Practice Creator 4.0 Users Guide

Transcription

1 Practice Creator 4.0 Users Guide Copyright Team Sport Software, LLC

2 Initial Setup Version 4.0 requires the Microsoft.NET framework 3.5, which is part of Windows 7, Vista & XP Operating System..NET is available for older versions of Microsoft Windows free of charge from Microsoft: Downloading and Installation Instructions are available on the web site If you have any problems downloading or installing Practice Creator, please Practice Creator 4.0 requires a license key. You will be prompted to enter this key the first time you run the program. The license key is a 12 character string. If you purchased the software from the web site, the license key will be sent to you via . If you purchased a CD, the license key will be on the case. A temporary evaluation license is available at no cost from After entering the license key, you will be displayed the software license agreement. Please read and click on the I Agree button.

3 Overview Before describing how to perform the various tasks, it is important to have a basic understanding of the similarities and differences between drills and plays, and the similarities and differences among practice plans, playbooks and drill libraries. Drills & Plays While drills and plays are fundamentally different to a coach, in the program they are very similar. Both contain a name, text describing the play/drill and a diagram showing what the players are expected to do. Both drills and plays can contain keywords. The only difference within Practice Creator is that drills contain a field for the length of time (duration) for the drill during the practice. Practice Plans Practice Plans are an ordered sequence of drills. Practice plans contain a name, some high-level text describing the objectives of the practice, and logistical information (facility, date, start time and length of the practice) in addition to the list of drills. The start time for each drill within a playbook is calculated based on the start time of the practice and the duration of the drills preceding it.

4 Playbooks Playbooks are an ordered sequence of plays. Playbooks contain a name, some high-level text introducing the playbook and the list of plays. The date/time/location field is not displayed for Playbooks

5 Drill Libraries Drill libraries are an un-ordered list of drills and plays. Drills and Plays within a drill library can be displayed alphabetically or selected by keyword. Drills within the library are displayed via the Tree list view on the left. Clicking on a "+" will expand the drills under that section and clicking on a "-" will compress the list. Every drill is listed alphabetically in the A-Z section. Drills are also listed alphabetically under any keyword that is associated with that drill.

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7 Menu and Toolbar Commands This chapter describes the commands available in Practice Creator. All Practice Creator Commands are available from the main menu, and this is how this section is organized. Many of these commands are also available from the toolbar or the context menu (right mouse click menu) within the diagrams. The toolbar is shown below and contains many of the most common commands. Practice Creator 4 has four toolbars. Each can be hidden or shown (from the View menu) or dragged to any of the borders of the window. The Main Toolbar contains the standard file operations, edit functions and font functions. The Page Control toolbar scrolls the document to the first page, previous page, next page or last page. You can also go to any page by entering the page number. The Drawing toolbar contains all the rink diagram drawing tools. The Player toolbar contains all the various symbols for players. To drag a toolbar, draw the small-dots handle on the left/top to the desired border. The figure at the right shows the Player toolbar docked to the right side of the screen. File Menu New Practice Plan, This option creates a new window and creates a new practice plan document using the defaults that you have saved (if any). A new practice plan starts with 4 drills. New Playbook This option creates a new window and creates a new playbook document using the defaults that you have saved (if any). A new playbook starts with 4 drills.

8 New Drill Library This option creates a new window and creates a new drill library document. A new drill library is created empty. Open, This option displays a dialog box to open an existing file. You can open practice plans and playbooks by selecting the.tsp suffix and you can open a drill library by selecting the.tsl suffix. Open Recent, This submenu contains the four most recent practice plans and playbooks, as well as the four most recent drill libraries. The program will not be able to open a file if it has been moved or renamed. Save, This option will save the file using the same name as was used to open the file or if it has been previously saved. If the document is new and has not been previously saved, then this option behaves like Save As and displays a dialog to select a filename. Save As This option allows you to save a document and specify the filename and location. Save As HTML This option will export the practice plan or playbook using HTML format, suitable for posting to a web site. Each diagram is exported to a JPEG file in a folder created at the same level as the document. The Save as HTML option is not available for drill libraries. Page Setup This option allows you to specify the paper size, page orientation and margins.

