Paperless Debate

A How-To Manual

Aaron Hardy Whitman College 9/23/2010

WHAT S NEW? ....................................................................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 I WANT TO UPGRADE WHAT S DIFFERENT? .................................................................................................................. 5 CONVERTING BACKFILES ........................................................................................................................................... 7 CO-AUTHORING..................................................................................................................................................... 8 NAVPANECYCLE ................................................................................................................................................... 10 SHORTCUT CHEAT SHEET ..................................................................................................................................... 12 QUICK START GUIDE ............................................................................................................................................ 13 REQUIREMENTS ................................................................................................................................................... 13 INSTALLATION...................................................................................................................................................... 13 FORMATTING FILES ............................................................................................................................................... 13 PAPERLESS .......................................................................................................................................................... 14 PORTING/CUSTOMIZING THE TEMPLATE .................................................................................................................... 14 BENEFITS OF PAPERLESS ...................................................................................................................................... 16 DESCRIPTION OF PAPERLESS................................................................................................................................ 17 REQUIREMENTS................................................................................................................................................... 18 HARDWARE ........................................................................................................................................................ 18 SOFTWARE ......................................................................................................................................................... 19 INSTALLATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 21 BASICS............................................................................................................................................................... 21 SETTING UP THE DESKTOP ...................................................................................................................................... 21 SETTING UP WORD .............................................................................................................................................. 23 ASSEMBLING A SPEECH........................................................................................................................................ 24 STEP ONE OPEN A SPEECH DOCUMENT ................................................................................................................ 24 STEP TWO OPEN FILES ........................................................................................................................................ 25 STEP THREE SEND BLOCKS AND/OR CARDS TO SPEECH ................................................................................................. 26 STEP FOUR ORGANIZE SPEECH .............................................................................................................................. 27 STEP FIVE TRANSFER SPEECH ................................................................................................................................ 28 RECAP ............................................................................................................................................................... 29 SCREEN LAYOUT AND ORGANIZATION ....................................................................................................................... 29 OTHER TEMPLATE FEATURES ............................................................................................................................... 31 PAPERLESS ORGANIZATION ................................................................................................................................. 32 FILE FORMATTING AND ORGANIZATION ...................................................................................................................... 32 DIGITAL TUB ORGANIZATION ................................................................................................................................... 32 BACKFILES .......................................................................................................................................................... 34 PRE-TOURNAMENT SETUP................................................................................................................................... 36 IN-ROUND ........................................................................................................................................................... 37 PUBLIC RELATIONS .............................................................................................................................................. 39 COMMON CONCERNS.......................................................................................................................................... 41 THE DECISION TO SWITCH ...................................................................................................................................... 41

PRIVACY/SECURITY ............................................................................................................................................... 44 MACRO PROBLEMS ............................................................................................................................................... 46 PRE-ROUND ....................................................................................................................................................... 48 IN-ROUND .......................................................................................................................................................... 49 MACRO LIST......................................................................................................................................................... 52 FORMAT ............................................................................................................................................................ 52 PAPERLESS .......................................................................................................................................................... 52 ADVANCED ......................................................................................................................................................... 52 RIBBON ............................................................................................................................................................. 53 APPLESCRIPT VERSIONS.......................................................................................................................................... 53 KNOWN ISSUES ................................................................................................................................................... 54 FUTURE FEATURES/ADVANCED SUGGESTIONS .................................................................................................... 55

What s New?
Introduction
Whitman s paperless system has been completely revamped. With the advent of Windows 7, Word 2010 for PC, and a new version of Mac Word coming out some time this fall, it was time for a rewrite. Since Whitman is transitioning entirely to Windows 7/Word 2010, these changes were borne largely of necessity. This manual has been updated to reflect both these changes, as well as things learned over the last two years of doing paperless. There are three big changes: y Styles Styles, formatting, and file format have been changed to take maximum advantage of the newest features available in Word 2010, and fix the cumulative legacy problems of a decade with old versions of Word. Macros Almost every macro, from formatting to paperless, has been rewritten from the ground up. This fixes a host of small bugs, adds significant new functionality, and streamlines the workflow. Interface The new template comes with a brand new user interface designed specifically for Word 2010/2007:

Important note: The new version breaks backwards compatibility with .doc files and previous versions of the Whitman template. Fortunately, a converter is included for people with legacy backfiles. While not perfect, it should help ease the transition for anyone considering an upgrade. For the most part, these changes are evolutionary, not revolutionary at root, it s still the same idea. A few shortcuts for formatting your cards, and a couple macros to make copying, pasting, and organizing your speeches faster and easier. One last note When I switched Whitman to paperless in the fall of 2008, I made what I felt was a bold prediction at the time that within 5 years a significant number of teams would be paperless. Instead, it turns out I was being almost laughably conservative. In the span of one year, a huge percentage of the college debate community has already switched, multiple new paperless platforms are available, and it s even making significant inroads in high school debate. Paperless works and the more people that do it, the more obvious it becomes that it s preferable to debating with paper. As always, I welcome feedback in any form questions, feature requests, criticism, etc should be directed to me at hardyat@whitman.edu.

I want to upgrade what s different?

Here s a mostly comprehensive list of changes from the previous version of the Whitman template. It looks like a lot, but most changes are either invisible to the user, or will be obvious for anyone who s used to the old template. Playing around with the new interface should also be relatively selfexplanatory. y Style Names Old style names have been replaced to be more clear and logical. Most importantly, they are no longer custom styles they re actually ALIASES for modified versions of Word s built-in styles. This is a far superior model for the underlying structure of the document, and helps eliminate a host of irritating bugs in the previous version. Anyone considering their own template should take care to at least emulate this step. Linked styles have also been disabled by default which should help stop the propagation of annoying char styles from filling up your document. Style Heading Levels Hats are now Heading 1 , Block Titles are Heading 2 and tags are Heading 3. This is to take maximum advantage of the new Word 2010 Navigation Pane. This has significant advantages over leaving both Hats and Block Titles as the same Heading level. It also means that tags now appear in the Nav Pane. There is no longer a separate style for cards it s just normal text. This is logical from a document design perspective nothing in the document should be normal text that isn t a card. It also frees the macros from reliance on specifically named styles they will now work with ANY style that s based on the appropriate heading level (1-3). Automatic Page Breaks It is no longer necessary to use page breaks in the construction of a paperless file. If anything, manually adding page breaks just makes the macros work worse. Instead, the styles have been set to include automatic page breaks where necessary. This ensures that Blocks appear at the top of the page while in reading view, which makes it easier to organize. Hats Should no longer have a second blank line in them. This is because white space is no longer necessary in Word 2010. Instead, having Hats as Heading 1 and Block as Heading 2 makes it extremely easy to understand and navigate the document structure using the Navigation Pane. Aesthetics Fonts have been changed to be more screen readable. While I have an attachment to Times New Roman, the new Microsoft fonts really are easier on the eyes. This is obviously easy to modify for anyone using the template. I also didn t bother with a header no one reads it. Keyboard Shortcuts Have been totally redesigned from the incoherent order they were in before. While easily modified if you want, this order has been designed to have both a logical work flow and to proceed in order from largest to smallest.

