Subj : How do you edit msg files
To   : Mindsurfer
From : Digital Man
Date : Tue Oct 21 2025 15:06:24

  Re: How do you edit msg files
  By: Mindsurfer to All on Tue Oct 21 2025 12:04 pm

 > Hi there,
 >
 > Yes i know you are supposed to convert your ANS file to MSG using the
 > ans2asc utility.  Thats ok. It works. I do that.
 > But if you add @Codes to your ANS file, you will quickly lose how the layout
 > will look like eventually. Or you will end up using a text editor
 > afterwards, editing the ANS/MSG file to move stuff around and look at the
 > result, repeat that until the layout looks the way it is supposed to look.
 >
 > Currently i am using Moebius for Linux to edit the ANS files. There is
 > IcyDraw, wich can handle MSG files directly (i guess), but it always is no
 > WYSIWYG editing as soon as you want to use @Codes, but guessing, measuring,
 > textediting afterwards.
 >
 > Is there a better way? A way to edit Ansi's WYSIWYG with @Codes included?
 >
 > Example: head.msg/head.ans IcyDraw/Moebius https://imgur.com/a/T9anJRs

One thing that helps is insuring that the raw @-code uses the same number of characters as the fixed/maximum length of the displayed string using fill characters (e.g. #'s) see https://wiki.synchro.net/custom:atcodes#formatting for an exmaple.

This works so long as the width of the string is less than or equal to the total length of the raw @-code. If you find an @-code where you'd prefer a shorter alternative alias, let me know and I'll see what I can do for ya.
-- 
                                            digital man (rob)

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