OPOOL.DOC
Version 5.1

OPOOL.DOC-Documentation for OPOOL and OPOOL-PRO, ver. 5.1, a
record-keeping program for an office football pool on
National Football League games.

Copyright 1984-1992 Ronald G. Precup
All rights reserved.







****************************************************************
NOTICE: No part of this program or its associated files may be
copied or distributed for commercial purposes, nor may
any fee be charged for them or any of them either
individually or as a package, or included in any compi-
lation or collection of programs distributed for any
fee or charge whatever, including nominal charges for
the cost of disks, mailers, or the like. Copies of
OPOOL ver. 5.1 Standard Edition, provided they are not
altered in any way, may be freely distributed via
bulletin boards, user groups, and the like. Copies of
OPOOL-PRO ver. 5.1 may not be freely distributed in any
manner. This is a SHAREWARE program distributed by the
author. If you use the Standard Edition, please regis-
ter your copy, at a cost of $15. Send the registration
form at the end of this file (or your name, address,
and version number) and $15 to:

Ronald G. Precup
4123 North Richmond Street
Arlington, VA 22207

Registration will entitle you to notices of updates and
enhancements of OPOOL and info regarding fixes.

OPOOL-PRO may be obtained on 5-1/4" DSDD disks
or private download only, at a cost of $25.00.
*****************************************************************



TABLE OF CONTENTS

OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1. THE MAIN MENU. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2. ENTER PLAYERS' PICKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
F1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
F2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
F4 (OPOOL-PRO only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
F5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
F6 (OPOOL-PRO only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
F10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3. INPUT NFL RESULTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
F1 and F2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
F4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
F5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
F6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

4. PICK SHEET PRINT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

5. TALLY SHEET PRINT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

6. FINAL SEASON STANDINGS.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

7. WEEKLY STANDINGS DISPLAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

8. SEASON STANDINGS DISPLAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

9. OPOOL PLAYER ROSTER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
9.1. ADD a Player. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
9.2. DELETE a Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
9.3. VIEW/EDIT Player Information. . . . . . . . . . . . 11
9.4. LIST Player Roster on Printer.. . . . . . . . . . . 12
9.5. RETRIEVE a deleted Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
9.6. PURGE disk file of deleted Players. . . . . . . . . 12
9.7. Go to Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

10. NFL SCHEDULE MAINTENANCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

11. PRINTING TO FILE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

12. SELECTING A PRINTER (OPOOL-PRO only). . . . . . . . . . . 14

13. NOTICE/DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

APPENDIX A -- PRINTER COMPATIBILITY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
APPENDIX B -- NFL TEAM NAMES, CODES, ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . 17
OPOOL REGISTRATION FORM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18


[OPOOL50.DOC -i- ]



OVERVIEW

OPOOL is a fast, easy-to-use football pool program for
office, club, or similar group. It runs on the IBM-PC, XT, AT,
and true compatibles. Capacity: Standard Edition 29 players,
OPOOL-PRO 96 players. Most user input is made via bar cursors
and function keys, not with typing commands. Instant reports of
the season's standings in the pool for any completed week can be
called to the screen.

The play is simple: pick the most winners each week. Point
spreads and other forms of handicapping are omitted, since the
idea behind the pool is to encourage participation by all,
whether knowledgeable about NFL football or not. The program
produces a weekly Pick Sheet from which the players make their
selections. Players turn in their Pick Sheets by a deadline,
typically noon on Friday, so you can print and distribute a list
of Players' selections (the Tally Sheet) before the end of the
day. After the first week of the season, the prior week's
standings are shown on both the Pick and Tally Sheets.

Besides picking the winners, each player selects as a
tiebreaker the total number of points in the Monday night game
(or the Sunday night game if there is no Monday night game). The
player coming closest (over or under) to the Monday night total
is the winner in case of a tie.

Players who do not turn in their picks by the deadline are
assigned all visiting teams for the week. No matter how the
visiting teams should fare, the defaulters cannot score more
correct picks than the top non-defaulting player. This feature
prevents defaulters from winning a week, but gives them enough
points so they do not fall so far behind in the season standings
as to be out of the running.

Late-joining players can be easily added during the season
and given the default (visiting team) picks for the weeks they
have missed. Similarly, a player dropping out during the season
can have his name and record deleted from the active data but
left in the data file (PLAYERS.DAT) in case he rejoins later. A
player can be renamed, allowing a new player to take over the
record of a player who has dropped out, or accounting for mar-
riages, etc.

Besides the main program, OPOOL.EXE, two data files are
required: NFLSCHED.DAT and PLAYERS.DAT. If they do not exist on
the current drive/subdirectory, you can have them created or quit
the program. Newly created files are empty, so that you must
enter the NFL schedule for the season (easy to do through the
program) and enter the players (also easy to do).


[OPOOL51.DOC Page 1 ]



User comments and bug reports (as well as the $15 ShareWare
fee) are welcome. Comments should be directed to the author at
his bulletin board, The Mortar Board (703-525-3265), or in
writing to:
Ronald G. Precup
4123 N. Richmond St.
Arlington, VA 22207

* * * * * * * * * * *

1. THE MAIN MENU. Select all OPOOL functions through the Main
Menu which appears when the program starts.
Start by typing OPOOL at the DOS prompt. Choose a
function by moving the bar cursor with the arrow keys and then
pressing , or by pressing the first letter of your Main
Menu choice (upper or lower case). Return to the Main Menu from
almost any submenu by pressing (the Escape key). The
cursor will "wrap around" from the top menu line to the bottom if
the up arrow is pressed when the cursor is on the top line, and
from bottom to top if the down arrow is pressed while the cursor
is on the bottom menu line. A brief description of the purpose
of the highlighted selection is shown on the bottom line of the
screen. The functions available from the Main Menu are covered
in succeeding sections. To play the first few notes of the tune
"Hail to the Redskins" the program is started, use the /R switch:

OPOOL /R

(a concession to the author). Dallas fans: the tune does not
play unless the /R switch is used on the command line.