Paste Special This macro has been rewritten to automatically strip out Lexis Enhanced Coverage. It s up to date as of September 2010, which incorporates changes that Lexis made to how they display text that some previous macros were missing. Send To Speech Significantly rewritten. You can now use either Ctrl-Alt-Right, or preferably just the `/~ key, also known as the tilde (props to Alex Gulakov for that innovation). It now behaves somewhat differently. If there s text selected, it will send that text (formerly Ctrl-AltLeft). If there s no text selected, it will instead send the current unit a Block, a Card, or a full Hat. Is also error-trapped to try and stop you from sending to the middle of another card on accident. If Word is in Full Screen Reading view, then the ` key instead inserts a marker for marking cards. Move Up/Down These macros have been rewritten to take advantage of the new document structure. They are still usable, although the preferable option is now usually to just drag and drop using the built-in Navigation Pane. Delete Block/Card/Hat Is now assigned to the vacated Ctrl-Alt-Left. This also fixes the previous problem of Mac users lacking an end key. Warrants Uses the built-in comments feature in Word to allow adding warrants boxes to individual cards. Speech Documents no longer need to be named Speech.doc. Instead, just need to have the word speech in the title somewhere. If multiple documents are open with the name speech, it will send to the most recently opened. New Buttons for starting a new speech document, automatically copying the current document to a USB drive, and quickly switching through windows. Timer Integration it s easy to start a timer from within Word. I recommend using Alex Gulakov s excellent timer from Debate Synergy for this. New File Format Now uses a .dotm file for the template, and .docx files for individual documents. Word 97-2003 .doc files are totally obsolete at this point. Operating Systems The new platform only works in Word 2007 or Word 2010. This means it no longer runs natively in Mac Word 2004, and boot camp or parallels is required to use it on a Mac. It also probably won t work in Linux for now. I ll make every effort to get it working on Mac Word 2011 when it comes out. If you still need to run on Mac natively, don t upgrade. File Converter since it breaks compatibility with previous versions, a rough conversion macro has been included to help reformat your files in the new format. It doesn t always work, but for many of our files seems to be working quite well. Other Macros All have been rewritten. There s a comprehensive list at the end of this manual with descriptions of what each one does.

Converting Backfiles
To ease the transition of upgrading to the newest version, a Converter macro has been included with the most recent template. This will take a file produced in the previous version of Whitman s template and automatically convert it to the new version, with correct formatting, file format, etc To work, the new template must be correctly installed in the Templates folder. Then, you open the old file and run the ConvertBackfile macro. For ease of conversion, its probably best to install Debate.dotm as a global template, or copy the macro to your normal template so it s easily available to all opened backfiles, at least until everything is converted. The macro will open a new document based on the new template, convert the old file into it, and save it with the same name, but a .docx extension. If a file with that name already exists (or you re converting a docx file), it will prompt you for a new name to save it. The macro does the following things: y y y y y y Replaces the old styles with new styles for example, converting the old Block Title to Block. Removes blank lines from the Navigation Pane Replaces underlining, cites, and emphasis with the appropriate formats Removes old styles from the document to stop them propagating Deletes all old char styles that can corrupt documents Deletes page breaks

Important Note this macro is quick and dirty, and doesn t always work correctly. It s worth manually checking your file to make sure everything looks intact. It s also set to ignore errors, so it might have stopped half-way through the conversion. For the vast majority of our old files I ve tried it on, it works great sometimes missing a badly formatted cite or two, but nothing that would prevent it working in the new system. A few files, though, tend to crash the macro. It s included for your convenience but isn t meant to be perfect.

Co-Authoring
Word 2010 has introduced a new feature called Co-Authoring. Basically, it allows multiple users to simultaneously edit a single Word document in real time, with tools for merging edits and keeping things straight. It s like Google Docs, but within Word. Taking advantage of co-authoring was a big part of our motivation to switch entirely away from previous versions of Word. It solves one of the biggest problems I ve had as a coach of an entirely paperless team being able to help pull cards and organize speeches before a round starts. It also allows for both partners to simultaneously be working on the same Speech document. It s a little hard to get your head around without seeing it in action but once you do, it s obviously awesome. Getting this set up can be moderately difficult, and the finer points are outside the scope of this manual. It requires setting up a Microsoft Sharepoint server or integrating with their online Skydrive cloud storage service. If you d like more information on it, feel free to contact me or just ask for a demo the next time you see me at a tournament. Here s a brief how-to for those interested: Step One Install Word 2010 Co-authoring only works in Word 2010, so it will need to be installed on all computers you want to coauthor with. Step Two Set up a Microsoft SkyDrive account This comes for free with any Windows Live account. More info at: http://windowslive.com/online/skydrive Step Three Create a folder on your Skydrive Log in and create a new folder in your Skydrive to store speeches in. We use one account for the whole team, with a separate subfolder for each team. It is recommended you use a protected folder rather than a public folder otherwise your evidence will be accessible by anyone. Step Four Find Your SkyDrive WebDAV Address This is the unique WebDAV identifier for your SkyDrive. There are several ways to find this, including using the built-in Save To Web function in Word 2010. I think the easiest method is to log in to your Skydrive in your web browser, and then take note of the URL. It will look something like this: http://cid-425e2847g321hh2e.skydrive.live.com/home.aspx The WebDAV address is the alphanumeric code after cid it s the bold text in the example above.

