FileMaker offers several methods to protect field data from being edited; The most common (and simple) is just unchecking the option for field entry in Browse Mode in the inspector:<\/p> Another common method is through the use of merge text on a layout. A third popular method to protect field data from being edited on a layout is by using a\u00a0calculated button bar segment<\/a>. This works very well, and has the added benefit of enabling you to dynamically change and format the field data.<\/p> But what if you want to select the data, copy it, and paste it elsewhere, but still protect it from being edited? This a familiar problem \u2014 users want to copy an entire address block, or an email address, or whatever, and paste it into an email or a document, but are unable to select the text.<\/p> There are three ways of making field data selectable, but not editable:<\/p> If you set up a privilege set in FileMaker\u2019s \u201cmanage security\u201d settings, and then apply it to user accounts, you can effectively prevent users from editing field data under various circumstances. If, for example, you were to create a calculation (at the field level) that says a field data can only be edited when a \u201cLocked\u201d boolean field is unchecked, then the user can select that field on a layout, but will be unable to edit the data unless that boolean field has been unchecked. The advantage here is that you can control the editing of data by user privileges, and so some users may be able to edit, while others may not. The downside is that it can become complicated to edit the user privileges at the field level, particularly if you have a large number of fields to deal with.<\/p> Setting up specific fields to replicate the data in editable fields will enable you to place any number of these fields on a layout and allow them to be selected without any ability to edit the data. Period. It\u2019s easy to set up (you just take a field called \u201cName\u201d, for example, and create a new calculation field called \u201ccName\u201d that simply calculates the \u201cName\u201d field), and it requires no special privilege setups. However, the downside here is that you have to add new fields to your system. For just a few, this may be fine, but it\u2019s not necessarily practical to duplicate many fields as calculated fields, just to allow for\u00a0copying and pasting. On the other hand, you can do things like calculate an entire address block including spaces, carriage returns, and formatting all in a single calculation field and display that:<\/p> The above calculations display a nice, neat, formatted name and address block:<\/p> This method works quite nicely, although it requires some knowledge of and comfort with coding HTML. It involves using HTML inside of a webviewer<\/a> to display data from fields, formatted as needed. Instead of putting some fields on a layout to display address data, you instead put a webviewer in that block, formatted to show the data as a small web page:<\/p>![\"non-editable](\"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Non-Editable-Text-in-FileMaker.png\")
<\/figure>Privileges<\/h3>
Calculation Fields<\/h3>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Non-Editable-Text-in-FileMaker_2.png\")
<\/figure>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Non-Editable-Text-in-FileMaker_3.png\")
<\/figure>HTML in a Webviewer<\/h3>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Non-Editable-Text-in-FileMaker_4.png\")
<\/figure>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.directimpactsolutions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Non-Editable-Text-in-FileMaker_5.png\")
<\/figure>