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Formatter issue: Unwanted dots and commas in text paragraphs


Those (attachments) are all the ways we’ve been using formatter, but still the text is coming with a dot and a comma in all the paragraphs (text.png). What should we do?

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3 replies

ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6285 replies
  • January 31, 2025

Hi ​@Publi,

It looks like the Formatter step contains “Extra fields”.

f1e0994ca12e8e78f14898d4a795e797.png
(view larger)

If you leave these extra fields in your Zap, the Zap may submit data that the step doesn't need or isn't expecting, causing the Zap to error. You can learn more about that here: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8495958376205-Why-is-there-a-section-called-Extra-Fields-on-my-Zap-action. Could you please remove the extra fields by clicking on the “Remove extra fields” button? After that, please test the Zap again to see if it’ll return the expected output.

I'll be keeping an eye out for your response!

 


Mistryer
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  • New
  • 17 replies
  • January 31, 2025

Hi ​@Publi!

Another Formatter tip that works well is to solve ONE problem at a time with each step. Formatter steps do not use a Zapier task, so break the task down into individual steps and run a different formatter for each. 

 

Another tip is that you may need to use specific syntax for find and replace for things like spaces or line breaks. More information can be found here: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/25380258676109-Use-Formatter-to-split-text-in-Zaps#h_01JAG1PGX8EX39WRGKK2JVJ96V


SamB
Community Manager
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  • Community Manager
  • 7242 replies
  • February 4, 2025

Hey there, ​@Publi 👋

I just came across this and spotted that in the screenshots the Formatter actions appear to be taking their input from the same action (step 4). As the formatted text isn’t being passed to the next formatter step to be formatted further I expect that’s why the dots and commas are still appearing.

If that’s the case, just removing the extra fields won’t fix things entirely. You’d also need to set the Formatter actions to have the output of the prior Formatter action mapped into their Input field.

For example: 

275ef463523eebfac68b4f779a7ee6b1.png

That should ensure that the output from the last formatter action has the dots, commas and any other necessary formatting that the different formatting actions step have carried out. 

Can you give that a try and let us know if that helps to get it working?