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Text is a small piece of formatted or unformatted text that is functionally used to describe or note
information in master data and Transactional Data. For example, a temperature sensitive material
( say a bio-reagent ) needs to be kept under freezing temperatures always. Although there is
another field called Storage Conditions to denote this, we can use a text field with more specific
comments so that the folks selling this material can ensure that they always inform the customer
that they need to have storage facilities for the same. Since the information in this case is used to
inform sales agents, it can be a Sales Text
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Now, its not just enough that the material master contains this text. We will also have to ensure
that the sales agents creating orders for this material has visibility to the same text. That means
that the sales order should also have texts that can show the same. And since this text is specific
to the specific material, this text needs to be part of the line item not the sales order header.

As you can see from the example above, there are myriad number of texts like item note, packing
note, delivery text, purchase order text, production memo etc. All of these texts are either flown
in from the corresponding master data ( Customer master , material master etc ) or entered in the
transaction itself. In summary, texts are little pieces of information that are useful in
communication information about master data or transaction specific data across the enterprise.
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Yes. These texts ( Or Text Objects as they are normally called in SAP lingo ) need not be
constrained to plain text only. You can use the buttons highlighted below to import or export
text. You can use the standard Clipboard (
) button to copy or paste text.

The best part is that on a windows machine, you can just double click on the white space to open
your favorite rich text editor ( Like MS Word or TextPad ) to format text as required. Also, these
texts can be maintained in multiple languages as can be seen below.



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As can be seen from the example above, the material sales text has flown in from the master data
( Sales Text view of the material master ) to the line item view of the sales order. This does not
happen automatically. We will have to specifically configure the system to ensure the same. This
process of creating new texts and letting them flow across the transactions and determine when
and where these texts need to be is called Text Determination.
Let us go into the configuration to understand this.

 

The transaction code for performing text determination is [VOTXN]. The menu path for the
same is
[SPRO -> IMG -> Sales & Distribution -> Basic Functions -> Text Control ]

Text Types
Each text item ( Material Sales Text ) in the example above is called a Text Type. It internally
contains a Text ID. These are configured in the c
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As you can see from the picture below, there are different Text Types depending on the
functionality where it is used.

Select the Text Object ( Customer, Info Record..etc ) and select one of the radio button to view
the revelant Text Types

The technical name of the Customer Text Object is KNA1 and the different text types
associated with KNA1 are displayed below.
For example
0001 Sales Note for Customer
0002 Accounting Note

If you want to create more text types, Click on the New Entries button. For example, lets think
of a scenario where the customer always insists that we talk to their purchasing head first before

ordering. Since this is a special ordering instruction, lets create a new text type for customer text
object KNA1.

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Now that we have defined the text types, we have to ensure that the conditions are met for the
required action to take place. This starts with the access sequence first.
There is a standard Text Determination Procedure for Customer Text Object. You can either
choose to use it or create new.

Lets start by creating a new Text Determination procedure for illustration purposes.
Create a new Text Determination Procedure called Z1

Select the new Text Determination procedure just created and click on the Text IDs in the Text
Procedure section as shown below.

Click on new entries to create Access Sequences. For example, we have created a new sequence
(10 ) for the Text ID Z001 that we have just created.

Now for the final step, we have to assign this text determination procedure to an actual Customer
type ( Customer Account Group )
Currently the customer account group for the standard sold-to party 0001 is assigned to text
determination procedure 01. Lets change this to Z1 and see how the texts in the customer master
changes.
 


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To view the existing text types in the Customer master go to Extras -> Texts in the General Tab.

As you can see the following texts are available for the standard customer master for customer
account group 0001 ( Sold-to Party )
Now that we have changed the text determination procedure of the customer master to Z1, we
can see the new texts types that we have created for the customer text object KNA1 below.

This concludes the configuration for the text determination in Customer Master. The text
determination for other master data ( Material Master , Info Records etc ) is very similar.
However, the text determination for transaction data is a little different. Lets see how it is.
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The text type definition is very similar to the way we have created for the customer master.
Select the Sales Document Header and click on Change. ( Since there are texts both at the
Header ( Text Object VBBK ) as well as the line item level ( Text Object VBBP ) , lets
choose header for now.

As usual, we can have multiple text determination procedures and assign each to one or more
transaction types. Instead of creating a new one, lets examine an existing text determination
procedure 01 Sales Header.
After selecting the sales procedure, double-click on the Text IDs to know the different text IDs
created under it.

As you can observe, there are a couple of differences from the way text IDs are created between
Sales Order and Customer master.

You can freely define text IDs , just like you have created them in Customer master. However,
since the customer master is Master Data which is a source data, there is no Access
associated with that text ID. However, since transaction data like sales orders derive part of their
data from the master data ( customer master, material master, vendor master, pricing records,
customer material info records ) , we have to define the corresponding source. The Access
column defines the source of the text ID.
Also, there are 2 more additional columns.

    - This means that the text is referenced , not copied over. What this means is that if
there is a previous document that the text has flowed in from, if you choose the reference field,
then the text ID in the Quotation is referenced. Otherwise its copied over.

Quotation
Form Header
Header Note 1

-> Order
Form Header
Header Note 1

In the picture above, the text ID Header Note 1 is referenced whereas the rest are not. What this
means is that if the quotations text ID Header Note 1 is changed, the same will be reflected in
the downstream document, Order. But any changes to the text ID , Form Header in the quotation
will not carry over to the order.
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!" As the name implies, this flag ensures that some text is filled up in the text
ID either by copying over from the previous document or by filling up in the current document.
Lets now move on to the Access Sequences in transactional text determination. This determines
the source and the sequence of the sources.
Select an Access Sequence (say 01 ) and click on Access Sequences for Text IDs underneath.

If you remember well, this is the Access sequence that was used for the Form Header text ID.

This picture determines the sequence and sources of the texts.

What this means is that the text ID , Form Header with access sequence 1 can be based on the
following in that order. That means that if a text is found in the Sales order header of the
previous document, it is taken in the Form Header Text ID of the current document and the rest
are ignored.

For Header Text ID

<-

Sales Note from

Customer
Sales Note from
Customer

<-

Sales Order Header ( Of the Previous

Document )
Customer Master Sales Texts

<-

Customer Master General Texts

Now that we have determined the source of a text ID and the sequence in which they appear, all
that needs to be done now is to assign the text determination procedure to an order type.
As you can see, the text determination procedure 01 is assigned to the transaction type OR.
 

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Create a new Customer and enter a Sales Note in the General Texts

Create a sales order for this customer and see what comes as the Form Header text ID. In this
example, text created as the Sales Note for Customer from the General Text of the Customer
master seems to flow down to the Form Header text in the sales order header text.

Lets take this one step further and create a sales area text Sales Note for Customer and see if it
supercedes the General text Sales Note for Customer as defined in the Access sequence.
Enter a new sales note for the customer for the sales area text .

Now, create a new order of the same order type ( OR ) . You should now be able to see that the
newly entered sales text in the Sales Area tab supercedes the text entered in the General Text

This is because, the customer sales texts ( KNVV ) supersedes the Customer General Texts (
KNA1 ) in the Access sequence associated to the text ID Form Header in text determination
procedure associated with the sales order of type OR.