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2018-04-06:

Note: Text covers an earlier version.

General Advice and MeOS Philosophy

Updated: 2018-04-06

Here are some general tips for smooth operation of MeOS.

• MeOS is organized by a number of forms that are either a property form for some object (properties such as the name, class, start time etc for a participant), or is a functional form that holds settings to perform a particular action (assign bib numbers, export a file, or draw the start list).
• When you make changes to property forms, the changes are automatically saved if you go to another page or select another participant. You do not need to press the save button, which is useful if you want to make many changes in a row. The Undo button restores data to the last saved value.
• Functional forms work similarly, but have one ore more action buttons (such as Distribute Times or Export). You press the button to perform the action. In general, you can instead press ENTER on the keyboard. In some other programs, dialog boxes are used instead.
• To switch focus between form fields, you can use TAB on the keyboard.
• When using the club and running database, fields where you enter name and club have an autocompletion feature. You get suggestions in a list on the screen that matches what you wrote. Use ARROW UP and ARROW DOWN to select the correct proposal, then press ENTER to use the selection. To get rid of the suggestions, press ESC.
• Changes have direct effect in MeOS. If you change a punch code for a control, all participants might instantly get Missing Punch status (MP) without any warning. But you can as quickly change the code back. In many cases, if an action can not be easily undone, MeOS will provide a warning before the action is taken.
• A basic philosophy in MeOS is that actions can be performed in any order (unless there is an obvious dependency – drawing start lists must be done before starting). As an example, you can begin by reading out cards, then add runners, then define courses and classes, then put together the runners in teams, and finally print the relay results. This particular example is not very useful, but it means that you are not guided by certain working methods or procedures. And you can usually change things later without having to start over.
• If you need to make many changes of similar kind, the table mode can be powerful. You can filter and sort columns, and cut and paste data from a spreadsheet program, such as Excel. A task that can be solved in this way is moving all start times in a certain class 10 minutes ahead.
  • Sort the table by class.
  • Select the start times of the class.
  • Copy, paste into Excel and update the times.
  • Copy the modified times from Excel.
  • Paste the new start times into MeOS. It is sufficient to select the first cell for the class in the column of start times. MeOS will fill the column downwards.