Question fro those who make Character sheets.

Julian Grimm · Post by **Julian Grimm** » Sat Aug 12, 2006 11:10 pm

Are there any special programs you use or such? And How do you go about it? I've been wanting to make a C&C sheet that resembles the older 2e AD&D character sheet but have no clue where to begin.
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Rigon · Post by **Rigon** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 1:18 am

I used MSWord. It's really just a bunch of tables together. Then I saved it with Win2PDF to get the PDF final version. Here is the link so you can see what it looks like: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/files/pdf/Ri ... 0Sheet.pdf

Here is an early version that I did the same way: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/files/pdf/Ch ... 0Sheet.pdf

Hope that helps.

R-

PS: Freakin' awsome avatar.
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moriarty777 · Post by **moriarty777** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 2:58 am

Yes... any good word processor (whether it be Word, Word Perfect, or what's included in OpenOffice) will do... Tables help create the framework -- even if they are a huge pain in the back side. What's better, if you want to get fancy is you can also incorporate graphics into it... If you wanted nicer boxes to record your stats in or a logo to go with the character sheet, these can also be easily integrated. Of course, nice fonts are always a plus!

If you use Open Office, you can save the file as a PDF through one of it's built in options!

However, designing a character sheet so that it looks 'just right' can be a bit time consuming. I'm in the middle of creating one myself... I don't like the official one and none of the fan-created ones out there seems to fit my needs. I'm about half-way through.

Moriarty the Red
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angelius · Post by **angelius** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 4:58 am

I do mind in word as well then convert it to pdf.

Just make tables and then merge cells as needed... you can check mine out at
www.inquisitionsquad.com
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Inkpot · Post by **Inkpot** » Sun Aug 13, 2006 11:07 pm

Nice sheets guys! Oh hey Angelius, I noticed on your sheet that there is nowhere to put special class abilities. Any chance of a revision to incorporate this?

Ink
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 12:42 pm

I like to do my character sheets in Excel. Lots of little things you can do there a lot easier then with word IMO. Unfortunatly I have yet to master the art of converting and .xls file into a .pdf without the full version of Acrobat. The other converter programs out there just don't seem to convert a full 8.5" x 11" excel spreadsheet into a .pdf very well.

..............................................Omote

FPQ
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angelius · Post by **angelius** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:29 pm

Good point Ink... I'm going to see what I can do.
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angelius · Post by **angelius** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:45 pm

Your wish is my command. The revised character sheet has been uploaded.
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Inkpot · Post by **Inkpot** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:51 pm

Woohoo! Thanks, Angelius! You da man!
Ink
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mudpyr8 · Post by **mudpyr8** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:11 pm

Use PDFCreator to make pdfs (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/)

If you don't know which download you need, you need this one:

PDFCreator-0_9_2_AFPLGhostscript.exe

It works great with excel.

I prefer OpenOffice but have used Excel for years. I think the sheets are more useful than Word docs, especially for managing equipment and such, but it all depends on your goals.

If you don't have Excel just install OpenOffice from OpenOffice.org and you can do the same thing with its spreadsheet tool.

Dragonhelm · Post by **Dragonhelm** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:45 pm

angelius wrote:
I do mind in word as well then convert it to pdf.

Just make tables and then merge cells as needed... you can check mine out at
www.inquisitionsquad.com

Had I not already worked on my own character sheet, I might have gone with this one. Granted, mine is sort of tailor-made for some house rules.
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angelius · Post by **angelius** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 12:17 am

Thanks, I'm glad that it turned out to pass the "useful" test! I tried to make a sheet that is more utilitarian than pretty. Although I'm sure I can make one that is also pretty. But I'm too lazy...
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 1:00 am

mudpyr8 wrote:
Use PDFCreator to make pdfs (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/)

If you don't know which download you need, you need this one:

PDFCreator-0_9_2_AFPLGhostscript.exe

It works great with excel.

I prefer OpenOffice but have used Excel for years. I think the sheets are more useful than Word docs, especially for managing equipment and such, but it all depends on your goals.

If you don't have Excel just install OpenOffice from OpenOffice.org and you can do the same thing with its spreadsheet tool.

Thx mud. I use an earlier version of this very program to convert excel to .pdf. I downloaded the new version, and still the excel sheet doesn't transfer perfectly to .pdf, but a whole h3ll of a lot better then it has. So thx again Mud.

I published the sheets here if anybody is interested in taking a look:
http://omote076.googlepages.com/home

...............................................Omote

FPQ
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mudpyr8 · Post by **mudpyr8** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 12:16 pm

If you want to send me the xls file I'll run it through adobe and see if that makes a difference. It usually doesn't.

Nice sheet, btw.

Omote · Post by **Omote** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 12:53 pm

Thx mud. If I remember tonight, I'll send you the .xls files, unfortunatly the character sheets use a lot of non-standard fonts which you probably don't have so it won't convert. But we'll see how it goes.

..........................................Omote

FPQ
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Duke Omote Landwehr, Holy Order of the FPQ ~ Prince of the Castles & Crusades Society

Inkpot · Post by **Inkpot** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 5:38 pm

Hey Angelius,

I'm having problems printing out your character sheet. I've tried printing it from within Firefox and from Adobe Acrobat Professional. Any suggestions?

Ink
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Inkpot · Post by **Inkpot** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:31 pm

Hmm...anyone else having any problems printing out Angelius' character sheet? Curious....

Ink
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Julian Grimm · Post by **Julian Grimm** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:37 pm

I've not had one and I'm using acrobat reader 7.
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Inkpot · Post by **Inkpot** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 8:41 pm

Well shoot.... I guess the problem's on my end, then. Hell if I know what it is, though....

1. Tried printing it from Firefox using the latest version of Acrobat reader - got an error message.

2. Tried printing it from IE using the latest version of Acrobat reader - got an error message.

3. Tried printing directly from Adobe Acrobat Professional - got an error message.

4. Other documetns and pdf files print out just fine.

Damn computers....

Ink
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C&C: Blissfully devoid of gestalt neko-hin rogue/fighter/mages!!

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:28 pm

Your download probably corrupted. delete it and download a new one. If that doesn't fix it then its a configuration problem somewhere in the morass of computer land.