# External data file and textFormat

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-data-file-and-textformat/210589>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [December 20, 2006, 6:38am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-data-file-and-textformat/210589 "2006-12-20T06:38:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![silsteel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@silsteel](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/silsteel)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 6:38am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/external-data-file-and-textformat/210589/1 "2006-12-20T06:38:27Z")

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I’m trying to load data from an external text file into a text area and then have it formated according to my specification using textFormat. How do I go about doing so? currently text that is already in the text box gets formatted…not the text that gets imported.

Silsteel