AN INTRODUCTION TO DIAMOND SCHEDULER

Transcription

1 AN INTRODUCTION TO DIAMOND SCHEDULER Draft 11/26/2014 Note: Please send suggestions to Cactusware, LLC

2 AN INTRODUCTION TO DIAMOND SCHEDULER WELCOME Welcome to Diamond Scheduler Sports Scheduling Software. This overview will provide you with the introductory information you need to successfully schedule most sports leagues. TYPES OF SCHEDULING You have probably heard of many types of scheduling round robin, elimination, pool play, and guaranteed play. Diamond Scheduler can be used to support several types of scheduling tasks. Its strength is round robin scheduling with the ability to control several constraints. Round robin scheduling teams or individuals such that they play every other team or opponent. The way I use the term round denotes that each team has played every other team once. So, if you have 4 teams, each team will have 3 games per round since there are 3 teams each team can play. In short, for every round of play, each team will have n 1 games, where n is the number of teams. Creating round robin schedules for 4 or 5 teams is quite simple to do by hand. However, when you start dealing with a large number of teams or when you want to control some factors like which days certain teams cannot play, a computer based scheduling program like Diamond Scheduler comes in handy. HOW TO USE THIS DOCUMENT This introduction to using Diamond Scheduler provides a couple of options. 1. You can read the brief Quick Start, which gives you the basics of creating a schedule. 2. You can use the walk through tutorial, which schedules a simple league in step by step fashion. 3. You can browse the Table of Contents and index to find the topics you re looking for. You may find it more engaging to watch a screencast that introduces the basics of scheduling in a similar manner. You can find those movies at Let s get started.

3 QUICK START So you re impatient like me. If it needs instructions, it s too complex, right? Well here are the basics of Diamond Scheduler. STEP 1: CREATE DIVISIONS Before you can have teams, you must create divisions (or you can think of them as levels, if you don t use the term division in your league). To create your first division, navigate to the Division Tab, then click on the New button at the bottom of the screen. There are two pieces of information that are required. 1. The name of the division or level 2. An abbreviation for the division or level. The abbreviation is used for calendar displays where space is limited. So creating short, unique abbreviations will make your calendars easier to read. Sample division entry STEP 2: CREATE TEAMS Now that you have a division, you can identify the teams for the division. The process is the same as above: Two pieces of information are required for each team. 1. The name of the team 2. An abbreviation for the team that is unique and suited for the crowded view of a calendar.

4 Sample team entry STEP 3: CREATE VENUES Nothing different here. The only two pieces of information required, after you click the New button, are the following: 1. The name of the venue 2. An abbreviation for the venue that is unique and suited for the crowded view of a calendar. STEP 4: CREATE TIMESLOTS FOR THE VENUES Sample venue entry To navigate to the Timeslot Calendar (where you identify times that are available at the venue), click on the button labeled Timeslots on the Venue tab. At the upper right of the Timeslot Calendar screen, you will see a box with your divisions listed. Before you create a timeslot, click on the division or divisions that can use the timeslots you are about to create. You can always change the division assignment for timeslots later. However, if you get in the habit of identifying the about to be created timeslot/s before, it s one less step.

5 Timeslots created will can now be used by Softball Seniors A SIDE TRIP: NAVIGATING THE TIMESLOT CALENDAR You can use the buttons below the calendar to display a highlighted day, week or month. Timeslot Calendar view buttons Double clicking on an empty day of the calendar when in Month view, will toggle to the Week view of the calendar. Notice, days of the week are now displayed in the headers and time of day is displayed on the Y axis.

6 Week view in Timeslot Calendar Double clicking on a time of day when in Week view, creates a timeslot. Before double clicking on a time, indicate which divisions can use the timeslots you are about to create by checking the appropriate boxes in the division list at the upper right. If you had multiple divisions in the file, you could certainly indicate that multiple divisions could use a timeslot. However, it s also common to indicate that early timeslots are used by Division A and later timeslots are used by Division B. For this exercise, click on Softball Seniors. Timeslot division list

7 Now when you double click on your 5:30PM timeslot on Monday, a timeslot associated with Majors Softball will be created. Double click in week view creates a timeslot Continue creating the assigned timeslots until you have one week s worth of timeslots entered.

