Is there a way to have a long text field display as multiple columns similar to a newspaper article?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: there is no built-in method to do this; I don't know how to do it. However somebody else with far too much free time on their hands (you know who you are) will shortly post a sample file that uses a repeating field and a scripted export-import to do it. Soon after that somebody else will post another solution that only uses a global field and a self-join. This will soon be bettered by a method that uses a single calculation field containing the LeftWords() function.

Let the competition begin!

Hi Vaughan,

No need to wait, this was discussed in the past. Here is one Link that I turned up doing a search of Column.

HTH

Lee

I think my original post was misunderstood. I'm not trying to have multiple records show up in columns. I have a single record where one text field is a short story. I need this field to print as two columns on one sheet instead of spanning multiple sheets. This can easily be done in Word or InDesign. Can FileMaker do this?

FM isn't the best tool for this purpose. You'd need to know in advance how many lines would be printed by page.

May be you can split your text in as many new text fields as you need, using the Length() function and scipt the print so that the number of pages gets calculated according to how many fields are filled (IsEmpty(Field7)) would lead to print only 2 pages...

Just some ideas.