What's New in Home or Away

© 1996-2008 CFB Software
Last Updated 20 May 2008

Version 8

Windows Vista Compatibility

Home or Away v8.0 and later is supported on Windows Vista as well as Windows 98 / ME and XP. 

The following Windows Vista features are supported:

• New style File Open / Save dialogs with search bars
• The new standard Segoe UI 9pt font

and, if your version of Windows Vista and your computer system have sufficient capabilities:

• Taskbar thumbnail previews
• Windows Flip thumbnail previews and Flip3D previews
• Translucent Aero Glass window borders

On earlier versions of Windows the standard Tahoma 8pt font is used.

Dates / Times Windows

The Dates / Times and Playing Days windows have been combined into one convenient window with three separately sizeable sections.  

Location Scheduling

'Fair' location scheduling takes match times into account to lessen the possibility of double-booked locations.  

Opening Files

• The list of most recently used files under the File > Open menu automatically excludes files which have since been deleted.  
• An option allows you to specify the number of files that should be included in the most recently used list. Four is the default. Zero causes the list to be hidden.

General

The default directory for schedule files is the Home or Away directory in the user's My Documents (or just Documents on Windows Vista) directory.

Version 7

Schedule Generation

• The limit on the number of teams in each division has been increased from 40 to 100.
• Only the fastest scheduling method is used and streak optimisation is always done automatically.
• Times can optionally be distributed more fairly to each team and the result seen in the new Time summary window. It is no longer possible to assign times to particular teams.
• Shared locations are automatically handled and it is no longer a requirement to list the teams in a particular order. Double-booking of locations is detected and reported.
• The progress display is more informative and summarises any problems.
• The Skip Byes and Days between games can be seen and changed whenever the schedule is generated.
• A warning is given when regenerating the schedule if manual modifications will be lost.
   

Enhanced Filters

The enhanced Filter function lets you quickly check just those games for any combination of the following:

• From Date
• To Date
• Time
• Location
• Team

This is useful for answering questions like:

• Which games are being played next week?
• On which dates are the Cardinals playing at 5pm?
• When is the main field being used?

Games without dates (bye games for example) can optionally be suppressed.

The resulting partial schedule can be viewed on the screen, printed or exported to a file.
 

Schedule Overview

The Schedule Overview is a convenient single screen showing all of the following information:

• Teams
• Locations
• Teams / Locations
• Times
• Dates / Times
• Option Settings
• Schedule Summary
• Location Summary
• Time Summary

The overview is automatically updated whenever changes which affect it are made. The overview can be printed; or saved as a rich text format (RTF) word processor file or a text file.

General Improvements

• Two additional optional menu and toolbar styles
• Optional large toolbars
• The standard Windows popup calendar is used for all date entries.
• The three export menus have been combined into one. The export type (comma separated values, tab separated values and HTML) is chosen in the File Save dialog box and the appropriate extension (csv, tsv or htm) is automatically added to the file name.
• Entries in the Dates / Times window are automatically sorted in date order.
• The four most recently used schedules may now be reopened directly from the File menu
• The team column width in Schedule Summary automatically resizes to accommodate the longest team name
• The save and print menu items have been reordered to be consistent with other applications.
   

Version 6

Windows XP Compatibility

Home or Away now has the new look and feel of Windows XP and makes use of Windows XP themes, menu appearance and enhanced common controls. 
 

New Help System

The on-line help has been completely rewritten to use the Microsoft HTML Help system and provide additional information. Results of word searches are clearly highlighted. You can now directly access the CFB Software website from the Help file.
 

Improved Usability

• Schedule files that have been opened most recently are remembered and listed on the Reopen menu to save you time when opening them again.
• The position and sizes of all data entry and display windows are now under your control. Settings are remembered and used the next time you start Home or Away.