Trying to truncate Control Standard Statement verbosity to 6 lines using Custom Objects, or Calculated Field

[RichardHorton1]

Good day all. I am trying to determine if there's a way that the control standard statement can be truncated to just few lines as opposed to the entire statement showing up when you pull the control standard into the record of another application. (please reference attachment for further clarification)

[DavidPetty]

@RichardHorton1, a custom object is limited to the application itself and can't be selected when displaying or selecting a record for a cross-reference field.  With that said, you could use a custom object to update a text area field and use that instead or just create a calculated field using the LEFT() function.

FYI, this post is a duplicate of this, Control Standard Statement Verbosity - RSA Link - 661813

[RichardHorton1]

Thank you David. The reason I asked the question again, is that Ilya_Khen provided a response regarding using custom objects or calculated fields and I was/am unable to locate any documentation on how to achieve this goal. So, I asked my question again specifically around the subject matter of custom objects and calculated fields. I guess, maybe I'm confusing myself, or making this harder than it needs to be  ... But, what my manager and director would like to see, is a brief synopsis of the control standard statement (description), as opposed to seeing the entire statement, when it's pulled into the a section area of a record. My guess is to save real estate in the 'Project Control Standards', section of the application. And if the viewer wants to read the rest of the statement, they can just click the 'Standard Name' link, go into the standard and read the statement/description in its entirety. If I'm making sense. So, they were wondering if there's a way to be able to have it come over with just a synopsis of the control statement instead of the full statement/description. I believe you've answered the question. If I have any more questions or concerns, I'll reach out. Thank you again! Happy New Year 

[LouisHebben]

We have done something related to shortening text in a couple different ways, both involved using a separate field to contain the shortened/edited text.  The additional field was then used as needed.

First was a datafeed removing html formatting.  This was for scheduled distribution where we didnt need/want the formatted text.  Another was using the LEFT function on the text to only include specific amount of text.  This can leave not very useful text depending on how it was written in first field.  Last option we have used, is a manual second field where someone is responsible to create a shortened version of the longer text.  This is mainly for a summary where the detailed information is to much for quick status reports.

[DavidPetty]

Another thing that can be done and a bit time consuming at first is to add a new text area field the Control Standard app with Maximum Characters set and name it something like Control Standard Summary.

[Anonymous]

As commented before LEFT is useful for grabbing a chunk of data. I generally combine LEFT and FIND to grab the first couple of sentences. Doing a FIND on the first period will generally get you the first sentence. So the format of the calc ends up being LEFT([Control Standard Statement],(FIND(".", [Control Standard Statement],0)=1)) *the + 1 captures the period

If you want the first two sentences, you can use the first FIND +1 to get your starting number for the second FIND.

This assumes sentences are punctuated with a period or some other punctuation. If your data is ambiguous and you just want the first 6 lines vs. 6 sentences then the LEFT/FIND option will not work.