Showing all records when field defining portal is empty?

[HALBURN]

I have a list of contacts and I have a portal that lets me enter the first initial of person’s last name into a global field to filter the results. This is fast and works great but if the field is empty it breaks the relationship. Is there a way to have maintain the relationship and show all contacts if the field is empty?

I realize that there are portal filtering and find and replace workarounds but I am trying to find a way to do this with a regular relationship.

[Fitch]

Attached is one possible method.

portalFilter.zip

[HALBURN]

Attached is one possible method.

Thank you Fitch. I did not realize that you could have multiple values in one field like that. Awesome!