maintaining text format between fields and portals

[IanJ]

In a calculation field that simply concatenates text from several fields is it possible to maintain the text format from each of the fields. That is, some fields have some italicised and some bold text in them but the calculation field only returns plain text. I can not get this to work in a single file but the follow up question is whether the solution will work when the calculation field is in a portal to another file. Regards, Ian

[CobaltSky]

Hello Ian,

The short answer is no, it won't - not in FileMaker v5 in a calc, regardless of whether the calc result is displayed in a portal or in its native state. In FileMaker 5, the calculation engine does not support text formatting.

One answer to your woes would be to upgrade to version 7, because the calc engine *does* support text formats in 7.

If you are locked in with version 5, however, your only option would be to concatenate the values by scripted copy and paste rather than by calculation, assembling the resulting composite values into a regular text field. With a bit of careful scripting, you will find that it is possible to achieve that in a way that will preserve the original formatting attributes that the text brings with it from its field of origin.

[IanJ]

Thanks Ray, I'm contemplating an upgrade to 7, although our internal Data Centre may enforce a change to Oracle where I'll lose a lot of control, such is life.

[Vaughan]

"our internal Data Centre may enforce a change to Oracle "

Then you've still got a couple of years use out of the FMP database as they try to get the Oracle system to do all the things the FMP one does.