TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Quick Start Guide
Weekly Routine
Installation
SETUP
Main Menu
OWNER - Owner Information
TRANS - Transactions
QUERY - Stats and Rosters
REPORTS
POST - Updating Stats
FILE - Exit from Program
Downloading Instructions
Weekly Backups
FTFIX
HELP - OBTAINING TECHNICAL SUPPORTThis manual covers FAST TRACK! Please read this manual before installing software for the first time.
FAST TRACK! requires 10 files for successful operation:
The files LEAGUE, DRIVERS, INFO, STATS, and FARM cannot be edited. INET is modified when you configure your Internet Setup under the File Menu.
- FASTTRAK.EXE - The main program. An icon for this program is created by the install program and is titled "FAST TRACK!"
- FTSETUP.EXE - The system/new season installation program. An icon for this program is created by the install program and is titled "FAST TRACK! Setup."
- FTFIX.EXE - The data correction program. An icon for this program is created by the Install program and is titled "FTFIX."
- LEAGUE - Contains all Team Owner information and driver rosters.
- DRIVERS - Contains the NASCAR drivers and their stats.
- INFO - Contains other necessary program information.
- STATS - Contains stats and weights for the league.
- FARM - Contains Farm System/misc. information.
- TRANSC - Contains transaction data.
- INET - Stores internet information.
After running the application FTSETUP, use Windows File Manager to check your directory for all these files. FAST TRACK! will not run without all of these files.
If at anytime you have a question on installation, please call technical support.
QUICK START GUIDE
If you are already familiar with FAST TRACK! (FT), you can follow the steps listed below. This guide was developed for users to quickly get started each year. Should you have any problems or questions as you go along, the appropriate section of the manual has been listed to give you additional guidance. For new users, please start with Installation.
1. Install FAST TRACK! on your computer system (see "Installation").
2. Run FAST TRACK! Setup (see "Setup"). Be careful to follow the correct directions for Expansion Leagues or Renewal Users.
3. Run FAST TRACK! (see "Main Menu").
4. Select Owner from the menu bar and enter your league's team and owner information (see "Owner - Owner Information").
5. Return to the Main Menu and save your league information by selecting File and the option Save (see "File - Save").
6. If you are going to use the Internet capabilities of FAST TRACK! to email reports or post reports to a league web site, configure your Internet Setup using the "Internet Setup" choice from the File menu (See File Menu - Internet Setup).
7. Exit the program by selecting File and the option Quit.
8. Create a backup of the league information (see "Weekly Backups").
9. Once Opening Day Rosters are available from Center Field Software, download the week 00 stat file and uncompress it - the file DRIVERS is ready to use (see "Downloading Instructions").
10. Run FAST TRACK.
a). If it is before your Draft Day, you can enter protected drivers
or b). If it is after your Draft Day, enter all your drafted/ protected drivers/farm systems in (see "Transactions").
NOTE: Periodically as you do step 10, exit to the main menu and save using File/Save.
11. Once you have finished entering your rosters, enter the Report menu and print out your league rosters. DOUBLE CHECK to see that they are correct ! If there is a mistake after you post week 1 stats, you will need to use FTFIX to correct the error in stats. If you should find an error on a roster (a wrong driver, that is), DO NOT TRADE the driver to the correct team. Instead, from the Transaction menu, first release the driver from the incorrect roster using Change Status. Then Claim the driver onto the correct roster. This will leave a trail in the Transaction Log, but that is better than having the driver on the wrong team's totals. (See IMPORTANT TRANSACTION INFORMATION).
Also, at this time (when you have completed entering your drafted rosters), we suggest you make a special backup for week 00 that you do not overwrite. This will be important should you have a problem through the season and have to start over due to a hardware or other problem with your system. Having this special backup will allow you to redo your season without having to reenter your drafted rosters (and thus save you lots of time!). (See "Make a Backup")
12. When the rosters are correct for Draft Day, return to the main menu. Exit the program by selecting File then Save.
13. You are now ready for week 01 's stats. However, before you process week 01, make a backup of your data files! (See "Make a Backup"). To process each week's stats, follow the Weekly Routine for running FAST TRACK!
