Calculation field with style

[eddyb2]

Hi all

I used to use FileMaker a lot and got fairly proficient on it - evwn started helping some people on these forums. Now I come to use it again and am struggling with the basics!! Sure I'll get back into it but coud do with a nudge from someone please!

I have 5 fields:

Group

Section

Text

Name

Phone

Some of these fields are set as being in BOLD style.

I then want to create a calculation field which basically merges all the other fields into one text field.

I can do this no problem - but the fields that were in BOLD are no longer shown as BOLD

So it should show

Group - Section

Text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text

Name - Phone

But nothing shows in Bold

Can anyone help?

Many thanks

Ed

[mz123]

Hey there,

I think the calculation should look something like this:

TextStyleAdd( Group & " - " & Team ; bold ) & ¶ &

Text & ¶ &

TextStyleAdd( Name & " - " & Phone ; bold )

that should work :

[eddyb2]

Thanks but i don't have TextStyleAdd

I am on FMP6

Perhaps this is only available in later versions?

Thsnks

[Genx]

It is only available from 7 upwards. Have a look for a "Bold" function... i know there is one for Uppercase so there may be an earlier equivilant for text style add re: Bold formatting.

I'd help more, but i havent worked on six at all and so all i know of it is where people have corrected me before so.. :

Goodluck anyway,

~Genx

[IdealData]

Text format control features by calculation functions only came about in FMP7+

Edited May 10, 2006 by Guest

[comment]

Try putting this together in a text object - using merge fields - instead of a calculation. Then you can format each element separately.

[eddyb2]

Thanks for your idea but it needs to be a field as this will be sent in an email using a script.

Or at the very least users need to be able to copy the text.

If I join everything using merge references then you cannot copy this in Browse mode

Anymore ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

[Vaughan]

The calculation engine in FMP 6 and earlier does not honor text character or paragraph formatting.

Your only option is to use copy-paste text instead of calculated fields, which might not be an option. The Replace script command honors text character formatting (but not paragraph formatting) and with some work you can use this to get merged formatted text.

However, even if you get that working you'll be disappointed to find that FMP supports only plain text email.

At this point you should be sufficiently convinced that continued development with FMP 6 isn't a great idea. For merged text work FMP 7 and later are sooo much better.

I posted a simple letter merge demo file in the forums to illustrate the power and simplicity of FMP 7 doing merges.