The main window, "Courses" is your notebook of courses. There will always be a "Template" page which will be copied from when a new course is started (with the "New Course" command under the Edit menu). Other course pages of your notebook may be copied using the Copy Course and Paste Course commands under the Edit menu.
Three other windows available:
1. the "obstacle palette" where you select obstacles to place on a course,
2. the "tweak palette" which is used to rotate, number, and delete obstacles,
3. the "detail palette" where you may add graphic and text details to the course.
Near the upper left of each page is a field to put a short name for the course. Additional notes on the course may be put into a Notes field available for each course. Show and hide the Notes field with the View menu.
Setting the ring size
The ring size is changed by placing the pointer over the horizontal or vertical ring size near the top of the page and typing in the new size. The course size will change when the pointer is moved away from the number.
Placing Obstacles
Obstacles are chosen by clicking on the appropriate icon on the obstacle palette and will be placed on the currently visible course page. The obstacle palette is made visible by choosing it under the Tools menu. Alignment guides will appear to help placement and to indicate that the obstacle is active for "tweaking". It may be moved by dragging it with the mouse or by using the "nudge" buttons on the tweak palette or the nudge command in the Edit menu. Each nudge is by one foot or , if the option key is down, by 4 feet. The alignment guides will go away (and the obstacle will become inactive) when the mouse is clicked on an open area of the course.
Rotating Obstacles
Click on the obstacle to activate it. Then click on the "+" or "-" buttons of the tweak palette or choose the Rotate command under the Edit menu. Each click rotates the obstacle by 10 degrees. If the option key is held down, the rotation is by 40 degrees.
Numbering Obstacles
Obstacles are numbered with the tweak palette. To set the next number to be placed, put the pointer of the number in the tweak palette and type in the new number. Activate an obstacle by clicking on it and number it by clicking on the number in the tweak palette. The number in the palette will automatically increment. The number will appear centered on the obstacle. Move it by dragging it with the mouse. Drag the number out of the ring to remove it.
Deleting Obstacles
Activate the obstacle and click on the "delete" button in the tweak palette or choose "delete" under the Edit menu.
Printing a Course
The "Print Course" command is available under the File menu. When it is selected, the currently visible course will be printed. The grid will be printed if it is visible (use the "Show Grid/Hide Grid" command under the View menu to toggle). A simplified Base Line view is also available under the View menu. Printing with this option allows course building using the Base Line method as described in the article by David Hanson in the Nov. '94 issue of the USDAA® Dog Agility Report.
It is suggested that landscape mode be selected with a magnification of at least 140%. Also only print page 1 to save paper.
Saving Courses
The Save All command under the File menu saves this program with any changes you have made to the courses. Individual course pages may be saved to course documents using the Save Course command. These course documents may be read back into your notebook or into notebooks of other users of OVER! with the Open Course command. At this time, the graphic and text details added to a course cannot be saved.
The Open Course command will read any text document that contains the text generated by the Save Course command. Thus a course document could be copied in a text editor and pasted into the body of an e-mail message for posting. The recepient of the message would save the message as a text file and open it with Over!
Updating
Updating from previous versions of Over! is simply a matter of saving your courses in the old version to course documents and reading those documents into the new version.
Feedback
Please send any comments or suggestions to me at mef@mtc.aro.allied.com. I would also like to make available course documents of courses that have actually been used in trial events with future distributions of OVER!. You can e-mail these as well. Please be sure to use the Notes field to state when, where, and at what competition level the course was run and to give the originator of the course design credit. I will not distribute courses without this information.
