Character sheet work

Trying my hand at making a new character sheet for DRev and just needed a place to put up some formulas and ideas. 

Trying to make sure the PDF is as streamline as possible while still having the required fields.  Thus we get to the one of the hurdles for D20 SRD, lots of info is needed.    There is almost no way to leave enough space for all specifics for powers, spells and other stuff.  

One of the issues of my original sheet was it missing some fields and adding them as an after thought in Adobe 9-pro was not a good idea.    The other issue was file size, so I tried to remove and combined some fields in hopes of speeding it up.

For auto calculation of ability modifiers (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha) here's the formula I use.

1st:  make sure you have the field in which you insert your ability score, easily labeled:  Thus in my example below it is labeled "Strength"

2nd: in the second field, name it something easy to remember when you start using it for summing up values.  Thus "Strmod" 

In the Strmod field, you will need to do a custom calculation script, which will look like this:

var Stren = this.getField("Strength").value; if (Stren <=10) event.value = Math.ceil (Stren/2-5); else if (Stren >10) event.value =Math.floor(Stren/2-5)

Make sure you do this for each ability modifier, with a new variable (var) each time. 
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 I usually start in Word to make the charts (table). To generate automatic field detection and creation in adobe 9 pro, make sure to have well defined borders in your charts.   Always check  for off set boxes that  adobe tends to auto create.

You can create tables in Word, and copy and paste into Powerpoint to help drag and drop them where you want.  I don't have publisher, so this is the best option.

Color was the hard choice.  Couldn't go blue of any kind since the fill boxes are blue.  White font on black fill was bit harsh on the eyes.   Went orange-blush since it seemed to pop, but not sure if I will change it.

Skill list on main page lists only common (typically untrained) skills, with a list of manual fill-in table under it.  I had to make two separate charts because Adobe 9 auto field creation kept going wonky.

Rather than too many small busy boxes, I went with a more open design with relatively larger notes boxes instead.  The only exception was skills and the general equipment list since this makes any calculations easier.

To keep page count in check, I will generate three different sheets.  Sadly, keeping to 2 pages for magic or psychic users is just not going to happen.


Ongoing research:  Adobe formula for clicking a check box to gain a +3 bonus for a class skill rather than manually putting it in.  As a real amateur on the programming side.

I' m still having issues getting this to work.  I did have a test where I got the +3 to work, but when unclicked the +3 didn't go away, and when re-clicked it accumulated again.


Development continues, but because of the nature of adobe, I will not begin auto calculation scripts until I'm sure I like the layout.


Pro-tips: list the book and page number your power/talent/feat comes from for ease of use!