I am trying to learn how to get WinTD to do cash prizes. I have entered a practice tournament, and then created an excel spreadsheet, following the examples in the WinTD help menu. However, I can’t get the prize report to run.
In the end, I tried just a simple 1st, 2nd, 3rd trial, with just the value column. I go to the data menu, open data table, click set as prize list, and then when I go to show prize distributions I get an error that says it needs a value column.
The first question is, Do you need to put the column headers in quotes? The examples are in quotes, but I’m not sure if that is just to emphasize the field values. (I’ve tried it both ways with no luck)
Also, when I open the data table, a window pops up with some garbled special characters. Should I be seeing my prize list, or is that normal?
I think you are trying to do this the hard way. Try this. Let’s assume this is an open. You have one section. You have entered your players into the section. Open each individual with the Add/Edit A Player Window and make sure that each player is assigned the correct Prize Group. You can say that class C is ‘C’, Expert is ‘X’, Master is ‘M’, etc. At the end of the tournament have your section highlighted and go to the Reports Menu, click Show Prize Lists…
Make overall as ALL + None
Per Prize group as ALL + None
Per Rating group as None + None
Do not click on use Tie Breaks
Click on OK
A Standings window will appear in overall order first, then by Prize Groups as you assigned them under that. Then you can go to File/Export… and send it to Excel that way to tweak in color, etc. the way you want.
I can sympathize with your frustration as I was also suffering when trying to learn this aspect of WinTD. However, I have since mastered it and can hopefully talk you through it, although I don’t have WinTD here at the office to help verify these instructions!
Firstly, ensure you are saving the Excel file as a CSV (comma separated values) file! I think I was getting garbage the first time I did it and this is the reason why.
The second thing to do is ensure you don’t put any spaces in the “Prize Awarded For” column, e.g. 1st Open, 2nd Open… you would have to input “1stOpen” or “2ndOpen” for the prizes to appear correctly.
Once you get the spreadsheet set up and saved as a CSV then you open up the Section and as you said set it as a data table (ensuring you leave it open although you can minimize it within the program) and then when you display the prize lists it should all relate and show you who wins what amount of money!
If you want I could send you a few examples of the CSV files that have worked for my tournaments.
Thanks for the advice. I was saving the spreadsheet as an excel file, not a csv file.
I’ll try that tonight when I get home and see what happens!
Terry,
The reason I didn’t want to do it that way was to deal with combining cash prizes, as opposed to trophies that can’t be split. (i.e. pooling the 2nd and 3rd place over-all and the U1800 prize all together.)