How do you use D&D Insider?

[Scribble]

If you strip the formatting (for office 2k7) you won't get all the colored backgrounds from the compendium.

Also, I format my page with two columns, to fit all the monsters in a four square-like layout.

Hrmm... I like the colored backgrounds... it helps my eyes scan through the stat blocks. To each his own I guess!

Yeah I use a tripple column myself, with just about no margins.

 

[Ktulu]

Hrmm... I like the colored backgrounds... it helps my eyes scan through the stat blocks. To each his own I guess!

Yeah I use a tripple column myself, with just about no margins.

I did, too, at first. Instead I now bold my action items and color code important stuff. like this:

Bite (Standard, at-will) Poison
Grabbed target only; +14 vs Fortitude; 1d12+3 poison damage, and ongoing 10 poison damage (save ends).


Something like that..except in black, not white text (which is often much easier to read. .

I'll have to try out the triple column and see how that works.

 

[Scribble]

I did, too, at first. Instead I now bold my action items and color code important stuff. like this:

I'll have to try out the triple column and see how that works.

Ahh maybe that's it. I print on a black and white printer so color coding isn't that useful to me...

Oh yeah btw, I also use landscape format (three columns on portrait would be crazy thin...)

 

[Beckett]

I recently got a laptop, which has changed how I DM my homebrew game. I build up encounters ahead of time on the encounter builder (actually used it on the fly when I was unprepared one game night). When the encounter starts, I open up the compendium and put each monster's stats in a new window. I can just tab between windows, rather than flipping through the MM. A godsend for mixed encounters- I think the first one I ran like this had a doppelganger, a bugbear strangler, some skeletons, some zombies, and a wight.

I also appreciate the range of monsters I now have access to. I'm building an undead encounter, and boom, there's all the undead in the MM, and all the variants that have been in adventures and Dungeon. Very handy.

 

[Zaukrie]

I too use it primarily for encounter building and getting all the monster stats and terrain information on one page (if possible). Designing and running encounters has never been easier.

 

[Shroomy]

Currently, I read and use the content from the magazines, especially Dragon. I also use the DDI Compendium as a searchable index and appreciate having all of the monsters from all the available sources being in one place (especially the RPGA adventures that I don't otherwise have access to).

Once the Character Builder goes online up to level 30, I plan on building all of my characters, as well as those in my party, in it. Power cards for everyone!