Defaults in Web Client are wrong for ONT:

Navigate Terms – “Show Synonymous Terms” should be OFF by default
Find Terms -“ Show Synonymous Terms” should be ON by default

It looks like the error could be here:

/**
 * @projectDescription View controller for ONT's "Find Terms" tab.
 * @inherits i2b2.ONT.view
 * @namespace i2b2.ONT.view.find
 * @author Nick Benik, Griffin Weber MD PhD
 * @version 1.3
 * ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 * updated 9-15-08: RC4 launch [Nick Benik]
 */
console.group('Load & Execute component file: ONT > view > Find');
console.time('execute time');


// create and save the view object
i2b2.ONT.view.find = new i2b2Base_cellViewController(i2b2.ONT, 'find');
i2b2.ONT.view.find.visible = false;
i2b2.ONT.view.find.modifier = false; {{{ should be TRUE! }}}
this.currentTab = 'names';

AND

/**
 * @projectDescription View controller for ONT's "Navigate Terms" tab.
 * @inherits i2b2.ONT.view
 * @namespace i2b2.ONT.view.nav
 * @author Nick Benik, Griffin Weber MD PhD
 * @version 1.3
 * ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 * updated 9-15-08: RC4 launch [Nick Benik]
 */
console.group('Load & Execute component file: ONT > view > Nav');
console.time('execute time');


// create and save the view object
i2b2.ONT.view.nav = new i2b2Base_cellViewController(i2b2.ONT, 'nav');
i2b2.ONT.view.nav.visible = false;
{{{ there should be this line -> i2b2.ONT.view.nav.modifier = false; }}}

NOT SURE IF THERE IS A PROBLEM HERE TOO

// this file contains a list of all files that need to be loaded dynamically for this i2b2 Cell
// every file in this list will be loaded after the cell's Init function is called
{
        files: [
                "ONT_view_Main.js",
                "ONT_view_Nav.js",
                "ONT_view_Find.js",
                "ONT_ctrlr_FindBy.js",
                "ONT_ctrlr_general.js",
                "ONT_sdx_CONCPT.js",
                "i2b2_msgs.js"
        ],
        // ONLY USE 1 STYLE SHEET: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/262161
        css: ["main_list.css"],
        config: {
                // additional configuration variables that are set by the system
                name: "Ontology",
                description: "The Ontology cell manages all concepts used to describe the data processed by all the Cells within i2b2 Hive.",
                icons: {
                        size32x32: "ONT_icon_32x32.gif"
                },
                category: ["core","cell"],
                paramTranslation: [
                        {xmlName:'OntMax', thinClientName:'max', defaultValue:500},
                        {xmlName:'OntHiddens', thinClientName:'hiddens', defaultValue:false},
                        {xmlName:'OntSynonyms', thinClientName:'synonyms', defaultValue:true} {{{ this line }}}
                ]
        }