Extended Character Sheets

Thanks to a bunch of hints and direct help from Mathias I've put together some .user file versions of a new Character sheet that includes the full description text on pretty much everything instead of just the summary text.

Just download the .hl file from https://www.dropbox.com/s/bt5sh2halfy4sik/Sheets.hl and double-click it to have Hero Lab automatically install it into your savage/data directory. The next time you start up Hero Lab and load up a Savage Worlds character and go to File -> Print Hero... (or press Ctrl-P) you should see 2 new options available in the middle of the list for "Extended Character Sheet" and "Extended Character Sheet & Journal" available for your pleasure.

If anyone finds any issues with these (and if I can figure out how to fix them...) please do let me know and I'll be happy to do my best to correct the problem.

EDIT: Removed text from above about the sheet limited to only 4 pages.. it wasn't I just didn't realize it.

v1.1: Added an extra line between many items for readability and added output for the "Source" information, if listed, for Adjustments.
v1.2: (Bug fix, I think.)
v1.3: fixed to add the changes that were in the last Savage Worlds base character sheet update that I missed.
v1.5 (I forget what I fixed in 1.4): Added support for Savage Worlds dataset v3.1 (Please don't use this until 3.1 is released, though.)
v1.6-1.7 Updates so that Abilities would also span columns (in case someone used them instead of Properties).

Why does your character sheet have a limit on the number of pages that can be printed? You should be able to use a single repeating sheet to allow an unlimited number of pages.

Very nice zarlor, checked it out with one of my ships for High-Space and it has all what is needed. Great Job!!!!

Mathias said:

Why does your character sheet have a limit on the number of pages that can be printed? You should be able to use a single repeating sheet to allow an unlimited number of pages.

Click to expand...

I guess I don't really know? For some reason it seemed like the sheet2 file stopped at sheet2 but maybe I don't need the sheet3 and 4 files I created at all? I probably made a bad assumption so I guess I'll go test that out some more. :/ Although, at any rate, it should work as it to AT LEAST 4 sheets.

The spillover="yes" setting on that means that Hero Lab will output an unlimited number of copies of standard2, until everything it covers has been added to the output.

Well there you go, then. I added 2 sheets without even needing to. Go figure. Did I mention I can be kind of clueless about some of this stuff?

I tested it just to make sure (because I don't trust myself, of course. ) and I've updated the file above to cut it down to just 2 sheet files rather than 4. And it certainly works just fine going over to the other.

jbearwillis said:

Very nice zarlor, checked it out with one of my ships for High-Space and it has all what is needed. Great Job!!!!

Click to expand...

I'm real glad you tested that, because I didn't really get a chance to do so and I was really hoping you wouldn't have any issues with it, so that's really good to hear.

Updated to v1.1. Added an extra line between many items for better readability and added the "Source" information, if listed, for Adjustments.

This is great zarlor! Thanks for putting this together.

liz said:

This is great zarlor! Thanks for putting this together.

Click to expand...

My pleasure, although most of the credit goes to Mathias for letting me know this could even be done, and then giving me the right syntax to do it!

Cool. That's most excellent, my dude.

I have a couple questions based on my playing around.

1) Would it be easy to incorporate the activated adjustments fix that went into the new update into this character sheet

2) Would it be easy to format the personal data so that it will scroll onto further columns? Right now, it still seems to stop at the end of the first column of text.

Thanks,
Tim

atimrogers said:

Cool. That's most excellent, my dude.

I have a couple questions based on my playing around.

1) Would it be easy to incorporate the activated adjustments fix that went into the new update into this character sheet

Click to expand...

The sheet is already set-up to handle any adjustment that is activate, so it will show permanent adjustments or any of the Activated or Temporary adjustments, but only when the checkbox to activate it on the in-play tab is checked.

2) Would it be easy to format the personal data so that it will scroll onto further columns? Right now, it still seems to stop at the end of the first column of text.

Click to expand...

If I can figure it out I can try. What, specific, personal data is not scrolling? That might help me to figure it out.

As for the error your friend was getting after installing this .hl file, I have no idea what he might have been running into. I packaged it like every other .hl file I've done and tested it with no issues. I'm sorry he ran into problems, but especially for something I've done I'm happy to try and help figure it out if he wants to log on here and give us some details on the issue.

atimrogers said:

2) Would it be easy to format the personal data so that it will scroll onto further columns? Right now, it still seems to stop at the end of the first column of text.

