Subj : How do you edit msg files
To : Mindsurfer
From : Digital Man
Date : Tue Oct 21 2025 03:06 pm
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)
This Is Spinal Tap quote #45:
I don't really think the end can be assessed as of itself as being the end
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