custom properties

[JeanneMarie]

It seems that custom property fields are blank until I give one a name or change its type from text. Then that field acquires a value (for text it's "0.000000" while for a number it's just "0" and for a date it is today's date in gray). But that's not entirely consistent and I can't quite figure it out.

In any case, I'd dearly like text fields stop displaying as "0.000000" because when I add the field to the Portfolio Editor, the clutter is really annoying. If the field is empty, I'd like it to be blank in the Portfolio Editor, so that the values I enter are more visible. If I sort by that field, it's better but what if I don't want to sort by that field?

With a number field, I can reduce the number of decimals but with a text field there is no such option (logically).

Am I missing something?

Thanks,
Jeanne

[Mark]

Hi Jeanne,

If you have a custom investment property defined as text, you can enter any text you want for each investment, including a blank string. First, define the fields the way you want under "Options / Custom Investment Properties..." and then for each investment, go to "Investment Properties... / Custom" and enter the value(s) you want for that particular investment.

[JeanneMarie]

Yes, but... as I said, Fund Manager is automatically filling in "0.000000" on a text field. I'd like Fund Manager to stop doing that. Don't display anything at all that I haven't entered.

But as I said, it's not consistent behavior and I can't quite figure it out.

EDIT:
Here's an example. When I wrote yesterday, I was looking at a different field and deleted a great many of these. So I recreated the problem in the attachment. I just named Custom #3 "research" and filled in some random text for QQQ. Why is Fund Manager entering "0.000000" for some (but not all) of these records? And how do I make it stop? If it matters, by the way, these are bonds, CDs, mutual funds, and common stocks, and those that are blank run the gamut as well.

Thanks for any input.

[Mark]

Hi JeanneMarie,

I'm not sure why this is happening. Are the one's that show 0.000000 older or newer investments? If you edit one showing 0.000000 with some different text, or set it to an empty string, does that save/display okay?

[JeanneMarie]

Virtually all positions are about the same vintage. I left Fund Manager and returned early this year. Of 279 *.dat files, 56 have been created this year. In my example, the SENAX file was created in 2018 but so was GLD, AAPL, FOSFX, and MSFT and many others. DD and CTVA were created in 2019. Two securities with a cusip number instead of a trading symbol were created in 2019, the other this year.

Yes, if I replace Fund Manager's "0.000000" or just delete it to get the blank I want, the change sticks.

Note that I deleted a whole lot of these in a different text custom field yesterday. Why one field provokes more of this an another is yet another mystery.

At this point, there aren't so many of these that it is worth my time for my sake. I'll just blank them manually. But if more info from me would be useful, I'll try to oblige.

Cheers!

[Mark]

Hi JeanneMarie,

Okay, thanks for the help. We'll try and see if we can't figure out why this is happening.