[peachy]

I downloaded from www.ecatsbridge.com the official WBF Convention Card Editor. I am completely lost as to how to navigate it to get a simple 2/1 card filled out. Can someone help me, or maybe provide a link to an intelligible program somewhere else where I can get this sys card done. THANKS for any help you can give. I have Windows Vista in case it matters.

Excited to go to Philly, this will be my first WBF event, in the Mixed Pairs, with a pickup partner no less and last minute plans. I really need this experience to have more sympathy for those foreign players who come to ACBL events and sometimes act like deer in the headlights. I will be the deer now

If anyone wants to say hello to me while there, I am 5'3" average slim, brown shoulder length hair and wrinkly face older lady with a smile - unless I was just blinded by the headlights...

[blackshoe]

Try here. Might be the same editor as on Ecats, I don't know.

[Free]

Why don't you use the MS Word file? It's so much easier imo.

[peachy]

Free, on Sep 29 2010, 02:09 AM, said:

Why don't you use the MS Word file? It's so much easier imo.

Where can I get the Word file?

[peachy]

blackshoe, on Sep 29 2010, 01:58 AM, said:

Try here. Might be the same editor as on Ecats, I don't know.

It is the same

[Free]

peachy, on Sep 29 2010, 08:29 AM, said:

Free, on Sep 29 2010, 02:09 AM, said:

Why don't you use the MS Word file?  It's so much easier imo.

Where can I get the Word file?

http://www.ecatsbridge.com/documents/files...nkWBFCCWord.doc

[peachy]

Free, on Sep 29 2010, 03:00 AM, said:

peachy, on Sep 29 2010, 08:29 AM, said:

Free, on Sep 29 2010, 02:09 AM, said:

Why don't you use the MS Word file?  It's so much easier imo.

Where can I get the Word file?

http://www.ecatsbridge.com/documents/files...nkWBFCCWord.doc

Thanks, I also found it later on the ecats site (not hard, scroll down a bit....) Appreciate the help!

[FrancesHinden]

Don't panic.
The first time I played in a European Open event I read the CC regulations in advance and filled in a very detailed card with pages of supplementary notes.... it was a complete waste of time. Many people just have something with them pen scribbles on it, or something very sparse.

But it's still a good idea to have a properly filled-out ard.

[gnasher]

FrancesHinden, on Sep 29 2010, 12:26 PM, said:

Many people just have something with them pen scribbles on it, or something very sparse.

Or something that they think belongs in their pocket for the duration of the event.

[MFA]

gnasher, on Sep 29 2010, 02:21 PM, said:

FrancesHinden, on Sep 29 2010, 12:26 PM, said:

Many people just have something with them pen scribbles on it, or something very sparse.

Or something that they think belongs in their pocket for the duration of the event.

Sad but true.

[blackshoe]

Proverbs 22:6.

[JanM]

I'll second, third, fourth & fifth the comment to use a Word or Excel template and NOT the WBF CCE. The CCE is worse for me than for some, because I've been a Mac person forever, but it causes problems for PC people too. And never produces a computer-readable document that can be edited (unless you have editing capability for a PDF).

The only thing to be aware of when you use the Word template from the Ecats site, is that it's done as a table on both sides of the page, so if you need extra lines, you have to add them to all 3 columns and that will end up messing up the pagination when you try to print - so then you have to delete a line from all 3 columns to get back to the right number of lines.

Peachy, I'm sending you a "Standard American" Word card you might be able to use as a start.

And I do agree with Frances that most people in the Pairs events won't pay much attention to your convention card. Be careful to put anything relevant in the "Special Bids that May Require Defense" section and to describe your leads and signals well, and you'll be fine. For the teams, it's more important to do a complete job with the card, since once you get to the KO, hopefully your convention cards will be available for your opponents the day before you play them. But even there, unless you're playing something unusual, few people will prepare in advance.

[peachy]

Thanks again Ed, Free, Jan, Frances, everybody.

[peachy]

FrancesHinden, on Sep 29 2010, 06:26 AM, said:

Don't panic.
The first time I played in a European Open event I read the CC regulations in advance and filled in a very detailed card with pages of supplementary notes.... it was a complete waste of time. Many people just have something with them pen scribbles on it, or something very sparse.

But it's still a good idea to have a properly filled-out ard.

You were so right, Frances. A typical example, a variation of the theme so to speak - French guy with a lovely smile and attentive manner, announced ''we play just very simple standard, nothing fancy". I said "okay, may I have a look anyway" . The System Summary area had about ten words, the rest of the card completely empty.
And the summary was, get this:
5c majors, strong twos, 2D Multi

[NickRW]

It seems that everyone thinks what they do is "standard" or close enough to not make much diffrerence. Just like playing at a club really.

[awm]

I do wonder a little about the WBF convention card. Elianna and I recently played in the mixed pairs in Philly; before we left I spent several hours filling out a detailed card on computer. My experience was that many pairs did not have a filled out card, and that very few had a thoroughly filled out one.

In principle I think that WBF's card is a lot better than the ACBL one, allowing much more space for a much wider range of treatments, highlighting an area for things opponents might particularly want to discuss, and so forth. However, at ACBL nationals the level of compliance with the system cards is much superior -- most pairs have fully filled out cards available to their opponents (I agree that club games and local tournaments may be much more haphazard in this regard).

The more thorough the card, the less likely people will go to the trouble to actually fill it out. It'd be interesting to figure out where the "middle ground" is -- my view is that the WBF card is probably too far on the "labor intensive" side.

[VMars]

It's not just that it takes forever to fill one out, but that they are harder to read because of the small type and that they are black and white with a lot of text.

[mike777]

awm, on Oct 11 2010, 06:06 PM, said:

I do wonder a little about the WBF convention card. Elianna and I recently played in the mixed pairs in Philly; before we left I spent several hours filling out a detailed card on computer. My experience was that many pairs did not have a filled out card, and that very few had a thoroughly filled out one.

In principle I think that WBF's card is a lot better than the ACBL one, allowing much more space for a much wider range of treatments, highlighting an area for things opponents might particularly want to discuss, and so forth. However, at ACBL nationals the level of compliance with the system cards is much superior -- most pairs have fully filled out cards available to their opponents (I agree that club games and local tournaments may be much more haphazard in this regard).

The more thorough the card, the less likely people will go to the trouble to actually fill it out. It'd be interesting to figure out where the "middle ground" is -- my view is that the WBF card is probably too far on the "labor intensive" side.

NO

it should never never take 3 hours to fill out your cc.. STOP!

[awm]

mike777, on Oct 12 2010, 12:09 AM, said:

NO

it should never never take 3 hours to fill out your cc.. STOP!

This is a world championship. I think it's reasonable to expect people competing in a world championship to take it seriously and have real agreements. Spending a few hours filling out the card is not all that significant compared to the roughly fifteen hours of travel we spend getting to and from the event, the roughly twenty-one hours of bridge we expect to play during the event, and so forth. In fact I think that having a very sloppy card (or no filled out card) for an event where people are spending this much time (and often quite a bit of money) to travel from all over the world and compete for the prestige of a world championship is disrespectful to the other players.

With that said, a simple/short card that everyone fills out would probably be better than a long/complicated card that most people leave blank.

[keylime]

The WBF card I wrote out for LL and I, took two WEEKS to be up to my level of satisfaction. Then again, it took me two days to learn the jargon!