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A plea for better output

K

Kinnakeeter

Well-known member
I love this program, but I have a problem with the printed character sheets it generates. To begin with, the design is slightly ungainly and disorganized - all text fonts and objects could possibly be slightly smaller. My 11th level character's skills end up split on two pages with the second part buried under weapons stats. Weapons stats also end up split, which isn't unusual, but they also end up end the opposite column in which they start. It can be somewhat confusing when having to read quickly.

I get that many people using this might primarily use it on a laptop at their gaming table, but I unfortunately do not have that luxury. I've ended up using PCGen more often because the sheets are better designed, but I'd prefer to use Herolab because it's simply easier to edit and more intuitive to use.

I do understand the limits on your time and appreciate all you all do, but may I please plead for a better-organized sheet?
 
On the topic, I'd like to request a stat block output. :) (Of course, it may be in there and I just haven't found it yet ... still looking!)

One other thing ... is there some way to force javelins to be calculated as ranged weapons? They seem to come up on the sheet as melee weapons.

Thanks! :)

-The Gneech :cool:

PS: I'd also like a pony. ;)
 
Thanks for the suggestions on the character sheet. I'll keep them in mind for when I do get to work on the character sheet.

The statblock is in the file menu, "output active hero summary".

Proper calculations for ranged weapons are on my to-do list.
 
This one is big on my wish list as well. As well as equipment output for player handouts. I am used to and like having 8 page plus char sheets! :)
 
On the subject of output sheets, I'd like to put in a request to be able to print a cleric/druid/paladin/ranger "spellbook". Essentially the ability to print a complete list of spells castable by a cleric, druid, paladin, ranger, etc. - any class who has access to all spells but must prepare them.

The reason being that I DM a group of 6-8 players and I maintain a record of everyone's character sheets. We only have 3 rule books between the whole group so it's useful for all casters to have a complete list of all the spells available to them without having to resort to the rulebook all the time.
 
Thanks for your fast response. Like Mindcloud I'm used to having 7 or 8 pages of more detailed information. While I realize that might not be as feasible for you in the near future, any effort at streamlining the sheets is greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.
 
When I output my cleric's spell list, it only prints those spells that he has prepared for the day. Spells that aren't prepared don't appear.
 
Mindcloud said:
TopCat Are the spell-book dossiers that are already in place not what you are looking for?
Click to expand...

As FifthWanderer said, the current sheet only outputs the cleric's prepared spells. It would be good to be able to print out all the spells available to the character. A Wizard has the option of printing out his prepared spells or his spellbook.

The PCGen output that Kinnakeeter posted above is a great example of what I'm looking for. I think this is the one (and only) area where PCGen wins over Hero Lab - my players love the fact that all the DCs, durations, ranges, effects, etc get calculated for them.
 
TopCat said:
As FifthWanderer said, the current sheet only outputs the cleric's prepared spells. It would be good to be able to print out all the spells available to the character. A Wizard has the option of printing out his prepared spells or his spellbook.
Click to expand...

Until we can get this capability added, you can easily accomplish this yourself with a tiny bit of effort. Since Hero Lab doesn't impose any rules on you, it's easy to ignore validation errors. Simply create a cleric (or other similar class) and add all the spells to him. Then print the spell list. It will include all the spells you added.

If you want to keep the character around for later printing of the spell list again, that's as simple as saving the character. Heck, you could even create separate characters for each spell level, allowing you to re-print all the spells for a given spell level on demand.

Hope this helps!
 
If you change the character output please don't change the Image size. I like having a nice sized character image as it is now.

Thanks
 
First off, great program; It's quick and handles everything I've needed it to (so far :) )

As far as outputs...
Is there any possibility of editing the outputs so we can make customizations on our own? Does the Authoring Kit allow this, or is there a file that can be hand-edited?

Even if there is no GUI to do so, I'm willing to play around with files to see about getting a sheet more to my needs....


