Operating Instructions for AuPair

The Basics

• B1. Open the AuPair programe
• B2. Start a new tournament
• B3. Enter players' names
• B4. Save the tournament file
• B5. Add a new section
• B6. Move within and between sections
• B7. The draw for the first round
• B8. Enter the scores after a game
• B9. Enter a high word score
• B10. Perform the draw for the next round
• B11. Print the draw
• B12. Save the results
• B13. Save the results
• B14. Close the program
• B15. Open a previously saved tournament

If things go wrong

• W1. Add or remove players
• W2. Correct a misspelled name
• W3. Cope with byes
• W4. Redo a botched draw
• W5. Correct the balanced start info
• W6. Cope with a dropout
  
• W7. Edit a pairing
• W8. Fix ranking criteria
• W9. Print to a USB printer

Other features

• F1. Keyboard shortcuts
• F2. Other pairing methods
• F3. Special boards

The Basics

B1. OPEN THE AUPAIR PROGRAM

1. Switch on your computer and let Windows load.
2. Call up the Start Menu by clicking on the start button or pressing the Windows key.
3. Go to the Scrabble Folder then AU PAIR.
4. The AU PAIR program should start.

B2. START A NEW TOURNAMENT

1. Press ESC to invoke the menu bar.
2. In the FILE menu (top left corner), arrow down to NEW and press ENTER.
3. Use BACKSPACE to delete the date and type in the title of the event and press ENTER. Include a date (or at least a year) if there is space, e.g. 2002 DECATHON.
4. Use the arrow keys to highlight the ranking criterion e.g. WINS AND SPREAD and press ENTER.
5. Type in the name of one section and press ENTER (You can add other divisions later).
6. NOTE: Recommended names for sections are MASTERS, ADVANCED, INTERMEDIATE AND RECREATION, or A, B, C, D. The program provides quick switching between sections using Alt-M etc for such section names.

B3. ENTER PLAYERS' NAMES

1. Type in each person's name and surname preferably in descending rating order, i.e. with the top rated player first, then the second rated player and so on. After typing each name, press ENTER.
2. If you make a mistake, leave it for the moment. It is best to fix up all names for a section once you have the correct number of players in this section.
3. The point of using descending rating order is that you can then ask the computer to do the draw for the first round Doing so in this order means that the draw will find suitable pairings for the first round. The section is divided into four quadrants and each player in quadrant one will be matched with a randomly selected opponent from quadrant three and each player from quadrant two will be matched with a random opponent from quadrant four. Designated byes will not be respected, but must be set manually after the draw.
4. If you cannot find any way to avoid having an odd number of players in a section, one player each round will have a bye. The program will accept an odd number of players in a section, and it will use a rational technique to determine who has a bye in each round. See the Coping with byes section below for more details.
5. When you have entered all the players in the section, press ENTER.
6. To sort the players alphabetically, press ESC to invoke the menu bar, and use the RIGHT ARROW to scroll across to the OTHER menu. Use the DOWN ARROW to move to SORT ALPHABETIC, and press ENTER. This makes it easy to find names later when you are entering scores.

B4. SAVE THE TOURNAMENT

1. Press ESC to invoke the menu bar.
2. In the FILE menu, arrow down to SAVE TOU FILE and press ENTER.
3. Type in the filename and path of the tournament (e.g. c:\aupair\03ESS.TOU) and press ENTER. The filename should be eight characters at most.
4. It is a good idea to SAVE EARLY and SAVE OFTEN!
5. A good technique is to name the file say 03ESS01.TOU after the first round, 03ESS02.TOU after the second round and so on.

B5. ADD A NEW SECTION

1. Press ESC to invoke the menu bar.
2. In the FILE menu, arrow down to ADD EXTRA SECTION and press ENTER.
3. Follow steps 1 to 3 from the section entitled “TO ENTER THE PLAYER’S NAMES.”
4. SAVE.

