HowToImportGames

Many thanks to Maurice McCarthy for the tutorial!

Importing games can be confusing to those new to SCID. The program dates from before the standardization of computer interfaces, therefore it has its quirks. A few words in the right direction and these are soon mastered.

Suppose you have a PGN database of Carlsen's games and you want to annotate some of them. Since SCID opens these files as read-only, all changes made to them shall be lost. So you need to import the games into a [ScidDatabase], i.e. a database in SCID format.

Here are five ways to import games.

• 1. How to Import Games Using Menus
• 2. How to Import Games Using the Database Switcher
• 3. How to Import Games Using the Gamelist Window
• 4. How to Import Games Using the Clipboard
• 5. How to Import Games Using Scripts

1. How to Import Games Using Menus

First, create a new database or open a pre-existing one.
To create a new one, do File - New - Save.
The Database dialog will appear:

You can type any (reasonable) name you want, for instance "carlsen."

Second, now that your new database is [TheActiveDatabase], import your PGN file with Database - Import File(s) of PGN Games...

NB. The very act of importing saves the PGN games in SCID database format. You do not need to make a "Save" or "Save As" click.

You now have a SCID database with (some of) Carlsen's games. Congratulations!

2. How to Import Games Using the Database Switcher

[TheGameList] window contains a vertical toolbar on the left-hand side.
Clicking on the Book icon opens [TheDatabaseSwitcher] inside [TheGameList] window.
The Import PGN Games command can now be reached by a right-click on the destination database in [TheGameList] window:

NB. The database does not have to be [TheActiveDatabase]. You can right-click on any open database and import the PGN to that.

3. How to Import Games Using the Gamelist Window

[TheGameList] can also be used to copy single games from any open database (in SCID or PGN format) to another open SCID database. Simply right-click the any single game on [TheGameList] and click the copy command:

The "merge" option in this submenu adds the selected game as an annotation to [TheActiveGame] in the SCID database. This has various further options such as how many moves to add and whether to include comments.

4. How to Import Games Using the Clipboard

NB. The clip board, not [TheClipbase].

This method to import whole PGN games is discouraged as its misuse can easily lose you a lot of work. The Clipboard overwrites [TheActiveGame] in [TheActiveDatabase], which means saving the game will destroy for ever the score, including all annotations and comments. The real purpose of the Clipboard is to edit games. It is safer to use one of the methods above.

One work around is to create a new empty game first (Ctrl+N) and only then bring up the clipboard (Ctrl-Shift-I or click "Edit-Paste Clipboard text as PGN game...").

5. How to Import Games Using Scripts

Unix-like versions of SCID come with a small set of helper scripts, one of which is "sc_import", a shell script or small command-line program. When you make the mouse clicks to import a PGN file you are actually running this script. On unix-like operating systems the script can be run like so:

$ /usr/bin/sc_import scid-database pgn-file (pgn-file ...)

(On some systems it is /usr/local/bin/sc_import ...) So in order to import PGN files, the database is specified. Therefore it must already exist. All the games from each pgn in turn are appended or added to it. Of course, this means it can just as well be a brand new and empty database - it still mustalready exists.

[Maurice]

Benoit, I'm all new to this and trying to learn. Any and all advice you can give me I'm grateful for! But I'm 66 years old and forgetful with it. I'd read in the MarkDown page about not using tabs and forgotten hahaha!! So if you feel you should repeat yourself to me, then please do so! No offence will be taken.

I have rarely used any drawing programs and started experimenting with Gimp. Having seen "Create from ... " (selection) in Gimp I still forget about it and end up with loads of white space.

Was not happy with my annotated GameList toolbar in Gimp so I did it again in Inkscape. Once I'd learned how to group lines and arrow heads that was better. And then I ended up with a little png on a huge canvas. Doh!

Sometimes could not capture what i wanted on screen with scrot in OpenBSD and had to switch to Windows and use MSPaint. Persistence got there some shape anyhow.

Thank you for the credit and all the tips and feedback. I'm only too glad to help!

[bstp]

Maurice,

It's already quite cool you are helping out. I think I can boil down my unsollicited advice to - don't sweat it!

Do what speeds up your work. I can edit photos myself. I will structure your text to fit the wiki style.

Write! Write!

Speaking of which, I created a stub for [TheGamelist] - would you mind taking a stab at it?

Thanks again!

B

[Maurice]

OK, I was actually just wondering, "What I know enough about to try to
do next?" Lol.

TheGameList it is then :)

Thanks
Moss

[bstp]

Maurice,

I did a quick re-read and I think this page works fine. I deleted the first comments. Will edit these during the week.

Thanks again,

B

[Maurice]

OK thanks, thats fine! Been stalled a working on the game list but
I'll try to get to it before long.

Glad to help
Maurice

[Muhammad Amirr]