Table Making for Dummies. (I'm the dummy)

[Fit4aking]

Well here it is my feeble attempt at constructing a leaderboard.  I have given it a shot and I don't hink I have it correct but I'm gonna try it again before I beg.  I think its one of the time consuming aspects of running a challenge that I should be able to help with.

I copied the table from the last challenge to try and determine what the [coding] pertains to.  My limited knowledge of this type of coding isn't a big help but I think you should know that I have only started messing with it here.  I have even less experience with html, mostly on myspace.

Right off the bat I have a [hr'] that doesn't have a cooresponding [/hr'] at the end.  Question #1: What is that? Question Answered: Upon hitting preview I noticed that a horizontal line appeared across the screen.  So I now know that hr=horizontal line.  See I'm the dummy.

Now on to the next line of code.  This one I've seen everytime I try to make one of theses.  [tab'le] followed at the bottom of the codeblock with a [/tab'le].  I assume that everything in between these two are to be part of the table.

Immediately after that is what I believe to be the header of the leaderboard.  The font is established as Courier in a [font='][/font'] on eiter side of the three headers. Car, Driver and Track.  Each is also underlined and bold but they are very common and don't need special attention.

The headers are all in side of a [tr'][/tr'].  Now I'm gonna see if I can reproduce it.

example

example1

example2

I think I was able to do it but the spacing between the examples isn't uniform even though I counted the amount of chacters within the []'s and they are all 10.  Counting text and spaces as 1.  My reference has a lot more space in between the text and the end code but nothing other than actual blank space to determine what it is.  I assume that the number of space has to be the same for the sake of evenness in the columns of the leaderboard.

Now to add the individual valued under the example columns.  This is what starts to confuse me as no value for a column is established on the fact that there are columns and that they have names.  From here on out my example has the same block of text repeated over and over in the order of lap times.  First is is a [tr'][/tr'] that encompasses the entire block.  Next is the [td'][/td'] around the name of the participant (example-in my table), the car type (example1) and finally the time that has [right'][/right'].  That is the only value that has anything that would place it somewhere in my opinion.  That is what confuses me.  Is the [tr'] a good code for each of the columns? as long as you place the desired value in the same order within the [td'][/td'] markers?  Lets try and find out.  I'm gonna continue by copying and pasting the succesful header above and adding values.

example	example1	example2
exname	excar	extime

HA! it worked.  Now I guess if I can manage to keep all of the names and cars and times sorted and spelled correct I could put one of these things together.  I hope that there is an easier way than this but if I give this a shot a time or two I could get the hang of it.  Inserting the faster, slower, and in-between times shouldn't be that difficult.  But I think I'll eat those words if I get in the middle of a large leaderboard.  Lesson learned.  It only took 50 minutes to figure it out and type it up.  I'm thinkin I'm faster on the track than on a keyboard. 

If I did it the hard way please laugh a little and enlighten me, if I did it the way it has to be done I really have empathy for Blooze, Hekalite, Hop and anyone else that maintains these things.  Sorry no Forza related content but I wanted to try and make myself more useful around here.  Just as a reference I used the (') to keep the program from using the []'s as prompts to do something.

[Blooze]

Okay, you got a handle on it.  But yes there is a much easier way for the leaderboards.  And, if you typed all of the tags in your example by "hand", then yes there is a much easier way to do that.

First - the Leaderboards - note: Excel with Macros enabled is required.
If you will notice on each of the challenges there is a spreadsheet attached to the first post.  I build this for each challenge (actually, I modify one that originally created by Hekalite.)

So, step one is...

• Down load the attached spreadsheet.
• Edit post and remove the attachment.  You do this so nobody else will try to update the spreadsheet while you are updating it.

Then you load the spreadsheet up and enter the new times, or modify existing times, whatever.  If the challenge involves a rollup, like a QR challenge where people are posting their individual times for the QR tracks, then the QR field on the spreadsheet will be a function that needs to be copied to each new row.

Once you have the data entered/updated, you hilite the entire table in the spreadsheet.  Having done that, you then select Data - Sort from the main menu.  A dialog box will appear, it should be configured correctly but it is good to check - the option named "Header Row"  should be on.  The first sort field should contain the track field name that the challenge is based on.  Click Ok.

Once sorted, you select Tools - Macro - Macros from the main menu.  (Alternatively, hit Alt-F8)  A macro list will appear with a single macro in it.  Hit the Run button.

Save the spreadsheet and exit.

Now, in the directory where the spreadsheet was stored there will be a file named Scoreboard.txt.  Note the file date, it should be just a few seconds ago.  Load this file in Note Pad.  At this time, you also want to modify the first post.  Cursor to the front of the first table tag then hit the key combination Ctrl-Shift-End, this should hilite the table tag and all text to the end of the post in the editor.  This delete.

Now, in Notepad hit the key sequence Ctrl-A, and once all text is hilited, Ctrl-C.  Then in the Post Editor, just under the HR tag, hit Ctrl-V.  The modified table data code should now be in the post.

Now reattach the modified spreadsheet and save the Post.

That's it.


As for the other, all of those tags including the HR can be produced by the buttons above, experiment with them, it makes creating a table on the fly quite easy.

$

[99-LS1-SS]

I'll do the basic table stuff for the leader board if you want me to.