Custom Character Sheet

[Sacerdos]

Either my search fu is weak, or this hasn't been answered hereabouts. I'm guessing the former but pressing on anyway.

I've looked over what little's available on the Authoring Kit Wiki, and I couldn't find anything on this over there, either.

So, how the heck do I customize the appearance of the character sheet that HL produces? And, would doing so interfere with saving it as a .pdf?

[Colen]

The Authoring Kit wiki contains some general information about writing data files for Hero Lab - right now it isn't geared towards helping people create their own character sheets for existing games. One of the things on our ever-lengthening to-do list is to clean up and release the script code that generates HL output - once we do that, you'll be able to start from the complete "standard" character sheet and change stuff as you see fit.

[Sacerdos]

Thanks muchly for the feedback. I shall await the code release with baited breath.

[CourtFool]

...once we do that, you'll be able to start from the complete "standard" character sheet and change stuff as you see fit.

Am I correct that, when this has been implemented, one will need the Authoring Kit to do it?

[Colen]

...once we do that, you'll be able to start from the complete "standard" character sheet and change stuff as you see fit.

Am I correct that, when this has been implemented, one will need the Authoring Kit to do it?

I don't believe so. You'll be able to make modifications to games you already own without the authoring kit - the kit is only needed if you want to make separate new games.

[CourtFool]

You'll be able to make modifications to games you already own without the authoring kit - the kit is only needed if you want to make separate new games.

Two words for you: Awe Some!

[Unbeliever]

Do we know if there was any movement on this yet? I know it's probably not at the top of the priority list, but I'm a terrible perfectionist about how my character sheets look, and I doubt I'm the only one.

[CourtFool]

I know I am certainly anxious to see the implemented. In fact, I almost did not get Hero Lab for lack of this feature.

As it stands now, I copy the output into my editor of choice and format it to my standards.

[Colen]

This is definitely still on our to-do list.

[CourtFool]

I know I am asking the world, but any time line?

[Unbeliever]

I know I am certainly anxious to see the implemented. In fact, I almost did not get Hero Lab for lack of this feature.

As it stands now, I copy the output into my editor of choice and format it to my standards.

I'm currently on the fence b/c of it. In part b/c I know the system pretty well and have the Simpson builder to handle most of the autocalculating that would really bug me, like lifting and speed.

I was thinking of doing just what you do. What editor do you use? And, what outputs does HeroLab give you? I have adobe full, but mucking around w/ it is a huge pain.

[CourtFool]

Hero Lab can output to plain text, HTML and BBC.

I generally use the plain text, paste it into Open Office's Write and then format to taste.

[Unbeliever]

Thanks, but grrrr ...

Ideally, and I know you can't always get what you want, I'd get an output that looks like the pdf, w/ all their formatting and junk, that I could put into a Word file and muck around w/ it a bit.

The plain text is handy -- it gives me all the info in a pretty concise format -- but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I guess I could make a Word template and just type things in by hand, but that seems like an enormous pain. Some of the other tools I use for character sheets -- like SpellGen -- have the capability to produce outputs (complete w/ formatting) that can be opened by a Word processor.

Do the html or bbc outputs come w/ formatting?

Edit: I even tried exporting the pdf to a Word document (I have Acrobat Professional), but it jumbled a lot of the formatting.

[Colen]

Unfortunately generating Word documents isn't something we can do. It would probably take months of work to implement something like that, which isn't something we can put on our schedule at this point.

[DarkMaster]

If you want I have a template typed out, mind you it's not finished yet, but if you want it I could post it here.