Thanks, wilsonl.
This is where my lack of IT skills embarrasses me as I'm not sure I follow you.
If I can explain exactly what I am used to doing:
1. I go to the RP 'at a glance' cards. I also open a Word [2003] document, give it a title and save it.
2. I type the course & race time in the Word document, eg ASC 2.15
3. I select, copy & paste the race title from the web page to the document, then edit the title to get it to fit the one line (@ Arial 8), purely for the sake of space. This might mean taking out the sponsor's name and/or age range, etc.
4. I select, copy & paste the race details from 'No.' to the last digit in the final box in the final column (usually the RPR, from memory) on to the Word document. This creates automatically a Word document 'table'.
5. I repeat the process with every race that I think merits my attention, usually on average about 7 races on a Saturday. [And save.]
6. I then edit the document so that I'm happy with how it will appear on paper but at this stage it won't be much, maybe centring some numbers columns. Then print.
7. I then study my hard-copy form instalments and write my figures on the printed document.
8. Once I've done all that I go back to the computer and set about editing the document with my figures, so I'll reduce the size of the text in the tables to 7 and race titles to 6.5, reduce the width of some of the columns in the tables so that I can add another two columns (one for my own ratings - 'MON' - and one for any annotations - '+', 'p', etc). In doing this, the RPR column is automatically pushed to the final column so I just select, cut & paste 'RPR' from the top of the original column to the final column and type in 'MON' and 'Notes' at the head of the two new columns.
9. I can then type in my own stuff.
10. Once I've done all that I then select the table from the start of the horses (NOT the headings row) and 'sort' the table using the column with my own figures, in
descending order. I can then see at a glance my ratings in order and the improvers, as in the Tingle Creek example. I've found this more helpful than leaving the table 'unsorted', if I can coin a word.
And that's basically it.
It might sound a lot but I've been doing it for years and I can probably have my document ready for typing in about maybe a minute per race. The form study is maybe a minute per horse - that's what I aim for - and the typing takes as long as it takes but i'm pretty quick as I use most of my fingers correctly since I self-taught typing a long time ago.
I then add my synopses and conclusions, after checking video form and other stuff to satisfy myself that I'm getting as accurate as I can be content with, without scunnering myself!
I rarely print off my final document. I usually just refer to it on the PC.
My final documents bear little more than a passing resemblance, though, to the likes of the Tingle Creek produced above.
Sorry if all that bores you. I don't want to hear anything about forumites stringing themselves up or setting themselves alight,
Airport-style