Step Five Setup SkyDrive as a network drive There are several ways to map a network drive in Windows. For ease of use, it is recommended you set up a batch file in the following step. To do it manually, open Windows Explorer, right click on Computer and select Map Network Drive. Select a drive letter (we use Z), and in Folder put: \\docs.live.net@SSL\425e2847g321hh2e\DebateFolder 8

Make sure to replace the WebDAV address above with your own alphanumeric code, and the name of the folder you created instead of DebateFolder. When it asks you for a username and password, use the information you selected when you signed up for Skydrive, and add @hotmail.com to the username: Username: yourusername@hotmail.com Password: yourpassword That s it! If you did everything correctly, you will now have access to your Skydrive account as a separate drive on your computer, accessible through Windows Explorer or Word. Now, to use coauthoring, just put a Word file on the server and open it simultaneously with 2 separate computers. Both users should then be able to make edits. Step Six Create a .bat file Since reconnecting the Skydrive on each computer can be tedious, it s easiest to write a batch file to automatically connect. To do this, create a new text file on your computer called, for example, Skydrive.bat Make sure that the file extension is .bat, not .txt. Insert the following lines of text:
net use z: \\docs.live.net@SSL\425e2847g321hh2e\DebateFolder * /user:youraccount@hotmail.com start z:

Make sure to replace the WebDAV address, folder name, drive letter, and email address with your own information. Save the file somewhere convenient. Now, when you double-click the .bat file, it should prompt you for your password, then automatically open the network drive in explorer. Important Note It s not recommended to use the Skydrive as the main working directory for your Speech documents. Since it s on the network, it tends to be much slower than the hard drive, and runs the risk of losing data or crashing Word in the event of connection problems. For safety, it s best if the debater always saves a local copy to their hard drive before giving the speech, just in case. Further information Background info: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_office_word/archive/2009/09/09/co-authoring-in-word-2010.aspx Setting up Skydrive as a network drive: http://mynetx.net/#!/2352/how-to-connect-your-skydrive-in-windows-explorer http://ludwigjkeck.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!18162116291E7A9D!1192.entry http://www.addictivetips.com/microsoft-office/map-local-drive-letter-to-live-skydrive-using-office2010/ http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/04/25/use-office-2010-to-map-a-local-drive-letter-to-your-free25gb-live-skydrive/ http://www.nirmaltv.com/2010/02/02/how-to-map-skydrive-as-network-drive-in-windows/

NavPaneCycle
The new Word 2010 Navigation Pane is an enormous improvement over the Document Map in previous versions. Unfortunately, Microsoft left out the ability to control the Nav Pane using shortcut keys or macros. As anyone who s used Word 2010 for any length of time has found out, constantly right-clicking the Nav Pane to change the displayed Heading Level quickly becomes tiresome. To cover this gap until an official Microsoft solution, I ve written a standalone program that enables a hotkey (Ctrl-`) to automatically cycle the Nav Pane. NavePaneCycle.exe is included as part of the paperless debate package download, or as a standalone file from the website. The program doesn t require any installation just run NavPaneCycle.exe and it will run in the background until closing it. It s recommended that you put this file in your Windows Startup folder so that it s always available. It will work on ANY Word document, not just the Debate template. Important Usage notes: y The hotkey is Ctrl-` (The tilde key, the same as used for paperless functions in the template). It will cause the mouse to automatically click and cycle through Headings 1-3 in the Nav Pane. It takes about a half second each time you press the shortcut (and you have to release both keys first). It will only work when Word is the active window, and when the Nav Pane is open. Otherwise, it will do nothing. The program will stop working in one narrow circumstance if the Quick Access Toolbar is displayed ABOVE the ribbon, the ribbon is collapsed, and the file in question has less than 5 or 6 displayed headings then the program will stop cycling. Usually, it will do so by clicking on the ribbon, temporarily displaying it if you expand the ribbon by double-clicking it, the program should go back to working regularly. Honestly, most people will likely never see this happen. Try not to move the mouse or press the keyboard until the macro has finished running. If you accidentally move the mouse, you may find it clicking in unexpected spots. Running the program as an Administrator prevents this from happening. To close the program, right click the green H icon in the notifications bar and select Exit. It s possible that on slower computers or computers with a large number of open programs that the program will miss when clicking and accidentally demote a heading level to the level underneath it, for example a hat to a block. If this happens to you with any regularity, please let me know I can probably send you a modified version of the program more likely to work on your system. If you have the option of running the program as an Administrator then you should.

y y

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NavPaneCycle is free, open source software. You re free to distribute or modify it in any way you choose. If you re interested in the source code, just drop me an email.

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Shortcut Cheat Sheet

Following is a list of all the keyboard shortcuts in the default version of the new Whitman template. Any of these can be changed by the user. Formatting F2 Paste Unformatted Text (and remove Lexis enhanced coverage) F3 Remove Returns F4 Hat F5 Block F6 Tag F7 Cite F8 Normal/Card F9 Underline F10 Emphasis F11 Highlight F12 Clear Formatting Ctrl-8 Eight-Font Macro. Turn un-underlined text into 8pt font. Make sure there s SOME underlined text in your paragraph first or it might turn the whole document into 8pt (can be undone) Ctrl-Q Cite Request. Turns the current card into a cite-request ready format. Paperless ` key Send To Speech. Sends selected text, or Block/Card/Hat. If in reading view, inserts a card marker. Can also use Ctrl-Alt- . Ctrl-AltMove Up Ctrl-AltMove Down Ctrl-Alt- Delete Block/Card/Hat Ctrl-Shift-N New Speech Document Ctrl-Shift-S Copy To USB Ctrl-Tab Cycle Through Open Windows Ctrl-` key Cycle the Nav Pane through Headings 1-3 (Requires the standalone NavPaneCycle.exe)

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Quick Start Guide

Here s a condensed version of the rest of this manual for those who already know what they re doing.

Requirements
This version of the template only works in Word 2010 or Word 2007, with any version of Windows. Word 2007 isn t as extensively tested. Formatting stuff (but not macros) might work in Mac Word 2008, but this is untested. Will hopefully work in Mac Word 2011 eventually.

