Here is a brief description of the major functionality. Detailed operation can be found in the Documentation.
Folder Tree
You organize your deals into folders with a hierarchical tree structure that will be familiar from Windows File Explorer. You can expand or collapse folders to see just the ones you are working in, and BDM remembers it all when you close and rerun it. You have complete control over folder names and the tree structure. It’s easy to move folders around to get the exact arrangement you want.
Deal List
BDM shows a list of the deals in the currently selected folder. The list shows the user-entered deal titles, or Board nn if you haven’t set a title. The deals are maintained in the order you set within the folder. It is possible to select multiple deals for some of the functions to operate on. For instance, you can move selected deals within a folder by dragging and dropping them, or you can drag them to another folder.
Creating Deals
There are many ways to create deals, including:
- Generate a set of with specified characteristics, such as strong balanced hands.
- Generate completely random hands.
- Generate a standard board set of specified size. This creates blank deals with the board number, dealer and vulnerability pre-set.
- Import a set from elsewhere.
Editing a Deal
The deal editing panel is where you set or edit the deal properties . Most of the properties are set in the main window, including the auction in a user-friendly bidding table. You can specify which hands get displayed, independently for each deal. High card points are displayed automatically, and you can choose to show makable contracts.
The hands are manipulated on a separate form where you use the mouse to specify and move cards. You can rotate hands, swap suits and distribute any remaining cards randomly. There is full undo/redo functionality. Suit swapping and hand rotation within deal design automatically change the dealer, vulnerability, declarer, contract and lead, and does textual replacements if the deal already has those set.
Text fields have shortcuts for suit symbols, suit names, table positions, etc; but there is smart logic when you paste into text fields, because text may come from elsewhere. (For instance, “W led CQ against N’s 3S contract” would get changed to “West led ♣Q against North’s 3♠ contract”.)
The main form has undo/redo functions for all folder and deal actions.
Import and Export
You can import and export a folder (and all its descendent subfolders) in an internal format that preserves all the data for the contained deals. You can also import and export an individual folder in DLM or PBN format, but all the deal commentary gets lost in DLM, because that format was not designed for deal annotation. PBN was not really designed for deal commentary in the same way either, but BDM supports the use of PBN’s brace comments.
Reporting
There is a sophisticated report design feature for generating MS Word report documents. Some standard reports are supplied. Report formats are very versatile: you could create full hand commentaries, large A4 hands, partnership bidding practice sheets, quizzes, auction slips or curtain cards.
There is a separate similar report feature for generating HTML documents that you can use in a website.
Search
You can search by folder name or specified deal fields.
Deal Generation
You can generate deals according to criteria, such as 1NT or Weak 2s, for bidding practice or play exercises. You can also generate random hands.
And More …
- Link to a website to solve the hand play.
- Deal utility functions.
- Full backup and restore of the folders and deals, and of the report formats.
- Selectable font size.
- Easy to see subscription status.
Undo and Redo
Most folder and deal updates are tracked in an Undo list, allowing you to revert changes within the current session.