8 One week of scheduled games Once you create a template week of timeslots by double clicking across the week view, you can right click on the calendar and choose Copy Week and Paste Until Date to quickly clone the week s timeslots as a recurring pattern until the end of the season. Create 10 weeks of timeslots. Copying template week until a specific date

9 When I create 10 weeks of timeslots, I end up with 80 timeslots, so see if you have the same number at this point. STEP 5: ASSIGN HOME VENUE/S TO TEAMS So now you have your venue with timeslots that can be used by the division called Majors Softball. You have one more step to complete before scheduling this file. Identify which teams can play home games at this venue. In this case, we ll say that all the teams in this division can play home games at this one venue. So 1. Click the Done button on the right side of the Timeslot Calendar 2. Click the Edit button for the venue 3. Then drag and drop all the teams in the right side box to the left side box to indicate they can all play home games at this venue.

10 Dragging all teams from the right to the left to indicate they can play home games at this venue 4. Click the Done button of the Venue form and you re set to go! STEP 6: CREATE A SCHEDULE To create a schedule based on the division, team, venue and timeslots you have identified, navigate to the schedule tab and choose the type of schedule you wish to create. For this quick start, I ll just go with Round Robin. Choosing round robin schedule type Based on the number of timeslots you have at the venues, the program will suggest a number of rounds to play.

11 Determining the number of rounds to play STEP 7: VIEW REPORTS When the schedule is complete, you ll be presented with the following screen. Locked schedule screen

12 Go to the Master Calendar or Reports and explore all your options for exporting in the toolbar of the calendar or report. Print and export options for reports If all you can stand to read is a Quick Start introduction to software, you re done. Go for it and I wish you the best. If you need a little more hand holding or a whole lot more detail, continue with the step by step tutorial to creating an entire schedule, while exploring some of the options and choices you can make while generating that schedule.

13 STEP BY STEP WALKTHROUGH CREATE A SCHEDULE DETAILED STEP 1: GATHER INFORMATION STEP 1 INSTRUCTIONS Before you begin scheduling, save yourself some trouble and make sure you have all the information you need. How many teams will there be? Who is the primary contact for each team? Are there specific dates where a team cannot play for some reason? Are the venues booked? What timeslots do you have available to work with as you schedule? Once you have all the information, it s time to schedule. For this walkthrough, we ll use the example of a softball schedule with six teams: Kiwis, Quails, Finches, Robins, Parrots and Skylarks. The division s name is Majors Softball. STEP 2: CREATE DIVISIONS STEP 2 INSTRUCTIONS On the division tab, click the New button at the bottom of the screen. The data entry form should be enabled and you can enter the following information: DIVISION NAME Majors Softball DIVISION ABBREVIATION MSoft Your screen should look like the following image.

14 Screen after entering division information WHAT S ON THIS SCREEN DIVISION NAME AND ABBREVIATION These two items of information are required for all divisions. CUSTOM CODE There are reports where you have the option to use custom codes, which might be longer than the abbreviation, but not as long as the division name. This field is also used when integrating with leaguehosting sites where you have a division ID at the site, which must be preserved and exported when you re ready to upload your schedule. OUT OF LEAGUE DIVISION (VISIBLE IN EDITING MODE) This checkbox appears when you initially create a division. If you have a handful of out of league games, possibly with a travelling team that is not in your league, you can create a generic division for those teams so that they can be scheduled without being counted in standings.

15 ACROSS TWO DIVISIONS (VISIBLE IN EDITING MODE) Once your league file has more than one division, another checkbox will appear allowing you to specify that a new division is an across division creation where you can schedule across division schedules, without creating new teams. STEP 3: CREATE TEAMS STEP 3 INSTRUCTIONS Create the six teams we need for our schedule. As with the division tab, click on the New button at the bottom of the screen to begin data entry. Here are the teams we ll be scheduling: TEAM NAME Kiwis Quails Finches Robins Parrots Skylarks TEAM ABBREVIATION Kiw Qua Fin Rob Par Sky TIP: Faster Data Entry As you create your team names, type in the name of the team and its abbreviation. Press the Enter key when you re done. Then, press the SPACE bar to create a new team. Since the New button has the focus, the data entry form will be enabled again. Team entry should go quickly.

