If you specify MESSAGE when you transmit data, TRANSMIT prompts you for messages that accompany the data. These messages are shown to the receiving user when the RECEIVE command is issued. The system displays these messages to the receiving user when the RECEIVE command is issued and before the user is prompted to perform some action about the data.

You can enter up to 220 lines of data in either full-screen mode or single line mode. Of the 220 lines of data, ten are reserved for the PROLOG lines. If you specify the EPILOG tag in the NAMES data set, you can specify an additional 10 lines beyond the 220 line limit. For full-screen mode, use the program function (PF) keys for scrolling (PF7 or PF19 and PF8 or PF20) and for termination (PF3 or PF15). For single line mode, messages are terminated by either a null line or the string value specified in LINE(nn).

Transmitting a message that you enter from the terminal is the simplest form of the TRANSMIT command. You specify TRANSMIT addressee-list and TRANSMIT defaults to terminal input. Messages sent in this manner are not saved in a data set, but are saved in the LOG data set.