Hero Books Format

[Michael Hopcroft]

Two questions for the next update, or rather things I'd like to do:

1. Print directly from the program.

2. Save to and print in the format used within the Hero System books themselves (at least the ones that followed FRED). Same font, same column format, the works. I was handed a character sheet like that that Derek heimforth had produced for his Challenge of the Superfriends game at DunDraCon and it looked spectacular. I want to be able to do that with all my writeups.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Originally posted by Michael Hopcroft
1. Print directly from the program.I have to disagree with Michael on this. I think it's fine the way it is. Printing from the program would add its own set of problems, not the least of which is the lack of customizability. Just registering a vote on the other side. :)
2. Save to and print in the format used within the Hero System books themselves (at least the ones that followed FRED). Same font, same column format, the works. I was handed a character sheet like that that Derek heimforth had produced for his Challenge of the Superfriends game at DunDraCon and it looked spectacular. I want to be able to do that with all my writeups. Actually, those sheets were done with Hero Designer. I used Geoff Speare's excellent Writers Guidelines RTF export template (available in the Free Stuff section). Then I just ran a little macro in Word on the RTF that does some cosmetic search-and-replaces (like removing the Active Point references and changing the fractions to fraction characters).

But the changes my macro makes are truly cosmetic. That RTF template comes out looking virtually the same as the books. :)

[Simon]

1. Ain't gonna happen. Pretty much for the exact reasons Derek mentioned. Printing directly from the app would require a decent amount of effort on my side and would "lock down" the print format to one design. This makes absolutely no sense to me, since the rest of the app is (more or less) completely customizable. That was my original thinking behind the decision to go with the "export-based" printing. The export process has worked out just as well as I had hoped it would, so I really see no need whatsoever for a "built in" print.

2. What Derek said ;)

[Talon]

Derek, any chance you could post that macro (or email it to me if it's not ready for prime time)? I'd love to play around with it...

[RPMiller]

Originally posted by Geoff Speare
Derek, any chance you could post that macro (or email it to me if it's not ready for prime time)? I'd love to play around with it... Derek, I would like a copy as well. As you may have read, I'm fighting with the export templates to match the Writer's Guidelines, and have been working on a macro myself, but if you have one working... :D
Thanks!

[Herolover]

Um Derek, can you email it to me as well? Bjgm@redbow.net

I use Geoff's templates religously and use Word to make the few changes necessary to make them look like the book. I have never used Word's macros and didn't even realize that you could do that.

[Simon]

Sounds like it might be easier to mail the macro to Ben and have him post it on the Free Stuff page, if you're interested, Derek.

;)

[Ben Seeman]

MORE WORK?! CURSE YOU!!!

[Derek Hiemforth]

Here's what I just sent off to Ben...

Durnin, unfortunately I don't think this is what you're looking for. This helps create output in the format they ultimately appear in the books... not in the format of the Submissions Guidelines.

- D.

How To Install This Macro

(Note that these steps are for Word 97. Some of these
things might be in slightly different places in later
versions of Word.)

1. Launch Word. If it creates a new document upon launch,
close that document.
2. Go to Tools...Macro...Macros.
3. In the "Macros In" dropdown list, select Normal.dot
4. In the Macro Name box, give it a name. (I use
"HeroForm1")
5. Click Create. This will open the Visual Basic Editor,
and insert the beginning and end of a macro. We're going
to be copy-pasting in the stuff that goes in the middle.
6. Select everything in this file below (but not
including) the row of ***'s, and copy-paste it into
the macro window in the Visual Basic Editor. Don't
change the insertion point in that file... it will
have already entered some things for you. Just paste
this stuff at that point.
7. Go to File...Save Normal.
8. Go to File...Close and return to Microsoft Word.

Now it's all set (you'll only have to do all this once.)
To use it, select Geoff Speare's "RTF - WG Character
Formatted" as the Export Template. Then get the export
into Word (either by previewing or by saving to a file
and opening in Word). Go to Tools...Macro...Macros,
highlight HeroForm1 (or whatever you called it) and click
Run. (If you want to get tricky, you can even add a
toolbar button for the macro, but I'll let the Word help
file explain how to do that. :-)

