I have to use a program that isn’t Access, but uses it’s file format, to input some data. If hand-written, this data would have the format:
1-WOR/12"-2 (it’s for soil boring logs, if anybody is interested)
What I get when I type that in is:
1-WOR
12"-2
This leads me to believe that “/” forces a new line. How can I use that symbol without creating a new line? It’s a standard in way of writing the data in this field, so I can’t just use a work around like “WOR for 12” or anything like that.
Thanks in advance.
There’s probably some character you can put before the / to indicate that it should be interpreted as text and not a control character. Without knowing what the program is, I can’t tell you anything more.
I only have a a rough understanding of your situation but databases are my profession and I know Access. As a work around, you might pick a special character that is never used for anything else such as a ~ and use that to enter data instead of the /. After everything is entered, do a search and replace to change ~ to /.
Another thing you might try is to put quotes around it like “/” and take them out later. Without knowing the program, it is hard to say. Their is probably an escape character to prevent that behavior but I have no way of knowing what it is.
It’s called WinLog, but most people wouldn’t have dealt with it. It’s very specialized - soil boring and rock coring records, along with test pit logs. I’m pretty sure that whatever fix would work in Access would also work in this program.
I haven’t heard of a forward slash being handled as a newline in any database system, but the most common character used for escaping other characters is a backslash (, so you would write /).
Shagnasty, it’s hard to explain the interface. There is a video tutorial here, and the exact window I am dealing with is shown at 10:30. Essentially, clicking on a certain area of the display opens up a window where you type in the data. I don’t think that a find/replace command will get to where that data is kept. Every time you close the window with the data forms, the display is updated. The display is kind of like a .pdf, where you get on paper just what it looks like on the screen.
killafish555, I assumed it was an Access thing because I know nothing about it. The files on this program are all saved as Access files.
Thanks for the idea, but it didn’t take this time. Any other common symbols that you know of?
Kind of a lame workaround, you could use one of the other slash characters available from the charmap. There are two options that I can see, and both return "∕ ". They’re different from a normal backslash, (∕/), but they’re almost surely font-specific.
(Start Menu => Run => charmap)
Good idea, Ellis Dee. I’ll try that next.
No luck on the character map - the symbols come through as question marks.
Any other ideas?
If you open up the database with Access and look at the data in the table, you can see if it is stored as you entered it or if it has the CR/LF as part of the text. When I have had situations like this acces displayed a box character in that position.
If the data is stored in access with the bogus character(s), then you could replace them with an update query. If the data looks fine inside Access then whatever program is displaying/printing the data is where the problem is.
I looked at the program’s Web site, and downloaded the video (and then found the damn old-school depricated codec needed to play it) and watched it at and around the 10:30 mark.
I am 99% sure your problem has to do with the way the designers designed it and it’s not a problem specific to Access. It’s got to do with the way they are having the app insert data into Access (like TheRaftPeople said).
I’d contact the designer ASAP and tell them exactly the problem and get them to fix it. If they won’t…well, time to maybe find a new app.
Update:
Following the advice above, I contacted the company that makes the software. They actually go back to me within a couple of hours (!), and the solution was easy-peasy. To get “/”, you type “//”. It works beautifully.
Thanks to everyone for your help!