16 Screen after entering team information WHAT S ON THIS SCREEN TEAM NAME AND ABBREVIATION These two items of information are required for all teams. CUSTOM CODE There are reports where you have the option to use custom codes, which might be longer than the abbreviation, but not as long as the team name. This field is also used when integrating with leaguehosting sites where you have team IDs at the site, which must be preserved and exported when you re ready to upload your schedule. COACHES AND PLAYERS Once you have persons entered into your league, when you edit the team, two lists will appear. You will be able to drag and drop coaches, to the Coaches box on the left and players to the Players box on the left. This information is optional and may not be needed by your league. However, if you have a coach

17 that participates on more than one team, this information is required to avoid double booking the coach. NO PLAY TEAMS For whatever reason, your league may have an instance where two teams simply should not play each other. The reason might be that there have been troubles between the two teams in the past and you have decided to skip a year s match up until those issues are resolved. NO PLAY VENUES No play venues can be specified to solve a different issue. One use case might be a coach who must use a wheelchair at the venue and you have venues where accessibility is an issue. You can exclude those problem venues on this form. TIME CONSTRAINTS This form allows you to specify if there are days of the week that a team cannot play. You can also specify black out dates for particular teams. The black out days and dates can be requested for entire days or for windows of time. You have the option of applying the settings of one team to all teams or a subset of teams in the division. Time constraints form TRAVEL CONSTRAINTS This form allows you to set limits on the distance a team can travel each day of the week. This is useful to indicate that longer travel distances might only be appropriate on weekends. The Distance Grid on this form tells you the distance between the various venues.

18 Travel constraints form SPECIAL REQUESTS Do you have a league matchup in your division that is traditionally included on a particular day? Let s say the Yankees always play the Mets on July 4. This form allows you to specify a specific date and request that a team is to play at home, play away, play at home against a specific team, play a double header at home, play double header at home against a specific team, or play at a neutral site for both teams. Special requests form

19 STEP 4: CREATE VENUES STEP 4 INSTRUCTIONS Create a venue where teams in this division can play. To keep this tutorial relatively simple, we ll say that all teams play all their games at one venue. We ll use Central Park VENUE NAME Central Park VENUE ABBREVIATION CP OPTIONAL: ENTER LOCATION INFORMATION (OPTIONAL) If you are planning to limit travel distances for the division, you need to enter the location information for the venue. Since all our teams will be playing at this only venue, the information will only be useful for generating a map link for directions to the venue. Address 1 14 E. 60 th St Address 2 City New York State NY Zip Steps: 1. Enter address information while editing the venue form. 2. Click the Locate button at the upper right to reveal a map 3. Choose whether you prefer a Streets view or Satellite view 4. Click on the exact location of the venue and a red dot should appear 5. Click on the Save Location button at the top of the map Once this information is entered, the View button on the venue form will allow you to see the map and the Copy button will allow you to copy the Google Maps link for the venue, which you might use in correspondence.

20 Location map for creating venue links

21 Completed venue form WHAT S ON THIS SCREEN VENUE NAME AND ABBREVIATION These two items of information are required for all divisions. CUSTOM CODE There are reports where you have the option to use custom codes, which might be longer than the abbreviation, but not as long as the division name. This field is also used when integrating with league hosting sites where you have a division ID at the site, which must be preserved and exported when you re ready to upload your schedule. ADDRESS 1 AND ADDRESS 2 The location of the venue. Include as much detail as possible, including state and zip code to increase the accuracy of the search in the map component. LOCATE BUTTON

22 Clicking this button takes you to a map where you can specify the exact location of the venue. Using the satellite view often helpful in pinpointing the venue. VIEW BUTTON Allows you to view the location information in Google Maps. COPY BUTTON Allows you to copy the link information for Google Maps TIMESLOTS Takes you to the Timeslot Calendar where you specify times that the venue is available. More detail is provided in a subsequent section. IMPORT TIMESLOTS Allows you to import timeslots from another venue or from a file. REMOVE UNUSED Allows you to remove venues in the file that have no timeslots and remove venues from the file that have no home teams. VENUE DISTANCE GRID Clicking on the icon at the bottom right of the form displays a matrix of distances between venues. This can be useful when determining travel distance between venues while specifying travel restrictions. VENUE PRIORITY You can give the venues rankings for desirability. +3 is the best ranking and 3 is worst ranking. This setting is used if you employ venue priorities during scheduling to use the best venues first.

