Jens, You have a few options: 1. Cut the string, <dtml-var "the_string[:20] 2. Use the size option of dtml-var, <dtml-var the_string size=20 etc="..."> hth Phil (ex. twinky-salesman) phil.harris@zope.co.uk ----- Original Message ----- From: jensebaer To: zope@zope.org Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2000 8:28 PM Subject: [Zope] String manipulation Hi all, how can I manage it to cut a string. for example: a string property (testtext) with 500 words. but only want to give out 20 characters of tis text. Thank you Jens