How to Format a Log Quickly

Logging can be done smoothly. Usually, it is a case of knowing a little advanced Find and Replace.

What You Will Need

• A client that supports logging. For example, SimpleMU or BeipMU.
• A text editor that supports advanced searches. If you run Windows, install Notepad++. If you're using another OS, use its native text editor.

If you have both of these things, you can edit a log for most MUs within minutes.

How to Do It

To clean a log in this fashion, you will need to tinker with a few of Find and Replace's more advanced features. Don't worry, though. Just copy and paste what you see in the table below. The table shows you what to search for when doing this in Notepad++. Linux and Mac text editors should be able to perform similar functions.

To find...	Open Search, and Select...	Paste This into Find	Paste this into Replace
Pages		^From afar\, (.*?)$ ^[A-Za-z\-\'\`]+ pages\: (.*?)$ ^Long distance to (.*?)\: (.*?)$ ^You paged (.*?) with \'(.*?)\'$ ^From afar\, to \((.*?)\)\: (.*?)$ ^To \((.*?)\)\, (.*?) pages: (.*?)$	Put nothing into Replace (that is, leave it blank)
Channel Chatter		^\[[A-Za-z]+\] (.*?)$	Put noting into Replace (that is, leave it blank)
OOC Chatter		^<OOC> (.*?)$	Put noting into Replace (that is, leave it blank)
Add an additional line between paragraphs		\r	\r\r
Remove any triple lines between paragraphs		\r\r\r	\r\r
Remove spacing before poses		Hit the spacebar 9 times	Put nothing into Replace (that is, leave it blank)