********************************************

With ActiveDocument.PageSetup
.LineNumbering.Active = False
.Orientation = wdOrientPortrait
.TopMargin = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.BottomMargin = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.LeftMargin = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.RightMargin = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.Gutter = InchesToPoints(0)
.HeaderDistance = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.FooterDistance = InchesToPoints(0.5)
.PageWidth = InchesToPoints(8.5)
.PageHeight = InchesToPoints(11)
.FirstPageTray = wdPrinterDefaultBin
.OtherPagesTray = wdPrinterDefaultBin
.SectionStart = wdSectionContinuous
.OddAndEvenPagesHeaderFooter = False
.DifferentFirstPageHeaderFooter = False
.VerticalAlignment = wdAlignVerticalTop
.SuppressEndnotes = False
.MirrorMargins = False
End With
If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial = wdPaneNone Then
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPageView
Else
ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdPageView
End If
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = " (^#^#^# Active Points)"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = " (^#^# Active Points)"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = " (^# Active Points)"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = ", all slots"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = "1/2"
.Replacement.Text = "½"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = "1/4"
.Replacement.Text = "¼"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = "3/4"
.Replacement.Text = "¾"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = " (added to Primary Value)"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = " (added to Secondary Value)"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = " (Infrequently)"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = " (Frequently)"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = " (Very Frequently)"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = " (Occasionally)"
.Replacement.Text = ""
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.SmallScroll Down:=50
ActiveWindow.ActivePane.SmallScroll Down:=-51

[RPMiller]

Thanks Derek,
Actually what appears in the books is closer to the WG than what HD exports even using Geoff's wonderful templates.

Interestingly enough, your macro is about the same as mine :) with mine having quite a few more tweaks, but very close.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Originally posted by Durnin
Actually what appears in the books is closer to the WG than what HD exports even using Geoff's wonderful templates.Have you tried using John Taber's Hero Submissions Character template?

[Talon]

Works like a charm under Word 2000. Thanks!

Durnin, if yours is better you must now post it. :)

[RPMiller]

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth
Have you tried using John Taber's Hero Submissions Character template? Hmmm... I don't think so... was that a free stuff submission? Does it have all the correct formatting? I have been beating my head against this for like two weeks now.

[Monolith]

Originally posted by Durnin
Hmmm... I don't think so... was that a free stuff submission? Does it have all the correct formatting? I have been beating my head against this for like two weeks now.
In the amount of time you have been trying to get a template you could have just rtf all the characters and then made the changes manually; which is, I think, how Steve suggested you do it. :)

[JohnTaber]

Hi Durnin,

The template I did (i.e. the one Derek mentions above) is for Hero submissions only. It is not for printing. It follows the WG to the letter...or at least the best I could do. :) The intent of the template is a starting point for those who want to submit characters for publishing in either Digital Hero or other books and such. It is different from the ones Geoff Speare did...those are for printing. ;)

Saying all that...

It is not perfect. In fact it still takes some editing to get it into a form that matches the WG perfectly. It is the best I could do with HD's current functionality. As Dan adds more export template tags it should get closer and closer. I try to keep it updated.

If you have specific questions about using it please send me a direct email.

[RPMiller]

Originally posted by Monolith
In the amount of time you have been trying to get a template you could have just rtf all the characters and then made the changes manually; which is, I think, how Steve suggested you do it. :) While this would be true if I was spending my entire day working on it, I unfortunately have a day job, and a family which means a couple hours max per night spent working on them. I have 140+ characters right now, and many more later, that I have to convert and the majority of those are Character Briefs not Full Characters so that just adds to the "issues". I want to find an automated method that will save time in the long run, but thanks for the advice Monolith.:D

[RPMiller]

Originally posted by JohnTaber
Hi Durnin,

The template I did (i.e. the one Derek mentions above) is for Hero submissions only. It is not for printing. It follows the WG to the letter...or at least the best I could do. :) The intent of the template is a starting point for those who want to submit characters for publishing in either Digital Hero or other books and such. It is different from the ones Geoff Speare did...those are for printing. ;)

Saying all that...

It is not perfect. In fact it still takes some editing to get it into a form that matches the WG perfectly. It is the best I could do with HD's current functionality. As Dan adds more export template tags it should get closer and closer. I try to keep it updated.

If you have specific questions about using it please send me a direct email. It turns out that I had looked at it actually. While it is a good template, I'm going to stick with Geoff's for the reason that he puts everything into tables which makes it easier to sort for the WG.
Have any of you taken an honest look at the WG and its complexity? There are a lot of things that have to be changed from anyone's Export Template. The problem (not a problem really, complexity would be a better word) is that HD exports without following the guidelines as far as punctuation and the order of things. That is the purpose of the macro is to correct all that. The one that I have been working on is huge, but I promise when it does what I want it to do effortlessly I will post it for everyone.