B6. MOVE WITHIN AND BETWEEN SECTIONS

1. Within sections (e.g. ADVANCED), Press PAGE UP/PAGE DOWN to switch between games.
2. To move between sections (e.g. between ADVANCED and INTERMEDIATE, press CTRL+PAGE UP/PAGE DOWN. The section name is visible on the bottom of the screen (e.g. ADVANCED GAME 1).
3. Shortcut: ALT M, Alt A, Alt I and ALT R will move between MASTERS, ADVANCED, INTERMEDIATE AND RECREATIONAL SECTIONS. Alt A, Alt B, Alt C or Alt D will move between sections A, B, C, D

B7. PERFORM THE DRAW FOR THE FIRST ROUND

You might want the computer to do it, or you might prepare the first round manually.

• Getting the computer to do it

  1. Press ESC to invoke the menu.
  2. Use the right arrow to highlight DRAW.
  3. Use the down arrow to highlight AUSTRALIAN DRAW[1] and press ENTER.
  4. Shortcut: Alt+S for the Australian (Swiss) Draw.
  5. The program will keep track of the starts throughout the tournament. The person to start each game is indicated by an asterisk (*) next to his or her name on the printout.
  6. The games for the first round will be drawn.

• A manually prepared first round
  You need to tell the computer what arrangements you made for the first round.

  1. If you intend to use balanced starts, give players a definite rule for who starts in round 1, e.g. "alphabetically first" or "left column of the prepared chart".
  2. Double check to see that there are the correct names in each section.
  3. While round 1 is in progress, enter opponents : (i) press the right arrow (ii) indicate the opponent by typing in a four letter nickname following the strict rule first letter of first name then first three letters of the surname. e.g. to enter Samuel Johnson as an opponent, use SJOH (a hint window will appear to remind you). A little window will show the pairing. It may be wrong because of ambiguity, and you may be able to fix this by entering the pairing for the intended opponent instead.
  4. If subsequent rounds are to use balanced starts, you must indicate who went first. You do this by pressing .. i.e. full stop TWICE. Each time you press .. the function toggles between 3 modes i.e. first it will indicate that player 1 starts, then player 2, then that no-one starts.

B8. ENTER THE SCORES AFTER A GAME

1. Arrow UP and DOWN to highlight the relevant players.
2. A good shortcut is to type the first letter of the name of a player whose score has not been entered e.g. typing S will bring up players with first name S whose scores have not yet been entered.
3. Type the score of Player A (e.g. 405) and press ENTER.
4. After the second score has been entered you will see a confirmation message about who won, and the spread (ie the winning margin). When players have been told to show their calculation of spread on the result sheet, this provides an extra check against poorly written scoresheets or operator error.
5. Type the score of Player B (e.g. 398) and press ENTER.
6. If the score is under 100 (it can happen!), type in a zero before the score, e.g. 098 and sigh loudly.
7. SAVE regularly.

B8. ENTER A HIGH WORD SCORE

1. Select the appropriate section.
2. Press ESC and select High Word from the menu
3. When prompted, type the word, the score and the name of the player.

B10. PERFORM THE DRAW FOR THE NEXT ROUND
After all the scores have been entered and the tournament has been saved, calculate the draw as follows:

1. Press ESC to invoke the menu.
2. Use the RIGHT ARROW to highlight DRAW.
3. Use the DOWN ARROW to highlight Australian draw and press ENTER.
4. The program will say FRESH STARTS WITH GAME 1. Press ENTER.
5. The games for the next round will be drawn.
6. Shortcut: Alt+S, where S = Swiss.
7. SAVE.

B11. TO PRINT THE DRAW

1. Press ESC to invoke the menu bar.
2. Use the right arrow to highlight PRINT.
3. Use the down arrow to highlight MATCHES and press ENTER.
4. Press ENTER again.
5. Press ENTER again.
6. SAVE.
7. Shortcut: Alt+P.

