Customizing a Form

Forms determine how your instance information is presented and entered. By changing a form, you can:

Changing the Browser Key

The browser key is the slot that is used to identify the different instances when they are displayed in a list. If you do not select a slot to use as a browser key, Protégé-2000 uses a default key, <inherit>, such as newspaper_0017. It is usually helpful to set a browser key for all classes that will contain instances. In fact, you may choose to set the browser key before you even start entering instances.

To set the browser key for the Editor slot:

  1. Click on the Forms Tab.
  2. Click on Editor in the Forms Pane to the left.. The default form appears in the Form Edit Pane to the right.
  3. Select name from the Form Browser Key menu.
  4. If you wish, view the Instances Tab to see that the name of the instances you entered now appears in the Direct Instances Pane. From now on, you will be able to view instances of Editor by their name field.

Now return to the Forms Tab to continue customizing the Editor form.

Hiding a Field

To hide the Byname field:

  1. Click on the Byname field to select it. The Selected Widget Type menu becomes active, which allows you to customize the widget. 
  2. Select <none> from the Selected Widget Type menu.
  3. The field is removed from the form.

Repositioning Fields

Now, you may no longer like the layout of the form. To reposition a field by dragging:

  1. Select the Name field by clicking on it. It is outlined in blue to show it is selected.
  2. Drag the field to the top of the Form Edit Pane.

    You can also resize a selected form by dragging the edges, just like any window.

When you have a lot of fields, and you have deleted or resized several of them, it can be time-consuming to move all the fields by hand. Protégé-2000 provides a short-cut to rearrange all the visible fields on a form into a standard order, accomodating their current size. You can then use this as a basis to further customize the form.

To have Protégé-2000 arrange the fields for you:

  1. Click the Default Layout button , the center button in the Forms Pane.
  2. The form adjusts to close the gap caused by deleting one field and moving another.

Congratulations. You have now created a simple project with Protégé-2000. You can now explore the program on your own, using it to represent your own ontology. For more information about the capabilities of Protégé-2000, see the Protege-2000 Documentation Home Page.


Next: Creating and Saving a Query

Getting Started With Protégé