Verbatim 4 Quick Start

Aaron Hardy Ashtar Communications 1/25/2012

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 SETTINGS ............................................................................................................................................................... 3 NEW HEADING STRUCTURE ................................................................................................................................... 3 BACKFILE CONVERTERS .......................................................................................................................................... 3 VIRTUAL TUB ......................................................................................................................................................... 5 DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................................................................................5 CAUTIONARY NOTES.......................................................................................................................................................5 USAGE NOTES ...............................................................................................................................................................5 UPLOAD TO PADS .................................................................................................................................................. 5 CASELIST FEATURES ............................................................................................................................................... 6 INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................................................................6 GENERAL NOTES ............................................................................................................................................................6 UPLOAD TO CASELIST......................................................................................................................................................7 OTHER FEATURES................................................................................................................................................... 8

Introduction
This document is meant to be a very quick introduction to using the new features of Verbatim 4. A revised manual will come out eventually.

Settings
Many of the new features require some initial setup in the Verbatim Settings. To access these, click the little arrow at the lower right corner of the Paperless box on the Ribbon or access it from the Add-Ins section of the File menu.

Most of the settings should be pretty self-explanatory, or are described below.

New Heading Structure

Verbatim 4 is a change from the Heading Levels that most people are used to. It introduces a new style/heading level called Pocket which is above Hat. This now gives you 4 levels of headings: Heading 1 Pocket Heading 2 Hat Heading 3 Block Heading 4 Tag Trust me when I say that this makes an enormous, enormous difference in file organization. Think of each Word file as an expando and the heading levels make sense. It also makes the document map for long files infinitely more readable. If you are initially hesitant, or dont think you want tags in the document map, etcjust take into account that every single person Ive asked who has used this for any length of time has unqualifiedly endorsed it.

Backfile Converters
Verbatim 4 has an extensive set of Backfile Converters built in to help smooth your transition to the latest template. I can almost guarantee that these are not perfect, especially if you or others on your team are very poor at consistent formatting or template usage. But, its better than nothing. If you absolutely cant get any of your files even close, send me a sample and Ill see what I can do. Clicking on the Convert Backfile option on the ribbon brings up this dialogue:

The Convert File tab lets you convert a single file, which it will save labeled <filename> Converted.docx in the same directory. The Batch Convert tab will let you select an entire folder to attempt to convert all the files at once, and will destructively replace old versions with the new ones. EXTREME CAUTION you should not attempt to run a Batch Convert on your master tub. You should only run it on a safe local copy backup, just in case things go horribly awry. Theres nothing I can do for you if you mess up your only copy of your files. To use, just select a file/folder, and then select one of the Convert From options and click Convert. I have found that it is sometimes helpful to try both the Non-Verbatim Template and Synergy options for anything not produced in Verbatim, and see which has better results. For example the Synergy macro can frequently lose the underlining in a file, but the Non-Verbatim Template option will retain underlining at the cost of losing the highlighting in cards. If you see problems like these, you might be able to come up with a workaround for example, doing a find and replace for all underlined text and replacing it with highlighting, then running it through the Synergy macro, and reversing the process to restore the underlining. Your mileage may vary.

Virtual Tub
Description
There is now a Virtual Tub built in to Verbatim 4. The idea is to allow you to select a Block from a menu of files in the Ribbon and insert it right into your current document, without having to open the source file. It definitely works but can be very finicky. This should be considered a beta implementation I can get it working reasonably well with files produced to specification in Verbatim 4 format, but it isnt very good at dealing with large or improperly formatted files.

Cautionary Notes
1) The VTub probably wont work with an entire tub worth of files. Its really only designed to work with a handful of select files that you want readily accessible (Theory, 2AC Blocks, Politics 2NCs, etc). The more files you try and throw at it, the more likely it will fail. 2) The VTub does better with smaller files if youre trying to use a 2MB case neg and it fails, try using smaller files. 3) The VTub Creator will take a long time, especially if you have more than a few files. It will eventually finish, but taking several minutes is to be expected. And theres no progress bar yet. 4) The VTub will display the internal heading structure of the file down to the Heading 3/Block level so it can only be used to paste in a Block at a time, not individual cards. This is by design, since including every card in the menu would be unworkable. 5) If you make any changes to the structure of the files in the VTub, you run the risk of having it not work right. Highlighting/etcshouldnt affect it, but if you move blocks around, etcyou should regenerate the tub by selecting Recreate VTub from the menu. There is unfortunately not yet an asynchronous update option.