23 STEP 5: CREATE TIMESLOTS STEP 5 INSTRUCTIONS So we have a venue where the teams can play, but we haven t yet identified the specific times when the venue is available. Click on the Timeslots button at the bottom of the screen and you will be presented with the Timeslot Calendar. Create the following timeslots at the Central Park venue using a template week with the following properties: DAY Every weekday Saturday TIME 5:30PM 3:00PM, 4:30PM, 6:00PM To accomplish this task, you ll need to understand how to navigate around the Timeslot Calendar and how to create the actual timeslots. So, a little side trip is in order.

24 A SIDE TRIP: NAVIATION IN THE TIMESLOT CALENDAR You can use the buttons below the calendar to display a highlighted day, week or month. View buttons in Timeslot Calendar Double clicking on an empty day of the calendar when in Month view, will toggle to the Week view of the calendar. Notice, days of the week are now displayed in the headers and time of day is displayed on the Y axis.

25 Double clicking month view toggles to week view Double clicking on a time of day when in Week view, creates a timeslot. Before double clicking on a time, indicate which divisions can use the timeslots you are about to create by checking the appropriate boxes in the division list at the upper right. If you had multiple divisions in the file, you could certainly indicate that multiple divisions could use a timeslot. However, it s also common to indicate that early timeslots are used by Division A and later timeslots are used by Division B. For this exercise, click on Softball Seniors. Timeslot division list

26 Now when you double click on your 5:30PM timeslot on Monday, a timeslot associated with Majors Softball will be created. Double clicking in week view creates a timeslot Continue creating the assigned timeslots until you have one week s worth of timeslots entered.

27 A template week Once you create a template week of timeslots by double clicking across the week view, you can right click on the calendar and choose Copy Week and Paste Until Date to quickly clone the week s timeslots as a recurring pattern until the end of the season. Create 10 weeks of timeslots. Copying a template week through a specific cate

28 When I create 10 weeks of timeslots, I end up with 80 timeslots, so see if you have the same number at this point. Completed Timeslot Calendar Month view of all timeslots entered

29 WHAT S ON THIS SCREEN VENUE When creating timeslots, you are always looking solely at one venue. The Venue dropdown list at the upper left of the form, allows you to choose the venue you are currently viewing. VIEW BUTTONS Below the calendar display are four buttons that allow you to choose the current view, Day, Week, Month or Year. DIVISIONS LIST In the upper right corner, these checkboxes allow you to associate timeslots with divisions use. NEW DIVISION This button in the upper right side, above the Divisions List, allows you to create a new division quickly, in case you are in the middle of creating timeslots and see that you forgot to create a division that is now needed. SPLIT FOR PRACTICES This setting allows you to split a venue into sub venues for practice. This is common with hockey and other sports that do not require a full venue for teams to practice. APPLY ABOVE TO SELECTED TIMES BUTTON If you select a new collection of timeslots and want to apply the formatting of the timeslots you just completed (division and split timeslots setting), select the new timeslots and click this button and the last formatting you performed with be applied again. TIMESLOT SUMMARY Displays the number of timeslots available for the current venue and total number of timeslots identified for the file. DEFAULT LENGTH Allows you to specify the default length of a game, which is used when creating timeslots. SELECTED TIMESLOT DETAIL Displays the details of a timeslot that is selected on the calendar CONTEXT MENU (RIGHT CLICK MENU) Right clicking on the calendar when in the Timeslot Calendar reveals a context menu (popup menu where you click) with several options for managing timeslots on the calendar ADD A TIMESLOT Add a timeslot at the selected time on the calendar

