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DeHackEd v2.4 By Greg Lewis (Tree) gregl@umich.edu This is a general help file for DeHackEd version 2.4. For more specific product information, see the file DEHACKED.TXT. For important start-up info and instructions, read README.TXT. And, if you are more interested in simply finding fun stuff to experiment with, check out the file "Fun with DeHackEd" (DHEFUN11.TXT) bundled with this program. It was originally written by Dan Lottero, and includes some wild things to try! This help file is arranged in the following sections: 1. A Glossary 2. Patch File Info 3. Command Line Options 4. DeHackEd.ini Options 5. Available Keys 6. Mouse Support 7. Thing Editor a. Thing fields b. Bit fields 8. Frame Editor 9. Ammo Editor 10. Sound Editor 11. Sprite Editor 12. Text Editor So, without further ado, here it is! 1. *** A Glossary \------============ There are a few new terms that I will be using throughout this file, so first off I'll define everything and explain it in simple terms. Thing: A Thing in Doom is any object that's in the game, such as monsters, the player, items, weapons, and decorations. If some- thing isn't part of the floor, ceiling, or walls, it's a Thing. These are the most complicated objects in the exe, and have the most information stored about them. This information includes what pictures to show onscreen, what sounds are associates with it, its height, width, speed, etc. Sprite: A Sprite is a collection of all the pictures that belong to one Thing. For instance, there is a Sprite that contains all of the pictures for the Baron of Hell, from first activation to gory death. Sprites can be referred to by a 4-letter name (which DeHackEd will display for you on the Sprite editing screen). The Sprite for the Baron is called BOSS, and is Sprite #42. Frame: A Frame is one picture individual picture of a Sprite. For example, there is one Frame that shows the Baron with its hand back, ready to throw a fireball at the player. The most complex Sprites may have 20-25 individual Frames in them, whereas simple Sprites could only have one or two Frames. Frames also contain info about how long the picture should be displayed, and which picture to display after the current one. Frames are named by adding a letter to the end of a Sprite name. The name for the Baron with its arm back is BOSSE, with a Sprite number of 42 and a Sprite sub-number of 4. The code for converting the sub-number to the letter is 0=A, 1=B, 2=C, 3=D, etc. Weapon: A weapon of the player, and associated info, such as what picture to use for the weapon, and the ammunition that the weapon uses. Sound: A sound that's played at some time. The name is obvious, but other sound values (labeled with "descriptive" names such as "0 / 1" and "Value"), are still uncertain. Play around with them, and perhaps you'll find something new. 2. *** Patch File Info \------================= This is some more info on patch files, which may help explain any difficulties you are having with them. Patch files are entirely different from WAD files. WAD files can contain level info, sound, and graphics info (stuff normally found in the Doom WAD file). They are used simply by typing doom -file <wadname> at the command line. Patch files, however, contain info from inside the exe file, and cannot be used with the "-file" parameter. DeHackEd is (currently) the only program that can apply these patches and change the Doom exe file. The new type of patch files include only the information you've modified, and NOT all the data (as older types of patch files used to do). They now have an easy-to-understand text format and can be created with any common text editor (if you know what the different names are). Load the SAMPLE.DEH patch file that came with your copy of DeHackEd into a text editor for full information on the text format. Or just play around and create your own patch files and look at 'em. Because of the new format of patch files, any changes you've made to Doom will stay even when you load a new patch file. The new 'z' command has been added so that you can return to the original Doom settings at any time. So in order to load a patch and remove any other previous changes, you'll need to hit 'z' before 'l'oading the new patch. Or, alternately, answer 'y'es to the question about reloading the exe data (assuming you have the 'askatload' set to true in the ini file). 