This chapters is about how to change the style of single and all messages within an area.
The following principles are used:
Changes which are made using the "Message" menu are used for the single actual message and are undone when an other message is displayed!
Changes which are made using the "Areas" menu apply to all messages within an area and are stored permantly!
These parameters can be changed:
Font, Size, Readfilter and Writefilter
and additional for areas:
"New" text, "Answer" text and origin.
You can also use "Font Macros" onto a single message: these are predefined display settings which can be applied by short cuts. The changes will stay only on the current message.
Charset
A "Charset" is a convertion-table, containing values of special characters (like "ä") in different computer systems. If you read a message written on an DOS-based computer without translation, the "ä"-char won't normally appear correctly.
Fidonet (XRS and T2 boxes) support the character set with a special klugde - if Alice finds one, it will automatically use the proposed character set.
But not all messages in Fidonet (and of course, none in QWK) will contain such klugde-lines, so you can specify a default charset for each area. More, you can specify two charsets, one for reading and one for writing messages.
Inside a DOS-area you could specify the "IBM"-charset, within a Macintosh-area (where no convertion is needed) You specify "1:1".
To specify a character set, choose "CharSet" from the "Message:Filter"-menu. To set a CharSet as default for an entire area, choose "Save Text Parameters" from the "Area:Area Parameters" menu (to set it as default for all areas choose it from "Area:Default Parameters").
 
Read filter: a convertion table used for the message window. Selecting "1:1" means no translation.
Override defines in message text: if a CharSet klugde exists (XRS and T2 boxes) it will be ignored if you set this option. This is usefull if you use a font which has the "characters in the wrong values" (like "zt-IBM") and You define "1:1" as Read-filter. In other words, if you use an IBM Font in this window you do not want to convert the charcacters, as the font has already done that for you.
Write filter: convertion table used for saving and loading written messages. You are able to change the write filter for each message every time it is opened.
Note: it's not possible to convert a message which was saved as "ASCII" back to it's original view ("Ä" -> "Ae" can not be changed back!).
If You want to use the "special" characters, first ask the moderator of the area!
Font Macros
You can define font macros to change the current font and text size in the message window. For instance, you might usually want to read messages in a proportional font, but you would want to switch to a monospaced font (such as Courier or Monaco) for a message containing tables or diagrams.
 
Creating, changing or deleting font macros: choose the command "Change…" from the "Font Macros" submenu of the "Message" menu. Select the macro you would like to change or delete from the popup-menu, or to create a new macro, click on "New".
 
Macro/change macro dialog:
 
Name:the name of the macro as it will appear in the menu. Don’t use any of the following characters: '-', ';', '^', '<', '(', '/', '!'.
‚åò: use this popup-menu to choose a number. The macro will be executed when you press the command-key and the corresponding number.
Alice doesn’t check that you haven’t already assigned a key, so make sure you don’t assign the same key to two different macros.
Text font: select a font or "no change", if you want the macro to change the text size but not the font.
Text size: choose a text size or "no change", or enter the desired size from the keyboard.
Read filter: convertion table used in message window (also see the chapter "CharSet" above).
Always use Filter: if a CharSet klugde exists (XRS and T2 boxes) it will be ignored (also see the chapter "CharSet" above).
Area Settings
For each area you can define a different font and size, charset, origin, quote comments and a default text for new messages.
If a message is going to be displayed, the area settings are taken first. The default settings are used if there are no special area settings.
Both, area and default settings could be edited within a single dialog: select the desired area within the "Areas" window and choose "Parameters" from menu "Areas".
 
The dialog consist of three parts:
- the top: on the left side the name of the area is displayed. Use the popup menu to tell Alice, if you want to change the "View As" (font, size, filter), "New Text", "Answer Text" or "Origin". Changes are not saved when you choose the popup menu - only the "OK" button stores all changes!
- in the middle: the default settings are shown in text form
- the bottom: the current area settings are displayed and changes could be made.
All changes are saved when closing the dialog using "OK"!
Change area settings: edit the values in the bottom part. Changes in "View As" parameters are reflected within the message window.
Change default settings: by clicking onto the "arrow up" button the current area settings from the bottom are use as defaults. The text in the middle will change to the new values.
Use default settings in an area: by clicking onto the "arrow down" button the default values from the middle part are used as the area settings. At the time you close the dialog, the default and the area settings are compared - if they are equal the area settings will be deleted. In future times the default values will be used for this area.
Darstellung
 
Text font: select a font or "no change", if you want the macro to change the text size but not the font.
Text size: choose a text size or "no change", or enter the desired size from the keyboard.
Read filter: convertion table used in message window (also see the chapter "CharSet" above).
Always use Filter: if a CharSet klugde exists (XRS and T2 boxes) it will be ignored (also see the chapter "CharSet" above).
Write filter: convertion table used on written messages. Use "LATIN-1" or "ASCII" if this is allowed in the area.
"New" text or "Answer" text
The "Answer" text will be included before and after the quoted body of the "Answered" message. The "New" text is used as default message body.
There are a number of special strings you can include in the comments, which you specify by "%1" through "%9"
 
Origin
The origin line is displayed in a separate line at the bottom of the Answer window. The origin should not contain any special characters (like "Umlaute"). Some type of boxes could generally not handle origins, other only in some areas.
 
Filters
Messages in Fidonet usually include additional lines with routing and other information that isn’t often of interest to the user. Alice lets you filter out these "kludge lines" and also the "Seen-By"s.
In messages, different kind of computers use different values for the same characters (such as the German "Umlaut" characters). As a special feature, Alice can convert characters from Macintosh to DOS (or whatever you wish) back and forth.
 
Klugde lines (only for fidonet formats): fidonet messages usually contain a "MSGID:" line for thread-support and a "PID:" line that gives the editor used to write the message and its serial number. You seldom need to look at the kludge lines unless you are trying to track down a routing problem. Alice also uses kludge lines when it attempts to determine the address of the author of a message.
Seen-By & Path (only for fidonet formats): Fidonet systems use special lines that start with " SEEN-BY:" and " PATH:" that you also seldom need to see. If you ever quote Seen-bys or Path-lines, be sure to change one of the letters, for instance, change the "SEEN-BY" to "$EEN-BY", or you may cause problems down the line with some of the less-intelligent Fidonet programs.
