Step 5 - Some Options

You have a lot of flexibility when it comes to how the charts look. Most of these are controlled from the Format options menu. Go there now by selecting Options|Formatting (the shortcut is the checkbox toolbar button).

Chart Sorting Options

Options that affect the system setup rather than the appearance and format of data are mostly kept in the Environment Options dialog.

Let’s say at first you wanted to list the players in the wall chart alphabetically, either to make it easier for them to search for typos, or to encourage them to learn the alphabet better. You could set that here by changing the primary sort option to alphabetical. Do that now, and click OK to return to the main view.

Print Magnification

A second change you can easily make is to alter the size of the lettering in the printouts. As it is now, the wall chart is plainly visible to you, but if you posted it that way players would have to squint to find their names.

Let’s make the chart more visible now. Reopen the Format Options dialog as before and then click on its Print and other options page.

Down at the bottom you will find settings marked “print magnification” — one for normal use and a special one for the pair chart.

Try setting the normal print magnification to 1.3. This means that printed fonts for most charts will be about one-third-again as large as they appear on the screen.

Font Customization

The default fonts, as adjusted for printing with the print magnification feature, make for quite professional-looking charts. Nevertheless, some people like a little more spice, so for them there is the Fonts dialog.

Select the Options|Fonts menu or click on the cursive “F” on the toolbar. The master Fonts dialog that appears shows you all the fonts which you can adjust for all the tables.

You can change the appearance of any category of information listed in the grid — giving you a high degree of control over the final appearance.

To make a change, just find the row in the grid devoted to the wall chart and click on the name field.

You can also select from the list of ready-to-go fonts packaged for you in the Quick fonts box at the top of the page.

Try that now. Select Roman_Medium_Maroon, which is the one I like to use. Click OK to return to the main view of the wall chart and admire the changes.

Do another printout if you like, to see the improvement in visibility.

When done, return the listing to its more usual pair number sorting by going to the format options dialog as you did before.

Exploring Format Options

The Format Options dialog is chock full of useful features that control what information is shown and how it is displayed. Experiment with all these options to find the chart appearance that suits you best.

Click here to go on to Step 6 - Make Pairings