2. ENTER PLAYERS' PICKS. When players have turned in their
picks for the week (by circling
them on the Pick Sheet produced by the program, see Section 4),
you must enter them. Do this by placing the the bar cursor on
the top item of the Main Menu and pressing enter, or by pressing
the letter "E." Edit previously entered picks the same way.

OPOOL displays the week for which the picks are being
entered at the top of the screen, always coming up on the first
week of the season. Display subsequent weeks with the PgDn (Page
Down) key, and preceding weeks with the PgUp (Page Up) key.
Press the F5 function key to specify a week, so you can go
directly to a week without paging up or down. The screen also
shows the number of active players in the pool and the player
number of the player whose name and picks are displayed.

If there are no players in the PLAYERS.DAT file, OPOOL
displays a notice and permits return to the Main Menu for the
purpose of choosing to add players to the file. OPOOL does not
allow picks to be made for players whose names have not been
entered. Otherwise, the current player's name is shown in
reverse video at the left side of the screen, followed by a space
for that player's tiebreaker (total points scored in the Monday
night game). If the current player has selected no tiebreaker,
the space indicates "None"; otherwise the tiebreaker is shown.


[OPOOL51.DOC Page 2 ]



The screen shows the actual picks made by the player in
question, displayed horizontally from game 1 through game 14
(game 12 for short weeks). Where no pick has been entered,
"None" is displayed. Call the next player's picks to the screen
with the + (plus) key, and the previous player's with the -
(minus) key. When weeks are changed (with the PgUp and PgDn
keys), the current player's record continues to be shown.
Pressing + while the last player's record is displayed calls up
the first player's record, and - wraps to the last player's
record from the first. Each time a new player's screen is
displayed, the cursor returns to the visiting team in Game 1.
The key puts it on the last game home team and
returns to Game 1 visitor.

Below the player's picks is the week's schedule (which must
already exist, see Section 10) displayed on two lines, the top
line visiting teams and the bottom home teams for each of the
week's 11 to 14 games. Highlight a player's pick highlighting
the pick with the arrow keys and pressing . The chosen
team's name appears in the player's "Selected" line above and is
erased from the list of teams at the bottom of the screen.
Continue until all selections have been made, then press + to
call up the next player.

To clear a previously entered pick, highlight the game you
want to clear (home or away team) and press the F3 function key.
The current player's choice in the game changes to "None."

Also enter the player's tiebreaker by positioning the cursor
on the tiebreaker entry block (automatic after entering the
player's choice for game 12 or 14, or manual by pressing the F10
function key at any time). Type the number and press , or
press the F3 function key to make the entry "None." Pressing
without entering a tiebreaker leaves the existing entry
unchanged. Pressing or F3 returns control to the arrow
keys and highlights a game selection.

When all players' picks have been entered, return to the
Main Menu with the key. The picks remain in memory and may
be recalled at any subsequent point in the session from the Main
Menu. On exit from the program, the updated picks are saved to
disk in the PLAYERS.DAT file.

The lower center of the screen shows the functions that can
be called with the indicated keys. In addition to the tiebreaker
key (F10) and navigation keys mentioned above, they are:

F1 -- Function key F1 calls up a screen showing the picks entered
to date for all players for the week. The players' initials
are shown on the left and each of their selections for games
1 to 12 or 14 and the tie-breaker from left to right on the
same line. Any game not picked is blank. With more than 22
players, navigate using the , and up and down
arrow keys. The top line displays the CONSENSUS picks for
the week, which are the teams picked as winners by the most
players. The CONSENSUS tiebreaker is the arithmetic average
of all the players' tiebreakers, excluding those who have
not made their picks for the week (see a description of the
default method below). Pressing during this display
returns to the entry screen.

[OPOOL51.DOC Page 3 ]



F2 -- Function key F2 automatically assigns all visiting teams as
picks for the player whose record is currently displayed.
This is the default mechanism for players who do not get
their picks in for the week. It keeps the defaulting player
"in the running" for the season pool, with a mild penalty
for not making picks, since the home teams usually win the
majority of NFL games. The defaulting player gets no tie-
breaker, and the location for it both on the screen de-
scribed under F1 above and on the print-out of the week's
picks (see Section 8) is filled with "--*" instead. On the
printout the asterisk is tied to a footnote stating that the
player received the default picks for the week.

F3 -- Function key F3 makes a player's selection 'None' for both
individual games and the tiebreaker. F3 operates only on
the game or tiebreaker highlighted by the bar cursor.

F4 (OPOOL-PRO only) -- Function key F4 calls up the NFL standings
through the week you are currently working on (a handy
reference to the standings when making your own picks!),
with total points for and against each team. The accuracy
depends on your having entered the correct score when enter-
ing weekly results (see Section 3). Entering scores is not
necessary for using OPOOL. This function is not available
in the Standard Edition.

F5 -- Function key F5 prompts the user to enter a week number.
Enter the number to display the current player's picks for
the specified week.

F6 (OPOOL-PRO only) -- Function key F6 displays the common oppo-
nents for the entire season for the two teams in the game on
which the cursor rests. Games yet to be played are simply
listed; games already played have their scores listed if
they were entered in NFLSCHED.DAT. Use this feature to
check, for example, on what the Redskins and Cowboys did
when they last played each other, and how both teams fared
against the Giants.