Presuming that this is simply not an option, these are the requests I have for character sheet output.

- Current Resource Tracking: If a character has a Wand with only 3 charges left, I'd like to see only 3 boxes in the Tracked Resources section of the character sheet (these sheets get printed out for my group, so having an accurate count on the sheet is important).

- Combined character sheet/spell sheet options. Since I don't have Adobe Pro, I can't combine the two outputs into a single file. In the past, I've posted character sheets onto a website, and it would be more convenient to be able to create a single file with all of the appropriate data.

- This last may be more of a workaround than anything else, but would a simple two-column text file output (Field Name, Field Value) be an option? Given that, I could likely create any kind of HTML sheet I wanted and pull in the values via Javascript...

thanks again for an excellent product :)
 
Haligon said:
First off, great program; It's quick and handles everything I've needed it to (so far :) )

As far as outputs...
Is there any possibility of editing the outputs so we can make customizations on our own? Does the Authoring Kit allow this, or is there a file that can be hand-edited?

Even if there is no GUI to do so, I'm willing to play around with files to see about getting a sheet more to my needs....


Presuming that this is simply not an option, these are the requests I have for character sheet output.

- Current Resource Tracking: If a character has a Wand with only 3 charges left, I'd like to see only 3 boxes in the Tracked Resources section of the character sheet (these sheets get printed out for my group, so having an accurate count on the sheet is important).

- Combined character sheet/spell sheet options. Since I don't have Adobe Pro, I can't combine the two outputs into a single file. In the past, I've posted character sheets onto a website, and it would be more convenient to be able to create a single file with all of the appropriate data.

- This last may be more of a workaround than anything else, but would a simple two-column text file output (Field Name, Field Value) be an option? Given that, I could likely create any kind of HTML sheet I wanted and pull in the values via Javascript...

thanks again for an excellent product :)
Click to expand...

I like that Idea a CSV output is an excellent Idea! Or maybe a XML output. I.E. Node 1 = character 1, attribite1 = strength = 15 ect...
 
Haligon said:
As far as outputs...
Is there any possibility of editing the outputs so we can make customizations on our own? Does the Authoring Kit allow this, or is there a file that can be hand-edited?
Click to expand...

It's not currently possible, but this is very high on our priority list for Hero Lab. It's something that needs to be implemented within the core engine before we can leverage it for each game system. We haven't finalized what's going to be included in the next feature release of HL, but this currently looks to be a likely one.

When this gets added, it will produce an XML file that can be parsed and transformed however you wish. Alternately, you can write your own XSL to format it as desired.
 
Haligon said:
Current Resource Tracking: If a character has a Wand with only 3 charges left, I'd like to see only 3 boxes in the Tracked Resources section of the character sheet (these sheets get printed out for my group, so having an accurate count on the sheet is important).
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what's involved in this, but Mathias can definitely add this to the todo list for a future update.

Haligon said:
Combined character sheet/spell sheet options. Since I don't have Adobe Pro, I can't combine the two outputs into a single file. In the past, I've posted character sheets onto a website, and it would be more convenient to be able to create a single file with all of the appropriate data.
Click to expand...

Have you considered the other web output options included within Hero Lab? You can output statblocks that are pre-formatted for HTML, BBCode, and/or Wiki syntax. Would these give you what you want?

Failing that, it's possible to combine different character sheet output elements into a single "dossier", which will print them out together. You'll need to add your own data file to do this, but it shouldn't be difficult, unless there's a technical issue with the Pathfinder files that I'm unaware of. Mathias ought to be able to give you the specifics on this when he gets a chance.

Haligon said:
This last may be more of a workaround than anything else, but would a simple two-column text file output (Field Name, Field Value) be an option? Given that, I could likely create any kind of HTML sheet I wanted and pull in the values via Javascript...
Click to expand...

This would be a viable stopgap solution if we don't get the customizable XML output implemented.
 
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