Menu

TheOptionsMenu

Menus (13)
bstp
Attachments
SCID470-options-menu.png (161579 bytes)

By Maurice McCarthy

Many SCID options and preferences (such as the board size, colors, fonts, and default settings) are adjustable from [TheOptionsMenu]. All these (and more, such as the last directory you loaded a database from and the sizes of some windows) are saved to an options file when you select Save Options from the Options menu. The options file is loaded whenever you start SCID.

Where Are the Options Stored?

Under Windows 10, the directory "Program Files" is no longer writeable by the user. (Not since version 1709 released in October 2017.) For this reason default install is to the user's own directory. The options file is stored in

C:\Users\Your Name\Scid-4.7.0\bin\config\options.dat

(Or whatever is appropriate to your own installation.)

Under Unix systems (such as Solaris or Linux) the file in Scid-4.7 is ~/.scid4.7/config/options/options.dat.

Language

Submenu to select from the languages available in Scid.

Chessboard

Submenu to select the size, piece style and colors of the board.

Fonts

Submenu to select the size and style of the fonts displayed. Scid has four basic fonts it uses in most of its windows, and you can customize all of them. They are called large, regular, small and fixed. The fixed font should be a fixed-width (not proportional) font. It is used for the tree and crosstable windows.

Set menu colors...

Dialog to select the color of text and background in the menus.

Number Format

Submenu to select different conventions for decimal places and 3-digit separators.

Theme

Submenu with 4 default themes

Windows

Submenu to customize window behaviour, select start-up windows

Sounds

Dialog to customize where wav files are stored and whether they play on moves being made. (Requires the Snack audio package in Linux or BSD systems.)

Toolbar

Dialog to select which buttons appear in the Toolbar. Buttons select menu functions.

Recent files...

Dialog to select how many files appear under the File menu and its submenu ...

Configure Informant values...

Dialog to select how large the chess engine assessments must be for their analysis symbols to appear, e.g. by default "??" is a blunder which should lose the game.

Exporting...

Submenu to 3 customization dialogs for export to pgn, html or latex format files.

Moves...

Submenu with a large number of choices as to how moves are diplayed by Scid.

Load ECO file...

Dialog to select an ECO file to categorize the opening of games.

Load Spellcheck file...

Dialog to select the spelling correction file.

Tablebase directory...

Dialog to select one or more directories containing tablebase files.

Books directory...

Dialog to select the directory for books

Bases directory...

Dialog to select the default directory of game databases when Scid is opened.

Photos directory...

Dialog to select the directory of player photographs.

Save Options

Clicking on this saves all the options selected above.

Auto-Save Options on Exit

An on/off toggle indicated by a tick at the left hand side.

Screenshot of SCID's Options Menu

Many SCID options and preferences (such as the board size, colors, fonts, and default settings) are adjustable from [TheOptionsMenu]. All these (and more, such as the last directory you loaded a database from and the sizes of some windows) are saved to an options file when you select Save Options from the Options menu. The options file is loaded whenever you start SCID.

Where Are the Options Stored?

Under Win, the options file is scid.opt in /bin/config/options/options.dat.
Under Unix systems (such as Solaris or Linux) the file is ~/.scid/config/options/options.dat.

Setting your player names

DEPRECATED

There may be a player name (or several names) for whom, whenever a game is loaded, you would like the main window chessboard to be displayed from the perspective of that player. You can configure a list of such names using My Player Names... from the [Options/Chessboard] menu. In the dialog box that appears, enter one player name on each line. Wildcard characters ("?" for exactly one character and "*" for a sequence of zero or more characters) can be used.

Setting Fonts

Scid has three basic fonts it uses in most of its windows, and you can customize all of them. They are called regular, small and fixed.

The fixed font should be a fixed-width (not proportional) font. It is used for the tree and crosstable windows.


Related

Wiki: FileFormats
Wiki: Menus
Wiki: TheBookWindow
Wiki: TheGameMenu
Wiki: TheMainWindow
Wiki: TheOptionsMenu

Discussion

  • Maurice

    Maurice - 2020-01-18

    I'll try that again.