F10 -- Function key F10 moves the bar cursor to the correct
position for entering the tiebreaker.

The key returns the program to the Main Menu.

3. INPUT NFL RESULTS. Computation of a player's record and
standing in the pool depends on what
teams win the football games. From the Main Menu, select the
second option with the bar cursor and press , or press the
letter "I," to enter the NFL winners. The screen shows the teams
for each of the 11 to 14 games in two columns on the left side of
the screen. (See Appendix B for a key to the abbreviations
used.) When the Results screen is first displayed, the games for
week 1 are shown. Other weeks are called up with the PgUp and
PgDn keys or by use of the "Go to Week n" feature (F5). Instruc-
tions are shown at the bottom of the screen. The current week
number appears at the top.

Designate the winner by highlighting the team name and
pressing . A dialogue box opens in the center of the
screen and prompts for the points scored by the winning and


[OPOOL51.DOC Page 4 ]



losing teams. The winning team score is called for by the
flashing words "winning points," and when the points have been
entered, the words "losing points" flash. Pressing when
no points have been entered or pressing a second time
after points have been entered will close the window and place
the team names and scores (if entered, otherwise "N/A") to the
right of the schedule on the screen. By-pass entering the scores
(just selecting the winner) with this method, and the scores
appear as 'NA'. Pressing alone will leave a previously
entered score unchanged.

Entering losing points greater than or equal to the winning
points makes OPOOL beep and display an error message (see below
for entering ties). Press any key to clear the message and
reenter correct points.

If you make an error in entry, reselect the winner and enter
the scores again. Alternatively, function key F4 clears the
winner and score for the highlighted game (see below).

Entering tie scores: Press function key F3 while the cursor
is on either the home or away team, then enter the "winning"
points in the window that opens. The other team is given the
same points.

F1 and F2 -- These keys display the Pool standings through or for
the week currently displayed, in descending order, F1 for
the current week and F2 for season to date. Ties are re-
solved by the tie-breaker and the results narratively re-
ported, if all the NFL results for the displayed week have
been entered. Otherwise, partial results are reported.
(The F1 and F2 standings reports are identical to those that
can be selected from the Main Menu. See Sections 7 and 8.)
[OPOOL-PRO ONLY: press 'P' to print the displayed standings,
either to a file or your attached printer. The output is in
one-line-per player format, showing standing number (ties
have the same number), Pool name, totals for the week and
season totals. A second page is used if there are too many
players to fit on one page. The printout contains no con-
sensus information.] Return to the score-entry screen by
pressing any key.

F3 -- Pressing F3 enters a tie game between the teams in the
current game. When the score window opens, enter one score,
which is recorded for both teams.

F4 -- Pressing F4 clears the results (winner and score) for the
current game.

F5 -- Pressing F5 selects the "Go to Week No. x" feature. See
the F5 entry under Section 2 above.

F6 -- Pressing F6 will project the Pool's winner for the week,
trying the home and visiting teams as winners and showing
the range of tiebreakers that will produce the winner or
winners for each possibility. Projected results are dis-
played on the screen separately for the home and visiting
teams. The displayed results may be printed to an attached



[OPOOL51.DOC Page 5 ]



printer or to a file as usual. NOTE: This feature works
only if there is no Monday Night game score entered. If the
results have been entered, the screen will display an error
message. Also, results will be reliable ONLY if ALL results
EXCEPT the Monday Night have been entered. If there are
more than 12 players still in the running to win the week,
only the first 12 will be displayed.

When you are done viewing the display, press "P" to print
the projections, or any other key to return to the Input
screen. If you choose to print, the program will return to
the Input screen automatically when printing is completed or
the print routine has been aborted.

Return to the Main Menu by pressing .

4. PICK SHEET PRINT. Print the sheet of a week's games from
which Players make their picks by
selecting "Pick sheet print" from the Main Menu, or by pressing
the letter "P." (See Appendix A for printer information.) You
are prompted whether to print to a file or to the printer (see
Section 11 for the print-to-file feature). If you choose print-
er, a printer-error detection and recovery system reports a
printer off-line or error condition and prompts to correct the
error. Correct it and press any key when done. (Electing to
print to a file bypasses the printer check.) When a key is
pressed, the program again checks the printer, continues if the
error has been corrected, or displays a message and returns to
the prior menu if it has not.

The Pick Sheet lists the 12 or 14 games for the week sup-
plied by the user in response to a prompt, and gives instructions
to circle the chosen team in each game. To the right of the list
of games is a notice that picks are due by noon of the deadline
date for the week. Typically, this is in the form "PICKS ARE DUE
BY NOON, FRIDAY, [MONTH DAY]," for the Friday preceding the
weekend games. For Thanksgiving, when Dallas and Detroit play
traditional games, or for weeks when there is a Thursday game,
the default deadline is noon of the preceding Wednesday. The
dates are hard-coded for 1991. NOTE: the dates are read from a
table for 1991 only. Since the NFL has a 17-week season for 1992
and an 18-week season thereafter, and since expansion is planned
as early as 1993, it has not been possible to provide dates after
1992. Registered users, however, will be entitled to upgrades to
account for two seasons following registration, free of charge.
The program determines the year by reading your computer's date.
If your computer's date is not right, the OPOOL year will not be
right. If OPOOL detects an incorrect year, it prompts you to
enter the correct year.

You can override the default due date and time. When the
screen will displays the default, it asks whether you want to
change them. Answering es lets you change default. Pressing
without a new entry (separately for time and date) leaves
the default unchanged.

When you answer es to the change-time/date prompt, the
default time (NOON), day of week (usually Friday), month, and day
are displayed on separate lines in reverse video, and the cursor
rests on the time. Press to move the cursor to the day
of the week and press it again to return to the time.

