Forum Discussion

GeoffreyBertram's avatar
GeoffreyBertram
Qrew Trainee
6 years ago

Converting from text field to rich text

I would like to convert a few text fields to rich text fields.  I am curious of the pitfalls or challenges in doing so.  Is any data lost in the process?

Does anyone have experience and/or recommendations for this process?  

Thanks in advance, 
Geoffrey
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  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    6 years ago
    I presume that you mean data entry fields.  I suggest making a copy of the text field first and then changing the copy field to test.

    The main thing is that for your existing data you will lose all you line breaks.
  • GeoffreyBertram's avatar
    GeoffreyBertram
    Qrew Trainee
    6 years ago
    So, are you suggesting the copied field as a test just in case something goes wrong?  

    How do I go about converting without losing those line breaks?  
  • QuickBaseCoachD's avatar
    QuickBaseCoachD
    Qrew Captain
    6 years ago
    re: So, are you suggesting the copied field as a test just in case something goes wrong?  

    Yes, exactly.

    When you copy a field it copies the data in all the records too.

    As for preserving the line feeds, I have not ever tried to do that.  I don't have time to test right now, but its possible you can make a Formula Rich text field with a formula

    SearchAndReplace([my text field], "\n", "<br>").

    Then if that looks visually OK, try changing THAT field from a formula Rich Text to just Rich Text. If you get a chance to test before I do let me know if that works.