*998,##### The next two lines control the Minimum and Maximum Topic Number Range
1
15
*999, Help File Index Of Topics
TOPIC DESCRIPTION
1 General Information
2 Getting Started
3 Worksheet Organization
4 User Configurable Options
5 Pulldown Menus
6 Setting Up A Worksheet
7 Setting Up Division Standings
8 Setting Up Player Records
9 Updating Division Standings
10 Updating Player Statistics
11 Updating Team Batting Leaders
12 Printing Reports
13 On-Line Help Facilities
14 Developer's Notes
15 Notes on Protection
*1, General Information
TOPIC 1 GENERAL INFORMATION
The SOFTBALL CALCULATOR is an Excel based facility for keeping batting statistics for a softball team as well as the team standings within a division. It is totally in the public domain, but assumes that the user has a legal copy of Excel 2.2 (not supplied) to execute it. The author encourages your comments/suggestions (see email address below).
In addition to keeping individual batting statistics, team batting leaders can be automatically calculated.
Statistics can be kept for a maximum of 20 players. There is additional space for 20 "Others" or alternates. 25 individual game records can kept for each player. Division standings can accommodate 12 teams.
The SOFTBALL CALCULATOR requires Excel 2.2 and a minimum of 1Mb of application memory space.
The system is designed to be self- documenting with on-line help facilities.
If you use it, I'd appreciate a postcard from your hometown !!!
Author:
Art Parmet
artp@motbos.sps.mot.com
TOPIC 1.1 REVISION HISTORY
Revison 1.00 -
Initial release
Revison 1.10 -
Re-issued using Microsoft Word 4.0
1. Added capability to record the following additional statistics:
a) Plate appearances
b) Bases On Balls
c) Reached On Error
d) Sacrificies
2) Added calculation of On-Base percentages
3) Added new leader catagories:
a) On-Base Percentage (based on appearances)
b) Bases On Balls
c) Reached On Error
d) Sacrifices
3) Removed leader catagory for Total Bases
4) Changed Player Update screens for more efficient updating.
5) Enhanced Format Selection capability to include Font, Border and Alignment.
6) Restructured Configure User Parameters for more efficient updating.
7) Added "About" command.
8) Added Step mode to Debug menu.
9) Added smart calculation of default game number prompting.
*2, Getting Started
TOPIC 2 GETTING STARTED
Make sure that you have a minimum system sufficient to run Excel 2.2 with an application size of 1Mb.
Your distribution media contains the following files:
Macros - The main controlling functions for the system (Approx 120kb)
Sample_Team - A sample blank team worksheet (Approx 320kb)
Help - On-line help file (Approx 25kb)
User Manual(Word) - User's Manual in
Microsoft Word 4.0 format (Approx 80kb)
Copy these files (keep the originals in a safe place !!!) into a working folder on your hard disk. No restrictions on folder names is enforced, except that all files must be in the same folder. The macro file MUST NOT be renamed. The "Sample_Team" file is distributed with the LOCK bit set. This file should be copied and renamed as desired. Then, use the Finder's GET INFO pulldown menu to remove the LOCK bit. The "Help" file is optional if on-line help facilities are desired. If used, DO NOT rename this file.
The SOFTBALL CALCULATOR is started by double-clicking on the worksheet file. Excel 2.2 application will be started and the Macros automatically invoked at this point (Be patient. This takes a while !!!). Watch the message bar at the bottom of the Excel window for progress. The Macros will initialize the environment and create custom pulldown menus. Your worksheet will be zoomed to the maximum available screen size. A "beep" indicates that you are ready to begin ! Proceed to TOPIC 6 to set up your worksheet for the first time.
WARNING : Major changes were implemented from version 1.00 to 1.10. Worksheets from version 1.00 are NOT compatible with version 1.10 and the data must be re-entered to a new worksheet.
*3, Worksheet Organization
TOPIC 3 WORKSHEET ORGANIZATION
The worksheet for a team is visibly organized into the following areas:
First page-
Summary of individual batting statistics for each player
Summary of team batting statistics
Division team standings including wins/losses/ties,winning percentage and GBL (Games Behind Leader)
Second Page-
Team batting leaders for 12 batting categories
Subsequent pages hold individual batting statistics for each player for each game played.
The worksheet is protected from accidental destruction by the user.
There are specific cells that may be modified directly by the user and are described in TOPIC 4. They are restricted to title areas and team names for the most part. All other information is entered and/or calculated via activation of the custom menu functions.