[OPOOL51.DOC Page 6 ]



Changing the due time: When the cursor is on the time,
pressing the plus key ('+') key changes the due time forward in
one-hour increments (1PM, 2PM, etc.), and pressing the minus key
('-') changes the time back (11AM, 10AM, etc.). At midnight, the
time wraps to 1AM forward and 11PM backwards. Crossing midnight
does not affect the day or date displayed.

Changing the date: When the cursor is on the day of the
week, the '+' key displays the next day and the '-' key the
previous day. When the day of the week is changed, the date is
changed automatically so that, for example, going forward from
Friday the 21st to the next Friday displays the 28th. This
feature has a range of August 1 through December 31, but the
useful range is only a few days either side of the default due
date, and the feature is not designed to be abused.

Below the due date notice on the Pick Sheet is a box for
entry of the player's tiebreaker, with an indication of the
teams whose game will produce the tiebreaker. This is the total
number of points scored by both teams in the Monday night game
(or Sunday night game if there is no Monday night game). [NOTE:
If you make the tiebreaker the score of a game other than the
Monday night game (see Section 10), that game will be listed as
the Monday night game on the Pick Sheet.]

Below the list of games the Pick Sheet lists the pool
results for the preceding week (only for weeks 2 and later),
showing in successive columns the player names, the number of
correct picks for the preceding week, the number of correct picks
for the season, and the season standings, following the serial-
numbering convention described in Section 7. With OPOOL-PRO, the
listing is continued on a second page if there are too many
Players to fit at the bottom of the first page (the standings can
be printed separately as explained elsewhere in this documenta-
tion). The maximum number of Players permitted in the Standard
version, 29, fit on one page. Also shown are the week's winner
or winners, whether the tiebreaker figured in determining the
winner(s), and the CONSENSUS results. In the lower right corner
is a blank line for writing in the Player's name, to distinguish
the Player's picks when he turns in his sheet. It is strongly
suggested that the operator keep the Pick Sheets for an entire
season, so that any dispute about what a player picked or whether
the operator entered the picks correctly can be authoritatively
resolved.

For the Week 1 Pick Sheet, when there are no previous
results to print, the program prints a general welcome message in
the space provided.

You can enter a message up to 40 characters long to appear
in double-width letters on the last line of the Pick Sheet. Use
this feature to issue reminders, extend holiday greetings as
appropriate, or print an inane saying or quotation. Enter the
message from the keyboard in response to the prompt. The line
can be edited while being entered, and pressing clears the
line. By-pass the message-printing feature by pressing
without any text.


[OPOOL51.DOC Page 7 ]



Next, the program (actually, your computer's speaker) will
beep and display a "Print? (Y/N): " prompt. Answering o skips
printing and returns you to the prior menu.

OPOOL-PRO ONLY: At this point you can select a printer. See
SELECTING A PRINTER, Section 12.

5. TALLY SHEET PRINT. Selecting this option from the Main Menu
produces a printout of all players'
selections and tiebreakers for the week entered in response to
the prompt. [NOTE: See Section 4 regarding the print-to-file
prompt and printer error-handling.] Make the selection by moving
the bar cursor with the arrow keys and pressing , or by
pressing the letter "T."

The Tally Sheet lists the week's games at the top (with a
blank column before and after the Monday night game and two other
blank columns in 12-game weeks), with the heading "tiebrkr" above
the right-most column. Below that are the players' names, picks,
and tiebreakers, printed in a grid that makes it easy to keep
track of the games and the effect on the standings as the games
are completed by crossing out incorrect picks. Use blank columns
to record interim results for individual players. The tiebreaker
for players receiving default selections for the week or not
picking a tiebreaker show as "--*", and a footnote states that
the player has the default selections for the week. CONSENSUS
picks are listed last.

In all weeks after the first, the pool standings for the
previous week are printed in the same format as used in the Pick
Sheet, except that the previous week's winner and the CONSENSUS
week's total are not shown. (The standings can be printed
separately as explained elsewhere in this documentation.) A
message is printed for the first week.

Enter a 40-character message to print out in double-width
letters at the bottom of the Tally Sheet (or last sheet if the
number of players requires the program to use more than one).
Its prompts and operation are identical to those of the Pick
Sheet (see Section 4).

The Tally Sheet should be photocopied and distributed to all
Players before they disappear for the weekend or holiday. Not
only does that permit Players to keep track of their relative
standings as they record the results of the games, but it streng-
thens the pool's credibility by assuring that picks are publicly
known before any game is played. For this reason, no one should
be permitted to change his picks after turning in his sheet, and
the deadline for making picks should be strictly enforced.

6. FINAL SEASON STANDINGS. This Main Menu selection sends to
the printer (or to a file, see
Section 11) the final season standings for the Pool. Each Player
is listed in order of finish for the season, together with his or
her total won-lost record, percentage, and number of games behind
the first-place finisher. This feature WILL NOT WORK PROPERLY
until the entire season has been completed and all results
entered. Below this list is printed a list of the winner or
winners for each week of the season. Only players active at the
end of the season will appear on the list; those who may have won

[OPOOL51.DOC Page 8 ]



a week during the season and then dropped out will not appear on
the list (although if you have not purged them from the PLAY-
ERS.DAT file you could reactivate their records -- see Sections
9.5 and 9.6 -- to have them included). As with other OPOOL
printed output, you are given a chance to abort the printing
process just before it begins.

7. WEEKLY STANDINGS DISPLAY. Typically, an office football pool
has both weekly and season winners,
based respectively on the most wins for a given week and the
season cumulative results. OPOOL keeps track of both.

