Launch First Attachment Example
When the First Attachment launch property is chosen in a form then the first attachment in the document is opened instead of the form when a document using the form is opened. If the document is opened in Edit mode from the view (such as by selecting the document and hitting CTRL-E) then the document is opened with the form in edit mode (handy for changing the attachment, or changing other field values, etc.). This works great for applications that contain such things as Excel spreadsheets, reports, etc. - things where the "important" information is contained in the attachment, and the database is simply a repository. However, there is a bug with this feature - and it is a bug that has been around for quite some time.
The problem is that certain programs, such as MS Excel and Word, launch but don't maintain focus; while others, such as MS Powerpoint, do launch with focus. The real aggrivation with this bug is for users who use Notes open full-screen, and have their taskbars hidden. In this scenario the user will double-click the document to open the attachment, and to them, nothing happens. So, they double-click it again. And again. And then they eventually call support to ask what's going on, only to find out they have opened the same attachment 35 times in the background, all because the attachment didn't have focus when opened (and therefore the user didn't know it was opening). This problem has been around for quite some time (as noted in Technote 1091159), with no plans to fix. But there is a way to give your users the convenience of this feature without the annoying focus problem - and this database provides an example of how to work around this problem.
NOTE: This technique is fully explained in this post.
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