3. *** Command Line Options \------====================== Next, an explanation of command line options. All parameters are totally optional; if you don't include anything more than the path DeHackEd will run normally and go to the editing screens. If any options other than just the path are included, DeHackEd will run in 'batch' mode, and not actually enter the editor. The full command line syntax for DeHackEd is: dehacked [doompath] [-reload] [-load <patch1> <patch2> ...] [-save <patch>] [doompath] is optional, and specifies a different location for the doom files, doom.exe and doom.wad, other than the current directory. If you give a path on the command line it will override the exename and wadname that you give in the DEHACKED.INI file. -reload will return the exe file to its original data. Because the new patch format does not overwrite all data, but only values that need to be changed, it's sometimes necessary to ensure that the exe is back to normal. -load <patch1> <patch2> ... will update the doom.exe file with the patches called <patch1>, <patch2>, etc and return to the DOS prompt-- great for batch files!. Conversely, the -save <patch> option will save the current doom.exe status to a patch file named <patch> and return to the DOS prompt. These options are similar to 'l' and 's' in DeHackEd, although when used in DeHackEd the 'l' option requires a 'w' after it to actually write the changes to the doom.exe file. See section 4 for more info on 'l'oading and 's'aving. Example command line: dehacked c:\games\doom -load sample.deh This will start DeHackEd, using the Doom files found in c:\games\doom, load in the info from the sample.deh patch file, and return to the DOS prompt. The command line parameters are processed from left to right, so it's possible to do several things at once. The next example is what I would imagine is the best way to automatically load a patch file from a batch file: dehacked -save current.deh -reload -load newpatch.deh doomhack . . . dehacked -reload -load current.deh delete current.deh This will save the current state of the exe file, then reset it to the original Doom data and load the correct your custom patch file. Then doomhack is run, with whatever parameters you want. Finally the exe is reset to normal once again and the user's data is restored. 4. *** DeHackEd.ini Options \------====================== Included with DeHackEd is an ini file which can specify several parameters for DeHackEd. They allow you to customize where you want your patch files located, what your doom files are named, and more. A summary of the allowable command line options follows: # Start comment lines with a pound sign. Anything after the pound sign is ignored. editname = <filename> This is the name of your doom.exe file, and full path if necessary. This doesn't need to be included if you are running DeHackEd from the directory that your doom.exe file resides in, and it's got the proper name (doom.exe or doom2.exe). normalname = <filename> This is the name of your regular, UNCHANGED doom.exe file. DeHackEd will never change the data in this file. It's mostly used by DeHackEd to save patches. wadname = <filename> This is the name of your doom.wad file, and full path if necessary. This must be a registered wad file, not a shareware file. This is needed for verification that you are really registered, and not just trying to fake it. Once again, if this is in the same directory that DeHackEd is run from you don't need this parameter. pathname = <path> This is the path from which you want Doom to be run. This is only used when using the 'r'un option from inside DeHackEd. params = <Doom parameters> These are command-line parameters that are fed to Doom when it's run using the 'r'un option from within DeHackEd. Useful if you are using DeHackEd for a custom patch for a WAD you are writing; you can simply include a '-file <wadname>' in this line, and Doom will load your level every time DeHackEd runs it. patchdir = <path> This is the directory that DeHackEd will look in for patch files. A nifty way of keeping all of your thousands of .DEH files out of the Doom main directory. askatload = <true | false> By default this option is true. If it is true, every time you load a new patch file in the editor it will ask if you wish to reload the original exe data. When set to false the question is NOT asked and it is up to you to know what you are doing. The following parameters are all totally optional, and need only be used if you have a really wierd doom.exe file. doomver = <0 | 1 | 2 | 3> This is the version of Doom you are hacking. 0 is Doom 1.2, 2 is Doom 2 v1.666, 3 is Doom 1 or 2 v1.9, and 1 is everything else, Doom v1.666 and Doom 2 v1.7(a). This *must* be included if any of the following options are set. doomsize = <size> The size of your Doom.exe file. I've had a few people complain that they have a non-standard doom.exe file size, and this may fix your problem simply by changing this. If you get erroneous results though, you may have to play with the following params... thingoff = <offset> soundoff = <offset> frameoff = <offset> spriteoff = <offset> ammooff = <offset> weaponoff = <offset> textoff = <offset> These are the offsets in the Doom exe file for their corresponding data chunks. PLAY WITH THESE AT YOUR OWN RISK. 5. *** Available Keys \------================ Available keys are as follows: ESC Exits to DOS. Or, if you are in an input box, or just about *anywhere* in the program for that matter, it will back you out to whatever you had previously been doing. Enter Edits the current field, if it is an editable field. To leave an editing box if you hit Enter by mistake, simply hit ESC. Space Views, plays, or displays the current field, if applicable. If you are on a "frame" field, such as any of the Thing frames, or any field in the Frame table, or the Frame fields in the Ammo editor, it shows