Call up a screen display of the results to date by selecting
"Weekly Standings" with the bar cursor and pressing , or
by pressing the letter "W" at the Main Menu. (As explained in
Section 3, the same display can be obtained from the score-entry
screen with the F1 and F2 function keys). The program prompts
for the number of the week to display. The display lists players
in the order in which they finished for the week selected and, if
game results have been entered, the tiebreaker is also shown. To
the left of each player's nickname is a serial number indicating
his standing for the week, with ties bearing identical serial
numbers. For example, if three players pick 10 winners each, and
10 is good for second place, all three are in second place and
the next player is in fifth place. To the right of the name are
the number of correct picks for the week and the player's season
total. If there has been a tie for the week, it is resolved
automatically on the basis of the tiebreaker. Each player tying
for first place has his tiebreaker compared to the actual total
number of points scored in the Monday night game. The player the
closest to the actual number (over or under) wins, and the winner
is shown at the bottom of the screen.

CONSENSUS results are also displayed, together with the
total number of games played to date in the NFL and the percent-
age of correct picks that represents (e.g., 27 out of 42 for
64%). This gives the players a rough idea of their own percent-
ages for the season to date. Press any key to leave the display
and return to the preceding menu.

OPOOL-PRO only: If there are too many players to fit on one
screen, the last name to be displayed will be followed by the
prompt "More..." Use the cursor keys to display other players or
to return to the preceding menu. You can print the stand-
ings as described in Section 3 (F1 and F2).

8. SEASON STANDINGS DISPLAY. Select a display of the season's
standings from the Main Menu by
placing the bar cursor over "Season Standings" and pressing
, or by pressing the letter "S." Operation is similar to
that of the Weekly standings display (see Section 7).

After you respond to the prompt for the week number, the
list of players is displayed in order by the total number of
correct picks for the season, with the week's results also
displayed. As with the weekly screen, each player gets a
standing number, in this case for the season.



[OPOOL51.DOC Page 9 ]



CONSENSUS results are displayed in a format like to that
displayed in the Weekly standings display, and with OPOOL-PRO you
can scroll to additonal Players when there are too many to fit on
one screen, and can print the displayed listing to a printer or
file.

Exit from this display and return to the Main Menu by
pressing any key.

9. OPOOL PLAYER ROSTER. This selection from the Main Menu calls
up the Roster Maintenance menu, from
which you can choose to add or delete a player, view or edit
existing player information, retrieve a deleted player, purge the
disk file of inactive players, or return to the Main Menu.
Choose Opool Player Roster from the Main Menu by moving the bar
cursor to it and pressing , or by pressing the letter "O."

As it sometimes happens in this mobile society that people
join or leave an office in the midst of a season, OPOOL affords a
means for adding and deleting players from the Pool. When you
select ADD a Player, DELETE a Player, or VIEW/EDIT Player Infor-
mation from the Roster Maintenance menu, the names of the cur-
rently active players are displayed in the middle of the screen.
Make a selection from the Roster Maintenance Menu with the bar
cursor or by pressing the first letter of your choice.

9.1. ADD a Player.

In the ADD mode, there is no bar cursor. The program
prompts for:

-- The full name of the player (23 characters max). This
is an optional field. To include the full name (which
may be edited later), type it in and press . Or
you can press without entering anything in this
field. OPOOL keeps track of Players by the "nickname"
field of up to five characters, described below.

-- Identifying information (30 characters max). This
field, too, is optional. Typically a phone number or
extension, room number, or address is entered, so that
the program operator can contact the player. Type in
the data and press , or press alone to
skip.

-- The Pool name ("nickname", 5 characters max) of the
player to add. Type in the nickname and press .
This is the only one of the three fields that is not
optional. Pressing without entering a nickname
will abort the add process, and no player will be added
to the PLAYERS.DAT file, even though a full name and
other I.D. info may have been entered in response to
the preceding prompts. (Because of the 5-character
limit, a player's initials are usually used.) The
program will search the list of active players to
insure that none has an identical nickname. If a
duplicate is found, a message to that effect is dis-
played and the new player is not added.



[OPOOL51.DOC Page 10 ]



If you add a player after Week 1, the new player has no
selections for the weeks before his entry into the pool. Immedi-
ately after entering the new player's name, go to the Main Menu
and select Enter Players' Picks, then enter selections -- which
should be the default selections of all visiting teams (see
Section 2) -- for the new player for any weeks before his entry
into the Pool. Thereafter, his cumulative scores will be kept
and reported as for any other player.

If the default disk or subdirectory has no PLAYERS.DAT file,
you are notified when OPOOL begins and afforded the choice
between having the program create one or exiting the program. If
you choose to create a new file, then you should immediately
select Roster maintenance from the Main Menu and add at least two
players. The PLAYERS.DAT file for OPOOL version 5.1 is INCOMPAT-
IBLE with similarly named files from versions of OPOOL prior to
4.0, due to changes in the NFL season length and schedule format.

9.2. DELETE a Player.

When you select DELETE a Player from the Roster Maintenance
Menu, active players are listed alphabetically and a reverse-
video bar cursor highlights the first player's name. Use the
cursor keys to highlight the name of the player to be deleted and
press . You are prompted to confirm the deletion.
Pressing 'Y' (or ('y') completes the deletion, removing the name
from the screen and the name and player record from the active
records in the PLAYERS.DAT file. Pressing any other key aborts
the delete operation. Pressing while the delete screen is
displayed returns you to the secondary menu without deleting the
highlighted Player's record.

The record of a deleted Player is removed from the
computer's memory but retained in the PLAYERS.DAT file on disk,
flagged as inactive. Unless you purge the disk file, the deleted
player's record may later be retrieved and restored it to active
status. Use this feature if a player's record is deleted by
mistake or a player drops out of the Pool and later rejoins.

