Paragraph Spacing is missing when entering data in a cell using make.com modules

Mike S.

I am having trouble with formatting of paragraph data when it is entered in cell using a smartsheet module with make.com. The spacing in the original data that is pulled from a pdf does not show up right away. However, if i double click into the cell where the data is entered, and click away, the spacing then appears.

Is there a way to force this recognition of the formatting automatically? I have not tried a different way of entry yet, but that is next on the list.

Thoughts?

Thank you!

Mike S.

Solution found. Within make, I was able to use a replace function and replace the "Character Return" with "Newline" and Smartsheet recognizes this immediately. Simple fix, just took a while to find the right specific items.

Darren Mullen

@Mike S. Is the formatting that isn't coming through the line breaks between paragraphs?

So, even when you wrap the text in the cell or column that doesn't show until you actually double click it.. If so I'm thinking whatever character that is transferring from the PDF to Smartsheet isn't the proper line break character needed for Smartsheet to recognize to wrap the text.

Couple ideas:

1. figure out what character(s) are coming through from Make and transform it in Make before sending it to Smartsheet.

2. Like #1, but instead create a new column in Smartsheet and use Smartsheet Substitute functions to substitute the character(s) with the proper char(10) character.

I've run into this sort of thing with a member of my Guru Elite group where he wasn't matching text properly. It turned out that the source of his data had additional special characters that weren't visible, but were causing an exact text match to fail! We were able to identify the special characters then substitute them out.

Mike S.

@Darren Mullen , yes, it is the paragraph breaks that aren't coming through. I did try an Substitute formula with another cell, but as you pointed out, I don't know what what character is there that is not being recognized. Odd that it is recognized when you double click, but not before. I'll dig for that hidden character, thanks.

Darren Mullen

@Mike S. I remember there being some sort of online utility I found that helps identify special ASCII characters in a text when you paste it in, but couldn't find it in my notes with a quick search…

Mike S.

Haven't found a hidden character yet, but what I am seeing is that where there should be the end of a paragraph and two returns, there is no spacing after the period. "promptly.At" In this case, the last sentence of the paragraph ended with "promptly" and the next paragraph starts with "At".

After Smartsheet processes it, there is CR and LF.

So somehow Smartsheet is interpreting the lack of spacing.

More digging.

Mike S.

Solution found. Within make, I was able to use a replace function and replace the "Character Return" with "Newline" and Smartsheet recognizes this immediately. Simple fix, just took a while to find the right specific items.

Darren Mullen

@Mike S. Great! Thanks for posting the solution so we call can learn :)