Reprinted with permission, Cat Fanciers' Almanac, October 1996
Just about anyone who has served as an entry clerk in the last 10 years or so is familiar with CompuShow, Larry Ritter's entry clerking software. Currently available only for the MS-DOS environment, this program has pretty much set the standard for the computerized management of show entries. Hardly anyone still uses the old cut-and-paste method for putting a catalog together, and among those who do nearly all use a word processor or spreadsheet to do it; what used to literally take days is now accomplished in a few hours. One of the consequences of this is that shows on the west coast now typically close just 3 or 4 days before the show begins, a feat not possible in the cut-and-paste era.
To give you an idea of how much that is, the average wage earner works just over 2000 hours each year, so imagine programming every workday, all day, for two YEARS! CompuShow is used in approximately 95% of all CFA shows held in the US and Canada.
So what does a prospective entry clerk need to use CompuShow? By today's standards, not much in the way of computing power. Minimum configuration is an IBM-PC with at least 512K bytes of RAM, two 360K byte or greater floppy disk drives or a floppy disk drive and a hard disk drive, a monochrome or color monitor, and MS-DOS or PC-DOS version 2.1 or higher. To use the master files, you'll need the hard disk, but more about that later. So if you thought that old PC XT compatible or 286 machine gathering dust in the corner just wasn't of any use whatsoever any more, think again. Those machines run CompuShow just fine. Of course, it will take somewhat longer to accomplish some tasks (like sorting, file creation, master file searches) than would a 386, 486, or Pentium-powered PC.
We don't want to make this an infomercial for CompuShow. Rather than paraphrase the user manual, we'd rather just take a brief look at the products and services provided by the software, then share some of our tips and techniques garnered from years of experience with this program.
As a result of discussions Larry had with Central Office, an interface now exists which allows show entry information to be uploaded from a diskette to the Central Office computer. This is what Central Office refers to as the Disk-o-Cat program and, not surprisingly, CompuShow will produce a diskette with the proper format that can be sent along with the show package to Central Office. This results in a nice little $15 "rebate" check sent back to the club 2 or 3 weeks later.
There are four basic phases of activity with computerized entry clerking: ordering software or updates, setup, entry, and printing. Most of our tips are in the last three phases, but there are a couple of things to be said for ordering the software. First, order early enough for the software to arrive about the same time you expect your first entries to arrive. You don't want to sit waiting for your diskettes to arrive in the mail while entries pile up on your computer desk. Second, order the master files. You may not need them if you don't expect much over 200 entries and you only do this job once a year and you really LIKE typing. But if ANY of the above doesn't particularly appeal to you, you will find the time saved in having the master files definitely worth the small extra expense. If you are ordering CompuShow for multiple year use (vs. a "one-shot" deal), the master files are included anyway. Since you want the master files to be as current as possible in order to have the most kittens currently being shown in them, you'll want to wait as late as feasible to order. This is why you try to time your order so you get the software at the same time your first entries arrive.
During the setup phase you'll configure the show files to reflect your format, judging panel, and fee structure. If you have an older version of the software and didn't purchase an update, this is the time to make any new show season changes to breed and color class information. Follow the instructions in the documentation for this. To enter the show-specific information, we edit the user fields first and then the show configuration. Why? Because you'll want the user fields which appear in the show configuration screen to have the proper labels for the special fees you'll need to enter.
Let's illustrate what we mean. Say your show fees are $40 for the first entry, $35 for the second, and $25 for subsequent entries. The program's step deduction feature (see manual) will take care of the $5 deduction for the 2nd and subsequent entries, but you need an ADDITIONAL deduction of $10 for the third and subsequent entries. One of your user fields should be labelled "3 or more" so you can enter this additional deduction on the configuration screen. If your show has a charge for end of row benching, returned checks, groom spaces, substitutions, or a $75 nuisance fee for those exhibitors who call 27 times or call after 10PM (just kidding...REALLY!), each of these will need a user field defined for them.