B12. SAVE THE RESULTS
At the end of the tournament, save the summary of results as follows:

1. Press ESC to invoke the menu bar.
2. In the FILE menu, arrow down to SAVE RESULTS and press ENTER.
3. Type in the filename and path for the results (e.g. c:\aupair\2002DECATHON.RES) and press ENTER. Results should always have a .RES extension.

B13. PRINT THE RESULTS

1. Press ESC to invoke the menu.
2. Use the right arrow to highlight PRINT.
3. Use the down arrow to highlight RESULTS (All Sect) and press ENTER.
4. SAVE

B14. CLOSE THE PROGRAM

1. Press ESC to invoke the menu.
2. Arrow down to QUIT and press ENTER as many times as necessary for the program to close.
3. Shortcut : Alt X

B15. TO OPEN A PREVIOUSLY SAVED TOURNAMENT

1. If the menu isn't already visible, press ESC to invoke the menu.
2. Arrow down to LOAD TOU FILE and press ENTER.
3. All saved TOU files will be listed in reverse chronological order.
4. Arrow down to the tournament you want and press ENTER.

If things go wrong

W1. ADD OR DELETE PLAYERS

1. Adding or deleting players should be done BEFORE performing the draw for round 1.
2. To add a player, press the PLUS (+) key.
3. Type in the new player's name and press ENTER.
4. To delete a player, press the MINUS (-) key.
5. You may have to alphabetise the players again.

W2. TO CORRECT A MISSPELLED NAME

1. Move onto the misspelled name with the ARROW keys.
2. Press the LEFT ARROW key, and use the BACKSPACE key and correct the name.
3. Press ENTER.

W3. COPING WITH BYES

1. The computer will accept an odd number of players in a section. Unlike earlier versions of the program it is NOT necessary to enter a dummy player. The features below will NOT work if you mark a bye by playing a player against A BYE.
2. The on screen display shows a BYE player highlighted in a different colour. The opponent is the player himself or herself.
3. The default way of dealing with an assigned bye from version 5.10 onwards is to designate the allocated bye as a win with a spread of +1. This will improve that player's placing in the tournament but will count for nothing for ratings purposes.
4. A tournament director may overrule the default status by designating a particular nongame to be a designated win, loss or draw. (Keyboard shorcuts Ctrl-W, Ctrl-L or Ctrl-D or menu item Edit)

W4. REDRAW A BOTCHED DRAW

W5. CORRECT BALANCED START INFO

1. Look at the on screen display. The player starting will have a dot (.) next to his or her name. Or there may be no dot at all.
2. To change this, type .. (two dots). Every time you type .. the function toggles between 3 states, i.e. first it will indicate that player 1 starts, then player 2, then that no-one starts.

W6. COPE WITH A DROPOUT

1. If the dropout is before any games have been played, overrule any prepared pairings with a manual pairing to get game one under way. If you want to allow for the possibility that the missing Joe Blow may later appear and will be permitted to play, you can put his result for game 1 as a designated loss (Ctrl-L or Edit: Losing nongame). If his absence causes another player to have a bye that round, it is recommended that that player be given a designated win. The tournament director will decide who will be given this favour. Note that this procedute will give the correct ratings outcome that of no rating change for Joe Blow or his ostensible opponent in game 1. For each, it is a nongame that gives no information about Scrabble playing ability and thus should not change ratings.
2. If Joe Blow drops out in round 3 say, the procedure is much the same. For that round and subsequent rounds, the operator must remember to mark his absence in that round by Ctrl-L (designated loss) before requesting the draw.

   If his absence causes a bye, the computer will as usual choose the lowest placed player who has not already had a bye and give them a designated win.

   As before this will affect placings but not ratings.

3. Note that the apparently easier way of coping, by just putting artificial scores for Joe Blow and his opponent will have ratings consequences which are capricious in magnitude, and of no validity for assessing ability.

W7. EDIT A PAIRING

W8. FIX RANKING CRITERIA

W9. PRINTING TO A USB PRINTER

There is a way to do it in Windows XP without any extra software installation (thanks to Graeme Lock Lee for this advice).