9 Print Preview, This option displays the document as it would be printed using the selected print parameters. The first page of the document will be displayed. You can use the Next and Previous buttons to display other pages, or click on the Print button to send the document to the printer.

10 Print, This option sends the document to your printer. You can only print practice plans and playbooks, not drill libraries.

11 Close This option closes the current window. You will be prompted to save your document if you have unsaved changes. If this is the last open window, then the program will exit. Exit This option closes all windows and exits the application. You will be prompted to save all unsaved documents. Edit Menu Undo, This option will undo the previous command. The menu name will change to indicate the task being undone. Practice Creator maintains a complete undo buffer, allowing you to choose Undo multiple times. This option will only be selectable if there are commands in the undo buffer. Redo, This option undoes the previous undo command. This option will only be selectable if there are commands in the redo buffer. Cut, This option deletes the currently selected shape or text and places it into the paste buffer.

12 Copy, This option places the currently selected shape or text into the paste buffer. Paste, This option places the contents of the paste buffer into the current document. Delete, This option deletes the currently selected shape or text. Cut Drill This option deletes the currently selected drill and places it into the paste buffer. Copy Drill This option places the currently selected drill into the paste buffer. Paste Drill This option places the drill in the paste buffer into the current document. Delete Drill This option deletes the currently selected drill. Font, This option is available whenever you are editing one of the text fields and is grayed out when you are working in the diagrams. The following dialog is displayed, allowing you to change the font, style, size and color of the selected text.

13 Bold, This option sets or clears the bold style of the currently selected text. The button will appear pressed if the selected text is already bold. Clicking the button again will un-bold the text. Italics, This option sets or clears the italic style of the currently selected text. The button will appear pressed if the selected text is already in italics. Clicking the button again will unitalic the text. Underline, This option sets or clears the underline style of the currently selected text. The button will appear pressed if the selected text is already underlined. Clicking the button again will un-underline the text. Bullets, This option sets or clears the bullet style of the currently selected text. The button will appear pressed if the selected text is already bulleted. Clicking the button again will unbullet the text.

14 Search Drill Library This option displays the library search dialog, displayed below, which will search the currently open drill library. This dialog behaves like many common internet search engines. The Search results will appear in the Explorer View on the left side of the Drill Library. Upper and Lower case is not significant: shoot, Shoot and SHOOT are all equal. Following is a summary of options in the search dialog. These options can be combined. word1 word2 (word1 word2) word1 word2 -word1 Match Whole Words Only Use Wildcards Search Text in Keywords Search Text in Drill Names Search Text in Drill Text Selects drills that have both word1 and word2 Selects drills that have either word1 or word2 Selects drills that have the phrase word1 word2 Selects drill that do not have word1 Requires words to be complete. If you are searching for Shot, and this box is checked, it will not match Shots Allows you to use * to indicate any combination of letters and? to indicate any single letter. H*Y matches any word that starts with H and ends with Y. H????Y matches any six letter word that starts with H and ends with Y. Searches the text of the drill keywords Searches the text of the drill names Searches the text of the drill description

15 View Document Properties This option displays the document properties dialog. You can also display this dialog by clicking on the text field that has the date, time and location of the practice. The document properties dialog allows you to change a document back and forth between practice plans and playbooks. You cannot change to or from a drill library. For practice plans you can enter the date, time, duration and location of the practice. You can save weekly ice slots by clicking on the down arrow to the right of the text field on a practice plan.

16 Logo If you click on the existing logo or select "Logo..." from the View menu, the following dialog is displayed Click "Load" to bring up a file open dialog to allow you to select an image. Note that images must be JPEG format. It will tend to look better if the logo is about the shape of the box in the dialog. The background of the logo should be white. Show/Hide Drill Properties This command will show or hide all of the drill property panels. The drill property panel contains a control for setting the drill duration, and shows the start and stop time of the drill, and has a button to display the keywords for the drill. Show/Hide Main Toolbar This command shows or hides the main toolbar.