*4, User Configurable Options
TOPIC 4 USER CONFIGURABLE OPTIONS
1) Certain title cells may be altered directly on the worksheet:
Title over batting summary statistics (K3) and Game Number (L3)
Title over division standings (J33) and Date (K33 and L33)
Individual team names in the division standings (B37-B48)
The area below the division standings to the bottom of page 1 (B50-I50)
Title Line for Team Leaders (K51) and Game Number (L51)
2) Printing Page Setup selection options under Print pulldown
3) Format changes for selected cells including font, border and alignment under Special menu.
3) Options selected via the Configure User Parameters options under the Special pulldown menu:
Home team name (used for automatic highlighting in division standings)
Minimum AB's per game for a player to qualify for average and slugging percentage leaders and for appearances for On-Base perceptage leaders.
Number of players to be shown in each batting leader category.
*5, Pulldown Menus
TOPIC 5 PULLDOWN MENUS
FILE menus -
Save (CMD+S), Save As..., and Quit -
Same as normal Mac functions
WARNING : On occasion, the user may be prompted to Save the worksheet even though no changes have been entered. This is a result of dialog box actions which have no bearing on the user's data. If you haven't made any real changes (updates, format, or configuration changes), this Save request can be answered with a "No" response. You should NEVER get a request to Save the Macro file, since no modifications are ever made to the Macro sheet. This indicates a bug in the Macros !!!
PRINT menus -
Page Setup - Same as normal Mac Setup
Default Page Setup - Same as above, except reverts to built-in defaults
Print Leaders (CMD+P) - Prints batting summaries, division standings, and team batting leaders
Print All - Prints entire database
DISPLAY -
These options allow rapid display of the selected areas of the database.
CALCULATE -
Batting Leaders (CMD+B) -
Recalculates the team batting leaders in 12 major categories. The user will be prompted for the number of games played. This will be multiplied by the "Minimum AB Per Game" parameter to determine qualifying number of AB's for average and slugging percentage leaders and for appearances in On-Base percentage leaders. Min AB's and the number of entries in the leaders categories are controlled by the Configure User Parameters under Special menu.
WARNING - This command can take up to 3 minutes to execute on a Mac SE !!! To minimize boredom, the screen will be updated as each of the categories are are calculated.
Cell L51 will contain the number of games played as entered above. This cell can be overwritten manually as might be desired at the end of the season.
Division Standings -
Recalculates the division standings. Home team (as defined in the Configure User Parameters will be shown in Bold. User will be prompted for the Standings Date (default is today's date). The displayed date cells (K33, L33) may be changed manually as might be the case at the end of the season.
Winning percentage is calculated as percent wins of wins, losses and ties. Games behind is calculated as games behind leader: Plus half point for a win, minus half point for a loss (ties not included).
PLAYER -
Update Player Stats (CMD+Z) -
Allows entry/updating for each player for each game played. This is an interactive session. The user may find it desirable to use the numeric keypad and Tab keys during this session. Make sure that NUM LOCK mode is activated on the keyboard (via SHIFT/NUM LOCK) to activate the keypad. The NUM should be visible in the window at the lower right-hand corner. See Section 10.0 for more details on player stats updating.
Add Player Name (CMD+A) -
Change Player Name (CMD+C) -
Delete Player Name (CMD+D) -
These functions allow customization for the individual players on the team.
Clear Player Stats -
This will initialize the statistics for an individual player.
Clear All Player Stats -
This will initialize the statistics for all players. Useful at the beginning of the season or start of the playoffs.
Clear All Names and Stats -
This will clear out all player names and stats.
Note that when prompted, the player search rules are case independent and only require a sufficient number of characters to uniquely identify the player name. The actual player selected will be displayed as a verification.
WARNING - The clear functions, once selected, are not "Undo-able" !!
SPECIAL -
Help (CMD+H or HELP key) -
On-line Help facility. Invoke via the Help key on expanded Mac keyboard or CMD+?
Select Format -
User alterable font, border, and alignment modifications. These changes can be performed on selected cells or the entire worksheet. The user will be prompted to select the entire worksheet.
WARNING - The format changes take a bit of time to execute if large sections or the entire worksheet is selected. Note that the font characteristics of the Page Setup headers and footers are not effected by this command. Also, since the worksheet is protected, cell sizes cannot be altered, and thus some font size alterations may not print as desired.
