Attermire control descriptions

[awk]

Please note that a problem using OCAD9 has meant that courses 1, 3, 17 and 20 had pictorial descriptions for some individual controls missing on the sheets posted to the website. Course 1 was missing control 27, course 3 was missing control 1, whilst courses 17 and 20 were missing several (although there have been no pre-entries for course 20).

New descriptions are being posted to the website tonight, so if you have downloaded descriptions for these courses, please ignore the old ones and replace them!

This problem has NOT affected the descriptions on the maps. Notice will be given at the event as well, and description sheets will be available for these and all other courses at the Aireport information tent on the day.

My apologies for any inconvenience caused. I have still yet to work out the mechanism by which these symbols disappeared during the export process.

[King Penguin]

Just an observation for other event organisers (and I am not expecting AWK to make any changes now esp. as control descritions will be available to pick up at Aireport).

When exporting pictoral descriptions to pdf, what control do the planner/organiser have over the sizing ? When printed from the download courses 1 and 2 are too long to fit in a control holder.

This seems to be a common "feature" at many events (the same is true of Splot's event on Sunday, for example).

Acrobat reader gives limited facilities to copy and resize elements of a document. I had to do Splot's in about 8 chunks which then don't fit back together too well, and I can't crop from the Attermire ones at all.

For the avoidance of doubt, given that the greater proportion of posts these days seem to be moans, this is meant as a constructive comment for future events (if possible) not as a complaint. F&M must have been almost the final straw for Aire this week, one that they and all farmers everywhere could well have done without. I suspect it required much last-minute rediscussion with landowners and we should all be grateful we still have an event to go to.

Having run at Attermire once before, and remembering all the stiles, all Aire helpers should be applauded for the unusually large amount of hard work which must be required to make such an event possible.

[m4rk]

I usually use the snapshot tool on Acrobat and then paste into word to resize

[Nails]

get adobe illustrator -you can resize pdfs easily.

[swat]

For Microsoft users a screen capture (ALT-Print Screen) of the Acrobat window then paste into Word works quite well.

[djc]

Worth checking your printer settings - many have the option to resize. So, for example, I'd just print out the control descriptions at 70%.

[Duncan]

When printed from the download courses 1 and 2 are too long to fit in a control holder.

This isn't really true anyway, not with my control description holder which I'd consider a pretty standard one from Compass Point / Ultrasport. Course 2 definitely fits, assuming you can cope with folding over the title bar, start kite control description, run in, and course close time (that isn't that much information to either not care about or remember). And if you run enough course 1s where 30 controls is pretty normal you'll work out that that can be made to fit as well (tear out boxes in columns E and F from rows 1, 2, 29 and 30, and you can squeeze the rest of the desriptions around the studs / holes in the description holder, assuming it is one like mine).

Sunday's race is an entirely different matter: M21L is 9.2km and only 15 controls. Should be plenty of time to enjoy the scenery on those long legs....

[DM]

How about simply printing it, fold it in a place where you can expect not to be able to need to refer to it, ie at a crossing point. Then, it will fit in the standard see through holder and you simply flip it over as you reach the stile. Easy to do but not recommended if you are actually on the stile.

[Duncan]

Or buy two control description holders, one for each arm. Or get down the gym, do lots of forearm curls with some weights to get fatter wrists, and then you could use a large control description holder. I don't recommend you do one of those world record breaking attempt orienteering courses though where they have 200+ controls....

[Nails]

i can't believe this is being discussed!

[Oldman]

i can't believe this is being discussed!

On the contrary, I thought the practical advice, esp. the computer tips were invaluable. Thanks, guys!

[liamcorner]

Foxit Reader (free for basic version) has the facility to generate custom scale printouts. The page rotation and complex graphic rendering leave a bit to be desired, but it's ideal for zooming control descriptions.

[Adventure Racer]

I can't believe somebody suggested getting a £500+ piece of software in order to resize control descriptions!

[DM]

Did everyone get round or are they still working out how to print the descriptions? Bit late now.

If all else fails, resort to a pen and paper, or collect the descriptions at enquiries.

[Carnage Head]

Mine was folded in half in my control description holder, then when I took it out to display the other part, it blew about ten metres away...

But that's part of the challenge of doing such a long course...