Use {Field Name} in Long Text?

[M_L]

Hello,

I am attempting to create a “email merge” document template using Airtable that allows me to:

1. Use rich text formatting (bold, bullets, etc. for email formatting), and
2. Use reference fields in the text (for example “Hello {First Name}, your User Name is {User Name} and your Password is {Password}.”

If I try to do this in Page Designer, I can do #2, but not #1 that I know of.
If I try to do this in a Long Text Field, I can do #1, but not #2 that I know of.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
ML

[Kamille_Parks · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately not directly. What you could do is use a Formula field to generate the template (including notation for rich text) you could use an Automation to copy the formula into a Rich Text Field.

A formula written like:

CONCATENATE(
  "Hello **", {First Name}, "**, your User Name is ", {User Name}, 
  " and your password is ", {Password}, ".", 
  "\n* Bullet point #1", 
  "\n* Bullet point #2"
)

if copied to the a long Text Field with rich formatting enabled using an Automation’s Update Action Step would look like:

Hello Kamille, your User Name is KamilleP and your password is 12345.

• Bullet point #1
• Bullet point #2

Be aware that this may eat up your monthly allotment of automation runs fairly quickly, depending on your trigger and how many records change.

---

Note: If you just need to send the email using the automation with your merge text in the body of the email, you can either just insert the formula’s output (not needing to copy into a rich text field) or construct your merge text within the Send Email action step directly. The Send Email actions’ Body input box accepts both markdown notation for rich text and field value inserts (blue plus button).

[M_L]

I’m trying to insert your formula into a formula field, but I’m getting the error “Sorry, there was a problem saving this field. Invalid formula. Please check your formula text.” I updated the Field Names to be my own fields, but for some reason AT’s not taking it. Any ideas?

And I’m also curious, what are the Automation steps? Just create another column that’s Long Text and reference the formula column?

Thanks for your help.

-ML

[Vivid-Squid]

Hi @M_L
Can you post a screenshot of what you have pasted that gives you an error?

I just checked and @Kamille_Parks formula worked for me.

[M_L]

Update - I was able to get it to work by updating the field references. How do I automate the filling of a long-text column with this data?

Thanks,
Mitch

Yep, here’s a screenshot of the error I get when I try to enter @Kamille_Parks formula in a Formula column.

Thanks for taking the time to look into this for me.

Airtable Screenshot of Formula Error (Google Drive jpg)

[M_L]

Thanks so much for the responses on this one. I wanted to let you know I used @Kamille_Parks response, and it did solve the issue for me.

The main problem I had was using / instead of . I don’t code much and didn’t even think about it. Once I fixed the “slashes” I was able to build an entire multi-paragraph email using code, and automate it into another Long Text field.

THANK YOU!

-ML