresh".
When the design surface or preview tab is selected, the refresh command will automatically load new widgets for questions in the forms panel which are not mapped to any widgets. The same can be done by right clicking and select refresh from either the design surface or preview tab.
Item
Add New
Adds a new forms panel item at the same level as the selected one.
Add New Child
Adds a new forms panel item that is a child of the selected item. If the selected item is not supposed to have any children, this will just add a new item at the same level hence behaving as the "Add New" command above.
Delete Selected
Deletes the select item. If the design surface tab is displayed, it will delete the selected widgets on the design surface. If the properties tab is displayed, it will delete the selected item on the forms panel.
Move Up
Moves the selected item one position above, in the forms panel.
Move Down
Moves the selected item one position below, in the forms panel.
Cut
Removes the selected item and puts it on the clipboard. If the design surface tab is displayed, the selected widget will be cut. If the properties tab is displayed, the selected item in the forms panel will be cut.
Copy
Paste
Refresh
Does the same as the refresh from the view menu.
Tools
Format
Properly formats xml in the selected xforms source, layout xml, language xml, or model xml tab.
Languages
This when complete, will allow one to edit existing or add new languages.
Options
This when complete, will allow one customize the form designer to his or her preference.
Help
Help Contents
This when complete, will display online help.
About
Shows general information about the form designer.