Click to expand...

No, - this is a limitation of the printing mechanism used in Hero Lab - we can't record the amount of progress it's made through a gigantic block of text if that text can't be output in the first space Hero Lab tries to place it in. If you have that much to say about your character's background, I recommend word processors, since those will let you apply much more formatting to your text. You also probably won't be changing your background often, so you can just print the background once and then keep it with the rest of the character sheet, through many reprints of the character sheet itself.

zarlor said:

The sheet is already set-up to handle any adjustment that is activate, so it will show permanent adjustments or any of the Activated or Temporary adjustments, but only when the checkbox to activate it on the in-play tab is checked.

Click to expand...

Actually, the fix I was referring to was the fix that keeps overlong weapons or powers sections from writing on top of the the activated adjustments section and instead scrolls them onto the next page when they bump up against that section (this was corrected in the new update; before this, those sections would just print on top of the activated adjustments record). Basically, I suspect all it would require would be updating your extended character sheet to build off the character sheet included in update that just came out. But I'm not the guy who's smart enough to do it.

Mathias said:

No, - this is a limitation of the printing mechanism used in Hero Lab - we can't record the amount of progress it's made through a gigantic block of text if that text can't be output in the first space Hero Lab tries to place it in. If you have that much to say about your character's background, I recommend word processors, since those will let you apply much more formatting to your text. You also probably won't be changing your background often, so you can just print the background once and then keep it with the rest of the character sheet, through many reprints of the character sheet itself.

Click to expand...

Okay, thanks. We were actually using that section to incorporate/record evolving spell books that modified the SW Arcane Power system too much to work easily with the HL SW Arcane powers. We had already figured it was probably going to be better to create word processor documents or use the journal section in some way, but I thought I'd ask if in case we could get it onto the sheet (so it all would have a uniform look).

I appreciate the feedback. And the great new form, zarlor!

Hey zarlor, I have found out one thing that doesn't work with your character sheets but works with the normal one and I'm not sure if you can get it to work.

1) In the setting adjustment tab Cape added the no power points. If I have that checked in my setting tab, I don't have to have it checked in the configure hero window for it to work correctly on the normal print out sheet, but on your sheet for some reason the setting adjustment for no power points doesn't work without the no power points box checked in the configure hero window. Any idea how to get it to work with your sheets.

atimrogers said:

Actually, the fix I was referring to was the fix that keeps overlong weapons or powers sections from writing on top of the the activated adjustments section and instead scrolls them onto the next page when they bump up against that section (this was corrected in the new update; before this, those sections would just print on top of the activated adjustments record). Basically, I suspect all it would require would be updating your extended character sheet to build off the character sheet included in update that just came out. But I'm not the guy who's smart enough to do it.

Click to expand...

Oh, I just thought that would have been fixed since I thought I told all of that stuff to just keep spilling over if it was too long. I'll see if I can figure out just what it was Mathias changed on the official sheets so I can incorporate that, too. As I mentioned I'm on vacation right now so I'm not exactly sure when I'll get some time so I may not get a chance to look at it until Tuesday or Wednesday.

jbearwillis said:

1) In the setting adjustment tab Cape added the no power points. If I have that checked in my setting tab, I don't have to have it checked in the configure hero window for it to work correctly on the normal print out sheet, but on your sheet for some reason the setting adjustment for no power points doesn't work without the no power points box checked in the configure hero window. Any idea how to get it to work with your sheets.

Click to expand...

I'll try to see if I can figure that out, too, although I wouldn't have thought anything I did would have made a difference there, unless the difference was something they changed on the official sheets just with this last update as well, which is entirely possible.

NP, Have fun and don't worry about it until vacation is over. Just wanted to inform you of it.

Like I said have fun and enjoy your Vacation, Jbear

jbearwillis said:

NP, Have fun and don't worry about it until vacation is over. Just wanted to inform you of it.

Like I said have fun and enjoy your Vacation, Jbear

Click to expand...

Sometimes you need a vacation from the vacation so if I get a chance to look at things before Tuesday I may do that. But thanks for the sentiment!

I got some time this morning so I went through and tried to find all of the spots the new character sheets were different from these can made a few changes. I can't say for certain if they will fix the issues you guys were having, but hopefully it will. I've uploaded v1.2 at the link above. I'm starting to think I should set these up with an update mechanism...