Many of the objects on the GIB screen are ``mouse sensitive.'' What this means is that if you click on them with the mouse, something happens. Hopefully, it's what you expect.
The most obvious example is the bids in the bidding box and the cards in the hands under your control. To make a bid, click on that bid with the mouse. To play a card, click on it.
You can also enter bids and plays with the keyboard, if you're so inclined. The suits are C, D, H, S and N for no trump. Double is X, and redouble is XX. Pass is P. The card ranks are A, K, Q, J, T, 9, 8, and so on down to 2. You can use 1 instead of T for ten, if you'd like.
To enter a bid, type something like, ``4S'' for 4
. To
play a card, type something like, ``CT'' for the club ten. The suit
comes second for a bid, but first for a card. You only need to type
enough to make it clear what you want to do; if East leads a club and
you are following suit, you need only type the rank of your card.
Many other items on the GIB screen can be activated with the mouse as well. If you'd like a review of the auction, click on the final contract (in the upper left). If you'd like to know what GIB thinks a particular bid means, click on that bid in the auction review window.
If you'd like a review of the play so far, click on the information telling you how many tricks N/S or E/W have taken. You can also request a review of the bidding or play by selecting the appropriate item under the ``action'' menu (described in Section 5.4).
If you'd like to see or modify the convention card for a particular partnership, click on the player name for either player in that partnership. Changes to the convention card won't take effect until the next hand.
If you're playing one of the hands from an international tournament, the results of the other tables will be displayed when the hand is complete. Clicking on any of these results will bring up the bidding and play from the table that produced it.
There is one other case where GIB looks at what you type or what you do with the mouse. In many cases, GIB waits for you before continuing. It waits before proceeding to the next deal, for example. If you've selected ``pause after tricks'' from the action menu, GIB will wait before clearing a trick away and starting the play to the next trick. In all of these cases, GIB is waiting for you to click a mouse button or strike a key.