Before you begin each week, make sure you have a complete backup of the previous week (see "Make a Backup").
1. Download the current week's stat file, i.e. the file NASCARnn.EXE where nn is the week number (see "Downloading Instructions").
2. Decompress the stat file - it contains the DRIVERS file. (See "After Downloading Stats")
3. Copy the DRIVERS file into the directory containing your FAST TRACK! files. (if you did not download the weekly stat file to your FT directory)
4. Run FAST TRACK.
5. Enter remaining/forgotten transactions that took effect last week using Trans. If you made changes, you must save them by using File and Save. You will need to exit FAST TRACK! and then make a backup copy of your league data before you continue.
6. Post/update stats using Post (see "Post - Updating Stats").
7. Print stat summaries and team totals by using Reports (see "Reports").
8. Enter the transactions which take effect in the current week using Trans (see "Transactions").
9. Print a transaction list, then updated rosters using Reports (see "Reports").
10. Save the new week's updates using File (see "FILE - Save").
11. Make a backup copy of the league data after exiting FAST TRACK! (See "Make a Backup")
Following the above procedures will provide your league's owners with last week's stats and the current transaction list, rosters, and free agent list. Remember, a transaction entered after a post does not accumulate stats until the next post. Any mistakes can be corrected before posting the next week stats.
CFS strongly suggests you implement the following rule to your league: "An owner has until the next stats are done to verify that transactions were correctly entered onto their roster." Should an error be found, you will need to enter it before you post the new stats (see step 5 on the previous page) so that the stats will be correct. If you must make a correction after you post, you will need to run the FTFIX application (see "FTFIX".)
1. If you have downloaded the program from our internet site or obtained by email, see the instructions accompanying the file to uncompress it so you can run the install program called INSTALL.EXE.
or insert the disk labeled FAST TRACK! in the disk drive. Install FAST TRACK! software from either your floppy drive or by running INSTALL.EXE.2. Once the INSTALL program has finished, you will need to run the setup program to initialize FAST TRACK!'s datafiles correctly. To do this, select FTSETUP from your FT program group.
3. The setup program begins. Follow the prompts and see the section below or FTSETUP for more details.
4. If you are licensed for more than one league, repeat step 1 for each league. Be sure you install each league to a different directly and also name the program group differently for each separate league.
On your working disk/directory, all the files should now appear except for LEAGUE, TRANSC, STATS, and DRIVERS (which are created by FTSETUP). You are now ready to continue by running FTSETUP.The application FTSETUP gets your league ready for the season. Expansion FAST TRACK! users need only run FTSETUP. Renewal FAST TRACK! users should be aware that they may need to copy last season's LEAGUE and FARM files before running FTSETUP.
You will be asked two (2) questions when you begin the setup. "Do you wish to start a new season?" YES is the standard answer. NO will exit FTSETUP.
"Do you wish to keep current owner information?" Expansion users should answer NO. Renewal users may answer YES only if they wish to keep all current owners AND they do not need to DELETE any teams (i.e. if you had 10 owners last year, and you have 10 or more owners this year, you may wish to answer yes and then correct any owner info in FAST TRACK!. If you had 10 owners and now have 8, then you MUST ANSWER NO and reenter your owner information again.)
Upon answering the initial questions, you will be prompted to add stat information.
To select a stat, type the correct weight to replace the 0.0 for each stat you need for your league. On selecting stat weights, the standard weight is 1.00. If your league uses a stat worth 1/2 value, use 0.5 as its weight; if your league uses a stat worth double, use 2.00, etc.
When typing in weights remember to:
1. Click OK to save when you are finished. If you select Cancel all information previously entered will be deleted and the program will return you the main menu where you will need to start again with the setup questions.
2. To move between stat fields, you may either click the mouse to get to the correct field, or hit the TAB key to move the cursor to the next stat field.
