Downloading the HDB programs

            The various HDB programs can be downloaded by clicking on HDB020812.zip and installing them to the root directory of the C Drive or of the D Drive.  This download of 213 files takes up about 35 MBytes on the hard disk.  What will be placed on the computer in the root directory is a folder called HDB with three subfolders:  Programs, VB, and Word.  The contents of these subfolders are as follows.

            The Programs subfolder contains the 47 Excel scoring programs, written as Excel 97-2003 Workbooks.  Most of these programs are for 6-17 pairs, but there are also thirteen of them for 12, 16, or 20 individual players.  In scoring an HDB session (or a matchpoint duplicate session) for these configurations, what one does is to open the Excel program and immediately save it under a different name, so that the original program is always available.  This is best done automatically as described in the next paragraph.

            The VB folder contains two executable programs created by Visual Basic, with the Visual Basic source code also included in the folder.  These programs are called HDBC.exe and HDBD.exe, corresponding to whether the HDB folder was placed on the C Drive or the D Drive.  Shortcuts for these two .exe programs are also provided in the VB folder, to drag onto the monitor screen.  (Thus to run the various HDB Excel scoring programs, it is but necessary to click either the shortcut or the .exe program itself.)  The .exe programs allow one to choose the configuration, to give the required Excel scoring program a new name, and then to save the renamed Excel program in the HDB folder itself.  (Otherwise, only the aforementioned subfolders go there.)

            Finally, the Word subfolder contains all the files needed for playing HDB, written in Word 97-2003 format.  These files are grouped into a number of subsubfolders.  The 4&5 Pairs folder is for all the configurations of four and five players, which are scored manually rather than with Excel programs.  The Movements folder gives the movements for all the configurations of 6-17 pairs, to be placed on each table, while the Travelers folder gives the traveling scores (four per sheet) for these configurations.  The Individuals folder gives all the (manual) scoring sheets for 8-10 individual players and the movement and traveling score sheets for 12, 16, and 20 individual players.  (The Excel programs for scoring the configurations of 12, 16, and 20 individual players are in the Programs folder.)  Finally, the Web folder gives the webpages of this website, for easy reference.

            The VB and Word subfolders can be moved to somewhere else on the computer, but the HDB folder and its Program subfolder must remain where they are in order for the .exe program in the VB subfolder to work.

©2009 by David Jette