Message Editor Panel

Panels > Message Editor Panel

The Message Editor panel lets you edit multilingual messages and save them to database files.

Figure 6.4 Message Editor Panel

Access to Panel

The panel is accessed by:

Choosing Messages Editor from the Tools menu.

Selecting the command ShowMessagePanel in the Commands panel and clicking Apply.

Message Editor Panel Elements

You use the table that appears in this panel to edit the messages of the database file. The Name column contains the messages identifiers. The definitions for each language are edited in another column. Except for the first line that displays the column headers, each row of the table corresponds to a message.

Editing a Table Cell

To edit a cell of the table in the message editor:

1. Double-click the cell.

2. Type the string of characters required for the message.

3. Press Enter to validate the new string.

Using Panel Menus

At the top of the Messages Editor panel are the various menus that you use to manage message database files.

File Menu

Use the File menu for file maintenance tasks for your message database files.


Menu Item	Description
New	Empties the panel and creates a new database for editing.
Open	Opens a dialog box that lets you select and load a message database file previously saved by the message editor.
Insert	Opens a dialog box that lets you select and insert a file previously saved by the message editor. The messages of this file are appended to the current database.
Save	Saves the current database to a file. If the database has no associated file name, a dialog box opens for providing a filename.
Save As	Opens a dialog box that lets you save the current database in a new file.
Quit	Closes the Messages panel.

Message Menu

Use the Message menu to add, remove, search and sort messages for the database being edited.


Menu Item	Description
New Message	Inserts a new line in the table for defining a new message in the current database. If a cell is selected, the new line is inserted into it. Otherwise, it is appended to the end of the table.
New Messages	Opens a dialog box for you to enter the number of new messages to be inserted.
Remove	If a cell is selected, removes the message corresponding to the selected cell.
Search	Opens a dialog box where a string is typed for which the Message editor searches the next occurrence. You can specify the column where the Message editor searches for the string.
Sort by name	Sorts the database by name.
Sort by definition	Displays a submenu for choosing a language column to sort the database.

Language Menu

Use this menu to add or remove languages.


Menu Item	Description
New Language	Opens a dialog box to enter a new language for the database. When you validate the language, the Message editor appends an empty column to the table for entering the message definitions for the new language.
Remove Language	If a cell is selected, removes the language corresponding to the column containing that cell. This operation removes all the message definitions for that language from the database.

Display Menu

Use this menu to modify the display database.


Menu Item	Description
Reset	Clears the display database and reloads the default databases.
Append	Appends the edited messages to the display database so your new messages are known by the display.
Choose Language	Displays a submenu for choosing the current language for the display.

Version 5.5.1