9.3. VIEW/EDIT Player Information.

Select VIEW/EDIT Player information from the Roster Mainte-
nance Menu to se or make changes in the NAME, ID info, or NICK-
NAME of an existing Player. Select the Player with the bar
cursor from the nicknames displayed on the screen and press
. The top half of the screen displays existing informa-
tion and you may change any of the three fields, which appear as
blank fields, on the bottom half of the screen. Type in the new
data in each field, or just press to leave the displayed
information for that field unchanged. Pressing moves the
cursor to the next field. Information entered in a field may be
erased with the key.

When you are done with your changes, press function key F10.
The program displays the changed information in highlighted
fields on the bottom half of the screen and offers three choices:
ave changes, iscard changes, and ontinue editing.
Pressing "S" saves the changes and returns to the Roster Mainte-
nance Menu. Pressing "D" discards the edited information and
likewise return to the Roster Maintenance menu. Pressing "C"

[OPOOL51.DOC Page 11 ]



returns you to the editing process, with the just-entered fields
displayed for editing.

NOTE: You MUST press after editing a field in order
for the changes to take effect. If you do not, then pressing
before leaving the edited field will not produce the change
even if ave changes choice is made.

9.4. LIST Player Roster on Printer.

This selection sends a list of active Players to the printer
(or to a file if you choose, see Section 11). In OPOOL-PRO the
list may take up two pages. A single line is printed for each
Player, showing Pool name, full name (if entered), and location
information (if entered). Use this to produce a hard copy of
Player info for managing your office pool.

9.5. RETRIEVE a deleted Player.

If a Player has been deleted from the Pool but the PLAY-
ERS.DAT disk file has not been purged (see Section 9.6), select-
ing "RETRIEVE a deleted Player" from the Roster Maintenance menu
displays a list (by Pool name) of the inactive Players (if any)
whose records remain in the PLAYERS.DAT file. Select the name of
the Player to retrieve with the bar cursor, then press .
You should return to the Main Menu at this point and, by choosing
"Enter Players' Picks," give the retrieved Player default picks
(see Section 2) for any weeks he has not participated.

If no inactive records are found, a message to that effect
is displayed. Press any key to continue.

9.6 PURGE disk file of deleted Players.

Reduce the size of the PLAYERS.DAT disk file by purging the
disk file of the records of inactive (deleted) Players with this
Roster Maintenance Menu choice. Since purged records cannot be
retrieved, OPOOL warns you and prompts you whether to proceed
with the purge. Press "Y" to purge the disk file or "N" to skip
the purge and return to the Roster Maintenance Menu.

9.7. Go to Main Menu.

Select Go to Main Menu from the Roster Maintenance menu by
moving the bar cursor to this selection and pressing , or
by pressing "G." You can also return to the Main Menu by press-
ing .

10. NFL SCHEDULE MAINTENANCE. The last Main Menu selection
is to enter the NFL season
schedule. Choose it by highlighting it with the bar cursor and
pressing or by pressing the letter "N." The screen comes
up set to game 1 of the first week of the season. If the file
NFLSCHED.DAT exists on the default drive/directory, the teams are
listed on the left side of the screen, and they can be edited.
Otherwise, begin by entering the season's games. (The 1992
schedule is distributed with the OPOOL50.ZIP and OPOOL-PRO.ZIP
files and during the season NFLSCHED.DAT, updated with results,
can be downloaded from the Mortar Board.)


[OPOOL51.DOC Page 12 ]



[NOTE: The screen heading in this module lists the year read from
your computer's clock. If the clock is not set for the right
date, the heading date may be in error.]

The week of the season (1 through 17) appears in the upper
left of the screen, as does the game number. Change the dis-
played week with the PgDn (increase Week Number) and PgUp (de-
crease Week Number) keys. Control the game number similarly with
the + and - keys. When increasing, passing the last week or game
wraps around to the first, and when decreasing, passing the first
wraps to the last.

The left-most column lists the game numbers (1-12 or 1-14).
If a 14-game week is displayed, change it to a 11-game week by
pressing F3, a 12-game week by pressing it again, and so forth.
If you have entered 14 games and pressed F3 by accident, you can
retrieve the data for the other three games by pressing F3 three
more times, whether or not you have exited and reentered OPOOL.
The number of games for the week is stored in the NFLSCHED.DAT
file when you exit the program.

The order in which the games are entered is not important
EXCEPT for the Monday night game, which MUST be listed as Game 14
(or the last game in shorter weeks) in order for the tiebreaker
feature to work. (You can use your home-town team's game as the
tiebreaker by putting it in as Game 12 or 14 instead, but the
teams listed for the 12th or 14th game will be reported as the
Monday Night Game, unless there is no Monday Night Game.) The
next columns display visiting team at home team. OPOOL cannot
indicate a game played away from the home team's city, so it does
not show which of the Green Bay Packers "home" games are played
in Milwaukee rather than Green Bay.

The columns for visiting and home teams are headed "Vis" and
"Home," and on entry the "Vis" heading is highlighted. When the
visiting team is entered, the highlighting toggles automatically
to the "Home" column as a visual indicator for the place your
next selection will go. If you make a mistake, you can go back
and forth between "Vis" and "Home" columns by pressing F1.

The game number for which the teams are currently being
entered is shown in the upper left of the screen and also indi-
cated with arrow markers on either side of the teams columns.
The indicator is moved with the + (plus) and - (minus) keys.
This marker also "wraps around" from top to bottom and vice versa
so that navigation is easy.