Installation
Download the new template, and put it in your Word Templates folder. Do NOT just leave it on your desktop files produced by others won t be able to find the template and will lose their macros. The download packages contain a shortcut which will automatically open the right folder on your computer. To do it manually, the Templates folder is here: Vista/7 C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates XP C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates. Enable Macros Word Options Trust Center Trust Center Settings. Install as a Global Template Not required, but you can make the macros available to all documents by installing as a Global Template. Word Options Add-Ins Select Templates in the Manage drop down box and click Go. Click Add and navigate to the folder where you stored the template. Install a timer put your choice of timer program in the Word Templates folder, name it Timer.exe. I recommend Alex Gulakov s Synergy timer. Move the QAT By default, the Word Quick Access Toolbar appears above the ribbon. Right-click to show below the ribbon, and delete any unnecessary buttons to the left of the custom ones. You can hide the ribbon and just use the QAT to save screen space by double-clicking the name of the tab.

Formatting Files
The keyboard shortcuts are listed above. Always use Paste Unformatted for pasting from the internet. F12 clears formatting if you mess up. Don t use manual page breaks, ever. Hats should only be one line.

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Use the new Navigation Pane to see the different heading levels. Right-click and select Show Heading Levels to expand or collapse. Hat = Heading 1, Block = Heading 2, Tag = Heading 3. You can also drag and drop right in the Nav Pane. Recommended you install NavPaneCycle.exe to make this easier.

Paperless
Start a new speech document. It s just a new blank template document, but you can start one with the button on the toolbar or by pressing Ctrl-Shift-N. The ` Key is the new multi-function paperless button. It sends the current selection, or if nothing is selected, the current Block, Card, or Hat. In Reading view, it inserts a card marker. Ctrl-Altand Ctrl-Alt- move units up and down in the document outline. Ctrl-Alt- deletes a unit.

When the speech is ready, save a copy to the USB drive using the button on the toolbar or Ctrl-Shift-S.

Porting/Customizing The Template

Realistically, most people will probably not want to use Whitman s template out of the box. People have different preferences for keyboard shortcuts, fonts, etc A version of our template is even available that removes references to keyboard shortcuts from the ribbon so you can customize it. I ve tried my best to make the macros in the template as readable to a non-programmer as possible and as easy to port as possible. Here s what you need to know to port our platform to your own template: Customizing Styles/Fonts: Open the Style Pane by clicking on the small arrow in the lower right corner of the Styles part of the Ribbon. Right click on the relevant style name and select Modify. Change as you wish. Changing the Normal/Card style will affect all the other fonts, because those styles are based on Normal. Remember that the style names are ALIASES for Word s built-in styles. I would strongly recommend not creating new styles from scratch when designing a template. Customizing the keyboard: Word Options Customize The Ribbon Customize Keyboard. Make sure your template is selected in the Save Changes In box, then scroll down in the left box to find Macros and Styles. Find the relevant macro or style in the right box to see the currently assigned keys, delete them, and add your own. Note that the ` key can t be assigned manually that requires coding. Copying Macros: You can use the built-in Macro organizer or you can cut and paste code manually in the visual basic editor. I have tried to make the macros as portable as possible there s no complicated function calls. There s just 4 easily understood code modules. Make sure to port the Ribbon module if you want the ribbon to still work. Also, a couple macros need to have specific Microsoft reference libraries installed. To do this, in the VB editor go to Tools References and make sure Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object Library and Microsoft Scripting Runtime are checked for your project. Customizing the ribbon: To be honest, this is probably unrealistic for most people. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn t make it easy to customize the ribbon beyond the very rudimentary tool in the Word Options, which can t be used to change the Debate tab. To make changes to the Ribbon s appearance 14

requires a working knowledge of XML programming, a good XML editor, a few byzantine and incomplete reference sites, and an absurd amount of patience. If you want more details, feel free to contact me if you just want something small changed, you might be able to talk me into doing it for you. Open Paperless Project If you do decide to make your own template, it s suggested that you do your best to make it compatible with a new Open Standard for writing debate templates. It s called the Open Paperless Project, and is designed to make people s different templates work interoperably with each other. The development of this standard is in progress For more information, check out the links on the Whitman Paperless page.

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Benefits of Paperless
The benefits of debating without the need to lug multiple 50+ pound tubs of evidence all over the country probably doesn t bear much further explication. But, as we made the transition, we found ourselves continually unearthing new reasons we were glad we d switched. Just to mention a few: y Cost savings Probably the number one factor informing our decision to switch at Whitman. Obviously, it saves all the money spent on paper, printing, copying, expandos, and other tubrelated supplies. It also saves all the costs associated with checked baggage on airlines with escalating fee structures, not an insignificant amount. Somewhat less obviously, it also saves money on the size of rental vehicles needed for to transport the average team. While offset to a degree by the increased costs of the requisite technology (laptops, etc...), the net cost savings to our team just in the first year easily reach into the multiple thousands of dollars. In a time when many budgets across the country are at significant risk of being cut, paperless may soon become a necessity. Ease of travel This should be obvious. Tubs weigh a lot, and airlines are evil. At tournaments We have quickly found ourselves with a host of secondary benefits from the paperless transition. We have more prep time before rounds due to not moving tubs, we can more easily replicate standard work done in many different rounds, we get back to the hotel earlier because we don t have to clean up, we can provide cite requests of every card read in a debate within minutes, it s somewhat less likely my students lose their files...The list goes on. Environmental benefits These are probably not very significant in the grand scheme of things, and using more laptops might offset any benefits but it does save a lot of paper, ink cartridges, increased weight on planes, etc...I wouldn t list this as an incontrovertible reason to switch, at least without somebody doing some research but it might be a nice icing on the cake. PR Whether the environmental benefits are real or perceived, the Whitman debate team has received a ton of positive press from the school over the transition. I ve heard similar stories from other schools who are switching. There s never a bad time to impress the administration, especially when money is tight.

y y

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Description of Paperless
For those who haven t yet seen a team debate paperless, here s a basic run-down of how it works. All files are produced electronically using the same Word template, which incorporates both the normal formatting/organizing functions of a debate template, and a few added features specifically for paperless. Files are kept centrally organized in a digital tub comprised of folders, sub-folders, and individual files. Each team carries three laptops. The debaters will each use a laptop to prepare speeches with, placing all cards that will be read for the upcoming speech into one Word document. This is accomplished rapidly by using a set of simple Word macros which facilitate both transferring blocks and cards between open documents, and organizing them into speech order. Immediately prior to speaking, the debater will place their entire upcoming speech on a USB jump drive. This is first given to their partner, who copies it to their laptop to ensure a backup is available in the event of a tech failure. An automatic sync program such as Dropbox may also be used to transfer the file. It is then given to the opposing team. If the other team has their own laptop(s), they re welcome to use them to view the file. If not, the paperless team uses their third backup laptop as a viewing computer for the other teams use for the whole debate. If for some reason the other team needs a second viewing computer, the paperless team can let the other team use one of their other laptops during their prep time. The same will repeat for each speech (at least, those with cards). After the debate, the judge is obviously free to use either their own laptop or one of the paperless team s to look at the evidence. Are there differences between this and how a round proceeds under normal conditions with paper? Yes, although not as great as some have envisioned. More importantly, there s now a large reservoir of experience to draw from which indicates one thing conclusively it works. A list of commonly asked questions and concerns are included near the end of this manual, which should help give a more complete picture of how the debate transpires in actual practice.

