Automation to update a long text field with the va...

[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

[trashcaneron]

My use case is super similar and I thought I'd put it here for the next person who finds this too much effort. It's not!

I need to concat a Text Field {Title}, then add a comma, then a second Text Field {Year}. I then want the text to copy to a rich text ready out that is "Title, Year"

I understand the method to do this is to add markdown in-line so that the formula read out would be "*Title*, Year" and then I'd need an automation to update a target Rich Text field based on any changes to the concat field. 

My inital formula was :

CONCATENATE("*" & {Title} & "*" & ", " & {Year}

This worked but, I need to add an if statement so that if a there was nothing in the {Year} field it would only return "*Title*"

IF({Year}, "*" & {Title} & "*, " & {Year}, "*" & {Title} & "*")

Next let's get that automation going - - > 

For dummies like me : the automation builder isn't super clear in setting up the action "Update a record" in the "Task" section. It's been a few year since I used this but this GUI is very confusing. 

For Record ID use "Airtable record ID" – this selects the record you're looking for in the automation record. 

For Fields select your output field eg "Rich Text" and then select your computed / concat field immediately below it. Clearer GUI would say: 

"Airtable record ID" - "Update Self"

Fields would say - Content from "Concat Title Formula" updates "Concat Title Rich Text"