Most of the calls Dan gets from CompuShow novices are about setting up the fee structure. Usually the problem is the club has set up an elaborate set of fees and there aren't enough fields to handle it. Consider this one: first entry $38, second entry $35, third and subsequent $30. Double cage is $20 and groom space $25. Shaded and smoke Persian entries are all $10. Club members' entries are $10 each and $10 for their double cages. Don't laugh! Dan was presented with a challenge VERY similar to this. There are only 5 user fields you can use for fees, so you sometimes have to be creative. Sometimes there will be more fee variances than you have fields to account with (usually happens with a small club who "outsources" their entry clerking duty to a service or non-club volunteer). The best recommendation short of changing the fee structure is to set up the 5 fields with what is likely to be the most frequently used charges or discounts and then use the Donation field as a "fudge factor." Huh? In other words, account for all you can with the user fields, then if it takes another $7 discount (for example) to make the balance due $0 (if it should be), put a -$7 in the Donation field. Of course, you'll have to keep track of your donations offline, but that's likely to be easier than any other option you may have (short of club member-cide). Hopefully, your fee structure will be a bit less bizarre.
Once all the user fields have been edited, enter your show configuration data. This includes the entry clerk name, address, and phone number, show dates, ring numbers and types, and fees. When entering fees, charges are positive numbers and discounts are negative. This seems obvious on the surface, but the new CompuShow user always seems to get it wrong. Negative numbers are entered by following the value with a minus sign, thus -$7 is entered as 7-. When the show configuration data is input, exit the configuration screen and create your show files. Once this is done, exit the setup program.
There is one more task to do before entering any show entries. Start up the CompuShow program and create the show notes file. Access "edit show notes" through the utilities menu. Put any hotel or special info here, so it will be printed on the show confirmations. Should you have a judge substitution, this is also where you would announce it. Once you have all the show notes in, you're FINALLY ready to start putting entries in.
During this phase, you have 3 or 4 good friends to help you; F3, F4, F7, and (if you have the master files) F8. These are the function keys and they will copy current field from previous entry form, copy owner's name, search current show file, and search master file respectively. We rely heavily on these keys to save time and typing during entry input. The following is Dan's process for inputting entries into a show.
First, press F7 and make sure the exhibitor isn't already entered in the show. Exhibitors who enter early will frequently add one or more entries later, so if there are two records in the show file for the same exhibitor, it will wreak absolute havoc with the show financials. Next, look over the exhibitor's entry blanks to see what's being entered. If there is more than one kitten, are they littermates? If not, do they have a common sire? Is either parent the same as an adult entry from the same owner? Since the F3 key copies information from the current data field on the previous entry blank of the current exhibitor, I usually enter an adult entry (that might be in the master file, thus saving me some typing) first. If a kitten entry has a common parent, that kitten goes in next and when I get to the sire or dam field, I press F3 and pull that common name in. If you experiment a little with this, you'll see how to arrange an exhibitor's multiple entries in order to minimize typing. Of course, you can't do this if there's only one entry.
Sometimes an exhibitor enters several cats and/or kittens that are not related. I hate that. But, c'est la vie. So the next thing I do is rely on the master file. If the entry isn't in the master file, look at the birthdates of cats from the same breeder that ARE in the file. You may be able to find a littermate. If you see a cat from that breeder and it's the same color but born 6 - 12 months earlier, it might be a repeat breeding, so try pulling that cat in and overtype the info that's incorrect. Naturally this won't work all the time, but I find it works often enough that the time I spend looking is more than offset by the time I save in typing. I can READ over 800 words per minute, but I've never been able to type faster than about 35 words per minute TOPS!
If a kitten is being entered without a registration number, regardless of what it says on the entry form, leave the field BLANK! If you type "Pending" into the field, CompuShow will print this in the catalog and on the master clerk's catalog. When the exhibitor presents the number to the master clerk at the show, the master clerk will either have to try and write around the word or will have to white it out and write on each copy of the official catalog. This quickly results in the master clerk grumbling and muttering throughout the weekend various opinions about your qualifications as entry clerk, your intelligence, ancestry, and possibly the species he or she thinks you belong to. An annoyed master clerk is a VERY ugly thing!
