Long Text¶

An answer of several lines. Use it for a comment, a description or notes.

Use it for¶

Observations at the end of a visit.
A description of a site, a case or an incident.
Any answer that a person writes in sentences.

Tip

A Long Text answer is hard to count or chart. When you want to analyse the answers, add a Select One for the category and keep the Long Text for the detail.

Settings¶

Every question has a Name, a Label, a Placeholder, Help Text, Required and Skip Logic. See Adding a question. Long Text adds one panel.

Setting	Description
Validation: Min, Max	The shortest and longest answer, in characters.

There is no sub-type. For an email address, a web address or a phone number, use Text.

Validation¶

Required, and the Min and Max length. A wrong length shows a message such as "This field must be up to 500 characters".

Combinations that matter¶

Skip Logic on another question can test a Long Text answer for equals or not equals, but a free-text match is rarely useful. Test a Select One instead.
A calculated field reads the text. length(notes) gives the number of characters.
The data table shows the first three lines of a long answer, with a copy button. Open the record to read it all.

How it looks¶

On the web the question is a box of several lines that grows as the user types. In the 3D app it is a taller box.

A Long Text question in the 3D app — 3D app

The question's settings, on the web:

The settings dialogue for a Long Text question

The data¶

Where	What you get
The record	The text, with its line breaks.
An export	One text column.
A formula	The text.

Text for one line, with sub-types for an email address, a web address or a phone number.
Select One for an answer you want to count.