3. Valid values for weights are -100.00 to 100.00 for FAST TRACK! Fractional weights such as 0.5 are allowed.
4. Any stat weighted 0.0 will be ignored.
5. Double check your selections before you click OK.
MAIN MENU
After you finish running FTSETUP, check to see that you have all the files listed. You should now be able launch FAST TRACK!. The main menu bar will appear -- it may take a moment to load. The DRIVERS file which is being loaded is a "dummy" file, an empty file required for FAST TRACK! to run properly after installation. Do not enter any drivers onto team rosters until downloading the opening day rosters (week 00) or the first week statistics files.There are two (2) options for Owner information.
VIEW and UPDATE Owner - allows you to view and update if necessary a current owner's information.
CREATE Owner - use Create Owner to begin the process of building individual teams. Create Owner designates where you store owner information. It does not add drivers.
Once a team is to be added/updated, the Owner Information Screen will appear. This screen has 6 input fields. Team Name is 20 characters, Team Owner is 20 characters, Address is a three field set of 28 characters each, and phone number at 15 characters. If filled in, the email address can be used if reports are sent by email. Email addresses can be up to 128 characters long. If there is no email address for a particular owner, leave the field blank.
Click OK to save new information or changes; or click Cancel if you don't want to add or make any changes.
You can have up to 50 teams in a league with the standard version, and up to 400 teams in the Professional version.
If you are starting a new season and have to enter the teams, use CREATE to input and VIEW & UPDATE to check the data entry. When each team has been entered, you can begin to enter rosters using the "Transactions" menu bar option.
NOTE: ONCE YOU create A TEAM, IT CANNOT BE DELETED unless you start over and reinstall FAST TRACK!!
The Transaction Menu (Trans) is where most of your weekly time will be spent. You can change a driver's attributes - contract, salary and status; draft a driver, and check your farm system.
Entering Your Rosters
You will enter the rosters on or after Draft Day, using the Draft A Driver selection from the TRANS menu. The program will not record the initial draft as any transactions if you use the opening day roster file (Week 00) to build your roster.
You may draft any driver on any number of fantasy teams.
Select all the drivers to be drafted from the list of Drivers - you can click on more than one driver at a time. Then select the team they are going onto. When you are satisfied click OK. Then you can enter each driver's salary, contract and status. By clicking "Default" you can set the salary and/or contract for all drafted drivers, thus you need not enter those field(s) for every driver.
DRIVER ATTRIBUTES:
1. Contract - A one (1) character field. Contracts are not mandatory so this field can remain blank.
2. Salary - salary is a five (5) character field used to contain the salary of the driver. It is not mandatory to fill the field. The salary field can be used for various purposes.
3. Status - drivers' status are Active and Released.
To change a driver attribute such as status, salary or contract:
1. Choose the Update Driver menu selection from the Trans Menu.
2. Choose the team the driver(s) is currently on.
3. Select the driver(s) or use the scroll bar to go thru all drivers.
4. Change attribute(s) on each driver as needed.When you are finished, click on OK to save changes. Click Cancel to exit at any time without saving changes.
IMPORTANT TRANSACTION POSTING INFORMATION!!
Transaction dates are very important. The stats you receive will be a week behind what occurs in NASCAR and you must coordinate the entry of your weekly transactions and the posting of weekly stats.
For example, the Fighting Bulldogs release Racin' Bob and claim Speedin' Eddie. They call the secretary with the trade and he/she passes the transaction onto you to record. The tranny was made during the week ending May 5. The Fighting Bulldogs will get Racin' Bob's stats until May 5 and at that point he will begin to receive Speedin' Eddie's stats. The stats you will receive on May 6 will be for the week ending May 5.
YOU MUST POST THESE STATS received on May 6 BEFORE ENTERING THE TRANNY!! You may enter the tranny following the posting of stats for May 6 but before you post the stats for May 13.
If you have any questions concerning when you should enter transactions, please give CFS a call (see the "Technical Support" section.)
VIEW & UPDATE FARM SYSTEMThe farm system is an area for you to enter any other pertinent information that your league would like to record. For example, various leagues may choose to record other drivers not driving in the NASCAR circuit, number of waiver moves left, dollars left to spend, or any other piece of information.
After selecting View & Update Farm from the TRANS menu, you then select the team you wish to enter/change farm information for. The farm system will appear and you can record the information. Click OK to save the information, click Cancel to exit without saving.