Select teams by moving the bar cursor over the two- or
three-letter abbreviation of the team name from the two lines of
team names that appear near the bottom of the screen, then
pressing . The team name is erased from the lower line
and inserted in the appropriate place in the "Vis" or "Home"
column. The erasure lessens the chance of making an error by
entering the same team twice in a week. The cursor skips the
blank spots. The entire list of teams at the bottom of the
screen can be restored at any time simply by pressing F2, or by
using the PgDn (or PgUp) key to toggle to the next (previous)
week, then pressing the PgUp (PgDn) key to return to the week for
which the schedule is being entered.


[OPOOL51.DOC Page 13 ]



When all the games are filled in with visiting and home
teams (or before, if you want to quit), use the PgDn key to call
up the next week's schedule for continuing schedule entry, or
press to return to the Main Menu.

Returning to the schedule entry at any time during a session
preserves all the previous entries. The updated schedule is
written to disk on exiting the program.

11. PRINTING TO FILE. Whenever you select a print-out option
(Pick Sheet, Tally Sheet, Player Roster,
Monday Night Projections, or Final Season Standings, and in
OPOOL-PRO only, a separate list of weekly or season standings),
the program asks you whether to print to a file or the printer.
Make your choice by pressing "F" or "P." If you choose to print
to a file, you are then prompted to enter a file name. It can be
any valid DOS file name and may include a drive designation and
path name. If no drive or path is specified, the file will be
written to the directory from which you started OPOOL. The rest
of the printing process proceeds as normal, but the output is
sent to the named file. If the file already exists OPOOL will
overwrite it, otherwise OPOOL will create a new file.

The output file is NOT a text file, but a print-image file
containing all initialization and formatting codes normally sent
to the printer. Use this feature if you do not have a printer
(or the right kind of printer) attached to your computer or want
to print the file later or on another printer. To produce the
OPOOL printed output, use the DOS copy command as follows: copy
[d:][path]filename[.ext] prn.

NOTE: OPOOL prints only to your computer's first parallel
print port, designated LPT1, when it prints from the program. By
using the print-to-file feature, you can "copy" the printout file
to any valid device, such as LPT2 or COM1 (for printers attached
to a serial port), and are not limited to LPT1. This will NOT
make your type of printer immaterial, however, with the Standard
Edition. The printer control codes are those of the IBM Graphics
dot-matrix printer only, so unless you are using an IBM Graphics
or Proprinter or another printer that emulates such a printer,
the output will be garbage. (OPOOL-PRO users see Section 12 for
information on other usable printers.)

12. SELECTING A PRINTER (OPOOL-PRO only). When OPOOL is about
to send output to
the printer (or a file), it prompts you one last time whether to
print. At this point, the PRO Edition displays a message identi-
fying a default printer (IBM Graphics at start-up) and telling
you to press F1 to check or change it. Pressing F1 displays a
printer-type menu with the current selection highlighted. The
choices are IBM, Epson FX-type and HP LaserJet. To change the
default printer, highlight the printer of your choice and press
. OPOOL-PRO substitutes the chosen printer's control
codes for the IBM's to produce proper output. This works equally
well for printing to a file or to the printer (see PRINTING TO
FILE, Section 11).

The printer you select remains in effect throughout the
current OPOOL-PRO session or until you change it.


[OPOOL51.DOC Page 14 ]



EPSON USERS NOTE: Epson FX-series 9-pin dot-matrix printers are
capable of emulating the IBM Graphics or Proprinter printers, but
to do so hardware DIP switches must be set, a real inconvenience
if you normally keep your printer switches set for the Epson
mode. But the Epson mode does not use the IBM character set,
which contain the line- and box-drawing characters OPOOL uses for
the Pick and Tally Sheets. The corresponding Epson characters,
mainly italics and foreign letters, produce a Pick or Tally Sheet
that is at best messy and at worst unreadable.

OPOOL-PRO solves this problem! The IBM graphics
characters needed are resident in OPOOL-PRO, and when you select
the Epson printer from the pop-up menu, OPOOL-PRO sends them as
soft fonts to the printer's RAM for use by the program as needed.
You can produce perfect Pick and Tally Sheets without changing
your printer's hardware settings.

13. NOTICE/DISCLAIMER. OPOOL (Standard Edition and OPOOL-PRO)
is distributed without warranty of any
kind, including but not limited to WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY
and WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR INTENDED USE. The author's sole
responsibility is to replace a defective disk (OPOOL-PRO only)
upon return of the defective disk by a REGISTERED USER postage
prepaid. At the author's option, replacement may be offered by
private (password-protected) download from the Mortar Board with
telecommunications charges (long-distance or otherwise) to be
borne by the user. The author makes no undertaking whatsoever
that OPOOL will continue to be supported or that releases beyond
the current release, whether maintenance releases or major
revisions, will be issued in the future, except that upon receipt
FROM A REGISTERED USER of a properly documented report, either by
message addressed to the author at the Mortar Board or in writing
to the address shown elsewhere in this documentation, of a bug (a
program defect that causes the program not to work on a fully
IBM-compatible computer running under IBM- or MS-DOS, version 3.0
or higher), the author will suggest a solution to the registered
user or, at the author's option, provide a software fix. Due to
changes in the NFL season schedule, no further support is or will
be offered, and no support of any kind is any longer available
for versions of OPOOL prior to version 4.0.

Registered users of any version of OPOOL or BPOOL prior to
version 5.1 may use OPOOL version 5.1, Standard Edition, without
legal or moral obligation to pay an additional shareware fee.

OPOOL is intended for private amusement only and under no
circumstances is it to be used for or to facilitate gambling in
violation of any federal, state, or local law or ordinance.
Using the program or its associated data for any unlawful purpose
violates the license and voids the user's registration.

