Bob Cox, the Section C coordinator, has created a great Excel spreadsheet to score ALPS dual swim meets. Please take a few minutes to read the information below to help you use it to the best of its capabilities.

Please ensure the MACRO SECURITY (in Options, Security) is set to Medium before you open the spreadsheet. If not, then the buttons and the macros will not work. Having lowered the Macro Security from HIGH to Medium will not jeopardize the security of the laptop. It simply sets Excel to prompt the user, asking if the user wishes to activate macros in the spreadsheet rather than refusing to open the macros by default.

Note: If you download the file from this website or get it from Bob directly, it is 100% guaranteed to be virus-free. A download from anywhere else does not carry this guarantee. This is important since you must click the "Enable Macros" button to use the auto-scoring capability and macros may contain viruses and Trojans.

Step 1 - Save the LATEST VERSION (see bottom of page) of the file to the C:\ directory of the computer you'll be using. Be sure to take to the pool an extension cord, a power bar and a printer - with paper.

Step 2 - Open the file and click on the "Click here to set the club names" button. "Home" and "Away" are the defaults but, if you enter the correct pool names, those names will be used to auto-populate other useful fields such as the cover page, the officials list page, and the pages of the score sheet itself.

Step 3 - Print a copy of all nine pages of the score sheet BEFORE you start in case you have any technical problems that require you to resort to manual recording for the meet. Printouts (and file backups) should be made after each page so that you have a record in hand in the event of computer or power problems. There are a few helpful pop-up notes built in to the score sheet to remind the recorder/scorer to make print-outs and back-ups regularly.

Step 4 - Enter the names of the swimmers in the order of their finish, fastest to slowest, as always.

- Please enter the FIRST NAME FIRST, THEN THE LAST NAME and, in order to be consistent, do not use accents for French names i.e. Melanie Giguere not Mélanie Giguère.

- Once you have entered the swimmer's name, time and pool correctly, the Individual Points and Total Points columns will automatically be filled as well as the accumulated score at the bottom of each page.

- If you must go back and make a change to an entry, such as changing a scoring swimmer to a DQ, the score will reflect the change. Click on the "Place/DQ" cell beside the swimmer's time and click on the arrow that appears. Select "DQ". All of the ALPS rules on scoring have been applied in this application.

- To enter the swimmers in any additional heats, click the tab at the bottom marked "Exhibition Score Sheet" and enter them the same way. Please remember to print this sheet and attach a copy to each score package, including the ribbon table.

Step 5 - When you have time before or during the meet, you can fill in the "Officials" page and the Relay team swimmers from the printed sheets you will receive as the recorder/scorer. Click on the tabs at the bottom of the page for these pages.

- Once you have entered the entire swim meet, you'll find at the end of the score sheet, a button to print the cover page (remember to print the officials' page and exhibition swimmers pages, too).

At the end of the score sheet, there is also a "List Swimmers" button. Clicking it will generate an alphabetized list of swimmers from each club and their times in each of their events. The coaches should find this page very useful. The information for your club can be saved to a blank Excel file and similar information from each weekly swim meet can be added and the resulting list sorted to provide a great record of every swimmer's progress this summer.

Step 6 - Before you go to your first dual meet, download and play with the work book a bit to get used to it. If you have any questions, you can get in touch with Bob Cox .

Note: there is an (unfixable) error in the spreadsheet score calculator with regard to exhibition swimmers in the primary heats.

If an exhibition swimmer finishes before any of the other two swimmers from his/her club, and is designated in the scoring program as EXH, the 3rd swimmer from that club will be unable to score points. This also occurs when a club has a faster swimmer in lane 5 of a 5-lane pool (in this case, lane 5 swimmers are automatically considered to be exhibition, regardless of how they place).

As a work-around, ALPS recommends that faster exhibition swimmers be entered after all other swimmers in the heat so that the legal swimmers may score points.

Versions

Version 1.4 Original Version

Version 1.8

• Added a prompt to the user to confirm the location on the hard drive where the score sheet should be saved.

Version 1.9

· Corrected e-mail addresses for the "A" and "B" section co-ordinators, and the default date was changed to July 4, 2007 from 2005.

Version 1.9-2 June 2008

· John Rogers' email address was used as the Section B coordinator.

Version 2.0 Aug. 1, 2008

· Automatically adds the Recorder names into the cover sheet

· Automatically adds the Section into the cover sheet

· Automatically assigns the club name in relays when the club name is selected in the competitor's name column

· Added 3 pages of Exhibition events to the exhibition sheet

· Swimmer list now places swimmers times into proper swims rather than relays

· The club name is automatically populated using the Competitor name for the relay events

The Click here to set club names button must be used for these features to function. The recorders are now asked to fill in the following information:

· The HOME and VISITING pool names. Please use the proper club abbreviations as assigned by ALPS. A list of the proper  club names can be found on the ALPS WEB site

· The HOME and VISITING recorder names (people's names)

· The section they are competing in (A, B, or C only, no other text)

· The drive letter and path of where they want the file saved (C:\ by default)

If you have 2 or more heats for an event, each and every heat must carry the same event number. For example, if the 8 and under girls free style has 2 additional heats, the primary heat for points is event 1, and each subsequent heat will also be event 1 and NOT event 1A and 1B. Always using only the numeral 1, the swimmer list routine will automatically detect that event 1 is freestyle and place the swimmers time in the proper column in the swimmer list.

Version 2.5 May 5, 2010

· Corrected the relay events to automatically insert the club name when a team name is entered;

· Modified the E-Mail option to automatically insert the e-mail address of the section coordinator and the subject.

· Modified the swimmer list to include the following features:

(i) Added the times for any third and fourth swims an individual may do

(ii) Added a VERIFY flag indicating a swimmer swam more than 2 individual swims

(iii) Added a column for Back and Fly to indicate how many points are to be deducted for the illegal swims

(iv) Added a points summary at the bottom of the swimmer list

(v) Corrected a problem when the same name is typed in upper or lower case – The swimmer list did not see this person as the same person

(vi) Added warnings at the end of the swimmer list if 1 or more swimmers swim more than 2 individual events

(vii) Added instructions to the recorders to DQ the illegal swims prior to closing the meet and announcing the score

(viii) Improved the performance of the generation of the swimmer list

(ix) Added a status bar indicating the progress of the generation of the swimmer list

Version 2.6 June 21 , 2011

· Added an age column in the swimmers list – This will be used to automatically generate swimmer cards for Section Finals

Version 2.61 June 22 , 2011

· Fixed Macro error on the "Go to Officials page" button on page 1 of the calculator

· Improved the e-mail button at the bottom of page 9 to properly detect the destination address of the Section Coordinator

· Added a DQ slips page for printing the DQ slips

· Added a Place slips page for printing place slips

· Added a scoring rules page to help with manual scoring

Version 2.62 June 23 , 2011

·  Small "bugs" discovered at the training evening have been fixed.

Version 2.63 July 7, 2011:

• Removed external references to a workbook in the Print Page x buttons
• Fixed a cell formatting issue in Cells C331 - C333
• Renamed the new Age description page from Sheet1 to Ages
• Applied Sheet Protection to all of the worksheets
• Added the version number of the calculator to the page headings

To download version 2.63 of the score sheet, click here.