When you specify protected characters in a character mask, be sure to include these characters in cases where you use the "change ENTRYFIELD text to VALUE" syntax.

For example, if you have defined a mask for a social security number as "DDD-DD-DDDD" and you wanted to initialize the value of that field, the VALUE might be "123-45-6789", not just "123456789". Bear in mind also that when you copy the "text of ENTRYFIELD" the value returned will also include any protected characters. If you evaluated this field before entering any data, it could return the value "   -  -   ".