Force a 2nd page of output?

[TCArknight]

Hi all!

I've got a character sheet where I display a simple list of the character abilities on the first page. I'm trying to make an additional sheet that prints out those abilities with their descriptions in addition.

I've got the page set up similar to the Traits section on the front page, but the additional page shows blank. Am I missing something?

Could it be an issue with listing the abilities twice?

Thanks!
TC

 

[Mathias]

To output the same thing twice on the same character sheet, the two portals that are doing this must have different component="". For the appendices in Pathfinder and Shadowrun's character sheets, we use SpecialTab as the component, and then the normal component for that thing in the main character sheet.

 

[TCArknight]

Thanks Mathias, changing to use SpecialTab component worked.

A couple of related questions now:
Is there a way to display only part of a thing's description (for example everything from the beginning of the description to the first {br} in the description)?

In an output table with multiple columns, how do you designate which portal (I have a name portal and a details portal) goes to which column? I want to have the single-line name and the multi line details be one row on the output table.

I've been digging around, but I can't find a good example of this.

 

[Mathias]

In this case, what I'd do is to place that first paragraph into the summary field (as well as in the descript field). Then, depending on the circumstances, your code can either display the summary or display the descript.

Each cell of a multi-column table is the same as any other - they'll all have both name and details. What you want to do is to alter the positioning and size of the portals within each template using the position script, not use a multi-column table.

 

[TCArknight]

That's what I thought about the description, but I wanted to be sure.

Is there a trick to getting the detail portal to size dynamically? I've got various lengths of text in the summaries, so with the portal being multi line it can be anywhere from 1-7 lines of text. If I specify portal[detail].lineheight as 8, I get lots of blank space on shorter text cells, but if I don't specify it I only get the first line.

I've seen mention of fontheight and textheight, but I may be using them wrong as I don't see a difference.

 

[Mathias]

.autoheight

 

[TCArknight]

Hmmmm... trying that, but it's not working.....

  <template
    id="oDescPick"
    name="Output Traits Table"
    compset="Ability"
    marginvert="2">

    <portal
      id="name"
      style="outNameLg">
      <output_label
       ismultiline="yes">
        <labeltext><![CDATA[
          @text = field[name].text
          ]]></labeltext>
        </output_label>
      </portal>

    <portal
      id="details"
      style="outNameLg">
      <output_label
       ismultiline="yes">
        <labeltext><![CDATA[
          @text = field[summary].text
          ]]></labeltext>
        </output_label>
      </portal>
      
    <position><![CDATA[
      ~our height is the vertical extent of our portals
      height = portal[details].height
      
      if (issizing <> 0) then
        done
        endif

      ~size the name to fit the available space
      ~our details width spans the remaining template width
      portal[name].width = 750
      portal[details].width = width - portal[name].width - 5
      
      ~portal[details].width = width
      ~perform portal[details].sizetofit[36]
      
      portal[name].left = 0
      perform portal[details].alignrel[ltor,name,5]
      
      perform portal[details].autoheight
      perform portal[name].autoheight
      
      perform portal[details].centervert
      perform portal[name].centervert
      
      ]]></position>
    </template>

I've attached the sheet. Page two is just showing 1 line for all traits, when the Feel The Turn of the (Universe) trait should be several lines of detail.

Thoughts?

 

[Mathias]

You need to move your height = and if (issizing <> 0) sections to below the .autoheight - otherwise, you've already established the height of your template, so the extra lines that would be displayed below the height of the template are discarded, because changing the height of that portal doesn't affect the height of the total template.

Also, make sure that the table this is in is set up as a variable height table.

 

[TCArknight]

Thank you! That got it working fine. I really appreciate all the advice!