30 CREATE NON GAME EVENT Add a special event, like Opening Ceremonies. COPY TIMESLOT START AND END TIMES If you decide to change the start time and end time of several timeslots, click on a timeslot that has been adjusted to the desired start and end times. This will copy the start time and end time which can be pasted onto other timeslots. PASTE STORED START AND END TIMES Paste the copied start time and end time onto selected timeslots. COPY AND PASTE Menus to allow you to copy a timeslot and paste it to a different, selected time. COPY DAY AS TEMPLATE Select a day (which possibly has several timeslots) and use the paste menu item below to duplicate the timeslot information. COPY WEEK AS TEMPLATE Make a copy of the currently visible week and place it in the clipboard. COPY SELECTED TIMESLOTS UNTIL DATE If you select a group of timeslots, use this menu to duplicate the selected timeslots each week until an end date, which you can specify on the calendar that will pop up when you choose this item. COPY WEEK AND PASTE UNTIL DATE In week view, use this menu item to duplicate timeslots for each week until an end date, which you can specify on the calendar that will pop up when you choose this item. COPY ALL TIMESLOTS FROM THIS VENUE If more than one venue has the exact same times available and you want to clone those times to a new venue to avoid having to manually re enter the information, use this menu item. Then, in the new venue Timeslot Calendar, use the paste item below to duplicate all those copied timeslots at the new venue. MOVE ALL TIMESLOTS FOR THIS VENUE Allows you to move the entire season backwards or forward by a specified number of days. PASTE WEEK FROM TEMPLATE Used to paste copied week template. PASTE TIMESLOTS COPIED FROM ANOTHER VENUE Used to paste copied timeslots from another venue. DELETE SELECTED TIMESLOTS Delete the selected timeslots (you can also use the delete key)

31 DELETE ALL TIMESLOTS FOR THIS VENUE Deletes all timeslots at the currently viewed venue. DELETE ALL TIMESLOTS IN THIS FILE Deletes all timeslots for the league file. ADD A NOTE Add a note to a timeslot that might have special information. This note will be viewable in both the Master Calendar and Game List. EDIT NOTE Edit an existing note attached to a timeslot. DELETE NOTE Delete an existing note. STEP 6: ASSIGN HOME VENUE/S TO ALL TEAMS STEP 6 INSTRUCTIONS So now you have your venue with timeslots that can be used by the division called Majors Softball. You have one more step to complete before scheduling this file. Identify which teams can play home games at this venue. So now you have your venue with timeslots that can be used by the division called Majors Softball. You have one more step to complete before scheduling this file. Identify which teams can play home games at this venue. In this case, we ll say that all the teams in this division can play home games at this one venue. So 1. Click the Done button on the right side of the Timeslot Calendar 2. Click the Edit button for the venue 3. Then drag and drop all the teams in the right side box to the left side box to indicate they can all play home games at this venue.

32 Dragging all teams from the right to the left to indicate they can play home games at this venue 4. Click the Done button of the Venue form and you re set to go! STEP 7: ADD PERSONS TO THE LEAGUE STEP 7 INSTRUCTIONS If you plan on coaches or players being associated with more than one team, this step is not optional. Otherwise, no persons are required. Click the New button and complete the person form as you would any of the previous forms.

33 Completed person form WHAT S ON THIS SCREEN FIRST NAME AND LAST NAME I think I ll not explain this one ADDRESS, PHONE AND What s needed here should be pretty intuitive. However, so you know, you can create multiple addresses, phones and s by clicking on the green plus icons for each. ROLES This upper right box allows you to identify the roles the person. The roles are not mutually exclusive so a person could be both a coach and a player. The 3 rd and 4 th role can be configured by you to match your needs.

