You can display and update character or string data with inputfields also... although you may be disappointed with the behavior. You must use a listbox or tablebox for updating the string inputfields. There is nothing like the aggregation functionality with inputsum available for numeric fields.
I have used text field inputfields in a tablebox placed on the screen next to a straight table chart that shows the same fields. Within the chart I can control the dimensions and use expressions that can do things like controlling multi-line text. Then I tell my users that they should find the text they want to update using the chart and then click on the chart to make it select the dimension values. When the specific dimension values are selected then the text they want to update is visible in the table box and may be updated in the table box. After updating the text I tell them to click the left-arrow in the menu bar to return to the previous selection.