When you've completed entering all the entries for a particular exhibitor, toggle back to the exhibitor screen (press F1) and immediately press F3. This time instead of copying anything, you will get the financial summary of fees for this particular exhibitor. If the balance due at the bottom is $0, then you probably did everything right and the exhibitor got all the things he or she asked for. If it ISN'T zero, however, you'll want to look over the entry and make sure you got everything right. It's equally as probably that the exhibitor didn't send the proper fee as it is that you made an error entering the info. Better to find it here and fix it than to get a call from an irate exhibitor who insists (and correctly, too) they paid the right fee and you screwed something up and why can't you get this right anyway? Exhibitors are a surly lot.
At the end of the day's data entry session, print off the confirmations for the day. One word of advice here, though. If you enter a kitten's registration number someone has called in to you during the session and they don't want a re-confirmation, as soon as you're done entering it, go to the confirmation menu and print that particular one to the screen. This will prevent you from printing it along with all the entries you DO want to confirm and will save paper.
Once the show is closed and everything's in the computer, you're almost ready to begin printing. Before you print anything, run the "chekshow" utility. This will check for duplicate entries and exhibitors and will automatically fix some kinds of errors. NOW you're ready to print. I make the following recommendations: print the catalog using 64 lines per page. If you use the maximum of 66, the software and your printer may not "get their act together" and blank pages may be inserted in your catalog. Using 65 may crowd the footer at the bottom of the page and make the text less readable. Also, always have a top margin of at least 1 line. I never use anything other than 1. Setting the top margin to 0 often has unfortunate results, especially with HP and HP-compatible printers. When printing judges' books, set the lines printed per page to 61. Take my word for it, you just get the best results this way. Always, always, ALWAYS set the print parameters to number the pages and print the ring numbers. If you fail to do this, the master clerk will grumble louder and longer and his/her remarks about you will be more...creative and colorful. The master clerk may also suggest you do things which are anatomically impossible. Print ring and page numbers to avoid this unpleasantness. When printing either the regular catalog or the master clerk's catalog, set the additional lines between breeds and color classes to 1 or you will waste LOTS of paper and your catalog copy costs will be unnecessarily high. Set the "Print breed lines always" to "Yes" when printing the master clerk catalog so the master clerk will have a place to record kitten and premiership breed wins per show rules.
<a href="mailto:klawrenc@freenet.npiec.on.ca">klawrenc@freenet.npiec.on.ca</a>
This can be incorporated into the web site in many ways, such as:
Many people can also find a use for lists of items on their web site, even if it is just a list of your favorite links. There are two types of lists - ordered (each line is automatically numbered) and unordered (not-numbered, but with automatic bullet). Information for ordered lists is contained within the <OL> and </OL> tags, while unordered lists use the <UL> and </UL> tags. Each line that you want within the list must start with the tag <LI>. If you want a list of links to the CFA breed profiles for your different breeds, you could use this list for example:
<UL> or <OL>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/ocicat.html">Ocicat</A>
<LI><A
HREF="http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/oriental.html">Orientals</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/persian-bic.html">Persian -
Bicolor</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/persian-solid.html">Persian
-
Solid</A>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/siamese.html">Siamese</A>
</UL> or </OL>
If using the <UL> tag this list appears on a web site as:
If using the <OL> tag, this appears as:
Lists can be used within one another, if you want a sub-list. For example, using these tags
<OL>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/ocicat.html">Ocicat</A>
<LI><A
HREF="http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/oriental.html">Orientals</A>
<LI>Persian
will produce a list similar to this:
You will note above that I have indented the HTML tags for the new list . I find that formatting the actual HTML code like this, by separating the new list within the list itself, makes keeping track of the content of your file much easier.
A tip: The <UL> tag can also be used to indent text when used without the accompanying <LI> tag. If you have a background image that has a border on the left side and you need to indent your text, type <UL> as the first tag after the <BODY> tag at the top of the page, and </UL> as the last tag before the </BODY> tag at the bottom of the page. If you want your text indented even further, use <ul><ul> and </ul></ul>. NOTE that this may cause your text to overlap your border if the visitor's browser of choice is Internet Explorer.
Next month, we'll talk about including pedigrees in your web site.