PDF Modding Guide and Map Edit Guide

Kristoffer O · #1 October 5th, 2007, 12:07 PM

> This is something that perhaps the community could take on if the devs don't.

That would be appreciated

llamabeast · #2 October 5th, 2007, 12:23 PM

Maybe I'm just lacking the technical knowhow, but I don't believe pdfs can be directly edited. Could you provide the source for the documents KO? Then I'm sure we can update them as a community.

Kristoffer O · #3 October 5th, 2007, 12:46 PM

Oh! I guess JK has them. I havn't looked at them in ages.

Zylithan · #4 October 5th, 2007, 12:49 PM

PDFs can be edited, but most people don't have the software. (Adober Distiller?) But I think things like word can change themselves into a PDF (can write PDF, but not edit). So if we could wordify the original PDF, then have a working word doc (and PDF it for pretty release).

I'm up for working on this, but my knowledge right now is very minor. But maybe in a few months..

Edi · #5 October 5th, 2007, 02:09 PM

If the original documents are in any form that can be converted to Open Office without losing formatting, the rest would be easy. Open Office does excellent PDF porting right out of the box, complete with index, table of contents and everything.

I could do some of the stuff, I've got some experience in writing end user documentation for completely software illiterate people, so fixing the existing mapmaking and modding documentation would be fairly easy, especially if done in collaboration with the experts on these forums.

I could probably do the mapedit section on my own, but I would probably need some help on the modding documentation.

Zylithan · #6 October 5th, 2007, 02:14 PM

yay for Edi. I owe your DB props as it was invaluable in my Eight Gates map. If you captain the map making pdf I'd love to proofread or add tips or whatnot.

NTJedi · #7 October 5th, 2007, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Zylithan said:
yay for Edi. I owe your DB props as it was invaluable in my Eight Gates map. If you captain the map making pdf I'd love to proofread or add tips or whatnot.

Perhaps the devs can work with Edi on updating the PDFs. I can also provide lots of time saving details regarding the map edit commands... such as the limitations of the #god command.

lch · #8 October 6th, 2007, 11:39 PM

We are talking about those PDFs in the doc directory that shipped with the game, right?

Quote:

Zylithan said:
PDFs can be edited, but most people don't have the software. (Adober Distiller?)

Yep, there are some programs for that. Of course, PDF isn't really meant to be an editable document format.

Quote:

Zylithan said:
But I think things like word can change themselves into a PDF (can write PDF, but not edit). So if we could wordify the original PDF, then have a working word doc (and PDF it for pretty release).

If by "wordify" you mean OCR, then that would be the obvious solution. AFAIK the structure of those files isn't very complex. Even in case only the text is retained, it will be easy to recreate the document afterwards. I'll look into it.

jutetrea · #9 October 7th, 2007, 03:41 AM

Well, here they are in word... they came over but they're ugly. Lots of formatting needed. The two column format, all the headings, and tables made Adobe 6 unhappy.

jutetrea · #10 October 7th, 2007, 03:44 AM

They actually look a bit better in rtf, everythings justified and some of the tables look wonky. It seems the level of effort to format may be less though.