Subj : Re: Editing ANSIMRD.ANS
To   : Todd Holcomb
From : g00r00
Date : Wed Dec 09 2020 10:34 am

 TH> So when I use the built-in ANSI editor and try to simply edit the color
 TH> of the header font in the message reader file ansimrd.ans, it completely
 TH> deletes the display variables (Author, To, Subject, etc) and screws up
 TH> the spacing of the headers.  Is there a trick to editing this file?

That is the old 1900s ANSI style template which are being removed/replaced with an easier to edit format (albeit very slowly lol)

I would say the easiest way is probably to make the ANSI look like how you want it to look and then edit the .ans file in a text editor and add the ! and & codes using [X and [Y location codes to move the cursor to where you want them displayed.  You can see an example of how the default ansimrd.ans at the bottom uses the X/Y codes to set the "read" boundaries where the message text would go if you open it in a text editor.

It sounds like the issue you may be having is because you're doing something like this:

From: &1                        To: &2

You have to format those codes because the value of &1 and &2 are not always the same size.  So for example

You would want to do something like |$R60<pipe>&3 to format the subject to always be 60 characters in length.  IE:

From: |$R30<pipe>&1 To $R30<pipe>&2

I've replaced the | with <pipe> there because Mystic by default will allow you to use those message info codes and pipe color codes while reading messages.

You could also just add [X and [Y to locate the cursor where you want the information and then outpuit &1 etc at the bottom of the ANSI which seems easiest for most people.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2020/12/04 (Windows/64)
 * Origin: Sector 7 | Mystic WHQ (1:129/215)

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