======END OF DOCUMENTATION. APPENDICES A and B FOLLOW=======
[OPOOL51.DOC Page 15 ]



APPENDIX A -- PRINTER COMPATIBILITY

The OPOOL (Standard Edition) printer driver is for IBM dot-
matrix printers, using Epson control and escape sequences.
Except for margin settings (which are IBM codes), only sequences
recognizable both by Epson and IBM printers are used. Some Epson
FX-series printers lack IBM graphics characters such as double
lines, even when the DIP switches are set for IBM emulation.
Printer output is still usable, just not as fancy.

Tabbing and other horizontal control is avoided, but to fit
output on 8-1/2 x 11-inch paper, line spacing is changed during
printing, and double-width, double-strike, and underline-on/off
sequences are sent.

Dot-matrix printers other than Epson or IBM may produce
acceptable output, especially for the Pick Sheet, which uses
standard ASCII characters almost exclusively. (The Tally Sheet
uses IBM graphic characters to produce boxes and runs the printer
in uni-directional mode, which may present a problem for printers
of other makes.) Many Epson dot-matrix printers can produce most
of the IBM graphic character set if the IBM-mode is selected by
the appropriate DIP-switch settings. Other printers may produce
garbage. In Epson mode, Epson FX printers produce italic letters
instead of graphics characters.

Many non-Epson and non-IBM dot-matrix printers can emulate
IBM Graphics Printer operation with appropriate DIP-switch
settings. OPOOL output was tested on Citizen 120D and 180D
printers in IBM mode, with good results. The Okidata Micro-line
92 utilizing the IBM "Plug-N-Play" module should also work. For
other printers, you are on your own. Most offices have at least
one dot-matrix that can be used with OPOOL.

OPOOL-PRO only: On the FX-80/85, a print line may cause the
printer to send a carriage return before the line is fully
printed, putting the rest of the line at the left margin of the
next paper line. If that happens, try moving the paper all the
way to the right in the carriage.

HP LaserJet Users: This driver has been less extensively
tested than the dot-matrix drivers. Good results were obtained
on an HP LaserJet IID, and should be obtainable on the LaserJet
II, IIP, and III, which have not been tested. If your LaserJet
produces garbage, turn the printer off then on again. The
initialization string OPOOL uses is not always sufficient, and
prior settings may affect output unless reset. Print is 12-pitch
courier, using a resident IBM character set. The optional
message for the Pick and Tally Sheets is printed in 14-point
Helvetica.

The author welcomes reports of results using this driver on
various HP LaserJets and other laser printers emulating the HP,
so that future improvements can be made.



APPENDIX B -- NFL TEAM NAMES, CODES, ABBREVIATIONS


Abbreviation Team Name Code (dec/hex)
------------ --------- ----
ATL Atlanta Falcons 00/00
BUF Buffalo Bills 01/01
CHI Chicago Bears 02/02
CIN Cincinnati Bengals 03/03
CLE Cleveland Browns 04/04
DAL Dallas Cowboys 05/05
DEN Denver Broncos 06/06
DET Detroit Lions 07/07
GB Green Bay Packers 08/08
HOU Houston Oilers 09/09
IND Indianapolis Colts 10/0A
KC Kansas City Chiefs 11/0B
LRD Los Angeles Raiders 12/0C
LRM Los Angeles Rams 13/0D
MIA Miami Dolphins 14/0E
MIN Minnesota Vikings 15/0F
NE New England Patriots 16/10
NO New Orleans Saints 17/11
NYG New York Giants 18/12
NYJ New York Jets 19/13
PHI Philadelphia Eagles 20/14
PHX Phoenix Cardinals 21/15
PIT Pittsburgh Steelers 22/16
SD San Diego Chargers 23/17
SEA Seattle Seahawks 24/18
SF San Francisco 49ers 25/19
TAB Tampa Bay Buccaneers 26/1A
WAS Washington Redskins 27/1B


OPOOL REGISTRATION FORM

OPOOL Standard Edition is distributed as a shareware program.
All rights are reserved to the author. Copies of the Standard
Edition, however, may be freely distributed, provided that no
charge is made for the program, including the disk on which it is
made available, and no commercial use is made of the program.

The $15 registration fee, along with the information requested
below, entitles you to notices (at least once-a-year, subject to
the provisions of Documentation Section 13) of updates and
enhancements, lower-cost upgrades (if and when available),
special attention for reported bugs, and other technical help.

OPOOL-PRO, an enhanced version of OPOOL, is available on 5-1/4"
DSDD disk ONLY or via private-password download from the Mortar
Board for $25.00, including registration.

OPOOL users (any version) registered prior to January 1, 1992,
may upgrade to OPOOL-PRO 5.0 for $15.00 (offer expires 8/31/92).
This offer is for downloading from the Mortar Board only, not a
mailed disk.

Mail this form and your check or money order to:

Ronald G. Precup
4123 North Richmond Street
Arlington, VA 22207

Registration confirmation/registration number/disk are NOT mailed
nor password furnished until personal checks have been collected.

___ I enclose $15 to register OPOOL, Standard Edition.

___ I enclose $25 for a registered copy of OPOOL-PRO ver. 5.1.

___ I am a registered OPOOL user. I enclose $15.00 for OPOOL-
PRO, version 5.1, upgrade. OFFER EXPIRES 8/31/92 AND IS
VALID FOR DOWNLOADING FROM THE MORTAR BOARD AT MY EXPENSE
ONLY! My registration number is:_______________________.


Name:___________________________________________________________

Street:_________________________________________________________

City:_____________________ State:____________ ZIP:______________

OPOOL Version Number:_______________

My source of this program:____________________________________

(Make checks/money orders payable to Ronald G. Precup)