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I am so lost - I don't even know where to start!

DecamadronDDecamadron
edited June 2016 in Character Sheet Designer General
I need to create a charsheet that's a cross between Pathfinder and AD&D. I know what I want where, but when I look at the sample sheet, all that comes to mind is "Okay, now what" I don't know any kind of coding except some very minor Python stuff for Paint Shop Pro. I know Word and can stumble around Access, but Excel is beyond me.

Is there someone willing to take this journey with me? Either here or in email. One step at a time.

1) Open the program - I can do that.
2) Open the sample charsheet - I can do that
3)?????

Thank you!

Kitty
Decamadron.dm@gmail.com

Comments

  • BjordBBjord
    perhaps you might want to start with what you want to accomplish
    Which game are you trying to design for
  • a1hammsaa1hamms
    I to am kind of lost and put this on a back burner. I play a classless point buy system, a sheet for this would be so cool.

    so if others are like kitty and I.... maybe we could get a design club going and we could all learn together.
  • BjordBBjord
    The single best thing you can do is open the character sheet provided and look at it in the editor hell download all the character sheets from the exchange and look at them in the editor check every label, every text box. a lot of how complex the sheet is will depend on how much automation you want. Do you want just a form you can fill out or do you want it to do all the math for you
  • DecamadronDDecamadron
    I'd like it to do all the math. We're playing Pathfinder, but I'm pulling in some stuff from AD&D (2e).

    I want to build a sheet I can distribute to my gaming group that they can fill in and return to me.

    Thanks!
  • BjordBBjord
    there is a default sheet that comes with the program it can be found C:\Program Files (x86)\nbos\CharacterSheet2\threepageexample it does the math as i remember
    to actually use it i believe you need the character viewer which comes bundled with the program
    Decamadron wrote:
    I'd like it to do all the math. We're playing Pathfinder, but I'm pulling in some stuff from AD&D (2e).

    I want to build a sheet I can distribute to my gaming group that they can fill in and return to me.

    Thanks!

    Are all your players using tablets or laptops to play?
  • KimbozKKimboz

    I am in the same predicament. I start and i'm totally blank. I can't even bring myself to set a basic "insert name here" field. I have spent a good fifteen minutes looking for the insert and view menus, but i can't find them. I can draw boxes and when i press the text tool i see pretty pink lines appearing where i click, but i'm completel hopeless. The simple addition of a drop-down menu is painstakingly complicatedd (i'm starting to guess i have to make an external file to list the items in the drop-down... i hope it's not the case)

    Is there a video tutorial anywhere?
    Andrea

  • TolkraftTTolkraft

    I too am lost. I used to know a very small amount of C++ but that was years ago.
    I feel like tutorial videos for this would be very, very helpful to a great portion of the community and help newer GMs and table top game designers become attracted to this program.

    I would be willing to donate to a person or group willing to start up a set of tutorials. Maybe they could cover something simple like a D&D Fifth Edition character sheet or 3.5, just to use as an example for how to make all of the text boxes, equations and such. And if enough were posted I would be more than happy to add to the list of tutorials myself. Help build the community.

    But for now, I am lost haha. Thanks in advanced.

  • CrownFoxCCrownFox
    edited May 2017

    I'd recommend you look into how a lot of common WYSIWYG editors work, if you'd like a crash course on some basics of editors like this. Past that, I can give some basic help.

    So, the first part is how to add editable fields. You have, at the top of the screen, an array of buttons. The buttons at the top(just below the file, edit, sheet, etc. bar) are going to give you some basic editing tools.

    The tools are, Pointer, Area Select, Orthogonal Line Tool, Line Tool, Box Tool, Label Field Tool, Text Edit Field Tool, Checkbox Field Tool, Image Select Field Tool, Button Field Tool.

    The tools that will be most important to you are the field tools, along with the pointer. In order to add a field, you just select a field tool and click the canvas. Each field tool places a slightly different object.

    The Label Field Tool places a label on the canvas. A label is a read-only piece of text used to label(of course) fields, or put a piece of text onto the canvas. These pieces of text could be a word like "Attributes", or even a full paragraph if you want to do that.

    The Text Edit Field Tool placed a Text Editor on the canvas. It is an editable text box that can allow the user to enter in text or numbers to the field. This field also has another function! This field can be used to create a drop down list. I'll cover that soon.

    The Checkbox Field Tool is pretty obvious. It just creates a checkbox you can click and un-click.

    The Image Select Field Tool will place an image box on the canvas that will let the user browse for an image on their hard drive to place on the character sheet. This can be used to create icons for groups they're a part of, or the image for their character sheet.

    The Button Field Tool is a bit more complicated than the other tools. The button placed by this tool relies on using a Script. The "Source" option for the Button is used in this case to call a function in Javascript.

    So, I said I'd cover making a drop down, right? So I guess I'll do that now. Drop downs are actually really easy. Start off by clicking "Sheet" at the top of the window. Then select "List Manager..." from the drop down. This menu will let you add and delete lists you can use in your sheet. Click the "New List" button, and enter a name for your list. Congratulations, you have a list! An empty list.

    So, with the list you created selected(using the drop down labeled "List Name:"), you can add or remove list items just by typing in the text box in the middle. Every line is a new item.

    Once you have this list, you need to create a Text Edit Field. Select that field and(using the List drop down from menu bar at the top) select the list you made. You'll be able to see this in action if you test in the viewer. You need to click the field for the drop down to show!

    The second part is what to actually do with these!

    Start off by getting the basic parts done. Use labels to create the names of sections, or the names of entries. Like, to create a name field for the player; create a label named "PlayerNameLabel", with the text "Player Name:", then place a Text Edit Field to the right of it named "PlayerName". After that, click "Sheet" at the top of the screen, and then "Test in Viewer" to give a shot at seeing what it does.

    You should be able to type a name in the Text Edit Field, which should show up as a pinkish/reddish box.

    I recommend you start with just the basics. Just make a whole sheet of editable fields without any automation, to get your feet wet. Look at some established character sheets and see what they did, and why it works for them.

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