Default panes are the outer divisions of the framework layout (as described on Framework layout). These are special content presentation zones that are intended to present global or section specific content such as headers, footers and navigation elements. They display on a page by default. Global defaults can be replaced by section defaults for particular web sections. Site Defaults can also be turned off for a particular section or page.
Defaults have customizable default pane properties that can be attributed to them such as size, position and background color.
More than one default can be defined for a given pane. Unlike the content area with content details, default pane content is not arranged in a table layout. Multiple default panes are arranged sequentially: Top and Bottom panes arrange content horizontally; Left and Right panes are arranged vertically.
Default pane content and properties can be accessed under the Defaults tab of the CMS Components Panel. From this panel you can add new or edit default panes and their properties.
We recommend that you not assign a form to a Default Pane unless you use XslGenerator on the default pane. Doing so will cause the framework to load this form's Object on every page and override the form that you have tried to select on other Page Details on a page. This will cause very strange behavior with parsed values or cause the framework to try to insert/update the wrong table on data entry pages, as well as other unpredictable issues. See CMS_Troubleshooting for more information.
If you feel the need to select a form in order to parse values for an HTML or List SQLcontent type, then you'll need to convert the content type to Control (ASCX) and use XslGenerator. You'll need to transform your ListSQL or HTML into XSL. With XslGenerator, you can still select a form in the default pane for parsing, but this form will not cause the page to load this form's object on every other part of the page; the object will stay "local" within the default pane and not affect other parts on the page.
If you need to parse values in a default pane, see the previous section for guidance.