Configure User Parameters -
Allows selection of the following:
Home Team Name - Used for highlighting in division standings. This parameter is optional If highlighting of the home team is not desired, set this to a value which is guaranteed not to match any of the team names.
Min AB Per Game - Used in calculating minimum qualifying AB's for batting and slugging pct.leaders, and for appearances in On-Base pct.leaders.
Maximum Leaders - Number of leaders in each batting category. Two options are selected here: number of leaders and maximum including ties.
*6, Setting Up A Worksheet
TOPIC 6 SETTING UP A WORKSHEET
After doing the basic installation of the files as described in TOPIC 2 (Getting Started), double-click on your new team worksheet. Excel 2.2 will be started, the team worksheet and Macros files will be loaded and automatically started. Watch the Excel message bar (bottom of the screen) for progress information. When the "beep" is sounded, you are ready to begin !
Set up the Division Standings as described in TOPIC 7.
Set up the player entries for your team roster as described in TOPIC 8.
Set up your user configurable parameters as described in TOPIC 4.
Set up the print options by selecting Page Setup (PRINT pulldown menu).
*7, Setting Up Division Standings
TOPIC 7 SETTING UP DIVISION STANDINGS
Select the Division Standings area of the worksheet via the DISPLAY pulldown menu.
Hit the TAB key to move to the title cell over the division standings and enter the appropriate title for your league/division. Note that the cells immediately following are automatically updated with the standings date when the division standings are calculated. Thus, you may want a title such as: "Over The Hill Division Standings As Of:". At the end of the season, you may wish to change the title to something like: "Final Over The Hill Division Standings". The date cells may be altered or blanked out as desired at this point.
Hit the TAB key again to position to the first team name cell. Enter the names of the teams in your division, one team name per slot, up to a maximum of 12. The team names can be entered in any order and will be sorted automatically when the division standings are calculated. As each team name is entered, you will see the Pct. and GBL entries in the row will be activated. Make sure that the Wins, Losses, Ties entries have zeroes in them.
Run the Division Standings command from the CALCULATE pulldown menu.
WARNING - Whenever a team name is removed from the division standings, make sure that the name cell does not have any embedded blanks and that the wins, losses and ties cells are also deleted.
*8, Setting Up Player Records
TOPIC 8 SETTING UP PLAYER RECORDS
All commands for this are located under the PLAYER pulldown menu.
If you are starting from scratch, it may be desirable to run the CLEAR ALL PLAYER NAMES AND STATS which effectively wipes out all players and their records.
If your roster is basically intact and you just wish to start out with a clean slate for the season or playoffs, use the CLEAR ALL PLAYER STATS function.
Then, use the ADD PLAYER NAME function to add each player name. The CHANGE PLAYER NAME and/or DELETE PLAYER NAME functions may be used if there was an entry error in the player name.
As the roster changes, selective use of the ADD PLAYER NAME, CHANGE PLAYER NAME, DELETE PLAYER NAME should be used.
During the course of the season the CLEAR PLAYER STATS command may be used to initialize an individual player's stats. This is useful if it is determined that an individual's stats have so many errors that it would be less work to re-enter them from scratch, rather than update the errors game by game.
*9, Updating Division Standings
TOPIC 9 UPDATING DIVISION STANDINGS
Select the division standings area by running the Division Standings command from the DISPLAY pulldown menu.
Update the Wins, Losses, and Ties as required for each team.
Run the Division Standings command from the CALCULATE pulldown menu.
Division standings are calculated and then sorted using the following rules for tiebreakers (as required):
Highest winning percentage (Percent of wins over total games played)
Most Wins
Most Ties
Fewest Losses
Team Name
*10, Updating Player Statistics
TOPIC 10 UPDATING PLAYER STATISTICS
Individual stats for each player for each game may be entered, updated, or cleared out.
Use the Update Player Stats command under the Player menu.
The user will be prompted for the desired game number and player name.
TIP: Update the Division Standings first. Then, the default game number prompt will be correct.
The game number will default to the current game number as shown in the summary area. The player name will default to the first player name in the summary area.
The player name search rules are case-independent and only require the minimum number of letters to uniquely identify the player.
The worksheet will be searched for the player name specified. If found, a dialog box will appear.
If you had previously entered stats for this player for this game, the existing stats will be shown. If there were no stats for this game for this player, the entries will be all zeroes.