17 Show/Hide Drawing Toolbar This command shows or hides the drawing toolbar. Show/Hide Page Control Toolbar This command shows or hides the page control toolbar. Show/Hide Player Toolbar This command shows or hides the player toolbar. Document Insert New Drill This command will insert a new drill into the document. If a drill is selected, the new drill will be inserted above the selected drill. If no drill is selected, the new drill will be inserted at the bottom. Drill libraries have no drill order. You can also access this command from the context menu. Insert Page Break This command inserts a page break into the document Insert Text Box This command insert a new blank text box into the document. Show/Hide Drill Heading This command will show or hide the drill heading. It is off by default. The drill heading can be used for many different purposes: to group together drills with a common theme or station, to indicate a water break or anything else where a heading would be helpful.

18 Save Image as JPEG This option allows you to export the diagram of the currently selected drill in JPEG format. This allows you to include your drawings in Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint or almost any other presentation tool. The standard Save As dialog is displayed. Drill Preferences This option allows you to save preferences to all new drills. It does not affect drills that are already created. The values of the currently selected drill will be used to save as defaults for new drills. Uncheck any item that you want to leave unchanged. An Example: Assume your team shares ice with another team and most of your drills are half-ice. Use the cropping tool to select half the ice rink. Adjust the height and width of the diagram. Click on Drill Preferences menu item. Click Save Checked Attributes. All new practice plans will start with half-ice rinks. Diagram Tools Select Tool, The selection tool is used for selecting a symbol on the playing surface to modify. Selected symbols will have handles displayed. If you hold down the Control key, you can select multiple shapes. You can: Move the symbol, by dragging it with the mouse You can change the shape of some symbols, by dragging one of the handles that appear when you selected the symbol. You can reshape all lines and the polygon. Delete the symbol by pressing the delete key Perform other options by displaying the context menu (press the right mouse button) o Cut/Copy/Paste/Delete the symbol o Change the color of the symbol o Rotate the nets (clockwise or counterclockwise)

19 Rectangle Select Tool, This select tool, selects all shapes enclosed in the drawn rectangle. Crop, The cropping tool is used to zoom in or out on specific parts of the hockey rink. It is excellent for drills in smaller areas, such as goalie drills and half rink practices. It can also be used for drills that practice face offs. To use the cropping tool, draw a rectangle over the area that you wish to zoom in on. To zoom out to the full view, just click on the rink diagram with the cropping tool. Default Colors, The default color dialog is used to change the color of symbols to be drawn next. It is most commonly used to symbolize different teams. To change the color of a symbol already on a diagram, select the symbol using the Selection Tool and then Right-click to display the context menu and choose "Change Color...". Cones and pucks have their own default color (orange and black). The color can be changed after they have been placed on the diagram. Player Symbols,, The letters stand for:

20 LW is the left wing C is the center (or coach) RW is the right wing LD is the left defense RD is the right defense G is the goaltender F & D are for forwards and defense when their exact positions is not important X & O are used for players when their position is not important C with a circle indicates a coach Circles & triangles are used to indicate Forwards & Defense. Use the letter drawing tool to place players (of different positions or roles) onto the rink. The letters will be drawn when you click the mouse on the playing surface. Whole Team Tools, The LW, C, RW, menu option is used to rotate through all of the positions, and is the fastest way to place 6 or 12 players on a diagram. The cursor will change to the next position after each player has been added. Players are placed on the rink the the following order LW, C, RW, LD, RD, G. It then repeats for the other team color. "F1, F2, F3,..." works the same way except that the players are placed in the following order: F1, F2, F3, D1, D2, G. Team Color Tool, This tool allows you to quickly enter players onto the rink in two different colors. The example shown here would be blue and red. The color on top is the color currently being drawn. The one behind is for the other team. Simply click on the colored icon to toggle the two colors. If you click on the down arrow, you can edit the colors of the two teams. If you have selected players, clicking on the color icon will change the players to the specified color. Text Tool, The text tool allows you to add new text or edit any existing text on the diagram. While the player buttons provide the most common symbols, with the text tool you can add any text you want.

