This is for everyone who uses ABACUS and if there is a better way to do it please let every one know.
For this example - say we have a character field eg. Dr. Sam Selenke and this person is not a contact but a name associated with the contact. Act does not allow you to separate the first name out like it does for the "contact" field. However below is a formula which can be copied and used which allows you to extract the first name out of the [FIELD]. It allows you to address the letter to eg. Dr. Sam Selenke and then begin the letter with Dear "Sam" ie. - the person's first name. You will need to add a field for this to work but it can reside in an unobtrusive place. You then use this field in the templates and reports so that only the first name is returned.
One limitation however is that the name can only have the format of Mr. "First Name" "Surname". It will not handle a middle name. (Another challenge for another day)


SUBSTRING( [FIELD], (PATINDEX ( "% %", [FIELD])+1),LEN([FIELD]) - PATINDEX ( "% %",REVERSE( [FIELD] ))-PATINDEX ("% %",[FIELD] ))

Regards

Matthew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2007 11:39AM by Admin.