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Requirements
Running paperless on the Whitman system requires very little a few laptops, a recent copy of Microsoft Word, and at least one USB jump drive. Since the entire system is built into a Microsoft Word template, a basic familiarity with how to use templates is assumed. If you need a refresher, there are many guides on the internet explaining the details more in-depth.

Hardware
y Laptops Right now, we re of the opinion that this is unworkable without 3 laptops per team. This is to facilitate sharing evidence with the other team via a viewing laptop. While sometimes opponents have their own computers that they would rather use, it s certainly not a universal. Despite increasing paperless usage, the majority of our opponents still opt to use our third laptop. I am sometimes asked what specs the laptops needed should have I would say that essentially any machine capable of running Word will be more than sufficient. We ve run paperless on 5 year old team laptops without any problems, both Mac and PC. More specific info about software, operating systems, etc...is included below. But, if you re looking to purchase some extra laptops for your team, the cheapest available will probably suffice. USB Flash Drives Nothing fancy, any kind will do. Each team needs at least 2, although having a store of extras on hand is advisable. They re easily lost, occasionally break, and are cheap enough to buy in bulk. One caution try to buy drives which have a relatively thin profile. Some of the wider versions can block access to other USB ports which can make using a mouse or second drive difficult. Power Supplies Given the paucity of available outlets in most classrooms (especially in high schools), it s a good idea to make sure each team is carrying a 3 outlet power strip/surge protector, a 3 prong plug adaptor, and a heavy duty extension cord (25 feet is probably prudent).

Optional Hardware Everything else we use isn t strictly required, but is recommended for contingency planning. y A portable podium of some kind. Since they re not bringing tubs to tournaments, the debaters found they didn t have anything to put their computer on while they stood to speak. The best solution we ve found so far is a portable telescoping podium. We bought seven of these: http://www.pctabletote.com/

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They re a bit pricey (~$50/per) and to be honest not all that durable, at least at the hands of my students. But, they ve served their function well, and they re fairly light weight. y External Mouse The process of assembling a speech is much more rapid with an external mouse than a clunky touchpad, and it can come in handy while using the computer to speak from. It s even possible to program some of the higher-end mice with multiple buttons to automate many of the common tasks used in paperless and essentially prep a speech with one hand. I ll leave that up to the tech savvy to figure out on their own. Paper Backup Not something that we do anymore, but for our very first tournament, each team carried a copy of the 1AC and 15 pages of negative evidence, just in case there was a really, really horrible meltdown. Notably, there was not, and none of my teams bother anymore because their comfort level is high enough with our system. It might be helpful to carry a few copies of your plan text for disclosure reasons, as my teams find themselves constantly writing it out for the other team. Recently, my affirmative teams have just written it up on the blackboard before the neg team arrives (10 minutes later, with tubs) to simplify disclosure.

Software
The whole system runs within a single Microsoft Word template. The latest version requires Word 2007 or 2010. It will work with any version of Windows. Support for the Mac might happen with the new version this fall but it s obviously not out yet. In the meantime, people with Macs should run Windows using Boot Camp or Parallels. Setting that up is outside the scope of this manual but is done successfully by half of our team. If you need to use an old version of Mac Word, Word 2003, or Linux, then you should stick with the previous version of the Whitman template that works cross platform. 19

The Template The most recent copy of Whitman s template is available at http://whitmanpaperlessdebate.wikispaces.com/. The macros needed for paperless could easily be ported and modified from this document to your own template, or you re welcome to use ours. The most recent version uses the new Word file format -- .dotm for the template and .docx for individual files. Word 97-2003 .doc files are no longer supported or necessary. Timer One optional feature in the new template is the ability to start a timer from within word. You can use any timer program you like just name the file Timer.exe. I recommend using Alex Gulakov s Synergy timer, also available from the Whitman website.

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Installation
Basics
The only steps required are to install the paperless template in Word and ensure macros are enabled. This is usually as simple as putting the template file in Word s templates folder and changing one setting. For the following examples, c:\ is the windows partition of your hard drive and username is the name of your currently logged in user. If you use multiple user accounts, make sure to install the template for each of them. The download packages contain a shortcut which will automatically open the right folder on your computer. Just double-click this shortcut, put the Template (and timer) into the folder, and you re done. If you want to do it manually, the Word Templates folder will be stored at one of the two following locations: XP C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates. Vista/7 C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates When navigating to the template folder, Windows by default hides the folder in explorer. If the Application Data (XP) or AppData (Vista/7) folder doesn t appear, you need to change your folder view options to show hidden files and folders. If you re unsure of how to do this, check your operating system help file. To make sure macros are enabled, go to Word Options Trust Center Trust Center Settings. Important note It is highly recommended that you put the template in your Templates folder, not just on your desktop. This is because all documents based on a template don t actually include the macros from the original. Instead, they include a reference to what template they are based on. So if you start a new blank document from a template, it will think it is tied to the file on your desktop, not to the one in your Templates folder. If you then send your file to someone else on your team, it will fail to find the template on their desktop, and the macros will be missing. The obvious solution is for everyone to keep the template installed in the same location. After installing, just put a shortcut to the file in your Templates folder on your desktop. Upgrading or changing the template is then as simple as replacing the old version with the updated one in the Word template folder.

Setting Up The Desktop

There are a variety of other tweaks you can make to your computer to make it easier to use paperless, especially in an in-round situation. A few suggestions follow: y Move the Windows taskbar to the left side of the screen, rather than the bottom. Usually this is accomplished by right clicking on it and unchecking Lock the Taskbar, then dragging it to the left side of the screen. This is so that you can more easily see a large number of word documents open without the taskbar grouping them. The taskbar can then also be resized horizontally to take up more or less screen space.