QUERY
The QUERY menu provides an on-screen view of NASCAR cumulative stats. It will show for any selected driver both his cumulative stats ending the previous week and his cumulative stats ending the current week. This is helpful if you need to make a quick correction using FTFIX.When you print a report, you will be given 5 options as to what can be done with it... you may select more than 1 option at a time!
Note: For E-mail and WWW, you must have setup FT for the Internet using the Internet Setup in the File menu AND you must have an active internet connection while in FT.
- Printer - send the report to the currently selected printer. Also, use this option for faxing.
- File - save the report as a text file
- Screen - view the report on the screen
- E-Mail - e-mail the report to league members
- WWW - post the report to a web site
TO PRINT (for printer or fax modem):
All reports print to the currently selected printer.If you wish to print reports to a fax driver, be sure you set your current printer to the fax driver via the Printer Change in the File menu. Consult your fax software manual for more information on how to fax.
If you save a report as a text file, be sure you use a monospaced font such as Courier or Courier New in order to achieve "good looking" report when importing into a word processing program. We recommend Courier New at 8 or 9 point.
A summary of the reports...
Cumulative Stat Summary and Weekly Stat Summary - These two reports rank each team, first in an overall rating and second in each separate category. The cumulative report is for the entire season, whereas the weekly report is only for the past week. On the cumulative report you can add a message to the bottom of the listing which will print on all pages. Note: once you enter a transaction for the week, the Weekly Stat Summary report is incorrect. Be sure you print it before doing any transactions after a post.Team Totals - This printout lists each driver that has contributed to the team (both cumulative and current week's stats) totals. This report prints a team per page.
League Rosters - Roster list shows the Active, Reserved, and Farm drivers for each team in a handy format. Six teams are printed per page.
Transaction Form - is a special report that prints a form designed to help secretaries keep up with transactions.
Current Week Transaction List and YTD Transaction List - shows who made transactions. You can print out the current week's or the entire year-to-date's (YTD) transactions.
Owner Mailing List - prints a report of owners, addresses, and contact info such as phone numbers and email addresses.
Select POST from the main menu bar. FAST TRACK! will ask if you have all transactions entered. If so, click YES, else click on NO. If you click YES, a bell will chime and a screen stating that stats have been posted will appear.
You cannot post twice for the same week! The program will inform you that stats have already been posted.
Under the FILE selection, there are seven selections - Printer Change, Internet Setup, Save, Make a backup, Restore a backup, About FT and Exit.
Printer Change - Allows you to select the printer where all reports should be printed. FAST TRACK! uses Windows for printing. You can select a fax modem driver (if installed) or go to a text file. Consult your Windows manual for more information on the Print Manager.
Internet Setup - This is where you will configure FT for use with the Internet.
Before attempting to use any of FAST TRACK's! internet features you must tell it some important information about your internet service.
Setting up for use with web pages
username: If you are using Center Field Software's free web page offer then this will be assigned to you by Center Field Software. This information is contained within your welcome letter. If you use another service to house your web page, you must ask them for this information. This is also known your "ftp username".
password: If you are using Center Field Software's free web page offer then this will be assigned to you by Center Field Software. This information is also contained within your welcome letter. If you use another service to house This is also known your "ftp password".
Please note the username and password fields are case sensitive.
server name: For customers who have their web pages with Center Field Software you need to enter: cfsmain.cfld.com in this field. If you are using another host for your web page you must enter the appropriate server name.
Setting up FAST TRACK! to email reports
To complete this section you may need the help of your ISP or local LAN administrator. Please do not call Center Field Software asking what to put in these fields. ONLY YOUR ISP WILL KNOW THE ANSWERS TO THIS. We have no way of knowing your email user name or password.
Mail server user name: The user name you use to retrieve your mail with from your ISP.
SMTP (out going mail server): In this field place then name of your outgoing mail server.
Your Name: This is who league members will see the email as being from.
Your Email Address: Place your FULL email address here, or an email address of someone you who you wish to have replies (to your league emails) to.