the frame that you've got highlighted. (Note: If you are on the "Next Frame" field in the Frame editor you WILL see the next frame, not the current frame.) If the frame you are viewing is the first in a series of frames, repeatedly pressing the spacebar will cycle through all of the frames. Use the right and left arrow keys to view different sides of the Thing, if it has more than one different view. Escape will exit. The spacebar will also view the full text strings in the Text Editor, and play the sounds when you are in a sound field. A The About window. This brings up two windows that shows you what version of DeHackEd you are working with (and some credits), and also a small summary of what Doom exe you are editing, and how much memory you have free, etc. C The copy command. This will copy information from one entry to another. The syntax is fairly basic: enter the number of the entry to copy FROM, and the entry number to copy TO. A clipboard for Things is available as Thing #138 (Thing #104 for Doom 1.2), which is just a temporary storage Thing (and is not actually present in the Doom.exe file). Note that the Thing names will not change... the Thing name is not actually in the Doom.exe, and is just included for your own benefit. The Thing # is also only for the convenience of the hacker, and is not in the doom.exe file. A specific Thing # will always have the same Thing Name, and this cannot be changed. D Change numeric mode to Decimal. This displays all numbers as normal decimal numbers. 'H' will switch to hexidecimal displays, which may be helpful sometimes. G Goes to a specific Thing. If you are in the Thing editor and know which Thing you want to see, you can go right to it by picking the name out of a list of names without bothering to page through all the Thing looking for it. When the list of Things appears, you can do a speed-search by typing in the first few letters of the name. Or, another quick alternative is to just type in the Thing number. If you are not in the Thing editing screen it also allows you to go to any object by number (like hopping straight to Frame #284 by typing in that number). J Jumps to the information in the current field, in it's respec- tive editor. For example, if you are in the Thing editor, and the 'Death Frame' is highlighted, and you press the 'j' key, you will jump to the Frame editor, with the corresponding Frame number high- lighted. A very handy tool for moving around the various editors. Generally it'll jump to a "logical" place, if there is one. L Loads a patch file. An extension of ".deh" will be assumed if for the patch file if none is given. DeHackEd will do its best to convert patch files between all of the different exe formats to the current version of Doom that you have, but be warned that sometimes some of the information (usually the Text section) will not be compatible. When the information is loaded, only values that are replaced are actually changed... all other data (including any changes you have made) will be left intact. If you want to avoid this, use 'z' to reload the original exe information before loading the patch. Alternately you can answer 'y'es to the question about reloading the original exe data when you load the patch. Also note that 'w' must be used to make changes permanent. You can also do this from the command line by typing dehacked -load <patchname> (M) Due to the new patch format, there is no more need for a 'merge' command... all of the new text-format patches are automatically merged with the current data when loaded. The older patches still load like they used to (overwriting ALL information). 'm'erging one of the older files is a few-step process: 'l'oad the old patch 's'ave a new temporary patch (temp.deh for example) 'z'ap the data back to it's original values 'l'oad the new temp.deh patch, and you're all set. R Runs Doom. This option is slightly tempermental, and every once in a while it just flashes the screen and refuses to run Doom. Try it to see if it'll work for you. It allows you to quickly test-run Doom, to check out the changes you've made (remember to hit 'w' before running!). After Doom finishes, you will be returned to your current place in the editor to continue working. You can specify command-line parameters for Doom and the directory to run Doom from in the DeHackEd.ini file. S Save a patch file. You must enter the patch filename, and it will save all changed material to the patch file, in a text format. An extension of ".deh" is assumed if you don t give one. You can also do this from the command line by typing dehacked -save <filename> U Undo all changes. This reloads the information straight from the hacked Doom exe file, and will return you to your most recent 'w'rite of all the data. W Writes all changes to the Doom exe file. This step is necessary to get any results! Z Reload the ORIGINAL exe data. So if you've been playing around and now all the monsters look like med-kits, and your rocket launcher shoots plasma that looks like lost souls, hit this key to get back to the real Doom data. F2 Thing Editor. This is the main Thing editor, the default screen in DeHackEd. See