34 STEP 8: SCHEDULE We re now ready to schedule. To explain the types of schedules available to you, allow me to take one more side trip. SCHEDULE TYPES ELIMINATION Single and double elimination brackets are available. If you have more than 16 teams, simply create two or three or four brackets and then a final bracket for the final four ROUND ROBIN The most common regular league schedule where each team plays every other team X number of times during the season. ACROSS DIVISION Used for inter league or across division scheduling, this type of schedule results in all teams from one league playing all teams in another league, but not teams from their same league. This is most often combined with a regular round robin schedule for the rest of the season. PRACTICE Assigns only one team per timeslot for practice purposes. MANUAL ENTRY Locks the schedule and allows you to go into the Master Calendar and manually edit some of the timeslots. This is useful if you want to ensure one game is played on a particular date or if you ve already started the season before scheduling and you need to input the games that have already been played. Once you input manual games, you would typically right click on the calendar and choose Lock All Scheduled Games. STEP 8 INSTRUCTIONS OK, you ve made it to scheduling time. However, you still have several decisions to make regarding the constraints you want to use. For this exercise, your assignment is the following: 1. Split the venues into two venues for the first week of play and use those split venues for practice times for the teams.

35 a. Either navigate to the venue tab or use the menu item at the top of the screen to View > Timeslot Calendar b. In the upper right, make sure that Majors Softball is checked in the division list box. c. Click on the checkbox below the division list labeled Split for Practices and set the number of sub venues to 2 per timeslot. d. Lasso the weekday timeslots for that week by holding down the control key (command key on a Mac), hold down the left mouse button and draw a bounding box around the first five timeslots all the weekday timeslots. This will select the timeslots. e. Click the button below the checkbox that is labeled Apply Above to Selected Timeslots. You will see that an additional copy of each of those timeslots is created and the name of the venue has been divided into Central Park [A] and Central Park [B]. These will be our half venues for practice time. f. Click the first timeslot on Saturday and repeat, i.e., click the button labeled Apply Above to Selected Timeslots. 2. Indicate that the Finches cannot play on Mondays because their coach has to work late on that day. a. Navigate to the Team tab and choose the Finches in the team dropdown at the top. b. Click the Time Constraints button at the bottom. c. Click the checkbox in the All Day column for Monday. d. Click Save Settings and Close at the bottom right of the screen. 3. Create a week of practices for the teams a. On the schedule tab, click the pencil icon at the upper right to change the name of the current schedule to Practices b. On the schedule tab, click Practice as the type of schedule you like to create. c. At the bottom right, input 2 as the number of practices per season for this schedule.

36 d. Click the Schedule Now button (choose either Sequential or Rotate no big difference for this exercise) e. When it s done scheduling the practices, click on the Master Calendar button and you should see something along these lines (this is the Day view your view may be different until you switch to Day view). 4. OK, so we ve created a couple of practices for our teams at the beginning of the season. Let s create the round robin schedule for the remainder of the season a. Create a new schedule for this division by clicking on the plus icon at the top right of the schedule tab and name it Games. b. Create a new schedule for this division by clicking on the plus icon at the top right of the schedule tab and name it Games. c. This time, click on the Round Robin type of scheduling and you ll be presented with a screen of options, which I explain below. However, for this simple league, we don t need to change any of the defaults, so click the Schedule Now button. d. You should now have your completed schedule with the following: i. Two practices for each team at the beginning of the season ii. The Finches are not scheduled on Mondays iii. Each team has 20 round robin games for the season (4 rounds of teams playing each other).

37 Good job! Round robin scheduling options WHAT S ON THIS SCREEN SCHEDULING SETTINGS NORMAL PAIRS AND BACK TO BACK PAIRS Normal pairs implies a typical round robin schedule where every team plays every other team before the rotation begins again. Back to back is used to create double headers with the same teams. USE VENUE PRIORITIES If you have a venue that is more desirable than others, you can use this setting to schedule it first or distribute the use of all venues across teams.