21 Line Tools, There are five lines that can be drawn with this tool. They are; A plain straight line A plain arrowed line [skate, pass, or shoot] A double arrow line A line with a double line at end [skate with a hockey stop] A dashed line [pass] A double line [shoot] They symbolize the puck or players moving across the rink. To use the line drawing tool, click on the starting point, drag the mouse and release the mouse button on the endpoint. Freehand Tools, There are three lines that can be drawn with this tool. They are; A plain freehand line [skating] A plain freehand line with Arrow [skating] A waved line [stick handling] A line with C cuts [backwards skating] They are used to represent a player skating around the rink. The line will follow the path that you take your mouse through. To use the freehand line drawing tool, click on the starting point, drag the mouse through the desired path of the player and release the mouse button on the endpoint. Cone Tool, The cone, or pylon, is represented by a triangle. Cones are typically used as markers with younger players to simplify the drill. To place a cone symbol on the diagram, select the tool and click at the desired location within the diagram. You can change the colors of cones if you wish. Puck Tool, The puck symbol tells coaches where to put the pucks for a drill. A black circle represents a puck. You can change the color of pucks if you wish. Net Tool, The Hockey Net tool allows you to place additional hockey nets on the ice surface. Each rink surface starts with two nets that can be moved, rotated or removed. To add an additional net, simply select the net tool and click where you want the net to appear. You can then move the net, rotate the net or delete the net (see the Selection tool below)

22 Polygon Tool, The polygon tool is used to highlight areas of the ice surface, such as a zone of coverage or the area in front of the net. To draw a polygon, select the tool, and click at one of the corners of the desired polygon. Clicking the left mouse button can mark subsequent corners. Double-Click the left mouse button to complete the polygon. Polygons are drawn somewhat transparently, allowing you to see the lines on the ice under the polygon. Shape Change Color This option allows you to change the color of an existing object. All objects can have their color changed with the exception of Nets. Rotate This option allows you to rotate the hockey nets clockwise or counterclockwise in 45 degree increments. This is most useful in small games and goalie drills. Help License Manager This option displays the current license information. If the license is a permanent license (either purchased through the web site, from a retailer on CD, or through a club-wide site license), the following dialog will be displayed. If the license is an evaluation license, the expiration date will be shown, and a button will be enabled to allow you to enter a permanent license.

23 This is the dialog for entering a new license or updating an evaluation license to a permanent license. You must enter a Name or Club (or both), and the 12-character license key. About Practice Creator This option displays the splash screen along with licensing and version information Check for Updates This option will compare the version of Practice Creator you are running with the latest version available on the web site. If an update is available, you will have the option of downloading it.

24 Support This opens your default mail program so that you can send a bug report, feature request or ask for help. Creating a Practice Plan Creating a new practice plan To create a new practice plan, select "New Practice Plan" from the File Menu, or click on the icon on the toolbar. A new practice plan will be displayed using your saved defaults. Practice Creator is designed to save you time, by filling in as many fields as possible. Specifying the Club or Team Many coaches coach multiple teams. The option menu on the down arrow allows you to quickly toggle between teams. Add to favorites adds the club/team to the shortcut list. Set as Default sets the currently displayed team as the default for all new plans. The Organize favorites option displays a dialog box that allows you to remove clubs and teams from the shortcut menu.

25 Specifying the Date, Time & Location You should enter the logistical information for the practice by selecting "Document Properties" under the View menu, or clicking on the text box containing the date, time & location. The following dialog will be displayed, allowing you to change the date, time, duration and location of the practice. Since most teams tend to practice the same times each week, or at least use the same pool of weekly ice slots, we have added the concept of a weekly practice. Weekly practices are displayed in the shortcut menu on the right side. Practice Creator will calculate the next date for that weekly practice. Add as Weekly Practice will add the current practice as a weekly practice. Set as Default Practice will add the weekly practice as the default for all new Practice Plans

