How do I make the message center and flash on the screen in C++?

Question

How to make this message flash on screen, stay centered, and how to change the message color?

    #include <iostream>
    #include <cstdlib>
    #include <windows.h>

    using namespace std;
    string mensagem;
    int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {


    cout << "Digite um palavara: " ;
    cin >> mensagem;

        cout << "***************************" "\n";
        cout << "***************************" "\n";
        cout << "***                     ***" "\n";
        cout << "***                     ***" "\n";
        cout<< "***""\t"<<mensagem<<"\t***""\n";
        cout << "***                     ***" "\n";
        cout << "***                     ***" "\n";
        cout << "***************************" "\n";
        cout << "***************************" "\n";


    system("PAUSE");
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Answer 1

To center is easy. I’m seeing how to blink, which I’ve seen is not so simple:

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

string Center(string str) {
   int espacos = (int)((21 - str.length())/2);
   return string(espacos, ' ') + str + string(espacos + (str.length() > espacos * 2 ? 1 : 0), ' ');
}

int main() {
    string mensagem;
    cout << "Digite um palavara: ";
    cin >> mensagem;

    cout << "***************************" "\n";
    cout << "***************************" "\n";
    cout << "***                     ***" "\n";
    cout << "***                     ***" "\n";
    cout<< "***" << Center(mensagem) << "***""\n";
    cout << "***                     ***" "\n";
    cout << "***                     ***" "\n";
    cout << "***************************" "\n";
    cout << "***************************" "\n";

    return 0;
}

Behold working in the ideone. And in the repl it.. Also put on the Github for future reference. Color doesn’t work on it.

From what I understand to blink you have to make one loop changing the color for a timer but there must be a better way.