Hanging lines in descriptions!

Hello mudlings! It’s been a while since I was around here, but I heard a rumor that my old how-to-fix-descriptions-when-you-go-a-little-overboard-with-color-codes thread would still be useful. So I’m here to remake it.

So, as many of you have probably noticed, too many color codes in a description can make some pretty messy things happen once you save it. Words get mashed together, color codes go haywire, and it’s terrible and it’s awful and it’s bad! And here’s how to fix it 🙂

STEP 1:
Write your description, color codes galore! I’m using a datadisk but it works the same if you’re doing it in a description or a history or wherever. Once you’ve got it all written out, make sure you hold onto the original text version that you’re inputting. It’s probably easier to put it in a notepad document while you’re working with it, but whatever. Here’s my seizure-inducing example sentence:

&WL&Co&co&zk at t&ch&Ci&Ws &ps&Pu&Yp&Pe&pr p&Pr&Yet&Pt&py &rc&Ro&Ol&Yo&Gr&gf&cu&Cl &zline I &Ym&Oa&Yd&Oe&R!&z It’s &Pb&pe&Oa&Yu&Gt&gi&cful&W, &zl&Wi&zke a &cr&ga&Gi&Yn&Ob&Ro&rw &ri&Rn&rc&Ra&rr&Rn&ra&Rt&re&W!

When I hit /l to see what I’ve got so far it looks like this:

STEP 2:
The line I’ve made is… obviously… painfully saturated with color codes. Even inside the datadisk’s buffer it’s already messed up. If it looks right when you type /l, you can ignore this step. This one doesn’t, so we’re going to have to enter the line without color codes to see where the line break should be. My input:

Look at this super pretty colorful line I made! It’s beautiful, like a rainbow incarnate!

Now hitting /l again will show me this:

STEP 3:
Save your desc! Time to see just how messed up it’s about to get. I left the plain color line in there for clarity, but it’s no longer needed at this point. You can clear it and just put the color line back in if you want to.

After saving and checking my datapad, here’s what I’ve got:

STEP 4:
Manual linebreaks! Clearly the MUD is having a little trouble working out where to make the linebreak, so we’re going to do it instead. Looking at the plain white text from Step 2 (or the colorful text from Step 1 if you could skip Step 2) will show us where it’s supposed to be. In the case, it’s right after the word rainbow, so I’ll put a linebreak there.

&WL&Co&co&zk at t&ch&Ci&Ws &ps&Pu&Yp&Pe&pr p&Pr&Yet&Pt&py &rc&Ro&Ol&Yo&Gr&gf&cu&Cl &zline I &Ym&Oa&Yd&Oe&R!&z It’s &Pb&pe&Oa&Yu&Gt&gi&cful&W, &zl&Wi&zke a &cr&ga&Gi&Yn&Ob&Ro&rw
&ri&Rn&rc&Ra&rr&Rn&ra&Rt&re&W!

STEP 5:
Work out what’s missing. This is probably the hardest step, especially when a colorcode gets cut off halfway through like what happened with my example sentence. But you know what it’s supposed to look like, and you can keep referring back to what you originally input, and it should become fairly clear what’s missing.

In plain text, the messed up line I have is:

Look at this super pretty colorful line I ma&rincarnate!

Keep in mind that that ampersand is the first half of the yellow color tag on the letter d in the word made. So, without color codes, I’m missing:

de! It’s beautiful, like a rainbow

The lowercase r can be ignored. It’s being pulled in from the first line since there were so many color codes in this one. It might take a little bit of messing around before you can easily see where the break is supposed to be. If you got lucky and the color tag isn’t broken it’ll be much clearer. So! With color codes, here’s what I’m missing:

Yd&Oe&R!&z It’s &Pb&pe&Oa&Yu&Gt&gi&cful&W, &zl&Wi&zke a &cr&ga&Gi&Yn&Ob&Ro&rw

Notice that it starts with a Y. That’s the second half of the yellow color code, not a letter in the sentence.

STEP 6:
Add what you’re missing! So now that we know what’s missing we have to put it back in. The way the MUD is breaking this is by dropping the text we’re about to insert, and grabbing the next line instead. (That’s why you sometimes end up with lines almost double the length of what they should be.) So, logically, we’re going to fix it by putting in the missing segment on the next line so that it gets grabbed. (Make sure you clear out what was already in there first with /c!!!)

&WL&Co&co&zk at t&ch&Ci&Ws &ps&Pu&Yp&Pe&pr p&Pr&Yet&Pt&py &rc&Ro&Ol&Yo&Gr&gf&cu&Cl &zline I &Ym&Oa&Yd&Oe&R!&z It’s &Pb&pe&Oa&Yu&Gt&gi&cful&W, &zl&Wi&zke a &cr&ga&Gi&Yn&Ob&Ro&rw
Yd&Oe&R!&z It’s &Pb&pe&Oa&Yu&Gt&gi&cful&W, &zl&Wi&zke a &cr&ga&Gi&Yn&Ob&Ro&rw
&ri&Rn&rc&Ra&rr&Rn&ra&Rt&re&W!

Viewing the buffer will show this:

STEP 7:
DON’T TYPE /f!!! Yep, that’s it. On to step 8!

STEP 8:
Have a look at yourself. Or your datapad. Or your history, or your new bedroom, or whatever. Mine now looks like this:

If there was more than one line with too many color codes, you’ll need to work through them one at a time, starting with the first one. Order matters! Keep in mind that if you’re going to be editing the text further, you’ll need to save the formatted version you just made. Going into editing mode, saving, and coming out will mess the line up just as bad as it was at the start.

If you’ve still got some messed up color codes or a cut off word or something then there’s like a 99% chance you made a mistake at Step 5. Go back up there and see if maybe a character you thought was missing was actually there, or vice versa. Eventually it should fall into place. 🙂

All done! Hope that helps you guys. <3

-Kora

Fantastic guide, very well written. Tis also how I do room descriptions if they require vast amounts of paint. If in doubt, always format without colour coding first!