section 7 for more detailed Thing info. F3 Frame Table. Displays Frame information, in a list format. See section 8 for more detailed Frame info. F4 Ammo/Weapon Editor. This allows you to edit the ammo and weapon amounts and graphics. Section 9 talks more about this screen. F5 Sound Table. A jolly good table of all the sounds. Check out section 10 for more Sound table info. F6 Sprite Table. A handy list of all the sprites, in case someone needs it. Section 11 deals with the Sprites. F7 Text Editor. This shows all the text strings in the Doom.exe file. You can also edit the strings, a capability new to DeHackEd (new to version 2.0, that is). Section 12 has more info. F8 Thing List. This is a Table version of the Thing editor. It shows only the most important Thing information, and is meant as a quick- reference guide. 6. *** Mouse Info \------============ Some notes on the mouse support. Generally just click places to find out what happens! The new status bars on the top and bottom of the screen are there expressly for the mouse users (click on 'em to get help, exit, see the "About" window, or switch editors). Clicking on any of the fields will switch to it, and double-clicking will bring up the standard editing box for that field. Click on the "Thing Name" in the upper left window to Go to any of the Things by name. Clicking on any sound or frame names will play the sound or show the frame for you. Right clicking at any time will act exactly like the Escape key was pressed (except for exiting the program), ie get you out of input boxes, leave the frame viewer, etc. The way it's designed should (hopefully) be intuitive. There is a problem with some mice (restricted to Logitech mice, I think) where the mouse only moves in the top half of the screen. I'm looking into it to see if I can fix the problem. Until then, just remember that you can do anything with the keyboard that you can do with the mouse. 7. *** Thing Editor \------============== a. Thing fields This is the first thing you see when you start up DeHackEd. It is also one of the main areas of the program. Edit Things by highlighting the desired field and hitting Enter, or clicking on it with the mouse. The Player entry is slightly "special" in regards to how much Doom uses the info in the Player fields. Entries such as Speed and Hit Points are NOT changable through DeHackEd; they are controlled else- where in the exe and aren't easily accessible. Most of the rest of the Player entries, however, are used and can be changed normally. Thing Number: The number of the Thing. Basically it's just for reference, numbered in order according to how the Things are stored in the Doom exe file. Note: these are different between 1.2 and newer versions, because new Things have been added! Thing Name: A short descriptive name for the Thing. This info is NOT stored in the Doom exe file, and thus you can't edit it, and it will always remain the same. So a Thing #55 (the rocket launcher in Doom 1.2) will always be described as a "Rocket Launcher", even if you change it to something entirely different, like a Cacodemon. Thing ID#: This is the Thing's 'identification number' which is used in level developement (WAD files). Wherever this number appears in a WAD file, this Thing will appear. Hit Points: How much damage it can sustain. For all non-living Things, it's generally 1000 (not necessary though). Speed: How fast it can go. Projectiles have their speed multiplied by 65536, but DeHackEd displays projectiles the same way it does normal speeds (so you don't need to wade though large numbers for projectile speeds). Whether a certain Thing is a projectile or not is determined by bit #16, 'Projectile'. If that bit is set, the speed is displayed as a Projectile, otherwise it is a "normal" speed. Basically though, just ignore it and DeHackEd will take care of it for you. =-} Width: The radius of the Thing. A narrow Thing is harder to hit! To fit a Thing through a narrow passageway, you need to have the passage slightly wider than twice it's width. Thus a passage must be 33 to allow the Marine through, even though his actual radius is 16. Height: Same as width, but it's height. Duh. :-) Missile Damage: If it's a projectile, how much damage it does upon "death" (explosion). Note that Lost Souls have this set to 3. Reaction Time: For monsters, their reaction time. Lower=quicker to attack, higher=slower to attack. Pain Chance: Chance out of 256 that a monster's action/attack will be interrupted by an injury. The Lost Soul always will (256), and the Spider Boss rarely will (40). Mass: Thing's mass. Set a trooper's to 1 and watch him fly! Note the Cyberdemon has a high mass, and your rockets don't budge him much. Bits: This is the actual value of all of the bits. Just change this one number if you want to set all of the bits at once to something. See also the Bit fields portion of the text, coming up in a few pages (section 7b). SOUNDS Alert: Sound made when the monster first spots the player, or a projectile is launched. These all point to the sounds in the Sound table. Attack: Sound made during a close attack. Pain: Sound made when the Thing is