Clean and Transform Text with the Text Formatter Action

The Text Formatter action modifies text so it looks right before you send it or save it. Choose a transformation, point it at a field, and use the result in later steps.

Set it up

Open Automation > Workflows and click +.
Add Text Formatter and give it a specific name.
Choose an Action Type.
Select the field to format, such as a contact, user, message or business detail. Other options appear depending on the type.
Save, then insert the output in later steps via the variable picker.

Action types

Upper Case, Lower Case, Title Case, Capitalize: change letter case.
Default Value: supply a replacement when the input is empty, for example "there" when a first name is missing.
Trim: shorten text by a maximum length, remove characters from the start, or end with an ellipsis.
Trim Whitespace: remove spaces at the beginning and end.
Replace Text: swap every occurrence of one word or phrase for another.
Find: return the position of a value in the text, or -1 if absent.
Word Count and Length: count words or characters.
Split Text: divide by a separator and return a chosen segment, such as the first or last.
Remove HTML Tags: convert HTML to plain text.
Extract Email and Extract URL: pull the first email address or link out of a block of text.

Handy examples

Greet people with Title Case: "jANE" becomes "Jane".
Use Default Value so "Hi , welcome" never goes out with a blank name.
Split a full address string to get a city.
Strip HTML from a form response before texting it.
Trim a long note to 160 characters for an SMS.

Tips

Name each formatter by purpose, since you may use several in a row.
Chain formatters: trim whitespace first, then change case.
Test with messy real examples, including empty values.
For dates use the Date/Time Formatter; for numbers use the Number Formatter.

Good to know: The same formatter can read contact, user, message, business and even call details, so you can tidy almost any text value.

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