[LukeG]

I find myself playing with an increasing number of partners and having trouble keeping myself on track as to what I'm playing with each one. Does anyone have a suggestion for organizing multiple sets of system notes? And does anyone have experience with the commercial software named HCS System Notebook?

[ack_hh]

Simply put a folder shortcut on the desktop; the folder
contains system notes for each partner (text files).
You may wish to have a look at the Pricelessware (freeware)
organizer section pricelessware organizers.
Others have set up web pages - one for each partner.

[Dean]

I always try and create an electronic system card using the WBF system editor. I always use the Notes [] feature. It does for casual partnerships.

For more complex partnerships I use LateX, one directory per system as well as an electronic CC.

[Dwingo]

You can try a free demo download from
http://www.bridge-ce...m/eng/index.htm and check this out. This is not free.

I have not used it but appears impressive

[hotShot]

In the dialog where you can mark someone as friend, you can enter a comment.
I use this comment to enter partnership agreements.

This way i can look at my partners profile, and check my comment if needed.

[pclayton]

Everything is in Word format right now.

Systemic agreements are divided into 9 categories:

A: General
B: Majors Suit Openings
C: Minor Suit Openings
D: 1N Openings
E: 2C and 2D Openings (Special)
F: Preempts
G: Competitive bidding
H: Slam Bidding
I: Leads and Carding

Within a category, the list might look like this, which are the actual .docs:

B1: Major suit openings and responses
B2: 2/1 Notes
B3: 1NF Notes
B4: Major Suit Raises: Gitelman, Constructive, Reverse Drury, Splinters, Fit Jumps, etc..

I have it in this format because although I'm not a tecchie, I hope to convert this to HTML one day and have a website for both of us to refer to.

[luke warm]

phil, i *think* with word you can 'save as' an html doc, then upload it..

[the hog]

Jimmy is correct, though occasionally some of the formatting gets lost in Word.

[pclayton]

Yeah I know; I just need to set up the site. No imminent need for it right now; my pard doesn't read our system notes anyway.

[fred]

One day I will write nice system note editor/viewer program to do this (and hopefully integrate it with a whole new convention card/auto-alert facility within BBO).

It won't be tomorrow

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[spwdo]

fred, on Jan 9 2005, 02:49 AM, said:

One day I will write nice system note editor/viewer program to do this (and hopefully integrate it with a whole new convention card/auto-alert facility within BBO).

It won't be tomorrow

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

Day after is fine too Fred

[keylime]

We use Word, Excel, InfoPath, and sometimes Powerpoint to get our notes.

We have sections as follows:

A. The Beginning

1. 1C openers and responses (super lengthy)
2. 1C interference (reasonable)
3. 1D openers and responses
4. 1H/S openers and responses
5. 1NT openers and responses
6. 2C opener.....
7. 2D openers...
8. 2H opener.....
9. 2S and 2NT openers....
10. 3NT opener.....

B. The Middle

1. Competitive Bidding (with subsections for multicuebid, 1NT overcall for 3 suits, 2NT jump bids, Roman Jump Overcalls, so on....)
2. Doubles
3. Redoubles
4. Forcing Pass Agreements
5. Other Conventional Calls

C. The End

1. Slam Agreements (lengthy chapter)
2. Defensive Agreements (subsectioned in Obvious Shift, 1st discard, defensive priorities, so on...)
3. Defenses Against Specific Openings/Treatments (very lengthy)
4. Misc.

System notes should be articulated in a form understood by both players. We use linear tree approach.

[Flame]

Impressing how serious some partnerships here are.

[Free]

I also use word (with macro's to insert the colored card symbols very easy ), with following cathegories:

1) Opening bids overview
2) 1♣ opening (complete responsescheme and slambidding tools)
3) Constructive bidding (with the constructive openings)
4) Preemptive bidding (with 2-level and higher opening bids)
5) Overcalls
6) Defense (several subcathegories on specific defenses)
7) Leads & Carding

And next to all that I also make my convention card with the WBF CCE program.

[vang]

i would suggest a wiki type software (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki).

it is very manageable, especially by multiple "editors" (for example, i'm writing about 1C/D and continuations and in the same time my part write about 1H/S; then we review each other work).

though the content is in romanian, you can have a look at http://www.hq.ro/van...ng_system_notes
to get an ideea.

[Gerben47]

I have also found no need to use anything but a rich text editor of some kind (Word, LaTeX, HTML).
I'm currently using word with similar nifty macro's like Free's (in colour!).
@Free: I have found a macro for ⁺ as in showing 16+, or 5+♥ helpful.

[hrothgar]

Applications such as Word and perfectly fine as text editors, however, I think that they are woefully insufficient as a tool to organize System notes

I tend towards overkill, especially where technology is concerned. Here is a general description regarding the critical characteristics that I would want in a tool for organizing system notes.

1. The ability to represent the bidding system as a tree structure. In particular, I would want to be able to expand and contract nodes

2. Explicit links between the system notes and a dealer program. In an ideal world, the system notes should be able to serve as a script for a Dealer program.

3. Explict links between the system notes and a graphical display tool. A picture is worth a thousand worlds. In an ideal world, I'd want to be able to graph the strength of different bids. (For anyone who asks why, consider the thread on whether a 1NT opening on a 14 HCP 6322 pattern is alertable or not)