1. Install the printer normally in Windows
2. Make it shareable with a name such as Epsonlaser (in Printers and Faxes window)
3. Get into Command mode - (Start button => Run => type "cmd" at the prompt)
4. Type the following command: NET USE LPT1 \\COMP_NAME\Epsonlaser /Persistent:YES where COMP_NAME is the name of your PC eg CASPA1 or RICHARDB. It's not case-sensitive.
5. All the old DOS Scrabble programs should now print to your USB printer. If the printout is less than a page-worth, you may have to flush it out by pressing your printer's Form Feed button.

Another workaround is to print to a file, and open that file with an editor like Notepad, and print it from there.

Other features

F1. KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

1. ESC (MENU) displays a menu. Choose items using the arrow keys or pressing the highlighted letter
2. Alt M, Alt A, Alt I or Alt R selects section M, A, I or R. It works similarly for A, B, C, D.
3. @A, @B etc selects a section starting with A etc., similar to the Alt-A method above but @A etc will work for all 26 letters of the alphabet.
4. Alt S (SWISS DRAW) : equivalent to the Menu item Draw: Australian Draw
5. Alt P (PRINT MATCHINGS) : equivalent to the Menu item Print : draw Next round
6. Alt X (EXIT) :equivalent to the Menu item File : Quit
7. Ctrl-W or Ctrl-L Designated win or designated loss for a nongame. This will mark that player as playing against himself (ie a nongame) but with a decreed win or loss by one point. This will affect placings but not ratings.

F2. OTHER PAIRING METHODS

• Australian Draw An Australian variant of Swiss draw, where players are matched against their peers (according to current standings) but rematches are avoided. The dialogue says Fresh start with game [1] and you just hit the ENTER key to accept this. This method is the one most preferred in Australian tournaments, and has a keyboard shortcut of Alt-S.
• Australian Draw with a fresh start In later games of a long tournament the principle of avoiding of rematches may disturb the peer matching too much. You can override this. For instance in a tournament of 21 games played over three days, you could say Fresh start with game 7 throughout the second day, and Fresh start with game 14 throughout the third day.
• Lagged Australian This can be used for particular rounds from round 3 onward. For round x, it pairs using standings for round x-2, but takes into account start information and previous round pairings for all rounds up to x-1. The point of this is to allow pairings to be posted before all results from round x-1 are yet in, and hence avoid time delays. The posted pairings will display rankings from round x-2, whether or not some data are available for round x-1. Lagged Australian may also use a fresh start from a designated round, as explained above.
• King of the Hill This method matches players against peers (1 plays 2, 3 plays 4 etc) without worrying about rematches.
• Chance This is a purely random draw. It has little merit except perhaps for the first round to avoid accusations of bias.
• Round Robin This prepares a complete schedule where each player plays everyone else exactly once. You can ask to do fewer or less games to fit to the time available, but compromises are then made, and it is really preferable to adjust the number of players in each section, so that the required games fit within the available time. If players are entered into a section in rating order, the closest matches will be played in the last round. Once you have prepared a round robin you can, if you wish, print out the whole schedule (Menu item : Print : draw all rounds). Start information may be strange (an unfixed bug). Try redoing the round robin.
• HalvesThis matches the top half against the bottom half. This may be used for a first round when players are listed in rating order, and there is no objection to strict monotonicity. If it is used for later rounds, the opponents cycle along by one. This may be used to do a teams schedule. Doing the first two rounds by Halves is a quick way to start a tournament which will continue using a lagged draw.
• Last Round Repeated This is intended for Postal Scrabble, where opponents play two games at once.

F3. SPECIAL BOARDS

1. Set up the rotating boards on the lowest numbered tables for each section (eg tables 1, 2, 3 and 4).
2. Mark players who opt to play on a rotating board by editing their name (left-arrow) to put @R at the end.