    Many SCID options and preferences (such as the board size, colors, fonts, and default settings) are adjustable from [TheOptionsMenu]. All these (and more, such as the last directory you loaded a database from and the sizes of some windows) are saved to an options file when you select Save Options from the Options menu. The options file is loaded whenever you start SCID.

    Where Are the Options Stored?

    Under Windows 10, the directory "Program Files" is no longer writeable by the user. (Not since version 1709 released in October 2017.) For this reason default install is to the user's own directory. The options file is stored in
    C:\Users\Your Name\Scid-4.7.0\bin\config\options.dat
    (Or whatever is appropriate to your own installation.)

    Under Unix systems (such as Solaris or Linux) the file in Scid-4.7 is ~/.scid4.7/config/options/options.dat.

    Language

    Submenu to select from the languages available in Scid.

    Chessboard

    Submenu to select the size, piece style and colors of the board.

    Fonts

    Submenu to select the size and style of the fonts displayed. Scid has four basic fonts it uses in most of its windows, and you can customize all of them. They are called large, regular, small and fixed. The fixed font should be a fixed-width (not proportional) font. It is used for the tree and crosstable windows.

    Set menu colors...

    Dialog to select the color of text and background in the menus.

    Number Format

    Submenu to select different conventions for decimal places and 3-digit separators.

    Theme

    Submenu with 4 default themes

    Windows

    Submenu to customize window behaviour, select start-up windows

    Sounds

    Dialog to customize where wav files are stored and whether they play on moves being made. (Requires the Snack audio package in Linux or BSD systems.)

    Toolbar

    Dialog to select which buttons appear in the Toolbar. Buttons select menu functions.

    Recent files...

    Dialog to select how many files appear under the File menu and its submenu ...

    Configure Informant values...

    Dialog to select how large the chess engine assessments must be for their analysis symbols to appear, e.g. by default "??" is a blunder which should lose the game.

    Exporting...

    Submenu to 3 customization dialogs for export to pgn, html or latex format files.

    Moves...

    Submenu with a large number of choices as to how moves are diplayed by Scid.

    Load ECO file...

    Dialog to select an ECO file to categorize the opening of games.

    Load Spellcheck file...

    Dialog to select the spelling correction file.

    Tablebase directory...

    Dialog to select one or more directories containing tablebase files.

    Books directory...

    Dialog to select the directory for books

    Bases directory...

    Dialog to select the default directory of game databases when Scid is opened.

    Photos directory...

    Dialog to select the directory of player photographs.

    Save Options

    Clicking on this saves all the options selected above.

    Auto-Save Options on Exit

    An on/off toggle indicated by a tick at the left hand side.

     

    Related

    Wiki: TheOptionsMenu


    Last edit: Maurice 2020-01-18
  • Maurice

    Maurice - 2020-01-18

    after multiple efforts I do hope that is more presentable.

     
    • bstp

      bstp - 2020-01-18

      Sorry for the delay. I will edit the text as soon as I can.

      Thanks!

       
      • Maurice

        Maurice - 2020-01-18

        No problem!

         
        • Maurice

          Maurice - 2020-01-18

          bstp

          Anything you want me to change or improve just pass it back. I'd be
          happy to. Started working on a HowTo for importing.

           
          • bstp

            bstp - 2020-01-28

            Maurice,

            I added your text as is. I'll see how it reads tomorrow.

            You rock!

            B

            PS: Will probably delete this discussion next week or so.

             
            • Maurice

              Maurice - 2020-01-28

              Beginners luck! Lol !!!

               
  • Maurice

    Maurice - 2020-01-28

    Dunno how I managed to attach the import text too. That was weird. Deleted it now though.

     

    Last edit: Maurice 2020-01-28
    • bstp

      bstp - 2020-01-28

      My SCID time is up this week. Bump the thread next week if I'm taking too much time.

       

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