Make a Backup / Restore from Backup - As with any software product, FAST TRACK! is not immune to hardware/disk drive glitches. CFS strongly recommends you make a backup of all files each week.
Whether you use a hard drive or floppies, please make a weekly backup onto a floppy or other hard/network drive. CFS has heard many horror stories of hard drives crashing. There is no "quick fix" to a system or disk crash. You are responsible, to yourself and to the other league owners, to implement and do a routine backup. If you do not do any type of backup, CFS cannot help you quickly recover from a crash or file failure - and you will be forced to start your season from week 00!!! It is up to you to ensure the safety of your data for your league. You should also keep a special week 00 backup throughout the season as recommended in the Quick Start Guide in case of such catastrophes.
CFS has found for best results, keep a set of at least 3 floppy disks to use for backups. The first time you create your league, backup the files to disk 1. The next week, backup to disk 2. The third week, backup to disk 3. Now you have 3 weeks worth of backups, one for week 1, one for week 2, and one for week 3 (the current week). For week 4, reuse the disk you used for week 1. For week 5, reuse the disk for week 2. You will always have at least three weeks of backup using this method. Some users have been known to make a backup for each week of the season. If you have the extra disks, you may wish to do this, but it is definitely not required!
We provide 2 different methods for backups. First from within FT there are 2 options under the file menu "Make a Backup" and "Restore from Backup". These menu options make and restore a backup file that is created through FT.
Make a Backup - You first will be asked if you want to save league info. If you have made changes and haven't saved them, answer Yes. Then you will be asked to give the backup a filename... if you are using floppies, be sure to switch the drive letter to that drive. Lastly you are asked to give a short description for the backup. You could just put the date, or give a short phrase describing the state of the backup (for example, you could say "After Post 4/15"). The backup will then be created.
Restore from Backup - NOTE: If you go thru with this operation, all league info will be replaced with that from your backup! Be sure you really want to do this before continuing!!! To restore the backup, select the backup file you want to restore from. The program will then restore the archived league info. You will then have to quit (without saving any league info) and then rerun FT for the restore info to load into the program.
The second form of backup is from within the the FT program group. There are 2 icons for backup (Backup to drive A or B) and 2 icons for restore (Restore for drive A or B). To make a backup disk, click on the icon for backup to drive A (if your floppy is A) or drive B (if your floppy is B). Insert a disk to the drive and follow the prompts. To restore from your backup, put your backup floppy into the drive, and click on the restore for drive A (or B) icon. Note: FT must not be open when making or restoring a backup using this method. Save - selecting SAVE will save the League and Farm files. Any changes made in these files will be reflected in the next use of FAST TRACK!
Quit - Quit exits FAST TRACK!. Before you quit FAST TRACK!, you are asked if you wish to SAVE.
Internet
For Internet downloading you will need to have access to the Internet. Access can be either from a dedicated link (such as your office or school may have); an online service such as AOL, Compuserve, or Prodigy; or through an Internet provider such as Netcom. You have two options on how you can download your files. You can either do this through FTP or via the WWW.
Via FTP
The address of our site is ftp.cfld.com - please note that lower case IS important.Depending how you FTP to our site, you will either be prompted for a user name or your FTP client will ask for it. Your user name and password can be found on your welcome letter. You will need to go to the appropriate sport and section (i.e. AL, NL, NBA, NHL, etc.). Then do a -GET+ on the file. (Please make sure that your client is set for binary files download.) If this setting is not set correctly you will NOT be able to use the files you download! After downloading is completed, refer to the section that instructs you on how to decompress the files.
Via WWW
The address of our WWW site is www.cfld.com - again, please note that lower case IS important.When you get to our main page click on the "Click here to download stats and user information." You will then see the "User Menu". You will have several choices - choose the one that says "statistics download." Choose the type of stats for your software and league. A list of files for downloading is next. Click on the one that you need. You will be asked for a user name and password. These can be found on your welcome letter. After you enter this information the file will start downloading. (You may be asked what the computer should do with this type of file. You should choose the "save" option.) Upon completion of download, refer to the section in the manual that instructs you how to decompress your file.