Subj : How do you edit msg files
To   : Digital Man
From : Mindsurfer
Date : Wed Oct 22 2025 01:43:00

  Re: How do you edit msg files
  By: Digital Man to Mindsurfer on Tue Oct 21 2025 15:06:24

 >> 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.
 >> Example: head.msg/head.ans IcyDraw/Moebius https://imgur.com/a/T9anJRs

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

Ok. i am using something like that already, for shortening the Time (AT)TIME-L5(AT) for example. I was reading about the formatting features and will use em. the @CODE|R#######@ could also come in handy for longer strings.

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

Thanks for the alternative short-code offer!
I guess editing the ansi WYSIWYG when using @codes can work in some cases but is limited.

The only thing that comes to my mind as a workaround, is to use placeholders with the correct length and a script to replace the placeholders with the @codes in the ANS file afterwards. for example ~~~1 ~~~~~~~~2 ~3 as placeholders, to be replaced with the @code-l4@ (~~~1) etc. 
It would be a bit of work to prepare a script with all placeholders and their @code replacement, but one could still edit the ANS file WYSIWYG.

Well, in a perfect world the ANSI Editor would be able to use its own placeholders and memorize a number of sets of position + color + length + @codes to be saved in the final version of the Ansi.

ok, thanks for the help! i will experiment with the formatting features and maybe my own placeholders + script.

Mindsurfer

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