Environment Options - Options Menu
This dialog contains various environment settings that control how SwissSys behaves during tournament operation. Here is a complete list of these settings:
Section panels - Usually you will want this on, but this switch allows you to avoid displaying section panels if you want to.
Forced name format — This will make all player names conform to the same format, either initial uppercase, all uppercase, or last name uppercase.
It is the same as in the Players menu and in the Formatting options dialog.
Once set, all future players registered will have their names forced into the chosen format.
In the case of initial uppercase, SwissSys does its best with hard names like Thad McSuits III, but you may have to tweak a name here and there if your players are particular.
This works alongside the Players | Set uniform name format option, which sets all the players to the chosen format at once.
Fees field labels — You can relabel the fees fields from the defaults of “Fees&1”, “Fees&2”, and “Fees&3” to anything else that increases clarity. (For example, “USCF” and “Event$”).
The ”&” in the defaults underlines the numerals that follow, making them keyboard shortcuts.
Key codes — For SwissSys users in the non-English speaking world, key codes (the symbols SwissSys uses to signify results) can be modified. In Latin America, for example, changing the codes for black and white (“B” and “W”) to “N” and “B” (for “negro” and “blanco”) may make tables more readable.
K-value — This is provided mainly for backwards compatibility.
It allows you to weight the rating changes SwissSys calculates for players.
Auto-sort players by rating — This is the default and is strongly recommended. With auto-sort turned on, all players are given pair numbers that reflect their ratings.
After you turn this off players are simply appended to the end of the roster and given sequential pair numbers.
If you turn it off and register players out of order, you can restore rating order any time with the Players | Resort all by rating command.
Note that in FIDE mode, this setting is ignored after round 4, at which point FIDE does not allow pair numbers to change.
Randomize order for players with equal rating - It is fairest to leave this switch on, meaning SwissSys will randomly sort all players with equal rating.
When off, SwissSys uses a first-come-first-served order.
One exception here is if you are using FIDE pairing rules. These rules require a specific order based on rating, title, then alphabetically by name.
In this case using FIDE rules will override this setting.
Note also that if you enter an alternate rating for a player, this will also be used to break ties.
Warn if expired membership — If on, you will receive a warning whenever you register a player whose membership is shown to have expired.
Limit ID numbers to 8 characters — If this is turned on, SwissSys will prevent you from entering the longer ID numbers as used by FIDE and some other organizations.
If you direct USCF events almost exclusively, you are better off enabling this option as a safeguard against typos.
No warning as long as rating is in range for section (Registration rule) — When you set up a section you can tell SwissSys what the allowed upper and lower rating limits are.
If you then check this option, any player you register in the registration dialog will be sent to the proper section automatically, based on the player’s rating.
If the player is eligible for more than one section you will normally receive a warning.
But if this option is checked the warning will be suppressed if the player happens to be eligible for the current section.
No warning as long as age/grade is in range — This works the same as the ratings registration rule above, except that the age/grade field is used instead of the ratings.
Power user mode — If you are comfortable with using SwissSys, you can check this box to cut down on some of the prompts, nags, and warnings that appear.
Confirm edit changes - When you make a change to player data in the main view (while in edit mode), this option will ask you to confirm the changes you typed.
Automatically update opponents when editing — Normally you will leave this on in order to cut down on your work and to ensure consistency when you are editing results in the main view.
If you want to force inconsistent results (such as you would for cross-round pairings), uncheck this option. (Unchecking this option is not allowed when in FIDE mode.)
Synch fixed-roster game points — Use this option in fixed-roster events to make SwissSys calculate (or recalculate) a team’s game wins value based on individual results, rather than always keeping the value that you may have keyed in with a team’s result.
Forced name format — This option is also available on the Display and ratings tab above. See there for a description.
Network mode — Register players in network mode.
Confirm overwrites - Unless you are pretty confident in your typing, leave this on to avoid overwriting important data.
Turning it off with the autosave feature turned on makes SwissSys act behind the scenes to save most changes you make to data without requiring your explicit approval.
Autosave — Makes SwissSys save files automatically at crucial times like just before and after pairings.
You can use the autosave setting in tandem with the “confirm overwrites” setting above to adjust the level of control you want to exercise over saving data as it changes.
Settings to link with the section — Most SwissSys settings that are good for one section apply to them all, but others will change.
Use this three-way choice to set which settings, if any, are linked to your sections.
The “basic” set includes pairing restrictions, bye settings, and a couple of common wallchart display settings (show the alternate I.D., the state, and the team). the “full” set saves and retrieves all settings from a settings file tailored for each section.** **Save profile on quit **— If you want SwissSys to remember all the optional settings you have in use at the end of a session, then keep this on. Prompt for batch operations** — If you export multiple sections and always save a single file rather than all sections, you can uncheck this option.
SwissSys will not bother you with a prompt.** Default to version 10 format - Use this option if you need to save files to the older Excel format for sharing with users who have noyet upgraded. Network mode** — If this is turned on, SwissSys will automatically save any players you register to the special network database for later importation.
See the topic network mode for more details. Primary database file** — This holds the complete path and name of the database you want to use to register players with, either theUSCF’s database or your own.
Usually you will set this with the Database wizard or in the DatabaseSetup dialog, but it is included here for reference and completeness. Secondary database file** — Similar to above.** Network database — This holds the name and path of the database you want to use when in network mode, if any. Club list path** — This holds the complete path and name of your current club list.
You can also set this using the menu option File | Club | Change current club**. Team name file** — Team codes you have used, along with their expansions, are stored in a file and loaded when you start SwissSys.
You can set the name of that file here.**
calculating new player ratings. Rating to use — Tell SwissSys whether you want to load regular, quick, or blitz ratings as the main rating for this section. Site to search — Tell SwissSys whether to search the USCF orFIDE website for ratings when you do online searches. **Online event **— This lets SwissSys know it should search for online ratings if those are available. Default rating formula — This sets which of the many possible rating formulae SwissSys should use in calculating new player ratings. Scholastic rating setup — Use this option to set the points awarded if you want to use the “scholastic” rating system. Missing rating substitutions **— If the desired rating (e.g. a player’s quick rating) is not on file, this tells SwissSys how to handle things.
Substitutions are made so that a blitz rating will never be used in place of a regular rating.
Databases support up to 3 ratings, but the USCF website now lists 6, 3 for over-the-board (OTB) events and3 for online events.
In the latter case, if you let SwissSys go with a substitute, it will pick one giving priority to the kind of tournamen you are running, whether online or OTB.
If it can’t find a suitable substitute, it will leave the rating blank, but put the regular OTB rating in the player’s rating2 field for your reference.
There are currently no official rules for rating substitutions, but SwissSys takes a sensible approach.
If you want more control over this, select the “Prompt” option.** **Tournament history online searches **— With this option checked, SwissSys will use the USCF’s tournament history data to find the player’s most up-to-date rating rather than the last-published rating.
For most over-the-board tournaments this is not recommended because ratings can change between the time a player registers and thestart of a tournament. Provisionally rated — Tell SwissSys how to handle players whose ratings are listed as provisional.