If I have a field which contains:

 

MP1-01, TV-01, TV-02, TV-03, TV-04

 

it sometimes, because it breaks at the end of the page, looks as this:

 

MP1-01, TV-01, TV-02, TV-03, TV-

04

 

It seems there was a shift/key combination on Windows which inserted a space which stopped the break; I forget what it is called now so I can't even look it up.  Is there a way of doing the same thing with the dash?  It would need to be turned into a word character which isn't used much but this is for display so ...

 

Whatever that key-combination, use Substitute ( field ; "-" ; " - " ) ... where the spaces are actually that key combination.  Ah well, it's late.  Oh, actually it's 4:30 am, time to stop.  Time flies when having fun!  I searched for the name of this invisible connector going on two hours.  I throw myself on the mercy of the forum.

BTW, these are normalised, separate values which have been concatenated in a calculation and I'm just trying to make the list easier for Users to read on the job.

- - - please respond to this thread and not the others - - - system winked out and now I have no delete button to delete my dups.  We will clean it up later.  - - -

Non-breaking space!  It just came to me! So something like:

Let ( break = " " ;

Substitute ( text ; "-" ; break & "-" & break )
)

Option-spacebar.  It works!

Well, that leaves spaces.  Probably simpler just to replace the dash with the tilde which achieves the same thing and looks almost the same except possibly a bit wiggly.. 

Try non-breaking hyphen - Char (8209).

Ah, that's perfect - a great thing to wake up to!  None-breaking hyphen ... what will they think of next?  You rock!

FMPA13.0v2

 

Attached is a screenshot using this non-break hyphen.  When the file is opened on Mac (Maverick) it works perfectly as first image.  However, when opened on Windows 7, the second image is the result ... notice the extra space after the dash.  Is there any alternative character?

 

The only other thing I can think of is to have someone on windows copy the non-break dash right into text or calculation for me (my Windows system is not yet updated).

 

Added:

 

The third image is how it properly adjusts on Maverick when there are several lines.  

 

I have been searching and I can't find any other character other than 8209 but I thought maybe someone else might have ideas.

Edited April 22, 201411 yr by LaRetta

Have you tried switching to another font?

 

 

The only other thing I can think of is to have someone on windows copy the non-break dash right into text or calculation for me (my Windows system is not yet updated).

 

Not sure how that would help. There should be no difference between using Char (8209) and inserting the actual character between quotes in a calculation formula.

Hi Michael!

 

The client tried Arial, Times New Roman and Tahoma. Unfortunately, all produced the space after the dash.  I appreciate the idea. 

 

I was thinking that if Microsoft Word generated a non-break dash and it was placed between quotes that it might be a different html code or at least Windows would *see* it since it came from a Microsoft product.  I realised it was major WAG.  

 

I do not know if this breaks always or whether it only breaks in this calculation.  Could someone on Windows open the attached and see if they get a space after the dash on the calculation?  Possibly, something else in the original calculation is causing the failure or possibly it is because it was a v11 file which was converted to 13.

 

TestHyphen.fmp12.zip

Tested in 12 and 13, Windows 8.1.

 

I am also seeing the expanded space after the non breaking hyphen. Oddly, at 100% the character doesn't render and I get the unrendered box. At any other zoom level, it shows as a hypen-space.

I get the space after the dash too.  I tried creating it in Word and pasting in but I get same thing.  

The client tried Arial, Times New Roman and Tahoma.

 

Admittedly clutching at straws, but how about Arial Unicode?

Hi Josh - Charity!  Thank you so much for testing this for me.  I will report it. 

 

Hi Michael!  I just heard back from the client and that does not work either, unfortunately.  Thank you for trying anyway. :-)

I posted this issue on FMI's Report An Issue forum here:

 

http://forums.filemaker.com/posts/8ebd9bd484?commentId=290504#290504

 

And they have already responded.