38 LIMIT GAME DAYS IN A ROW If you do not want a team to have more than x number of games in a row (consecutive days), limit that using this setting. LIMIT GAMES IN A WEEK Set the maximum number of games a team should be allowed to play in any one week. LIMIT GAMES IN A SEASON Limit the total number of games for each team for the entire season. BALANCE EARLY/LATE If you have early and late timeslots, use this setting to distribute early and late games relatively evenly across teams. ROTATE STARTING TEAM At times, because of odd venue availability, it is worth a try mixing up the rotation matrix a bit to see if you can find a solution. If, for example, the default first game is between Team 1 and Team 6, rotating the starting team by 1 would make the first game a matchup between Team 2 and Team 6. ENCOURAGE BALANCE OF DAYS USED Request that the program attempt to even out the days of the week used by each team. PARTIAL SEASON This setting allows you to specify the range of timeslots to be used for the current schedule. For instance, you might want to schedule your across division games in the middle of the schedule. This setting allows you to specify the window of dates to use for the schedule. OTHER TIMESLOTS TO USE It is assumed that each team can use their home venue timeslots for games. In addition, you can include the following. UNASSIGNED SLOTS Timeslots that have no division assignment MULT DIVISION SLOTS Timeslots that have multiple division associations. USER VISITOR VENUE IF NO HOME DATES If the home team has run out of available timeslots, this setting allows the game to be played at the visitor s venue. BETWEEN GAMES SAME DAY OK Teams can play multiple games on the same day.

39 NEXT DAY OK Teams cannot play multiple games on the same day. The next game can only occur on the following day. CUSTOM Specify the number of days rest required between games. USE WEEKEND METHOD Assuming you have a sufficient number of timeslots to support the pairings, this method attempts to schedule one game during the week and one game during weekend. HOME/AWAY PATTERNS FLIP FIRST ROUND HOME/AWAY If you cannot find a solution because of unusual venue timeslot distribution, experiment with this setting which will flip all games, e.g., Team 1 against Team 6 becomes Team 6 against Team 1 at Team 1 s venue. FLIP AND REVERSE SECOND ROUND This setting flips home and away for the even rounds, but repeats that last game of the first round first (with teams flipped) and progresses in reverse as compared to the first round. GAMES TO PLAY ROUNDS Use of this setting drives scheduling by attempting to complete x number of rounds (each team playing every other team before repeating play with a team). GAMES PER TEAM PER WEEK If you prefer to solely ensure that teams have x number of games per week, use this setting. GAMES PER TEAM PER SEASON If you prefer to have the scheduling driven by the total number of games for the season for each team, use this setting. ICONS ON SCREEN PLUS ICON (TOP RIGHT) Adds a schedule for the current division. PENCIL ICON (TOP RIGHT) Edits the name of the current schedule. X ICON (TOP RIGHT) Deletes the current schedule.

40 REFRESH ICON (BOTTOM RIGHT) If you have overridden the request rounds or games, you can refresh the settings to where the program will make suggestions based on the number of timeslots available. CALCULATOR ICON (BOTTOM RIGHT) Access the timeslot calculator when you need it. STEP 9: VIEW MASTER CALENDAR STEP 9 INSTRUCTIONS The Master Calendar is one of the most used reports since you can both visually assess what is happening with your league and make minor adjustments to the schedule.

41 Master Calendar WHAT S ON THIS SCREEN TIMELSOT DETAIL This tab allows you to see detailed information about a selected timeslot on the calendar. REPORT OPTIONS Using this tab, you can filter the items you want to see, including only certain divisions, teams or venues. SCHEDULES TO DISPLAY This dropdown provides another method of filtering the visible items on the calendar. SHOW EMPTY TIMESLOTS Checking this box allows you to see the timeslots that are available, but not yet scheduled. CONTEXT MENU (RIGHT CLICK MENU) GAME BALANCE WINDOW Shows a popup window displaying the balance of games across teams. ASSOCIATE TIMESLOT WITH DIVISION Used with empty timeslots, you can associate the timeslot with a particular division, changing its status from unassigned. DISPLAY TEAMS PLAYING ON ROLLOVER Checking this items will provide a tooltip that informs you of the teams playing on this day, whenever you hover over a timeslot of the target date. DISPLAY TEAMS NOT PLAYING ON ROLLOVER Checking this items will provide a tooltip that informs you of the teams NOT playing on this day, whenever you hover over a timeslot of the target date. ADD A TIMESLOT You can add a new timeslot in the master calendar, rather than switching to the timeslot calendar, using this control. CREATE NON GAME EEVENT If you need to create a special event, like opening ceremonies, use the menu item. COPY TIMESLOT START AND END TIMES

