| Message Editor |
When you use the ShowMessage function, only one parameter is provided, and it specifies all the content of the message. Trying to lay out the content of the message manually can be tedious, so the message editor is provided to help edit message content while showing a preview that approximates how the message will appear at runtime. This editor can be accessed by selecting <Message Editor...> from the parameter's dropdown list.
Message EditorTileset: Before any preview will be displayed, you must select the tileset that the preview will use. If you are using the SetMessageFont function to set the font for the message, you should select the same tileset here as you specified for SetMessageFont. If not, select the first tileset, which is the default. Because the execution of rules cannot be predicted at design time, there may be more than one tileset that could be the active font when ShowMessage executes, so it's up to you to select the tileset with which the message preview will operate.
Message: This is the parameter value exactly is it appeared in the sprite definition window. It represents the content of the message as a quoted string. If any part of the message is not in quotes, the message preview will display "[Variable]" for that portion of the message, and you should be aware that the preview will not be accurate because it can't predict the content of portions of the message that are not within quotes.
There are a number of escape sequences that can be embedded within the Message string that the preview will properly display:
| Escape sequence | Description |
|---|---|
| \r\n | Inserts a line break into the message. You should use these to ensure that your message is not too wide because there is no automatic word wrap available in the message functions. |
| \t | This represents a tab character, which has no meaning to ShowMessage, but could be used as a shortcut for character number 9. If you have a frequently used graphic that you want to insert in your messages, you could make it number 9 and use this shorthand instead of the full escape sequence for the extended character as described below |
| \u00xx | You can use this sequence to insert extended characters or graphics into your message. The "xx" portion of the code represents a 2-character hexadecimal code. For example \u001f would insert character number 31 into the message (this is the last character right before the normal printable characters in the CoolFont and FireFont tilesets). You can use this code to insert any tile number from 0 through 255 from the current font tileset into the message. Use the "..." button to select the tile from a list and have this code generated for you. |
One other feature of the message editor you will see in the preview area is the presence of width guides. There are two vertical lines labeled "320" indicating the width of a 320-pixel-wide view. If the message fits within these guides, it will fit similarly on a single-view display with a width of 320 pixels, or within a horizontally split display of 640 pixels where each view is 320 pixels. Similarly, there are guides for 400, 640 and 800 pixel widths. They will only be visible of the form is large enough to fit them in the viewing area.