injured. Death: Sound made when the Thing dies. For projectiles and barrels, the sound of it's explosion. Action: Sound made when the Thing is just milling around. FRAMES First Normal: What an inactive thing looks like, or a monster that's not yet active. All frame numbers refer to the Frame table. Only the first frame is listed, you will need to refer to that Frame entry in the Frame table to find out if it's actually a sequence of frames. First Moving: A movable Thing's "first steps." Injury: Frame played for an injured Thing. Close Attack: Attacks that are close (clawing imps). Far Attack: Attacks that are far away (imp winding up for a fireball attack). Death: Monster death or barrel/projectile explosion. Explode Death: Exploding death (slop!) for players, troopers, imps, and sargeants. Respawn: This is the frame that's shown when the Thing comes back to life due to the ArchVile. This field is only shown for versions other than Doom 1.2. b. Bit Editor 0.Gettable Thing: Something that can be picked up by the player, like an ammo clip. 1.Obstacle: Something that can't be walked through. 2.Shootable Thing: It will only take damage if this is set. Note that barrels also have this set. 3.Total Invisibility: The Thing just can't be seen, no-how, no-way. It won't even show up with iddt-iddt. 4.'Automatics': From Jason Gorski: "Okay well if you don't want your weapons to auto-lock onto something set the automatics to yes." Basically Things like PUFF, TFOG, BLUD, and projectiles. 5.Semi-Deaf Monsters become active if they see you (like normal), or if you fire a weapon AND there is a direct line of sight between you and the monster. Strange. 6.In Pain: Used internally by the Doom exe to determine if a monster is in pain or not. 7.Steps Before Attack: The monster will take a step before attacking the player. 8.Hangs From Ceiling: For those gory legs & mangled bodies. Have it set, well, if the Thing hangs from the ceiling! 9.No Gravity: Used for floating monsters and Things that aren't on the ground. 10.Travels Over Cliffs: Set for projectiles and players. This bit allows the Thing to travel from one sector to another even when the dropoff height difference is greater than 16 (or 24?). Turn this on for Imps, and the Imps on E1M1 will jump off their platform after you. 11.Can pick up items: This Thing (i.e. the player) can pick up Gettable Things. 12.No Clipping: Same effect as idspispopd/idclip, but also effective for monsters. 13.Slides Along Walls: Apparently available for monster types that were never used in Doom. Reportedly this bit will only work in the beta versions of Doom and was disabled for the release versions. 14.Floating: For floating monsters, like the Cacodemon and the Lost Soul. 15.Semi-No Clipping: Kinda like no-clipping, kinda not. You can't walk through walls, or trigger any linedefs, but you can walk over any height cliff in your way. 16.Projectiles: Set for projectiles. Allows the projectile to leave your body. If it is turned off, the projectile explodes as soon as it is fired, because it originates from "inside" your body. 17.Disappearing Weapon: This is used for weapons such as the shotgun that the sargeants use, so that it disappears when picked up in a multi- player game. Normal weapons do not have this set, however, because they stick around in normal multi-player games when picked up. 18.Partial Invisibilty: The Spectre effect. 19.Puffs (vs. bleeds): Whether a thing bleeds (bit off) or puffs (bit on) when hit. The barrel is the only default Thing that has this set. 20.Sliding Helpless: ??? 21.No Auto-Leveling: Valid only for floating Things, this bit makes it so that flying monsters do not need to rise/sink to the player's level before attacking. This makes it quite unfair for the player! 22.Counts for Kill% This Thing counts as part of the Kill% at the end of the level. 23.Counts for Item% Just like Kill%, but for Things. 24.Running ??? Perhaps active if the player is holding down the Run key. 25.Not in Deathmatch: Things not present in Deathmatch mode, such as keys and the normal "Player" starting spots (deathmatch spots are used instead). 26.Color 1 \ 00-greens->greens 01-greens->browns 27.Color 2 / 10-greens->indigos 11-greens->dark reds 28.Unused 29.Unused 30.Unused 31.Unused 8. *** Frame Editor \------============== This displays the majority of the Frame information. Each frame has six editable fields (of 8 total that are stored in the exe). The only two fields that are NOT shown on the screen are always 0 in all of the Frames, so I decided it would be pointless to try to squeeze them onscreen also. Frame #: This is the number that is specified in the Thing Frame fields. Name: A lookup done on the Text info in the doom.exe file, specified by a reference to the Sprite #, the Sprite Table, and the Sprite subnumber. Sprite #: The sprite that is shown for this Frame. Sprite Sub #: The individual "picture" (for lack of a better word... I think the technical term is "lump") suffix for this Frame. In the Doom WAD file, there is (for example) a Sprite called TROO, for the trooper. The sub # specifies which TROO picture to use... TROOA, TROOB, TROOC, etc. Bright