Defining text fields

Contents > Creating a database > Defining database fields > Defining text fields

Defining text fields

Use text fields to store up to approximately 2GB or 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) characters of letters, symbols, and numbers used as text. Indexes are based on the first 100 characters of each word or value.

To define text fields:

1.	With the database open, choose File menu > Manage > Database.

2.	In the Manage Database dialog box, click the Fields tab.

3.	If your database contains more than one table, select the appropriate table from the Table list.

4.	For Field Name, type a name for the field.

See About naming fields.

5.	For Type, select Text.

6.	Click Create.

7.	To select options for the field, click Options.

See Setting options for fields.

8.	Continue to define fields, or click OK.

Notes

Text fields can hold values that are combinations of letters, numbers, and special characters, like phone numbers, postal codes, or serial numbers.

Text fields sort in alphabetical order (left to right, character by character).

To specify how data in a text field displays (for example, to specify a font), see Formatting and setting up field objects in Layout mode.

If you are using FileMaker Pro Advanced, you can copy field schemas from one file and paste them into the same file or some other file. For more information, see Copying and pasting field schemas (FileMaker Pro Advanced).

Related topic

Specifying text formats for fields

Contents > Creating a database > Defining database fields > Defining text fields