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Output entire character sheet to one PDF

wheelercub

Active member
I'm new to the system and really loving it. One issue I seem to be running into regularly is when outputting the character sheet to PDF or printing. I have the choice of printing either the main sheet, the skills/spells, or the journal. How can I print all 3 at once? Currently I have to export all 3, then use an online PDF merger, then I can print the new PDF so that my character sheets print on Front and Back of each page.
 
The 2 minutes it took me to do the exports and the merge is a far cry from the days when i wrote encounters down on note cards....
 
Not that I've seen. As a workaround, I have been printing multiple sheets to PDF, then using one of those online PDF Combine websites like: http://www.pdfmerge.com/
Even easier than this is a use any PDF printing tool like PrimoPDF. When you print and it prompts for the name of the PDF give it the SAME file name and the tool will ask you to "over write or append". Just append the data to the pdf.

Yes you have to hit the print option several times but you combine it very quickly into a single PDF document.
 
If you have a Mac, then open each of the files (separately, one at a time, otherwise they'll open in the one window together) in Preview (the application).

Have Thumbnails open on the sidebars. Drag the thumbnail of the other sheets (Journal & Abilities & Gear) into the Thumbnail sidebar of the primary character sheet. Position as you please. Save, close, voila!
 
I agree that it's very frustrating, when a clear solution is right there in the same dialogue box! Printing up sheets for baddies, and sheets for my players without hero lab or printing abilities, can get quite tiresome when I have to repeat the process. This frustration happens EVERY SINGLE TIME I print/export/pdf as a GM. EVERY TIME! :(

What would it take to get this built into HeroLab? I'd like to be able to click Print or Create one time from one dialogue box (after checking the appropriate parameters), and have it result in a separate pdf for each being with everything already in it. That would be so nice! :)

If that was done, then also adding a parameter to choose to have one pdf for all characters would be nice as well, but that option in particular would only be useful if there were options to add in x number of blank pages between each character for printing purposes. Personally I like to print my baddies on letter, landscape, 2 pages per page, double sided. It minimizes printed paper, and is far easier to handle at the table since there's less paper.
 
The ability build custom sheets (and thus combine everything you want into one option chosen at printing) would be a nice option but from my limited information gathering, it seems that's not really possible either.
 
Really don't understand why there isn't an option to printing all three sheets. Why not a check box where you check which you want and it prints everything checked?
 
Really don't understand why there isn't an option to printing all three sheets. Why not a check box where you check which you want and it prints everything checked?

I agree. This truly makes absolutely no sense to me either. I appreciate all the helpful attempts at pointing out the various methods of working around this. But none of them should be required. You should be able select the character elements you want and click print and that's it.
 
It really seems like a "no-brainer" to me. I find the lack of action on implementing it just as baffling as why it was not implemented from the start.
 
Even easier than this is a use any PDF printing tool like PrimoPDF. When you print and it prompts for the name of the PDF give it the SAME file name and the tool will ask you to "over write or append". Just append the data to the pdf.

Yes you have to hit the print option several times but you combine it very quickly into a single PDF document.


The problem is that Herolab's default print output options are sucktastic at best. Any descriptive text is cut off after three lines. In Pathfinder, I find that the only good option for print ouput is to use a custom output sheet such as Ancient One's where I can get everything printed to one single document without going through hoops like Primo's work around. What's needed are custom output optiosn for 5e.
 
The problem is that Herolab's default print output options are sucktastic at best. Any descriptive text is cut off after three lines. In Pathfinder, I find that the only good option for print ouput is to use a custom output sheet such as Ancient One's where I can get everything printed to one single document without going through hoops like Primo's work around. What's needed are custom output optiosn for 5e.

I wish I understood how to create a custom output option. Is it even possible? If so, how do you construct it? What do you need to do or know in order to make it? Is it part of the program or some other convoluted process? Or is this something that's only applicable to Pathfinder due to how HL is constructed and how PF is implemented on it?

If there was a clear path or instructions on how to create an optional output method, I'd so be on that.
 
I wish I understood how to create a custom output option. Is it even possible? If so, how do you construct it? What do you need to do or know in order to make it? Is it part of the program or some other convoluted process? Or is this something that's only applicable to Pathfinder due to how HL is constructed and how PF is implemented on it?

If there was a clear path or instructions on how to create an optional output method, I'd so be on that.


As I understand it, it requires pretty extensive XML knowledge. Shadow Chemosh might be the only poster up to the task, but I think his time is taken up with the original Pathfinder version.
 
Topics here seemed to switch. The op wanted an option to print all character sheets at once. Now we have issues of not enough text and custom output.

For getting all the "Text" you need to print the Dossier called "Abilities & Gear Description Appendix". That fixes the issue of only getting three print lines. This works the same in Pathfinder.

For custom output it uses XSLT not XML but knowing XML will help. To learn how to do custom output in HL go to "Help->Hero Lab Manual->Custom Output". Of course the more you know about XML, HTML, XSLT and maybe some javascript the better this will all work. In those cases you can easily find thousands of pages of help using google. :D
 
For getting all the "Text" you need to print the Dossier called "Abilities & Gear Description Appendix". That fixes the issue of only getting three print lines. This works the same in Pathfinder.
Actually I think they were talking about text being cut-off. It happens a lot because for some strange reason HL allows for a ton of text to be input but which won't fit in the space allowed for it when parsed to a character sheet.

For custom output it uses XSLT not XML but knowing XML will help. To learn how to do custom output in HL go to "Help->Hero Lab Manual->Custom Output". Of course the more you know about XML, HTML, XSLT and maybe some javascript the better this will all work. In those cases you can easily find thousands of pages of help using google. :D
Yeah, so easy and accessible.
 
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