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Add your digital tub folder as a toolbar to the taskbar. To do this, right click on the toolbar, select Toolbars New Toolbar and then navigate to the folder which contains your digital tub. This will create a toolbar with immediate access to all of your files. It can be dragged to show icons, or collapsed so that clicking one arrow will bring up a directory listing of all the folders in your tub. You can even create multiple toolbars for different folders, such as one for backfiles, one for current files, and one for the affirmative. A helpful tip holding down shift while clicking to open a file will keep the taskbar open, rather than closing it and forcing you to re-click through the levels of a tub. This is very helpful when opening more than one document at a time.

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Turn off updates. It s recommended that you temporarily turn off any program which will try to update itself automatically, including Windows Update, just for the duration of the round (or the tournament). This is to avoid the computer trying to reboot itself automatically, or popping up annoying reminders about updates in the middle of a speech. Turn off hibernation/standby/screen savers. You should set your computer to never go into sleep mode, hibernate, or turn the screen off, including when the lid is shut. This is usually accomplished by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Properties. The power settings are included on the Screen Saver tab, under the Power button. Turn off any programs which could interfere with using the macros by utilizing hot-keys. Some programs running in the background of your computer may already have assigned certain keystrokes that are used by the paperless macro. A prominent example is certain NVidia graphics cards which assign hotkeys which rotate the screen. This can be turned off by rightclicking the desktop, selecting Graphics Properties Hot Keys and selecting Disable Hot Keys. Other programs may also exhibit similar behavior if macros aren t behaving correctly, check your computer for other hidden programs which might have hot-keys. Consider a separate user account for paperless. Since most people will not want their screen set up the same way for every day use as for paperless, consider adding a separate account in Windows used exclusively for debate. This will allow you to set up the desktop to your specifications without interfering with everyday work. Clear the desktop of non-essential items. Since the desktop is usually used to save Speech documents and copy them to the USB drive, it s helpful to have it cleared of extraneous files. Useful things to keep on the desktop include: A folder with the most recent tub, a shortcut to the paperless Template, a folder for the current tournament, and a shortcut to your external USB drive. See the screenshot above for a sample layout.

Setting Up Word
By default, Word 2010 displays the Quick Access Toolbar ABOVE the ribbon. This is a bad place for it. To move it below the ribbon, right-click and select Show Below The Ribbon. You also might want to clear the QAT of any default buttons. Word usually has a few at the far left that appear before the custom Debate functions (underlined in Red).

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Assembling a Speech
This is the real nuts and bolts of how to use paperless. At root, the idea is very simple. You take blocks and cards from a variety of files, and put them all in one master Speech document, where you further organize them into the order you expect to read them in your speech. In reality, this process could be accomplished with nothing other than the built-in Cut and Paste functions in Word. However, this is far too time-consuming to be practicable, as the effort required to switch between word documents, select the exact text you want to copy, and then move to the correct place to paste it would eat up an inordinate amount of prep time. This is where the paperless macros come in. Assembling a speech using this system is a simple five step process.

Step One Open a Speech Document

This is the easiest part. Open a blank document based on the template, then save it as anything you like, as long as speech appears somewhere in the name. speech 2AC.docx, Speech vs Whitman at Wake.docx, or sPeEcH Round 3 2Ac.DOCX would all work. This document must be open for the rest of the steps to work if it s not, the macros will warn you. Alternately, press the New Speech button on the toolbar, or use the shortcut Ctrl-Shift-N:

This will prompt you for which speech you re starting. You can include any information you like here to differentiate your speech doc speech, round, opponent, etc

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Word will then ask you where to save the new Speech document, which will automatically be named Speech + anything you typed + the current date and time.

Important Note If you have multiple documents open with speech in the title, the macros will only send to the MOST RECENT one you opened. This is to facilitate things like sending cards from your 2AC speech document to a new 1AR document, for example.

Step Two Open Files

Open any files you want to use from your digital tub. This doesn t have to all be done at once you can open and close files as you go, as long as your Speech document remains open, you can send things to it. Note that any files you want to use in this process must have the requisite paperless macros included in other words, they must be based on the same template, or have had the macros manually added. The picture below shows 2 open files on the left side of the screen, ready to send to the blank Speech document on the right.

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Step Three Send blocks and/or cards to Speech

Sending to the speech document is accomplished by pressing the `/~ key. It s found next to the number 1 on the keyboard, and has a variety of functions depending on the context. Thanks to Alex Gulakov for figuring out how to get Word to accept that customization. You can also still use Ctrl-Alt- to send if you re used to it or just press the big blue button on the ribbon. The Send key does the following: 1) If text is selected, it sends the selected text whether it s one word or the whole document. This replaces the old Ctrl-Alt- macro. 2) If no text is selected, it sends the current card, block, or hat depending on where the cursor is. This is the same as the previous Ctrl-Alt- . 3) If in reading view, it instead inserts a Stopped reading marker wherever you last clicked. Whenever it sends something to the speech document, it will paste them in at the current cursor although it will warn you if you try to send something to the middle of a card on accident. Usually, it s easiest to use Word s Navigation Pane to navigate your files if you click on a Block or Hat in the document map and then use the macro, the block you just clicked on will be sent. The picture below shows a block which has just been sent to the Speech document.

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Step Four Organize Speech

After you ve sent as many cards or blocks as you want to Speech, you just need to organize them as you want to have them for your speech. There are two ways to accomplish this. 1) Use the built-in Navigation Pane. In Word 2010, you can easily drag and drop any element right in the pane. Since Hats are Heading 1, Blocks are Heading 2, and Tags are Heading 3, they ll appear in a logical hierarchy that can easily be collapsed or expanded. Right-clicking on the navigation pane will also allow you to Show Heading Levels to whatever level is most convenient. Unfortunately, there s no way to write a keyboard shortcut to expand or collapse levels using macros but I ve written a standalone program to do this instead NavPaneCycle.exe is explained elsewhere in the manual.

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2) Keyboard shortcuts This is accomplished with two other macros. Ctrl-Alt- , which moves a Block/Hat/Card up one level in the document hierarchy, and Ctrl-Alt- , which does the inverse. Note that you can t move a card above or below the current block using the keyboard but you can while dragging in the Nav Pane. DeleteBlock. There s also another macro which will delete the current card, block, or hat. By default, this is Ctrl-Alt- . This allows you to quickly remove items which you determine in the process of organization that you d rather not have in the speech document. Taken together, these three macros let you quickly move blocks into whatever order you would like them for the speech. Keep in mind you can also organize blocks in the Speech document, change tags, highlight cards, etc...and then return to sending more cards later. In practice, steps three and four blur together quite a bit.

