Sure. If there's code you don't understand, just ask smile

BTW: Here's a better essay.custom alias. This 'attaches' it to the main dialog, plus the -l switch means it can only be called from the script itself.
Code:
alias -l essay.custom { noop $dialog(essay.custom,essay.custom,-4) }



The main "essay" alias can also be re-written (this only shortens the code, no real improvement here) as...
Code:
alias essay { dialog $iif($dialog(essay),-v,-md) essay essay }


I would remove the "/me" from dialog table, it serves no real purpose and in fact my code doesn't even remove it. :p
Code:
  edit "", 2, 10 50 420 320, vsbar, multi, return


Seeing as you don't do anything on the essay dialog init you don't need that event code either.