Option items are the choices displayed as a list of possible selections of a select field.  Aside from the label displayed they have settings to work with data export and formulas, various style settings, and life cycle management settings.  Option items can only exist a part of an option list.

Setting	Description
Label	The label is the most important and visible setting.  The label is the option item to most users.  The label should generally not be altered after creation, because from a user's perspective altering the label actually makes it a different option.
Export Value	The export value, if present, is used in place of the label during CSV export.  However, it can also very useful in formulas to identify the option and/or store additional information about the option.
Group	The group that the option is categories within.  This option is only available if one or more groups exist within the current option list.  Of course, an option can also belong directly to the option list.
CSS Style	The CSS Style to be applied to the option label when displayed.  If displayed in a select list, only minor font changes, such as color, are allowed by most browsers.  Firefox supports much broader styling of option items.  If displayed in a radio or checkbox group, full CSS applies.
CSS Class	The CSS Class to be applied to the option label when displayed.  As with CSS styles, there are significant limitations in most browsers select-list styling capabilities.
Status	The status of an option is used to manage life cycle and to create dynamic option lists.  An active option item has a normal appearance and is available for selection.  A disabled option is shown as grayed out and is not available for selection, though it may have been selected prior to becoming disabled.  An obsolete option is not not available for selection and is not even visible except in data where it was selected prior to becoming obsolete.  The status of an option may be dynamically altered via a pre-edit or merge-report formula to dynamically show/hide/disable options based on whatever logic is appropriate.  This dynamic capability is described in more detail in the RelateScript documentation.
Sort Order	This field determines the sort order of the options within an option list.  When this value is changed, it is nearly always set to a value already used by another option item.  The entire list of options between the old and new sort index must have their order incremented or decremented to compensate.  If an out-of-range value is entered such as a negative value or a very large value, the option will be moved to the top or bottom of the sort order as appropriate.  When editing all options simultaneously, if more than one option is given the same sort order value, all options sharing the same value will be be given consecutive values in their original sort order with other item's sort orders adjusted to accommodate the new options.
Bundle Settings	Option lists may belong to bundles, assuming bundles have been created.  These settings are complex and virtually identical for all Relate components.  They are described in the article on bundles.
Fixed Id	This setting is available only to BlueStep staff and is used to identify and lock option items that are used by the underlying platform logic.
Custom Lookup Properties	Custom lookup properties are used by the underlying platform to provide additional identifying information about an option item.  However, these properties are also available in RelateScript formulas.  They can be used to find a particular option in a list, clearly identify options, categorize options or record additional custom properties and settings that apply to the option.  Lookup properties are recorded as a list of name/value pairs with one pair per line.  The name and value are separated by an equal sign.  All characters on the line are used, even white-space.  Properties names which begin with an underbar may have any value.  Property names which do not begin with an underbar much have a name/value pair that is unique among all option items in the entire organization.  Names without an underbar prefix are most useful for identifying and looking up option items.  Names beginning with underbar are most useful for categorization of options and for storing custom property values.