Sharepoint Calculated Column With Multiple Lines Of Text

Just wondering how to create a list with line breaks in a calculated column without using data view. Stack Exchange Network Stack Exchange network consists of 176 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. A multi line text field is defined in SharePoint as a Note type, this is stored in the DB as a ntext sql type. In this SQL type you can store 2gb of char data, that's 1,073,741,823 characters. Note: It is not advisable to store such huge data in SharePoint column as it may hamper performance. Explanation referred from this TechNet.

This is one of the challenges to SharePoint search content on a list from multiline field. Multi line text field cannot be indexed as it’s an Unsupported Column Type.

Indexing the field is separate from search crawling which is needed for search result. Make sure the column has a managed property which allows a column to be searchable, retrievable and quarriable.

I noticed an issue on a list with over 10000 lists items where content for multiline text was not working on list search page and not showing the required outcome whereas it shows the required result on the site search. So I believe that in a SharePoint list, multiple line content search do not working properly if list view threshold is over 5000 items.

Steps to Create Managed Property

First you need to create a site column and then create a Managed Property

1 – First create a site column for multi-line text field by going to site settings –> Web Designer Gallery –> Site Columns –> Create

2 – Create the site column and add it to a content type or SharePoint list.

3 – Add atleast one list item to the list, its important so it can create the crawled property for the body column. Now run full crawl on the list.

4 – Now go back to Site Settings –> Site Collection Administration –> Search Schema and click on New Managed Property.

Text

5 – Now select the add mapping properties

6 – Leave “Text” selected, also check Searchable, Queryable and Retrievable.

7 – You can map multiple properties against this managed property to make sure you are fetching all the relevant columns.

8 – The crawled property is different depending upon what you named it. My column was called Body, so I found it under “ows_body”, “Body”, “ows_Body1” and “ows_Body_1”. I added multiple properties because I used body field in multiple lists.

9 – Now you can start the list index or wait for some time so search crawl can run automatically.

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Adnan is two time SharePoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional) with over 12 years of extensive experience with major expertise on SharePoint Server, Office 365, .Net Platform and Microsoft BI. He is currently working SharePoint Architect at FMT Consultants. He is MCT Regional Lead for Pakistan Chapter since 2012. He is working on SharePoint for past nine years and worked on different intranet/intranet solutions for private & govt. sector majorly in Gulf region, which include OOB and customized solutions. He is a trainer, technology evangelist and also speaks in community forums.
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I stumbled upon this by accident. Try to do this by adding a multiple line of text field to a calculated column in SharePoint and it will tell you that it cannot be done. But it can with the use of InfoPath and some trickery:

For this example I will call the field that will be the multiple line of text field “Holder”.

1. Create a single line of text field and name it what you will be naming your multiple line of text field.

2. Create you calculated column and add the field you just create to it.

3. Open the form in InfoPath.

4. Delete the Single Line of Text field you just create and the publish.

5. In InfoPath create a Multiple Line of Plain Text field and name it EXACTLY the same as your old Single Line of Text field and publish once more.

Sharepoint List Calculated Column Date

You are now done and whatever you put in your multiple line of text field will show up in your Calculated Column.