Home – How to Use – How to Purchase

Fields – Add a category – Print List – Edit a category

Step 1 – Enter all the categories

This is the first step in organizing the contest.  Each category, which entries will present in, is entered into the software.  Once this is done the categories will remain in the software from contest to contest, until deleted.

Figure 1 shows the Category form that is displayed when one presses the Category button on the Switchboard form.

Figure 1

Fields:

Control Number – a control number is assigned to each category as it is created.  This number is generated by the system.

CID – the contest manager is asked to assign a unique alphabetic Category Identification code to each category.  These codes are printed on some forms instead of the full category name and are easier to remember that the Control Number. A list of current CID’s is presented when the ADD button on the form is click,  helping to remind the contest manager which codes a in use.  (See Figure 2 below)

Name – the name field is used to input the name of the category

CatLen – the category length is the number of presentations that can be scheduled in a given room of a single round.  In this case a maximum of six Demonstration presentations would be scheduled in any room for a single round.  This can differ for each category.

Group – a group code can be assigned to each category.  This code is used by the scheduler if you ask it to group categories together to reduce the number of rooms that contain less than the designated number of presentations.  When grouping one should keep categories with similar Category Lengths in the same group as the scheduler will use the largest Category Length in the group as the CatLen in mixed rooms.  The default group assigned to a category is 1.  Any category with the group number 1 will NOT be combined with any other category including any with group number 1.

Top

Add a Category:

To add a category click the ADD button seen in figure 1 and the screen will change to figure 2.

Figure 2

You can continue to click the “ADD” button until you have added all the categories.  Then click the “Quit” button and click “Yes” to add the currently displayed category or “No” to close without adding the record.  If you have clicked “Quit” while the form is blank, then respond “No” so as not to try to add a blank record.

Top

Print List:

If you click the “Print a List of Categories” button it will print a list of the current categories for your review.  See figure 3 below.

Figure3

Top

Edit a Category:

You can use the “Find a Category” combo box to move to a specific category record.  Then use the “Enable Form” button to enable the fields so you can edit the record.  Click the button again to disable the fields when you have finished.