26 Organize Weekly Practices displays a dialog that allows you to delete weekly practices from the shortcut menu. Simply check any ice slots you want to delete and click the Delete Checked Items button. Entering plan descriptions The next field on the form allows you to enter any summary information about the practice plan. It is provided for you to enter goals for your practice, team announcements or anything else relevant. Entering a new drill The new practice plan starts with four drills. You can add as many as you need. To add a new drill to a practice plan, select Insert new drill from the main menu or the context menu within a drill. The drill will be inserted above the mouse location, if applicable. The drill should be given a name, which uniquely identifies the drill. Following the name, insert the description of the drill. Be sure to enter the format of the drill as well as the skills being taught. On the right side of the screen is a diagram showing the playing

27 surface. Use the drawing tools described below to edit the diagram. The time displayed is the calculated start and end time for the drill. The time is calculated based on the start time of the practice and the duration of the drills preceding it. The time will be displayed in red if it exceeds the duration of the practice. Many coaches plan some extra or optional activities in case they get ahead of schedule - these will show in red. Copy & Paste You can copy & paste a drill from another practice plan or from the drill library. Simply Right Mouse click on the diagram for the drill you wish to copy (not the text fields) and choose "Copy Drill", then right mouse click on your new practice plan and choose "Paste Drill". The drill will be pasted above the mouse location, if applicable Drag and Drop You can also use the drag and drop technique to copy drills from another practice plan or the drill library. To copy from another practice plan, you can either 1) Place the cursor over the light gray bar in the left margin and hold the mouse down, or 2) choose the Select tool and drag the ice rink to its desired location vertically within the document or a different document. If you drag and drop within one document, the drill will be moved. If you drag and drop from one document to another, the drill will be copied. To copy from the drill library, select the name of the drill you wish to copy and drag the mouse to your practice plan at the desired location and release the mouse button. To copy a drill to the drill library, drag the drill using either the light gray bar in the margin or the rink diagram to the explorer view of the drill library. Reordering Drills Use drag and drop to reorder the drills within a practice plan. Left mouse click on the button in the upper left corner of the drill you wish to move and drag the mouse to the desired location and release the mouse button. The cursor will change to show where a drop can be accepted or not. A drop to the current location is not permitted.

28 Deleting Drills You can delete a drill by right mouse clicking on the diagram and selecting "Delete Drill" Resizing Drills You can change the height of a drill by placing the mouse at the bottom of the drill. The cursor will change to the standard vertical sizing cursor. Click the mouse and drag up to make the drill smaller and down to make it larger. Then release the mouse. You can change the proportion of the drill allocated to the text versus the diagram by placing the mouse between the text and the diagram. The cursor will change to the standard horizontal sizing cursor. Click the mouse and drag left to make the text fields shorter and the diagram longer or right to make the text fields longer and the diagram shorted. Keywords Each drill has associated keywords to make retrieval from the drill library easier. Click on the Keywords button to display the list of available keywords. You may need to select the Show Drill Properties menu item to display the Keywords button. To select a keyword (or several) from preset list, simply click the desired keyword using the left mouse button. The keywords are nested.

29 To enter a custom keyword click, on the Add Custom button. A dialog box will be displayed to enter your keyword. Your keyword will now appear in the preset list. Custom keywords will appear in the preset list, as long as you have a plan open that is using that keyword, so you should only have to type your custom keywords once. To delete a custom keyword, simply make sure that none of your plays/drills are using it, and it will not appear the next time you start Practice Creator. You can enter hierarchical keywords, by using the "/" character as the separator. For example, you could use "Goaltending/breakaways" and "Goaltending/rebounds". In the drill library these will appear as groups in the explorer window. Headings If you have several drills or plays that fall under the same category (i.e. warm-ups, shooting), you may wish to place a heading above that section. Select the drill and choose the menu option Show Drill Heading

30 Creating a Playbook Playbooks are similar to practice plans. Only differences between practice plans and playbooks are described here. See the section on practice plans for specific information on adding, deleting and reordering plays. Create the document To create a playbook, select "New Playbook" from the File Menu. Differences between Playbook from Practice Plans Playbooks do not have logistical information (date, time, location of practices), or a start time for drills.