Sprite: This check box determines if a Sprite is ALWAYS displayed at it's full brightness. Sprites that are always displayed at their full brightness are Lost Souls, plasma bullets, etc... they are always visible no matter what the lighting is. Next Frame #: Which Frame to play next. You can skip a few shotgun frames this way, to make the super-fast ("combat") shotgun. Duration: How long the frame stays on the screen. Make 'em all 1 to make the super fast shotgun *really* be super fast! Notice that the notoriously slow BFG has a value of 20 and 10 for a few of its Frames. (hint hint... =-) Code pointer: An offset in the Doom exe file to where it should look for the "action" associated with this Frame. It appears after more digging that this value is really useless. The actual location in the code is specified by a relocation table elsewhere in the Doom exe, which is referred to instead of the code pointer. 9. *** Ammo Editor \------============= Weapon Name: The name of the weapon (not editable) Ammo Type: A pithy description. This will be 'N/A' when an 'unknown' ammo type is given for the Ammo Number. Ammo type 5 is listed as "Unlimited". Ammo Number: 0=bullets 3=rockets 1=shells 4= ??? (none) 2=cells 5=unlimited (fist/chainsaw) Max ammo cap: The starting capacity for the current type of ammo. It's listed on the right side of the slash on the status bar. Backpacks will double this limit automatically. This will be 'N/A' for unknown ammo types. Ammo per item: How much ammo you get when you pick up a power-up of the current ammo type. For example, normally the bullet power-up gives you 10 bullets. This value is multiplied by 5 for the 'large' power-ups, i.e. boxes of rockets, boxes of shells, etc. Different difficulty modes also change this. Also 'N/A' for unknown types. Deselect frame: This is the frame that's shown when another weapon is selected and the current weapon drops off the screen. This is the number that Doom refers to in the Frame list for more info. Select frame: The frame that's shown when the weapon is selected and is rising onto the screen. Bobbing frame: Frame number for the bobbing weapon. Shooting frame: Frame played when the weapon shoots. Firing frame: Frame that actually shows the "flames" from the weapon. 10. *** Sound Editor \------============== Sound Number: This is the number that's referenced by the Things for each sound. Text Offset: The offset into the Text section where the sound name is found. Sound Name: Found by simply checking the Text section at the correct offset. 0 / 1: This may be related to whether a given sound is ALWAYS played at its full volume, no matter how far away it is. For example, some boss activation sounds are always played very loudly even if you are far away from them. Value: This is the mixing value when more than one sound is being played at one time. Lower numbers indicate that the sound will be less emphasized among other sounds. 11. *** Sprite Editor \------=============== Sprite Number: The number in the Frame table that refences this Sprite. Text Offset: The offset into the Text section where the Sprite name is found. Sprite Name: Also found through a simple lookup in the Text section. 12. *** Text Editor \------============= Text Offset: The offset into the Text section of the current Text string. Text: This is the actual text that's located at the text offset. Some notes are in order on the Text viewing, editing, etc. First of all, if the Text is longer than about 60 characters (too long to fit on one line in the general Text screen) three ellipses are displayed at the end of the line. Non-printing characters, such as new-lines, tabs, and other screwy characters are shown by a tilde symbol in the text (~). If you want to view the actual text, just hit the Spacebar and a window will pop up with the actual text string in it. A newline is shown by a '\n' shown in black (dark grey), tabs by '\t' in black, and so on. The text is formatted in basically the same way that it would be on-screen. To edit the text, just hit Enter and the view window and an edit window will pop up. Enter your new text in the edit window, and hit Escape when you are done editing. If you are hitting Escape to cancel the current editing operation, answer 'n'o when asked if you want your changes saved, otherwise answer 'y'es and the text will change to your modification. Because each text string is variable length in the Doom exe file, you have only a slight lee-way in how long the edited text needs to be. The minimum and maximum length for the string you are editing are shown on the top line of the editing window, along with the current position of the character you're on. You will have a range of 4 characters that the new string must fit into. Typing beyond the maximum number of characters is not allowed, and stopping short of the minimum is also not allowed. The text editor is not exactly a full-fledged version of Wordperfect, so the only movement key you have is the back-space... no arrow keys, no macros, no spell checker, etc. :-) That's about it. Any more question? Feel free to write me at gregl@umich.edu for more information. Have fun!