42 Using this menu item copies the start and end times of the selected timeslot. You can then paste those attributes onto other timeslots that are currently scheduled for different times. PASTE STORED START AND END TIMES After copying the start and end times of the selected timeslot, you can then paste those attributes onto other timeslots that are currently scheduled for different times. COPY, PASTE AND DELETE Copy, paste and delete timeslots. CLEAR TEAMS AND LEAVE TIMESLOT Remove the teams (and game) from the timeslot but leave the timeslot for other scheduling. SWITCH GAME TIMESLOT WITH ANOTHER TIMESLOT Choose this menu item for a selected timeslot. You will then be prompted to click on the timeslot with which you want to switch. FLIP HOME AND AWAY Make the home team, the visitor, and vice versa for the selected game. FLIP HOME AND AWAY FOR ALL GAMES Make the home team, the visitor, and vice versa for all games. FLIP HOME AND AWAY FOR ALL UNLOCKED GAMES Make the home team, the visitor, and vice versa for any game that is not locked. LOCK SELECTED GAMES Locking games gives you the choice of preserving the games if you unlock the schedule. LOCK ALL SCHEDULED GAMES Locking games gives you the choice of preserving the games if you unlock the schedule. This allows you to do so for all scheduled games in the calendar. LOCK ALL GAMES ON OR BEFORE SELECTED DATE Locking games gives you the choice of preserving the games if you unlock the schedule. This menu item allows you to do that for all games scheduled before the currently selected date. UNLOCK SELECTED GAMES Unlock the selected games, thereby not preserving the timeslot, should the schedule be unlocked. UNLOCK ALL GAMES ON OR BEFORE SELECTED DATE Unlock the selected games, thereby not preserving the timeslot, should the schedule be unlocked. This option allows you to do this based on date.

43 ADD A NOTE Add a note, such as information you want to remember, for a particular timeslot. EDIT NOTE Edit an existing note. DELETE NOTE Delete an existing note. MOVE THIS DAY Select all games on a particular day then point to the new date to which you want to move the games. MOVE ENTIRE SCHEDULE Move the entire schedule by x number of days. TOOLBAR ICONS FOR MASTER CALENDAR Toolbar Icons for Master Calendar SAVE PICTURE OF CURRENT CALENDAR VIEW TO PDF If you want a picture of the currently displayed screen, this will export that view. A much cleaner view can be produced by either printing to PDF or Exporting to HTML. PRINT Print the currently displayed calendar. If you have PDF creation on your computer, you can print to PDF. EXPORT TO HTML Exports the calendar to HTML, which you can print, save and share. STEP 10: VIEW GAME LIST STEP 10 INSTRUCTIONS The other most used report view is the Game List.

44 SHOW EMPTY TIMESLOTS TIMESLOT DETAIL REPORT OPTIONS COLUMN OPTIONS NUMBER OF RECORDS PER PAGE SORT SAVE PREFERENCES PRINT EXPORT TO PDF EXPORT TO HTML EXPORT TO OTHERS

45 STEP 11: VIEW OTHER REPORTS STEP 11 INSTRUCTIONS GAME BALANCE REPORT GAME BALANCE WINDOW TEAM BALANCE REPORT TEAM BALANCE WINDOW VENUE BALANCE REPORT VENUE BALANCE WINDOW STANDINGS MAIN MENU ITEMS FILE NEW

46 NEW SPECIALTY SCHEDULE CHANGE LEAGUE TYPE DIRECTLINK MERGE SCHEDULE FILES IMPORT DIVISIONS TEAMS VENUES PERSONS TIMESLOTS DIAMOND SCHEDULER INTERCHANGE FILE EXPORT CSV

47 JSON EXPORT TO DIAMOND SCHEDULER 6 SCHEDULES EDIT PREFERENCES SPECIFY DATA DIRECTORY VIEW CALENDAR, GAME LIST, BALANCE REPORTS UNSCHEDULED GAMES REMAINING TIMESLOTS HELP HELP CONTENTS REGISTER AND ACTIVATE DIAMOND SCHEDULER

48 DEACTIVATE THIS INSTALLATION MANAGE ACCOUNT ONLINE ABOUT DIAMOND SCHEDULER