MiniScore for Womens Gymnastics
User's Guide
© 2024, Joe Cliburn
miniscore@djeaux.com
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MiniScore for Womens Gymnastics is a simple scorepad program for women's gymnastics, designed with the needs of parents, fans, and coaches in mind. Written in PocketC for Palm OS® (www.orbworks.com), MiniScore requires the PocketC compiler or run-time version (included with MiniScore) be installed on your Palm device.
Installing MiniScore
Obtain the MiniScore program distribution & expand the archive file using WinZip or a similar tool. You will have the following files: MiniScore.PDB, MiniScore.PRC, & PocketC_rt.zip
Before proceeding, be sure to review the readme.txt file contained in the MiniScore distribution zip file. The readme.txt file may contain updated information not included in this online user's guide.
Install MiniScore.PDB & MiniScore.PRC to your Palm® device with the Palm Installer. If you do not have the PocketC compiler or runtime version already installed on your handheld, install PocketC.prc from the PocketC_rt.zip archive.
The PocketC runtime included in the MiniScore distribution is the version for which MiniScore was compiled. For the majority of users, the PocketC runtime included with MiniScore should be used. Users who already have PocketC installed on their handhelds should check the PocketC version number. Older PocketC compilers or runtimes with lower version numbers should not be used. Problems related to newer PocketC versions should be reported to Orbworks & to MiniScore.
Registering MiniScore
To activate several features of MiniScore, you must enter a valid registration code. If you purchased MiniScore from an online store, you should receive your registration code within two working days of your order.
To enter the code, select the Options|About menu. On the "About MiniScore" screen that appears, tap the "Register" button & enter your registration code in the box that pops up.
Tapping the "Info" 
icon in the upper-right corner of the "About MiniScore" screen opens a multi-page help system covering all aspects of using MiniScore.
Creating a New Meet
MiniScore will track scores for up to 8 teams of 16 gymnasts each. To create a new database for a meet, tap the "New" button. (If there is not a meet database already stored on your handheld, the "New" button will be the only one that's active, except "Exit".)
When creating a new database, you will be prompted to enter a name for the meet, the number of teams, a name for each team, and the number of gymnasts on each team. (Hint: If you accept the default team names -- Team #1, etc. -- you can edit them later.) Teams & gymnasts can be added later as well.
Opening Saved Meets
If a meet has already been created, the "Load" button will be active when MiniScore is started. Tap "Load" to open the most recently created meet.
To open other meets that has already been created, use the Meet|Open menu. Select the meet that you want to view, and tap "Open".
You may use the scroll buttons to navigate through the list. To permanently remove a meet from the list, tap "Delete". (Tip: Export scores before deleting a meet!)
Note: In unregistered copies of MiniScore, you may create and save multiple meets, but you will only be able to open/load the most recently created meet.
Editing Meet Data
To edit the name of the meet, simply tap on the meet name on the main screen. Enter the new name in the box that pops up.
If you accept the defaults when creating a new meet, each gymnast will have a default name like "Name 1". To edit the gymnasts' names, tap the "Detail" button 
Then, select the team in the dropdown list at the upper right, highlight the gymnast's row in the main table, and tap any event column label.
The Gymnast Detail form will appear. Enter first and last names, competition number, level & age group on this form. If you wish, you may later record event & all around places here
Use the Team menu to add/delete gymnasts or teams for a meet that's already been created. Use Team|Add Gymnast to append names to a team. New names are added to the selected team. To delete a name, select it in the main score table and then use Edit|Remove Gymnast.
To edit the team names, use the Team|Edit Teams menu. (Tap the silkscreen menu button or the title bar to display the menu.) A list of team names will appear. Edit each one by tapping on the name. To add a team to the meet, again select the Team| Edit Teams menu, and tap the "Add Team" button. To remove a team from the meet, use Team|Remove Gymnast to delete all members of the team. You cannot, however, remove the last member of the last team in a meet. To delete a meet, use the Meet|Open menu option.
Entering Scores
To enter scores, tap the "Edit" button 
. Then select the gymnast's row in the main table and tap the appropriate column (event) label.
Use the Quick/Detail control on the main screen to toggle between "Quick" and "Detail" data entry modes. In "Quick" mode 
, tapping each event column label opens an individual input box as shown at right.
In "Detail" mode , tapping any event column label opens the Gymnast Detail form. In detail mode, full name, age, level, competition number, and places can be entered.
Note: Name and score changes are not automatically saved to the database. Tap "Save" to register the changes. On the other hand, to recover previously saved entries, tap "Load" before saving the edited data. To ensure that you don't lose data when exiting MiniScore, select "Auto-Save on Exit" in the Options|Preferences dialog box. Auto-Save may cause a slight delay when exiting MiniScore on some handhelds; this is normal.
Sorting Scores
MiniScore will sort scores for any event & display them in either ascending or descending order. All scores within one team may be sorted, or sorted scores may be displayed across all teams by level and/or age group. Select team or age/level sorting and your preferred sort order (ascending or descending) using the Options|Preferences menu.
