Event schedule setup

Help, problems, suggestions about Waterski Scoring software
cdietrich
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu May 25, 2017 8:29 pm

Event schedule setup

Post by cdietrich »

Hi Emanuell

There is one task of the scoring program that I always struggle with, can you help me understand if I am dooing it right or if you have functions implemented that I haven't discovered.

When i build a competition i always start with the Setup assistant, this builds a basic event schedule but.
* Start times have to inputted manually in each event, is there a smart way to do this, in the assistant I can do it one by one in the table, but in the event schedule I have to click each event, then edit the day+time+'following', I really miss a 'fil down' option for these fields.
* If I have to add a class (recent nationals I had to add a +75), these events ends up in the bottom of the list, to move them i have to click the up arrow, with 126 classes that is a lot of clicks, and the time it takes to move 1 up is increasing if the event list is long, so in the +75 case and 6 added events (Slalom+trick+jump, preliminary+finals) that is a lot, and each click takes 2-3 secs to compile. Here I miss the feature you have in the starting list, that I can edit the 'Nr' field, and place the event directly in the schedule (and renumber the following events).

Then I add the starting lists, then I have these tasks
* We now have a good guess how long each class takes, but to build a full schedule i have to manually copy the 'estimated end time' from the previous event into the time of each event. Here I miss a 'Compile' feature that changes the time for each event to the estimated time from the previous event.
* I will often have empty classes, I would like to remove these from the starting list, they are automatically removed from the printed lists. but the published html list still includes all the classes. To clean this I have to remove all empty events. I can sort the event schedule on the count of skiers, but I cannot select multiple lines and delete, again I have to delete each line separately, and after the delete it jumps to the next event in numerical series, not the next event in the sorted series, which makes this task a little problematic as well.
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I might just be doing the process wrong, in that case I would love to get a small guide; aka. a little YouTube session for dummies.
Thanks for a great program - besides from these tricky tasks, it makes running a competition very easy.
Regards
Casper
emmanuel
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Posts: 273
Joined: Fri May 20, 2005 8:34 am
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Re: Event schedule setup

Post by emmanuel »

Hi Casper,

No, you are not getting the process wrong.
The software lack some functions and usability in that direction.

1) There is no option to set start times for multiple events at once.
I don't think the software should decide the order of events. The chief judge should.
To make something really good to use would need some times to do, and probably to rethink to whole event schedule window.
Just a button to set new times would not help.

2) moving event up and down could be made easier with drag and drop.
I will see how it can be done (and I know already that some users will do some drag&drop accidentally...)

But the point is that the order should be determined by start day and time, and schedule should be sorted that way.
If you click on "time" column header to sort the schedule, you can just setting the new start day time to new events, and it should come at the right place.

3) When the entry of skiers is finished, empty classes should be removed from the event schedule.
This is the best way not to messed up with printing, html publishing, and so on.
Since this year, event schedule shows how many skiers are in it: it should be easy to remove the empty one.

4) Multiple line selection to delete all them at once would be possible.
I will see how it can be done.

Emmanuel
cdietrich
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu May 25, 2017 8:29 pm

Re: Event schedule setup

Post by cdietrich »

Hi Emmanuel
Thanks for a fast response, and I like the fact that I am not totally off.

1) Absolutely, the judges should decide, I normally set all start times to 8:00 and set all but the first to 'Following', and then set the order by moving the events in the list. But it is the first task that is time consuming, and where I would like to have a 'fill down' function.
2) I agree with your fear that the drag and drop will generate errors, I think that the ordering feature you have in the starting list, where you can edit the event number and it then moves the event in the right position, would be the best way to do it. I often sit a a laptop and do the competition setup, and mouse action will often cause undesired effects.
3/4) In the event list it is very easy to locate the events to delete, but I have to do it one at a time, and have a risk of deleting events with skiers, adding a macro function would be nice, or allow multiline select when order is in 'number of skiers' perhaps with an additional warning if I try to delete an event with skiers in.

:-)
Casper
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