Hi Mark,
I'm disappointed with the max length of text-type custom properties. Only 25 characters. I was planning to use a custom property for more detailed classification of my investments (sub-industries..) but it's definitely not possible.
I don't know the reason(s) why the string length is so limited. Investment's Description field or categories (sector, asset type...) can be up to 49. At least I would want the same for text-type custom properties.
More globally, 49 characters is limited too. Thanks to the rich text controls hyperlinks are now handled, but with 49 characters usefulness is very limited. Link length are most of the time longer than that. Not to mention only 25 characters for links....
We could expect something like up to 250 characters allowed....
My guess for the reason of the current string length limitation is that the field contents have to fit nicely in various location in the program (Portfolio Editor column, graph legend, reports...). Why not is this case truncate the strings in these locations (e.g. to 49 characters, and append to them "..."), and if we want to see the entire string he'll have to open the investment's Properties dialog. 49 characters is more than enough to give a good clue of a lengthy text. At least we could use these fields comfortably with long strings, and it would be possible to enter / activate most of the links we need in the investment's Properties dialog.
Maybe there are other (technical) reasons for the limitation, I don't know. Nowadays it's hard to believe that the text strings must be no more than 49 characters.
Thanks