Step Five Transfer Speech

Once your Speech document is complete, organized, and you re ready to speak, you just need to copy the file to your partner (for backup) and the other team (for viewing). First, you should always remember to save the working Speech document before starting the transfer that way if something crashes during the transfer you still have a complete copy. It s also important to save the document on the local hard drive, not directly to a USB drive. This is because Word tends to get angry when a drive is removed containing an open document. The easiest way to do the transfer is to have a USB drive already plugged into the computer. Then, just press the Copy To USB button (Ctrl-Shift-S). This will copy the current document automatically to the root of the first found USB drive.

It s recommended that you first give the USB drive to your partner for them to copy to their desktop and have open during your speech. This way, if the speaker s computer were to crash during a speech, it can quickly be replaced with the identical document on their partners computer. The final step is to give the other team the Speech document which entails either giving the USB drive to them for use on their own computers, or opening the relevant document on the 3rd viewing laptop. Some teams also use a Dropbox account to transfer files between computers. This is a great solution whenever the internet is working. If you explore this option, you should also have USB drives available for backup, just in case. That s it you re ready to speak.

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Recap
Open a Speech document, and all needed files. There are only five macros needed to assemble a speech paperlessly: `/~ Key Sends any highlighted text, or one card, block, or hat at a time, depending on your cursor Ctrl-AltMoves the current card, block, or hat up one position in the document. Ctrl-AltMoves the current card, block, or hat down one position in the document. Ctrl-Alt- Deletes the current card, block, or hat Save your file, transfer it to a USB drive, jump it to your partner and opponents, and you re done. Something not working? Macros seem broken? Check the Common Concerns section later in the manual

Screen Layout And Organization

y Most of my debaters find that it helps to conceptualize your desktop like a desk which moves workflow from left to right. Starting with the taskbar along the left side, which keeps the open documents organized, try to use approximately the left half of your screen for all the open files. Then, keep Speech open on the right side of your screen. Even if you can t fit two windows open side by side on your desktop, try to leave a little bit that doesn t overlap. Use Draft view. This removes the header, footer, and extraneous white space from your document view. It s better than Web view in my opinion because it doesn t make the text unreadable long horizontally. Use the Navigation Pane Most of you will be familiar with this from creating files electronically. In paperless debate, its importance is elevated even further. It functions like an index, allowing you to see the entire file at once and makes moving around within a file substantially faster. It also enables you to see where you re moving blocks to while using MoveUp and MoveDown. I d recommend leaving the Nav Pane turned on in all documents, at all times. Use Full Screen Reading view when actually giving your speech. There s a convenient button for it on the taskbar. This view will allow you to see one or two entire pages at a time, and quickly move through your document by using the arrow keys to move a page at a time, instead of scrolling or using Page Down. If only one page is visible, try shrinking the size of the document map horizontally until two pages appear. Note: When in Full Screen Reading view, the ` key instead functions as a Speech Marker. Clicking in a card where you stopped reading and pressing the key will result in a marker like this being inserted into the card:

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Full Screen Reading view:

Use the mouse wheel to zoom On many computers, holding down the Ctrl key while scrolling the mouse wheel will cause Word to zoom in and out quickly. This can help you see more of the document or an individual card easily, especially if you re working on a smaller screen. You can quickly cycle through all open windows using the Windows button on the Debate tab, or using Ctrl-Tab:

Once you have the shortcut keys memorized, you probably won t need to constantly be looking at the Debate tab in the ribbon. To hide it, double click the title. Then, you can just use the Quick Access Toolbar. Double-click to restore it.

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Other Template Features

There are several other non-essential functions built in to the template. They are briefly explained here, but are mostly self-explanatory. y Warrants New in this version of the template is an Add Warrants function that uses Word s built-in commenting functions to allow the addition of warrant boxes next to cards. Pressing the New Warrant button while selecting a tag will add a new warrant. Warrants can be hidden/shown or deleted using the options in the drop-down menu. To see them more easily, you should use Full-Screen Reading view or Page Layout view.

Eight Font If you place your cursor in a card and use the Eight Font button or press Ctrl-8, it will turn all NON-underlined text into 8pt font. Convenient for shrinking the size of a card to make it more readable. Note that if there s no underlined text at all in the current paragraph the macro tends to shrink everything in the rest of the document.

Auto-Underliner This button will turn on a macro which automatically underlines any selected text. To be honest, it doesn t work that well it doesn t un-underline text, so it s easy to make mistakes and underline too much. To stop it, press Caps-Lock. Remember to turn Caps-Lock back off after stopping the macro.

Cite-Request This will turn the current card into a cite-request ready format. Can also be accessed using Ctrl-Q. The drop-down menu will let you run a macro to turn the entire document into a cite list useful for converting a speech document after rounds.

Timer This button will start a user-supplied timer. It will run any program named Timer.exe located in the same Templates folder where you installed the debate template.

Remove Blanks this macro must be run manually but removes all blank lines that appear in the document map.

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Paperless Organization
One of the most important aspects of ensuring that you can use the paperless system hassle-free is effective file organization. Much like having dozens of reams of paper without indexes or block titles thrown at random into a tub would make debating impossible, a single folder on your hard drive with 200 Word documents cryptically labeled updates.docx or politics.docx wouldn t fare much better. Using digital evidence to its maximum advantage has two parts individual file organization, and tub organization. I ll give a few tips for each.

