Formatting Text Messages for Wiki Log Posts
When a text message or messaging thread is important for a scene it is good to include it but I'd prefer for it to look right, so I came up with the following nested table-in-table format that lets me do just that. Feel free to borrow it!
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
|-
|+ <name that should appear at the top of the screen>
|-
|
{| style="width:100%"
<message lines would go here, see below>
|}
|}
When applying the above think about how the name should appear. If its a message between two people it would be the other person's name (as this is simulating the view of your character's phone); if it is a group it would be the group name for the contact group or all of the names of the participants, as you would assume your character's phone would display them.
In the section where it says message lines use as many of the following two as required. The first is an incoming message (replace the name with the sender's name as it would display on your phone and replace the message with their message) while the second is an outgoing message from you.
|- | style="text-align:left;" | (<name>) <incoming message from name>
|- | style="text-align:right;" | <your outgoing message>
Examples
The following example is a hypothetical conversation between Vic and a made up contact who will be considered to be listed on Vic's phone as "Big Guy"
|
The code for that exact conversation looks like this:
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
|-
|+ Big Guy
|-
|
{| style="width:100%"
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | (Big Guy) Been missing U. Come 2 my place?
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Bet you have. Sure. 3pm OK?
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | (Big Guy) Aww. Not now?
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Gotta finish some code first. Need a few hours.
|-
| style="text-align:left;" | (Big Guy) Alright. Will heat up the hot tub. No suits 4 us
|-
| style="text-align:right;" | Heh CU L8R
|}
|}
Additional examples of it being used (at the start of two of my scenes) can be seen in 2020-08-26: Its Not Pizza, Its Quiche and 2020-09-03: Into the Hydra's Lair
