TheCommentEditor

The Comment Editor window lets you add or edit comments and symbolic annotation symbols for moves in the active chess game.

Annotation symbols

Scid uses the PGN standard for annotation symbols, accepting NAG (numeric annotation glyph) values for annotations. Some of the most common symbols (such as "!" or "+-") are displayed as symbols, and have a button in the comment editor window for fast entry. For other symbols, you can enter the appropriate numeric NAG value which is a number from 1 to 255. For example, the NAG value 36 means "White has the initiative" and will be displayed as "$36" in the PGN text of the game. If your system properly supports UTF-8 character sets many of the NAG symbols can be displayed by their glphys.

See the help page of NAG values for NAG values defined by the PGN standard. This page can be accessed from the Comment editor by pressing Ctrl-N.

Hint: You can add the common move evaluation symbols (!, ?, !!, ??, !? and ?!) while in the main window, without needing to use the comment editor window, by typing the symbol followed by the [Return] key. This is especially useful if you are entering chess moves using the keyboard. Also note that the PGN window's context menu offers many of the most common symbols for direct annotation.

Comments

You can edit comments by typing in the text area provided and using the Clear, Revert and Store buttons. You do not need to press the Store button to update a comment; it is automatically updated whenever you leave the comment editor window e.g. by activating another window or tab.

You can move through the moves of a game directly from within the comment editor by pressing Alt and the left/right cursor keys. To jump from the NAG entry and the free text entry Alt-N may be used for speedy navigation.

Hint: To add a comment before the first move in a variation, go to the first move and hit the left arrow key once and then insert the comment. Also note that by pressing Ctrl-A a variation can be added right from within the comment editor. This eases creation of a pre move comment for the first move of a variation.

Coloring squares

Colored markers may be added to the chess board by drawing them on the little helper board that can be exapanded left of the comment window. The display of this board is toggled by . Scid will remember the state of this board if options are saved. Once the little helper board is expanded, select the marker to use from the buttons below the board, and the color from the color palette above and just click on the square to mark.

A square may also be colored by using a special embedded command which can appear anywhere in a comment. The command format is:

[%draw marker,square,color]

where square is a square name like d4 and color is any recognized color name (such as red, blue4, darkGreen, lightSteelBlue, etc) or RGB code (a # followed by six hexadecimal digits, such as #a0b0c8). If the color is omitted, it defaults to red. marker
A comment may contain any number of color commands, but each must have in its own [%draw...] tag. For example, the comment text

Now d6 [%draw full,d6,red] is weak and the knight can attack it from b5. [%draw circle,b5,#000070]

will color d6 red and b5 with the dark-blue color #000070.

Drawing arrows

You can draw an arrow from one square to another using a special comment command similar to the for coloring squares described above. The format is:

[%arrow fromSquare toSquare color]

where fromSquare and toSquare are square names like d4 and color is any recognized color name (such as red, blue4, etc) or RGB code (like #a0b0c0). If the color is omitted, it defaults to red.

For example, the comment text

The c3-knight and c4-bishop control the weak d5 square. [%arrow c3 d5 red] [%arrow c4 d5 blue]

will draw a red arrow from c3 to d5 and a blue one from c4 to d5.

Note Colored squares and arrows can be entered directly on the board without the use of the Comment editor by using the mouse buttons. For colored squares one can Shift-click on the square in question. Shift-Left button markes the square in green, the middle button in yellow, the right button in red. To draw arrows one can Ctrl-click on the source and target squares. The left mouse button again results in a green, the middle in a yellow and the right mouse button in a red arrow.