HMS, or rather HMS Excel, has served our sport really well. It is a great asset and it’s in all our interests to get the most fun and service from it that we can. For myself, I’ve used it at every event I’ve done scoring duty. From a design viewpoint, I adore it.

It does have some interesting foibles though. Little streaks of character that show through occasionally.

Why would MYA’s very stable and mature scoring system start throwing up errors which weren’t there when it was originally tested and launched? The answer, of course, is that between HMS and the laptop CPU processors are layer upon layer of Excel and Windows. They are changing and updating all the time.

There are some terrific User Guides – 2026 editions from GB especially. If you’ve not seen them, then print them out from MYA to keep. They are great pieces of writing, but don’t quite (for me) have enough on “common things that can go wrong”. I don’t know why we don’t have a little online User Noticeboard where we can post our hints and tips to share between Clubs. Otherwise what happens mostly for me is someone leans across my shoulder and says, “I don’t do it that way – have you tried this??….”

So – our “starter for five” tips ?? If you email us at the website with experiences and suggestions of your own, we can add them here. Here are my favourites:-

1/ Sorting

In number one position for me is sorting the score table.

Just sometimes ( 2 in a hundred?) you can glance at your score sheet and coincidentally notice the boats are not showing the correct sequence, but scores are correct.

I know that the spreadsheet says it will do a sort of the results when it prepares to “Display for Print”.

But it doesn’t about 2% of the time. Life carries on, but it’s pretty embarrassing when you print out a pile of results to hand around the bar and the finishers are not listed in the correct order.

All you need to do is get into the habit of clicking the blue sort button on column 1 (“Pos”) before you go to the print options. Do it as frequently as you like.

What’s the cause? I’ve no idea.

2/ White Screening

At a couple of Events, I have had the new Windows/11 laptop go into “white screen” with HMS Excel. Everything seems to lock up. Sometimes you can force Excel to quit, sometimes you can’t. Usually a full forced re-boot of the laptop is what you need.

We get the feeling it’s some little problem (shortage of storage for example?) that seems to accumulate within Excel as it remains open.

What to do?? Each time you finish scoring a heat:-

• issue a save
• close excel down using the big X
• reopen a fresh excel ready to score the next heat.

I have scoring buddies who say it’s sufficient to close the spreadsheet (leaving Excel open) and then reopening the spreadsheet. …. Hmm not so sure. It takes the same amount of time to close Excel and reopen it afresh. I’d suggest do that.

What’s the cause? I’ve no idea.

3/ A single WDN/NSC/DSQ/RET Decision is to be Processed

– the HMS heat score table ending up out-of-points-sequence

Let’s face it, pretty frequently one is told about a single DSQ/NSC/WDN/RET decision AFTER you’ve entered the score sheet into HMS.

We all know to run WDN competitors as DNC until they drift down to bottom heat – and even then only when PRO and Board Manager agree – as it can drive a fleet reschedule decision to be evaluated.

Know now – this area can be hazardous…. At our Club, we have spent a longtime looking at these.

The great thing is ,if at your event, the score-entering is lagging slightly behind real life. If you’re right up to date with data entry, NSC/DSQ/RET/WDNs can arrive after you have entered the results from the score sheet.

a/ If you are running behind

the heat score sheet may show NSC/DSQ/RET/WDNetc in the middle of the list. DO NOT enter it like that into HMS like that.

To be safe, what you should do is enter NSC/DSQ/RET/DSQetc into HMS after the last finished boat of the heat.

What you are wanting to see is that the sequence in the points table is in tidy ascending order as you cast your eye down the column. We think you want to eliminate any chance that HMS Excel will attempt to do a “sort” on that column to tidy it up.

b/ Your data entry is smack up to date

Let’s suppose that you do indeed enter everything from the heat score sheet as presented and you maybe have a NSC or DSQ in the middle of the list.

Honestly – I know it’s fag, but stop right away. Rekey all the numbers from the impacted boat downwards, in that particular heat, to get the NSC/DSQs etc down at the bottom of the list. I know it’s tedious rekeying a ton of numbers, shuffling them up one row each. Believe me, just do it.

What’s the cause? We don’t know, but we suspect it’s avoiding HMS Excel doing it’s own sorting.

4/ At a large Event, Multiple NSC/DSQ/RET type decisions for a Single Heat arrive at once

This is tricky. It feels like (3) above, but maybe it has a problem type all of its own.

Our feeling is that you need to process these into HMS one at a time. Do not enter these adjustments as a group.

Our little local method which seems to keep the Doctor away, is to enter one adjustment then enter the Print sequence, but exit print again before going to paper. Then put the next adjustment in.

What’s the cause? Well … as a group of programmers we have our theories … but really we have no idea.

5/ Altering the Print Layout as the Event Progresses

It’s tempting as the scores pour in to think you can improve print legibility by adjusting margin sizes, flipping between portrait and landscape etc etc

Don’t. Just don’t…..

Leave it to the authors of the HMS spreadsheet and leave it alone.

Let us know your Hints and Tips by contact us via the “Contact” page of this website.