Duffbert's Random Musings

Document Number:  1103383

Problem
A customer would like to be able to prevent users from leaving a Rich Text field (RTF) without entering text.  The Rich Text field does not have an Input Validation formula associated with it.  How can a user be forced to enter text in the Rich Text field before saving the document?

Content
For the following it is presumed that the Rich Text field is called "rtfield".

1.        Below the Rich Text field on the form create a Text field.  This allows you to use its Input Validation formula to point to the Rich Text field.  If needed the Text field could be hidden from the user and used explicitly for design purposes.

2.        In the Input Validation formula of the Text field enter the following formula:

@If(@Abstract([TextOnly];10;"";"rtfield")="";@Failure(" you must enter some text ");@Success)


Note:    When referencing a Rich Text field you will not be able to check for an empty field value by using:

a)  @If(rtfield = ""; ....)
b)  @If(@Contains(rtfield; ""); ....)

In addition, the [textonly] parameter does not consider file attachments as text.   Thus, the user will still be forced to enter text in addition to the file attachment when the [textonly] option is used.

Supporting Information:

This process can also be done with LotusScript in the Exiting event of the Rich Text field.  Refer to the technote, "How to Lock Documents via LotusScript to Prevent Simultaneous Access" (#155070) for a good example.