In order to use CharForm from your WWW browser (that is, as an applet), you'll need the Tcl plug-in installed. To use CharForm as a stand-alone application you'll need to have Tcl and Tk installed and working on your system.
Note: if you are using CharForm as an applet then switching to a different page may restart CharForm, causing it to lose any information you may have entered. Switching to a different place in the page containing the CharForm applet should not cause CharForm to restart.
If the Text button is selected in a section then all of the information in that section is considered to be plain text without any HTML in it. This is the default for all sections of CharForm, and is the one you should use if you are not familiar with HTML.
If the HTML button is selected in a section then all of the information in that section is considered to be in HTML. This allows the information to contain HTML tags and entities, but also requires that all less than signs (<), greater than signs (>) and ampersands (&) be entered as the corresponding HTML entity in order for the character sheet to be correct HTML. (In Text mode ampersands, less than and greater than signs in the information are automatically converted to the corresponding HTML entity before being copied into the character sheet.)
2 + 2
In some cases the answer may not be what you expected. The most common case occurs when you enter an expression like (5 + 2) / 2. While you might expect the answer to be 3.5, the answer the calculator gives is 3. Why? Because all of the numbers involved in the division ((5 + 2) and 2) are integers (i.e. they have no decimal part), the result of the division is also given as an integer, so the decimal part is lopped off of 3.5 to make it an integer, namely 3.
(5 + 2) / 2
(5 + 2)
2
So to make the calculator give the answer 3.5, add a decimal part to one of the numbers involved in the division. For example, according to the calculator the answer to (5 + 2) / 2.0 is 3.5.
(5 + 2) / 2.0
The section for entering characteristics should look familiar: put the value of each characteristic in the box to the left of the characteristic's name and its cost in the box to the right of its name. To enter a value in a box, just click the mouse on it. Once you have selected a box you can move to the next box by pressing the Tab key, and to the previous box by pressing the Shift-Tab key (that is, by pressing the Tab key while you're holding down the Shift key).
The slightly darker box below all of the characteristic costs is where you enter the total characteristics cost. The total will not be calculated automatically (nor will a characteristic's cost be calculated automatically from its value or vice versa), but you can use the calculator to calculate it.
To enter the character information into the other section of this page, just click on the box next to the information's description (Character Name, Creator Name, etc.) and type in the information. All of this information is optional.
The Character Name and Creator Name boxes are for the name of the character and the name of the character's creator, respectively, and can contain any text. The Comment box can also contain any text, but will not be visible on the resulting character sheet. (It will be contained in an HTML comment.)
The final piece of character information is the URL of an image file that contains a picture of the character. If the image file is going to be stored in the same directory as the finished character sheet then you can just enter the name of the file in the Image URL box.
Clicking on the Next button will cause the Powers and Notes page to be displayed.
The section for entering powers should look familiar: put the cost of a power in the leftmost box of a row, the description of the power in the box to the right of the cost, and the endurance cost, if any, in the rightmost box in that row. To enter a value in a box, just click the mouse on it. Once you have selected a box you can move to the next box by pressing the Tab key, and to the previous box by pressing the Shift-Tab key.
The slightly darker box below all of the power costs is where you enter the total powers cost. The total will not be calculated automatically, but you can use the calculator to calculate it.
To enter a note into the Notes section of this page, just click on one of the boxes in the section and type in the note. Any text can be entered into these boxes.
Clicking on the Next button will cause the Disadvantages and Origin page to be displayed.
The section for entering disadvantages should look familiar: put the point value of a disadvantage in the leftmost box of a row, and the description of the disadvantage in the box to the right of it. To enter a value in a box, just click the mouse on it. Once you have selected a box you can move to the next box by pressing the Tab key, and to the previous box by pressing the Shift-Tab key.
The slightly darker box below all of the disadvantage values is where you enter the total disadvantages value. The total will not be calculated automatically, but you can use the calculator to calculate it.
To enter the character's origin into the Origin section of this page, just click on the large box and type in the origin. Any text can be entered into this box.
If the input to the Origin section is assumed to be text (see the Text vs. HTML section to find out how this is determined) then pressing Enter when typing in the origin will start a new paragraph. If the origin input is assumed to be HTML then you will have to use the <p> tag to start a new paragraph.
Clicking on the Next button will cause the Output and Clear page to be displayed.
Outputting to the large text area in the Output section allows you to examine and/or modify the character sheet`s HTML code, and then cut or copy the sheet and paste it into another program. If you are running CharForm as an applet then you might not be able to cut or copy text from the applet.
If you choose to output the character sheet to a file then you must enter the name of the file to output it to. If you are running CharForm as an applet then it will probably only be possible to output the character sheet to a file in a specific directory, if you are able to write it to a file at all. Read the Tcl plug-in documentation to find out the directories to which applets may output files.
If you choose to e-mail the character sheet, then you must enter the e-mail address(es) to send it to. If you want to send it to more than one address then you must separate the addresses with commas. This output method will not be available unless you are running CharForm as an applet and you have the Tcl plug-in configured so that CharForm has access to the Browser security policy (see the section on the Tcl plug-in for more information).
Outputting the character sheet to a new browser window will open a new window in your WWW browser and display the character sheet there. Note that you might not be able use this new window to save the character sheet (e.g. by using the Save As ... menu item). This output method will not be available unless you are running CharForm as an applet and you have the Tcl plug-in configured so that CharForm has access to the Browser security policy (see the section on the Tcl plug-in for more information).
The small section along the bottom of this page allows you to clear the other sections of CharForm of all of the information you have input so that you can start over again. To clear all of the other sections, select the radio button labeled Yes to confirm that you want to clear everything, then press the button labeled Clear. This will clear all of the other sections, and select the No radio button as well. Note that pressing the Clear button will have no effect unless the Yes radio button is already selected.
This is the last page: clicking on the Next button will bring you back to the Characteristics and Information page.
In order to use some of the methods for outputting character sheets (see Output and Clear above) you will need version 2.0 or later of the Tcl plug-in, configured so that CharForm has access to the Browser security policy (see the plug-in documentation for information on how to do this). Otherwise earlier versions of the Tcl plug-in can be used.
CharForm was written and tested using Tcl 7.5 and Tk 4.1, and has been tested with Tcl 8.0 and Tk 8.0. It should work with (most) other versions of Tcl and Tk as well.