NOTE: The Averages, Slugging Pct., On-Base Pct, and At Bats values reflect calculated values upon first display of the dialog box. They do not dynamically change as new stats are entered.
At this point, enter or update the appropriate stats for this player. The dialog box has been constructed to ease the transcribing of stats from the game scorebook (I assume you won't be bringing a Mac to the games !!) Enter the total number of plate appearances in the Appearances edit box (You do not have to predetermine legal At Bats. They will be calculated automatically). Then, using the TAB key, move across and enter the remainder of the applicable stats.
NOTE: If you do not track Walks, Reached on Errors or Sacrificies, then the calculated AB's will equal the number of plate appearances. If you do track these items, make sure that you track them all Otherwise, the calculated On Base Pct. will be incorrect.
When you are completed with this player and are satisfied with the entries, check the Update box. The entries will be sanity-checked as follows:
- Must be numeric
- Total of hits, sacrifices, walks and reached-on-errors must be less than or equal to number of plate appearances.
- Number of runs must be less than or equal to plate appearances.
- Number of extra base hits must be less than or equal to hits
If you decide to make no changes, check the Cancel box.
If you wish to completely remove the stats for this game for this player, check the Purge box. This would be the case if you had erroneously entered stats for this player for this game (ie, the player never played in this game).
The desired operation will be performed at this point. The user will be prompted for the next player in alphabetical sequence in the roster as a default. This is done in an attempt to minimize typing. You may change the player name and/or game number at this point, as desired.
*11, Updating Team Batting Leaders
TOPIC 11 UPDATING TEAM LEADERS
Use the Batting Leaders command from the Calculate pulldown menu. You will be prompted for the number of games played.
TIP: Update the Division Standings first. Then, the default game number prompt will be correct.
This will be used in conjunction with the Min AB's Per Game parameter (User Configurable Parameters under Special menu) to determine player eligibility for batting average, On-Base and slugging percentage leaders categories.
WARNING - This command can take up to 3 minutes to execute on a Mac SE !!! To minimize boredom, the screen will be updated as each of the categories are are calculated.
*12, Printing Reports
TOPIC 12 PRINTING REPORTS
Two major types of reports are available, and are invoked from the Print pulldown menu (see Section 5.0). The user may alter the format characteristics as desired ( via the Special Select Format pulldown menu). Since the worksheet is protected and thus, cell sizes cannot be altered by the user, is it suggested that the font size value not be increased.
Page setup options may be altered as desired. The Default Page Setup command will reset the margins and headers/footers to sane values.
*13, Printing Reports
TOPIC 13 ON-LINE HELP FACILITIES
Two types of On-Line Help are provided:
The Help Key on the expanded Mac keyboard may be depressed. At this point the user may enter a specific topic number or hit RETURN for a list of topics.
Most of the Dialog Boxes have On-Line Help also, which can be invoked by the Help key.
NOTE: The "CMD+?" may be used in place of the HELP key.
*14, Developer's Notes
TOPIC 14 DEVELOPER'S NOTES
The SOFTBALL TEAM CALCULATOR is an built on an extensive set of Excel 2.2 macros (approx 1200 lines). The structure of the system is built on a custom set of pulldown menus and dialog boxes which should be sufficient for the user to configure and use the system. Command key equivalents have been provided as well as on-line help. Effort has been made to isolate the casual user from direct contact with the macro sheet or any area of the worksheet that could potentially damage the system and/or corrupt the user's data. In normal operating mode, the Macro sheet is hidden (after a brief display at startup).
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Excel macros are not for the faint of heart !!! Although they are quite powerful, the debugging/diagnostic modes provided with the Excel application are not quite what you would find with modern compiler toolsets. Much care has been taken to implement the system using structured programming techniques and extensive labels and comments. However, some compromises were made for performance since the Excel macro facility is an interpretive (not compiled) environment. If you choose to venture further, use extreme caution and work from a scratch set of macro and worksheet files.
For those who are more curious and/or adventurous, there is an additional pulldown menu (Debug) which is toggled on/off via the F6 function key. Once active, the following additional commands/modes are available:
Enable/Disable Trace Mode -
If Trace mode is activated, the user will be able to watch the progress of each command as it operates on the database.
WARNING - Activation of this mode will cause a noticeable slowdown in the speed the of the commands !!
Enable/Disable Step Mode -
If Step mode is activated, the user will be able to step through the progress of each macro command as it operates on the database.
