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

Mindsurfer

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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.
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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

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.

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.

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.

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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