Usage Notes
To use the VTub, open the Verbatim Settings and go to the VTub page. Click Browse and fine the folder of files you want in your VTub, then click the Create VTub button. Wait, probably for a really long time. Eventually you should get a message that the creation was successful then, if you select the Virtual Tub menu on the ribbon, you should get a menu of all the files in the tub.

Upload to PaDS
For schools which subscribe to the PaDS service (paperlessdebate.com/pads), Verbatim 4 gives you the option of sharing your speech documents in round with one click. No USB required. This option makes use of the public PaDS site: pads.paperlessdebate.com/college Or pads.paperlessdebate.com/hs

Before using, ensure that you have a folder for your school, and that you have created a subfolder for each team to contain all your uploaded speech documents. For an example, look at Whitmans folder: pads.paperlessdebate.com/college/Whitman To use, setup your PaDS information in the Verbatim Settings, with your PaDS school name, and the exact name of the subfolder you are uploading to. Then, all you have to do is select the Upload to PaDS button (from the USB menu in the Paperless box of the ribbon). Word will prompt you for a username and password if you havent already opened a file off PaDS, and the rest should be automatic. Note that after upload, you will actually be working on the document directly from the PaDS site so if you make changes to the document (such as marking cards), saving them will immediately update the public available version of the file. For more information on PaDS and advice on how to use it for in-round speech sharing, email me or consult the PaDS Quick Start manual.

Caselist Features
Introduction
Verbatim 4 has several built-in functions to make intel sharing easier. The four important ones are: 1) Cite Request this lets you turn an individual card into a cite request ready format. Shortcut: Ctrl-Q while the cursor is in the card text. 2) Cite Request Doc opens a new document and turns all the cards into a cite-ready list 3) Convert to Wiki Syntax opens a new document and converts everything to cites in ready-to-post wiki syntax for openCaselist, . This should help avoid many of the formatting errors people make. Note that when posting cites produced with this converter manually, you should post it in the entry box labeled ONLY USE THIS BOX FOR WIKI SYNTAX OUTPUT FROM VERBATIM 4, not the WYSIWYG editor box. 4) Upload to Caselist Uploads either the current document of cites or an open source speech document (or both) to the caselist. Will automatically do the cite/wiki conversions for you, so you dont even need to convert them manually before upload. Just click the button from your document full of cards to upload, and youre done.

General Notes
One thing I am concerned about in releasing this function is that people will take it as an opportunity to just convert every disorganized speech document they produce into cite format and upload it as a new entry making their wiki pages less readable.

This feature is designed to make formatting and upload to the caselist an easier process but it is not a substitute for personal organization of disclosed intel. For more in-depth discussion of models for disclosure, see: http://www.cedadebate.org/forum/index.php?topic=2667 I have occasionally seen an unexplainable Type Error crash the wiki conversion macro. If this happens to you, close Word entirely and restart this will likely fix the problem.

Upload to Caselist
Clicking the Upload to Caselist button will first prompt you for your caselist password. Note that this password will appear in plain text, and isnt masked. A future version will replace it with ***s as you type, but for now, make sure you protect your password when you type it in. This password is not saved anywhere, so you will have to re-enter it each time. After entering your password, you will be given the following dialogue box:

The top will tell you which caselist page you currently have selected. You should then input a Title for your entry to the caselist (this will appear as the clickable title on the page). You can then input other information about the cites you are posting. You then have the choice of whether to post the current document as Cites, Open Source, or both.

Selecting Upload Cites will automatically convert the current document into a cite list in wiki syntax, and upload it to the caselist as a new entry with the Title you selected. Selecting Upload Open Source will upload a copy of the current document, as is, as an attachment to your wiki page with the name you give it in the File Name box. You are encouraged to give your speech documents a consistent nomenclature before uploading them such as: Hogwarts PG Aff Wake Round 4 After that, just click the Upload button. Thats it!

Other Features
1) Auto NavPaneCycle. The Verbatim Settings have an option for Auto Nav Pane Cycle which lets you set the program to automatically set the Document Map to only display Heading 1 when you first open the document. Is somewhere between very convenient and very annoying, depending on how you look at it. Requires that the latest version of NPC be installed in your templates folder (the installation package does this for you). 2) Auto-coauthoring updates when coauthoring a file (for example, on PaDS), turning on this option from the toolbar allows you to incorporate updates from others in real time, without even needing to press save. For example your partner could put cards in the bottom of your speech while you were reading it with no intervention from you. Note that any updates sent to you by someone else while this feature is turned on are not possible to undo so use with care. 3) Copy Previous Cite Ctrl-F8 is the shortcut to reproduce the previous cite, making it easier to cut long articles with multiple cards without scrolling up and down 4) Unihighlight converts all highlighting in a document to the same color. Run it from the toolbar.