When "Sort" 
is selected, tapping any event column label displays the gymnasts' scores in ascending or descending order. Tap "+" to sort All Around scores.
Use Options|Preferences to select sorting scores in the currently displayed team or across all teams by age and/or level. When sorting by age/level, the Sort Set-Up dialog box will appear after you tap the event label. Enter the age and/or level to include in the sort. Leaving age or level blank includes all gymnasts. (To blank the Sort Set-Up, enter a Graffiti space.)
Note: The Sort and Options|Preferences functions are operational only in registered copies.
Team Scoring
Team scores are calculated by summing a specified number of top scores from each event for each team. Set the number of top scores to use in calculating team scores in the Options|Preferences dialog box.
To calculate team scores, simply tap the "Team" button & select the event by tapping the event label at the top of the main score table.
In the Team Scores display, an asterisk (*) will be shown next to any team that has fewer gymnasts than the calculation specifies.
Exporting Scores
Data from any meet stored in the MiniScore database can be exported to the Palm Memo Pad. The memo can then be copied from Palm Desktop and pasted into a spreadsheet, database, or word processing application.
Select Meet|Export from the menu bar. Specify formatting options for the memo in the pop-up box as discussed below. Tap "Export" and the memo will be created in Memo Pad.
To export data so that it may be later imported back into MiniScore, check "Tab delimited data" in the Export Format dialog box, as shown in the upper illustration at right.
To export data so that it may be easily loaded into a desktop spreadsheet or database program, select "Spreadsheet-friendly." In most cases, tab delimited data will work fine, but if you encounter problems bringing the data into your desktop program, try checking "Comma delimited data." Additionally, check "Place text in quotes" if you find that your desktop program attempts to convert text such as "Level 10-12" into a date format (e.g., Oct 12). The lower illustration at right shows a typical export-for-spreadsheet configuration.
Exporting a meet does not remove it from the MiniScore database. To remove a meet, use the Meet|Open menu option.
Note: The Meet|Export function is disabled in unregistered copies of MiniScore.
Importing Scores
Data that has been exported to Memo Pad can be imported back into the MiniScore database. This makes the export function a full-fledged backup, and it makes it possible to share your meet data with other MiniScore users.
To import all data for a meet, select Meet|Import from the menu bar. MiniScore will scan the Memo Pad database to locate exported data files. After scanning is complete, select the exported data memo from the pick list. In the "Import Memo" dialog box, check "All scores". Check "Whole meet" to import all scores for all gymnasts in the exported data memo. Tap "OK" to import the data from Memo Pad back into the MiniScore database. (See upper illustration at right.)
To merge a team from the exported data memo into a meet that already exists in the MiniScore database, select Meet|Import, select the exported data memo & check "Merge team." A second dialog box will appear showing the teams in the exported memo. Select the team you wish to merge & tap "Import." (See lower illustration at right.)
Note that you must have a meet loaded into the main MiniScore display table before merging is possible.
MiniScore does not overwrite meets in its database if they have the same name. So it is possible to export a meet, re-import it, and have two copies of the meet in memory.
To share meet data with another MiniScore user, simply export the meet to Memo Pad. Then use the Palm IR "beaming" feature to send the memo to the other user, who can then import the memo into his/her copy of MiniScore.
To be import a memo, it must have been originally saved using the default MiniScore export format. Memos saved in "spreadsheet friendly" format are not importable.
Using Meet Templates
Any meet you build in MiniScore can be used as a template to quickly build more meets with the same gymnasts. First, export the meet you wish to use as a template. Then, select Meet|Import, choose the exported data memo you want to use as a template, and check the "Template" option. (The difference between importing and applying a template is simply that a template does not import scores and places.)
As you might expect, the Meet|Import (and template) function doesn't work in unregistered copies of MiniScore.
Setting Preferences
The Preferences form allows you to control how several options (Quick/Detail mode, Name/Competition number display & Display Name) appear when MiniScore is started. The Preferences form also allows you to control how sorting and team scoring are done.
Access the Preferences form via the Options|Preferences menu option.
Set Start-Up Defaults in the upper box in the Preferences form shown at right. MiniScore may be started in either quick or detail mode. Gymnasts may be displayed by name or competition number, and the gymnasts' display names may be first name plus initial or initial plus last name.
Set Sort Order and select team or age/level sorting in the middle box on the form.
Set the number of high scores to use in team scoring in the lower section. If "Auto-Save on Exit" is checked, MiniScore will automatically save scores when you exit MiniScore. This may cause a slight delay before the program closes. This is normal. Larger meets will create longer delays.
To ensure that the MiniScore meet database is backed up to your desktop computer at the next HotSync, check "Backup DB at HotSync." Please be aware that this backs up only the database where meet information & scores are saved. Your registration is not backed up & you must re-enter your registration code in the event you must restore your handheld after a hard reset.