The unicode_string_list and string_list tags are imported by Tool from a specially formatted .txt file. This page describes the format Tool expects for these files.

Creating a text file for string lists

Unlike with HUD message text source files, the source files for string lists can be anywhere under the HEK's the data directory and have any filename ending with ".txt". However, it's still a good idea to keep these files organized with what they're related to so it's easier to find or share your tags later.

A text file can be created on Windows by right clicking in the directory to bring up the context menu and creating a new text file.

The text file can contain multiple strings, each terminated with the line ###END-STRING###. For example:

This is a string.
###END-STRING###
This is also a string.
It also has multiple lines cause Halo is cool like that.
###END-STRING###
We will also be talking about symbols like %jump later in the guide.
###END-STRING###

Encoding

When saving the file, make sure the file is set to encoding UTF-16 LE for compiling unicode_string_list or UTF-8 for string_list.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following individuals for their research or contributions to this topic:

• General_101 (Documenting text format)