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halfhand
January 10th, 2009, 10:16 PM
Is it possible to change the width of the tabs? I want to display a 4 X 5 table for attributes on the basics tab. Can't seem to find a way to fit it all into the default width.

I looked for info in the wiki and didn't find anything that would tell me how to change it. Any help would be appreciated.

rob
January 21st, 2009, 12:45 AM
The width of the tabs is controlled within the definition file. Within the definition file, the "structure" element contains an "editwidth" attribute that controls the width of the tabs.

That being said, a 4x5 table for attributes seems a bit large. I'd caution against having super wide tabs, so perhaps you might post a few more details about the game system and what you're trying to accomplish with the 4x5 layout. Maybe we can offer some useful suggestions.

halfhand
January 22nd, 2009, 08:50 AM
thanks for the help, i must have skipped over that line when i was working on this.

i did figure out a way to remove a column, but it's a custom system that a friend is building and i'm trying to see if we can make Hero Lab work for character building. There are 15 core attributes, split into 5 categories and a die associated with each category.

EDIT: i'm wanting to make the width 25-50% bigger than it currently is, so i'm not making it extremely large, i could fit almost the whole thing in (minus the die thing) at current width.

halfhand
January 22nd, 2009, 09:54 AM
ok, got the width thing figured out, now i'm trying to get 5 incrementers set up that will each be linked to 3 attribute. these incrementers would be like the ones in the savage world that would list a die size that would correspond to each of the attributes, but i need to keep the separate attribute values for each as well. is it possible to do?

Mathias
January 22nd, 2009, 11:49 AM
Maybe I can help, since I'm surrently working on a project with the authoring kit, myself.

It sounds like you'll need to make the attribute categories a separate compset from the attributes. In that one, design the display, min/max, and everything else like savage worlds' die type system, and leave the attribute compset more like the skeleton files version - just a straight number. The difference in the attribute compset would be that you draw a page from the skills - use the linkage functions you'll see demonstrated there to define a linkage between each attribute and its attribute category. Then, the finalize script of the attribute can display (as text), its value + the die size of its category.

Each column of your display might look like this:
CategoryA d8
AttributeA1 10+d8
AttributeA2 12+d8
AttributeA3 8+d8

I think I'd stack those collections vertically, rather than horizontally, or at least make that a row, so that you're only trying to fit 4 things across, rather than 5.

As another idea,

CategoryA d8
AttributeA1 10+d8 AttributeA2 12+d8 AttributeA3 8+d8

The category line would of course have a much larger font than its attributes, so that it filled up the available space. Don't forget that for visual organization purposes, HL does offer the option to put boxes around groups of things, that might be appropriate for the way your system depends on categories.

Don't forget to think about changing font sizes in order to make everything fit. The font size on the basics tab of the skeleton files was obviously chosen to look good as a two-column display.

halfhand
January 22nd, 2009, 01:35 PM
thanks for the info mgehl, the second look there is closer to what i'm going for, it is going to be 3 across, 5 down now (instead of the 4 across i was originally thinking it would be).

i will be trying to do this work tonight and tomorrow so i can have it ready for my friend to see the progress on friday. I'll let you all know how it goes.