31 Maintaining a Library of Drills NOTE: If you are going to build upon the supplied drill library, it is highly recommended that you copy the sample drill library to a suitable folder somewhere under "My Documents". This will prevent possible loss of data with future deliveries. Creating a drill library To create a drill library, choose the New Drill Library menu option. This will create a new drill library. Once you have opened your drill library, you are free to put drills or plays into it. The easiest way to open an existing library is by using the Recent Files menu option to open one of the 4 most recently opened drill libraries. Inserting existing drills into the library There are two methods to insert a drill to your library: Copy & Paste, and Drag & Drop To copy & paste a drill into the library, right mouse click on the diagram of the drill you wish to copy, choose "Copy Drill". Open the drill library and right mouse click in the diagram or tree list view and Select "Paste Drill" To Drag & Drop a drill into the library, choose the Select tool and click on the rink diagram of the drill and drag the mouse to the tree list view of the library and release the mouse button. Make sure you use unique names for the drill when entering a drill. That makes it easier to access a drill when viewing your library of drills. Inserting new drills into the library You can enter a new (blank) drill into the library by clicking the right mouse button within the diagram area or tree list view and choosing "Add New Drill". Drills added here will be automatically given a name "Untitled-?", so that they can be accessed from the tree list view. Viewing drills in Library View The left Explorer menu allows you to view the drills in the library in several difference manners. Note that each drill can occur multiple times in the explorer view. The drills are displayed alphabetically by drill name under the heading Alphabetical The drills are displayed hierarchically by keyword under the heading Keywords And, if you perform a Find, from the Find menu option, the results will be displayed under the heading Search Results

32 Printing Printing a practice plan You can set the page parameters by selecting Page Setup. Here you can change the margins and paper size. To print a practice plan or playbook, simply select "Print" from the File menu.

33 Exporting Saving a Practice plan or Playbook in HTML This option operates like "Save as..." except that the file is saved in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). A folder with the same name is also created that contains the JPG images of all of the diagrams. Choose Save As HTML..." from the File menu A file save dialog will be displayed, allowing you to choose the filename Click Save The HTML file with its corresponding directory of image files can be easily distributed to players and coaches via or posted to a web site. The folder and HTML file will need to be in the same directory (folder). If you are interested in editing the HTML, there are many capable tools. If you do not have one, Netscape Composer can be downloaded for free. Microsoft Word can also edit HTML documents. Saving Diagram in JPEG This feature will allow you to export a diagram as a JPEG image that can then be used in other programs. The JPEG image can be edited using most photo/imaging programs. You will not be able to edit the exported diagram using Practice Creator and you will not be able to import the diagram back in to Practice Creator. Display the context menu by clicking the right mouse button on the desired diagram. Choose Save as JPEG" from the context menu A file save dialog will be displayed, allowing you to choose the filename Click Save

34 Important Changes since version 3.0 Numerous changes and improvements have been made since version 3.0 Feature Practice Creator 3.0 Practice Creator 4.0 Framework Microsoft.NET 1.1* Microsoft.NET 3.5 File Format binary file format Reads Practice Creator 3 binary format Reads & Writes XML file format of practice plans File Extensions Many clients and servers today do not allow arbitrary binary file format attachments (such as Practice Creator documents). This was not the case in 2003 when we introduced the binary format..tsp 3.0 practice plan or playbook.tsl 3.0 drill library XML files are human readable text and can easily be mailed as attachments, without posing a security risk..tspx 4.0 practice plan or playbook.tslx 4.0 drill library.tsp 3.0 practice plan or playbook (Read).tsl 3.0 drill library (Read) Maximum File Size About 50 pages Over 2000 pages Club Name & Logo Free text sections Formatted text single line club name Single text section at the beginning of the practice plan for objectives & notes Multi-line, variable height club & team name. Custom logo (JPG import) Text sections can be inserted anywhere in the practice plan Page Breaks no yes Multiple Selections of no yes, using either rectangle

35 shapes on rink selection tool or Controlclick Go to page no yes, on toolbar Floating toolbars no yes Quick Change for team colors no Yes Player Symbols Yes Adds Triangle, Circle & Coach Lines Yes Adds Double arrow line and arrow on skating line

36 Comments If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, ideas for future releases or bug reports, please submit them to