Normally, you can not edit the results of these competitions, because only the organizing club can modify the data. The program reads the club name from the command line, so if you want to change the data of these competitions, edit the shortcut properties of the ArcMaster desktop icon.
Otherwise, you can safely experiment with the features of the program. And if you happen to mess up something, you can always install the program again :)
This guide contains a brief explanation of the most important steps when running a competition. A more detailed manual will be written, if necessary.
In the main window, click the Add button. Fill in the date and name and select a competition type. If the competition contains final rounds, check the Final box. The name must be unique, because the import/export system identifies the competitions by name. Other fields are optional.
Click the Results button. A blank results window appear. Click the Add button. Now you can either select a competitor from the list or type in the name. As you enter the characters, the list shows matches found in the database. Often you need to use only few characters to identify the archer. Double-clicking the archer's name in the list adds the archer into the participants list.
If the archer is not found in the database (should not happen very often), you have to enter the whole name and select the club and the class. Also, if the archer is participating in a different class than his/her age would suppose (a junior shooting in the senior's class, for example), select the correct class before clicking the Add button. (By the way, ArcMaster misuses the word 'class'. Actually, 'Men', 'Women', 'Junior Men' etc. are classes, 'Recurve' and 'Compound' are divisions and 'Men Recurve' and 'Women Compound' are categories. 'Class' is just a short and convenient name, hope you don't object :) If you do, just go and change the names: go to Miscellaneous/Display texts.)
Depending on the tournament discipline (indoor, outdoor), you may want to tell the program how to distribute the archers to the targets. Click Basic settings on the main window and then
When the program starts to assign target numbers to the archers, it checks the sorting order from the leftmost list. In the case of the example displayed here, archers in Men and Men Compound classes would be placed to the first targets, then all classes having the 122cm/70m target type, then the classes with 122cm/70mC target type and so on. You can change the target type of each class by clicking in the Target type cell and selecting the appropriate type from the popup list. This way you have full control over how the competitors are placed.
Once the target type order is correct, click Results on the main window. To start the actual target number assignment, click Target. The program proposes a number of targets to assign for archers shooting in each target type. Usually it's ok to accept the proposal, but it's also a good idea to leave some free butts between some of the classes (categories) to allow easier addition of late-comers. You can do this by changing the default start number.
As usually happens, some competitors may cancel their registration and some others may register after the deadline. Simply select the competitor to be removed and click Delete. Correspondingly, add new archers and type in the target number manually, if necessary. As long as you have not printed the score cards, you can safely re-run the target assignment as many times as you like. And of course, you can print the score cards again, if need be.
There are two or three outputs you need before the competition. The most important are probably the score cards or scorecard labels. If you have a stock of preprinted score cards with a convenient place for a adhesive label, you might prefer to print labels. On the other hand, you can save some work by printing full score cards on plain paper or cardboard.
Both methods use Microsoft Excel macros. The ArcMaster download package contains a few ready-to-use macros which you can edit, if necessary.
To print labels, click Output, then Scorecard labels. If you get an error message 'Check Excel directory in Miscellanous/Settings', do that: go to Miscellanous/Settings from the main manu, click Browse and locate your Excel directory, select Excel.exe and click Ok. Then return to Results/Output/Scorecard labels. Click Browse, and you should see the contents of the arcmaster directory. Select crd_3_11.xlt. This is a macro to print labels on a A4 sheet of 3 x 11 labels. You may want to fine-tune the margins, row heights etc. to suit your label sheets and printer.
To print score cards on plain paper, click Output, then Score cards. In this case the macro involved is card.xlt. It contains templates for indoor, FITA, 70m round and field score cards. They are meant to be printed in the top half of a A4 paper. Feel free to develop the macro further to suit your needs.
The other outputs are the target check list and the participant list. The target check list contains the archers and target types in target order. Using this list the field personnel can verify that each target butt contains the correct type of target face.
The participant lists can be taken in class (category) order or alphabetical order. These lists can be used in registering and equipment check, for example.
Typing in the results has been made as quick and easy as possible. There are four columns to the left of the 'Score' column. Click in the topmost cell of the desired distance column and start typing in the results. The program expects the scores to be three digits long, so after you have entered three numbers, the focus moves to the next row.
If the scorekeeping is cumulative, enter the total results directly into the 'Score' column. Before that, check that the radio button of the respective distance column is 'on'. To turn it on, click some cell of that column once. The program then calculates the difference of the total score and the sum of the other distances and puts the result in the column indicated by the radio button. When entering the total scores after the last FITA distance, the program expects the score to be four digits long. If it's less than 1000 points, you have to move to the next row by pressing the 'down' cursor button.
When all results of one distance have been entered, you can click the Position button to see the competition situation. The program changes the sort order to 'position' automatically. Remember to change the sort order back to 'target' before entering the results of the next distance.
If there are tie situations, the program reminds you of these. Enter the number of hits, tens and/or 'x's to the corresponding cells and click the Position button again. This is necessary only after the last distance, of course.
Click Output, select Results in position order and the output type. 'To screen' and 'To printer' options produce an output generated by the program's internal report generator, and there's not much you can do about how they look like.
The 'To a text file' puts all relevant information into a text file, which you can edit using a word processor, for example, and make the layout as fancy as you wish.
'To a HTML file' produces a ready-to-publish web page. The layout is 'barren' or 'utilitarian', but it's quite easy to refine it using some web page editor or extract the result table to be included into some web page in your site.
If you checked the 'Final' box in the competition properties, you can click the Final button. The program automatically seeds the elimination diagram with competitors. You can control which classes are included in the finals by going into Basic settings/Classes and checking the 'Final' column. You can also limit the amount of final participants in Miscellaneous/Settings.
Fill in the head-to-head results, and the program advances the winners to the next round automatically. Moving from field to field is done by pressing the tab button (shift-tab moves the focus backwards). If there are even results, the backgroud color of the corresponding fields changes to yellow. Press the Tie button and fill in the shoot-out results.