Macro Runtime (CMD+R)
This will display the execution time of the previously executed pulldown command in minutes and seconds. Note that wait time for interactive responses is typically not included in the runtime. Note that not all commands are timed. This function is mainly used to evaluate the performance of different algorithms and/or the performance of the system, on different Mac platforms.
To activate the timer for a macro, place the following two statements in the macro code:
=SET.NAME("Macro_Name","The_Name_Of_Your_Macro")
=SET.NAME("Marco_Start",NOW())
An example can be seen in the "Division_Standings" macro.
Show Cell Info (CMD+I) -
Displays key attributes of a given cell. Macros and worksheet are tiled onto screen in addition.
Restore Windows
Used after Show Cell Info to restore windows.
Show Main Menus -
Switches to the normal Excel menu bar. Note that when this mode is activated, two additional commands under the File menu will appear to allow rapid transfer back to the worksheet.
Xfr to Macro Sheet (CMD+M) -
Transfers control to the Macro sheet and activates main Excel menu bar. Note that when this mode is activated, two additional commands under the File menu will appear to allow rapid transfer back to the worksheet.
*15, Notes on Protection
TOPIC 15 NOTES ON PROTECTION
Both the Macro file and the worksheet file operate with the Excel protection mode active. The macros sheet is protected to prevent a latent bug from corrupting the system. There are no macro sheet values that are modified during normal operation that should ever create a "write-history" status on the Macro sheet. If you desire to make modifications to the macros, you must turn off the protection mode first (Unprotect Document command under Options). Note that although the macros file is shipped with protection mode on, there is no password.
WARNING: the Macros sheet Custom_Quit routine contains an undocumented Excel option to prevent false prompting to save the Macro sheet on Quit from the custom File menu bar. If you make changes to the Macros sheet, save them off from the general File Save pulldown menu bar.
The worksheet document is also protected, but with no password. If you desire to make changes to the worksheet, reprotect it when you are done, BUT DO NOT USE A PASSWORD ! The macros dynamically move the worksheet in and out of protect mode. If a password has been encoded, the macros will not work properly !
*99, Softball Team Calculator Help File for Version 1.10
Softball Team Calculator Help File for Version 1.10
*100, Configuration Help
Configuration Help
Home Team Name:
Enter the name of your team here. This is used to highlight your team in the Division Standings. If entry is blank, no highlighting will occur.
Min AB's Per Game:
Enter a numeric value which will be used in limiting entries in the leader board for Average, Slugging Pct and On-Base Pct. Value will be multiplied by number of games played.
Maximum Leaders:
Enter a numeric value for the number of leaders in each batting catagory. Must be <= Maximum Leaders with Ties value.
Max Leaders With Ties:
Defines the maximum allowable size of each leader catagory. Allows for overflow in case of ties.
*101, Player Name Help
Player Name Help
Enter sufficient characters to identify the player to be selected. The value is case-insensitive.
*102, Game Number Help
Game Number Help
Enter the game number for Leader Board calculations. If blank, the Game Number will default to game 1. This value will be multiplied by Minimum AB's per game during Averages, Slugging Pct., and On-Base Pct. leaders calculations.
*103, Date Help
Date Help
Enter the date for division standing banner. Can be entered in any almost any valid combination that resembles a date. It is not necessary to enter the year.
*104, Update Player Stats Help
Update Player Stats
This screen is used for entering/updating individual player stats for each game.
To simplify transcribing of information from the game scorebook, enter the total number of appearances without regard to whether they were legal AB's or not.
Enter the Runs scored, Hits, RBI's, Doubles, Triples, Home Runs, Walks, Reached Base on Error, and Sacrifices. The entries will be sanity-checked for invalid combinations:
Runs > Appearances
Extra Base Hits > AB's
Legal At Bats will be automatically calculated.
Batting Average, Slugging Percentage, and On-Base Percentage will be calculated.
Note that the existing display of Average, Slugging, and On-Base Pct. are a reflection of the values on first display of the update dialog. They are displayed for reference in the case of a future update of this player's stats for this game.
*105, Player Name and Game Help
Player Name And Game
Enter the game number for player stats to be updated.
Enter sufficient characters to identify the player to be selected. The value is case-insensitive.
The player records will be searched for valid player name. If found, a search will be made for an entry for this game number. If found, existing stats for this game will be shown. If not, you will get a blank entry to fill in.
