I know FMP7 does not have a simple way to format a phone field (North American). Is there a plugin or some EASY to use examples to format these and other fields like SS numbers?

I have putting off this project for a long time.

Does FMP8 have this functionality?

You apparently didn't search the Forum. This does NOT require a plugin.

Do a search for +Phone +Format (include the pluses)

Lee

Actually I did. I tried phone number, phone format, phone validation etc etc. I also did some Google searches and did not get much help. I did find a Macworld article/ link that pirated info from another site. That site was nice enough to post some info but it was very complex and assumed a body of knowledge about FMP programming. I classified myself as a novice with respect to this.

So as a last resort I joined this forum.

And carefully postured my question. A plug in is a simple solution vs complex programming.

Now if you did a search prior to your reply to me. You would have noticed the same thing.

I don't know why you needed a plus sign because if you now do a search sans plus sign or with the plus sign you will get one or two non-responsive categories (depending on which search string you use) and then #3 your reply to #4 my question.

I find it incredible that this software does not address a basic function to format (phone numbers, zip code, or ss numbers) given all the software commands it has.

FileMaker is a load easier to use

E.g. the "complex programming" it takes to reformat: 12345678901 to (123)4567-8901 is just:

FileMaker: "(" & Left( number ; 3) & ") " & Middle( number ; 4 ; 4 ) & "-" & Right( number ; 4)

Access version: !(999) 9900 0000

But with FileMaker, you aren't restricted to reformatting a field in one particular field, e.g. you might have mobile numbers, home numbers, international numbers all reformat based on the contents of the "type" field.

Using the keywords I suggested presnted several hits.

The first one listed is Link

Lee

It looks like we are both right. I did my search from the Forums main page, clicked on search and entered my string (s) into the quick search box.

The results did NOT yield the same entries that you showed me.

Although you did not indicate where you did the search I now tried it using the advanced search and got the items you found.

Not sure why that is? Thanks again for our response I appreciate it. I don't have time to work with your suggestions got a couple of family issues to deal with.

The Search Engine can be difficult to figure out when you first start using it, and sometimes doesn't help because of the number of hits. There is a Question Mark above the Quick Search, that is there to HELP you figure it out.

Most of the time, you will want to use the pluses in your search with your keywords, as I showed in my first post.

Do a search for [color:red]+Phone [color:red]+Format ([color:red]include the pluses)

Lee

Also change your search settings to boolean.

Sorry it has taken me awhile to get back to this.

I tried to use the FM 7 help to figure out where and how to enter the formatting info but I am not getting it correct.

I copied the string provided earlier in this post. I went to define database and highlighted the home phone number field. I made the field a calc field and pasted the string. I changed the word number (from the text string) to home phone (my dB field).

I saved it and the first time I went back into the database the second 3 digits (exchange) was 4 digits in the field. So I tried to change the pasted string in data base define to 3 and 3 this gave me a 4 position prefix exchange. When I tried to edit the field in browse I got an error message can't modify the field.

I am not sure where I went wrong. Again any help would be appreciated.

A calculation field is not what you want, but rather a text field with calculated result and 'Do not replace...' unchecked.

Genx's quick posting earlier was not necessarily a full solution but rather an answer to your previous comparison to Access. It assumes that the data entered is all numeric. You may want to use a Filter () command to weed out anything except numbers, then apply the formatting to it.

You stated earlier that you already performed a search, but there should be numerous posts on here already with a sample solutions.