Operating Instructions for AuPair

Updated 25 April 2003

The Basics

If things go wrong

Other features

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 pair say 1 vs. 11, 2 vs. 12, 3 vs. 13 etc, if Australian Draw is chosen.
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 ask whether you want BALANCED STARTS? Typing Y for Yes will count the starts and balance 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. Typing N will not assign even starts, and players may draw for starts each game.
  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).
  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. Type the score of Player B (e.g. 398) and press ENTER.
5. If the score is under 100 (it can happen!), type in a zero before the score, e.g. 098 and sigh loudly.
6. 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 printout will show the bye player 'between groups' almost as though he or she had a drawn game, but clearly marked as a bye. However a bye game is not a win, draw or loss but simply a bye.
   There may be any of several reasons for the bye. The tournament organiser may acknowledge culpability or innocence by adjusting rankings but it is preferable to do so by notating the computer's results.
4. When you enter results for that round you must put some score e.g. 350 for the bye player.

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 game is to be counted as a forfeit, just enter scores decreed by the tournament director.
2. If the game is not to be counted (the most appropriate action for ratings purposes), change that player's opponent in that game to be the player himself or herself (i.e.just as for a bye). Do the same for the dropout's assigned opponent in that round.
3. In subsequent rounds, manually adjust that player to have a bye before you do the draw. The draw will then respect the bye you have created and will if necessary choose another bye player (it chooses the lowest ranked player who has not previously had a bye).

Other features

F1. KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

1. F1 (HELP) gives a screenful of help. Press any key to leave HELP
2. ESC (MENU) displays a menu. Choose items using the arrow keys or pressing the highlighted letter
3. Alt M, Alt A, Alt I or Alt R selects section M, A, I or R. It works similarly for A, B, C, D.
4. @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.
5. Alt S (SWISS DRAW) : equivalent to the Menu item Draw: Australian Draw
6. Alt P (PRINT MATCHINGS) : equivalent to the Menu item Print : draw Next round
7. Alt X (EXIT) :equivalent to the Menu item File : Quit

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.
• Australian Draw with periodic restart 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.
• 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).
• Teams This prepares a schedule for playing two teams against each other. Let's take as an example 12 Vic players against 12 SA players.
  1. Create a new section with a name like "Vic:SA" to hold all contestants. The semicolon tells the computer to summarise by team.
     The whole section name must fit into 12 characters at most.
  2. Enter all names, with one team on the odd lines and the other on the even lines. If you enter each team in descending rating order the keenest matches are reserved till last.
  3. Select from the Menu : Draw : Teams odds vs evens.
     This will prepare all pairings in advance and you can then if you wish, print out the whole schedule (Menu item : Print : draw all rounds).
  Note : An even number in each team is best. An odd number in each team is next best, but starts will then be unbalanced (because it lets the team in the odd lines go first in odd rounds).
  To cope with last minute dropouts, you can have a mismatch e.g. 12 in one team (on the odd lines) against 11 in the other (on the even lines). Byes will be scheduled to still give a fair team-against-team competition (e.g. the team with 12 will each play 11 games and the team with 11 will each play 12 games).
• Last Round Repeated This is intended for Postal Scrabble, where opponents play two games at once.