File formatting and organization

Paying meticulous attention to how your files are constructed in Word is important to ensuring smooth operation of the macros. This extends to making sure Blocks and Hats are formatted properly, the Navigation Pane accurately reflects the file s contents, etc... y No Page Breaks don t bother with inserting these manually. The styles are written to ensure that Blocks and Hats will appear at the top of a page while in Reading View. But for file construction, everything should just appear in a row in the document. Use the Navigation Pane as your index. My debaters rarely create an index on their files any more instead, they pay more attention to making sure the Navigation Pane is as organized as possible. Especially for files under 100 pages, it s easy to see most or all of the files contents with a glance especially with liberal use of Hats for section headings. This allows large sections of the file to be collapsed into Heading 1 and only expand the part of the file you re working on. Be careful about blank lines formatted as tag style. This happens most frequently when pressing enter while on a tag and making a blank line above it. You basically want any paragraphs which aren t explicitly a tag, cite, card, etc to be formatted as normal. Making this mistake won t break anything but you might find the Nav Pane is a mess with a bunch of blank lines. Modularize your files. It s helpful to walk a balance between creating files which are too large to be easily digested with the Nav Pane, and files which are so small as to require dozens of individual word files. An example is writing an affirmative where instead of creating a 1000 page aff file, you could create a file for answers to disads, a file for answers to CP s, etc...and then keep them all in a separate folder, much like an expando.

Digital tub organization

There s an infinite number of ways to organize your files on the computer but here s a basic run-down of how we ve done things so far, which has worked fairly well for us. The entire tub is stored on a network server run by the college, which gives us access to it in our squadroom, as well as offsite using FTP. If a similar setup is impossible, there s many other alternatives, such as designating one desktop as the master copy, purchasing a Network-Attached Storage device, or even just using a gmail or dropbox account. 32

Our digital tub at Whitman is divided into four basic areas. 1) Archived Backfiles this is a separate folder, organized by year. Since each season gets a separate folder, it s easy to keep a record of each topic. The other three areas go in a separate folder for the current year, which gets moved to the backfiles at the end of the season. 2) Files sorted chronologically This section has a subfolder for each tournament we attend. Each file that comes out before that tournament has a copy placed here, to ensure we have a record of when files were completed. 3) Files sorted by subject This constitutes the main part of the digital tub. It has around 15 folders, almost all with subdivisions, into which every file that s produced is sorted. This includes folders for Disads, Critiques, Case Negs, etc...Relevant backfiles are just sorted into the appropriate folders. 4) Private Tubs this section has a separate folder for each team on our squad. It s designed to be a place where each debater can put their own reorganized versions of files, highlighted copies of files, personal blocks, a completely revamped version of the main tub, or anything else they see fit to do with it. It s also a place where they are encouraged to upload their Speech documents from each tournament, sorted by round, so that they have a record of each speech given over the course of a year. Here s a mock visual representation of the folder structure of our online tub. Indents represent a level of subfolders: Backfiles 2005 China 2006 Courts 2007 Middle East etc... 2008 Agriculture 000 Files By Tournament 1 Gonzaga 2 GSU 3 Kentucky etc... Case Negs Biofuels CAFO s Dairy etc... CP s Critiques DA s etc... zzz Private Tubs Whitman AA Whitman BB etc... 33

Some of these folders have only a few files, while others have dozens, organized with numbers in the file names to give an expando-like feel to the folder. Here s a hypothetical representation of a case neg folder: Biofuels Neg Biofuels Neg Biofuels Neg Biofuels Neg Biofuels Neg Biofuels Neg Biofuels Neg Biofuels Neg Biofuels Neg Case 1 Solvency.doc Case 2.0 Food Prices.doc Case 2.1 Specific Food Prices Countries.doc Case 3 Environment Advantages.doc Case 4 Brazil Advantages.doc CP 1 Tariff Only CP.doc CP 2 Japan Rice CP.doc DA 1 Cellulosic DA.doc DA 2 Natural Gas DA.doc

I also maintain a team Gmail account. This is useful for rapidly distributing files produced at a tournament, files which miss the cutoff time to be uploaded to the server, etc... We also have a team Dropbox account, with a mirror of the server for easy access in case someone forgets to update their laptop before leaving home. Several people have suggested using a Version Control software package to more effectively organize the online tub. While there are definitely advantages to this approach, it has the downside of introducing another layer of complexity to the process. While we ve decided that it s not worth the hassle in the short-term, I d be interested to hear if anyone successfully implements one.

Backfiles
One of the major questions people pose about making the transition to paperless is what becomes of old backfiles. Whitman is fortunate to have 12 years of backfiles in a backwards compatible template that was built on for the development of paperless...but I sense that this is the exception, rather than the norm. There are two scenarios for backfile integration Paper/PDF backfiles, and backfiles produced using a template (or several templates). In the first instance, the short version is that you re out of luck. While it s possible to cut and paste parts of PDF or TIF files into Word, it doesn t work very well, and can t easily be integrated in with the rest of the paperless system. Paper backfiles are, well, on paper...Fortunately, I sense that the majority of all files used in debates are produced during the current year so as long as the switch to paperless is made in-between seasons, the impact of the former problems should be minimized. If, on the other hand, you have electronic backfiles which were produced using another Word template, they should integrate relatively hassle-free. There s two ways to port your current files to paperless.

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1) The backward way. Theoretically, you could transfer the needed macros to your old template, potentially make some tweaks to the code to account for formatting changes, and have it work. On the other hand, this would require transferring the macros back into any different template that another member of your team used, and then dealing with the programmatic difficulties involved when collating blocks and formatting differences from a variety of different sources. I d recommend option b. 2) The forward way. Design a standardized template (or steal ours) that will be used by every member of the team, and make sure it has all necessary macros. Then, paste any relevant backfiles into the new template and resave them in the new format. A converter macro that might help with this process is explained earlier in the manual

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Pre-tournament Setup
This is a pre-tournament checklist to make sure you re ready to debate paperless. Mostly, it s just a distillation of the preceding advice. y Drills, drills, drills Most of the difficulties I ve seen my debaters have with paperless so far have been the exclusive product of a lack of practice. While I firmly believe that debating without tubs speeds up almost every aspect of the debating process, including prep time, there s a definite element of relearning involved. While memorizing the hotkeys and understanding the basic elements only takes 5 minutes, becoming proficient enough with the system to deal with contingencies or be extremely quick takes hours. My debaters said their comfort level increased significantly after their second full practice debate but they have still needed lots of work as the season progressed on things like efficient USB transferring, file organization, and keeping a consistent workflow on the desktop. While this is a significant time investment, it s useful to remember the amount of time saved vs. hand-labeling manila folders and printing expando indexes. Make sure you have enough laptops As mentioned above, I think each team needs a minimum of three laptops. It s probably also a good idea for the team at large to have some backups, as debaters seem to be kryptonite to technology. Check that each computer works my debaters seem to have a knack for ensuring that any computer purchased the night will be infected with a virus, rife with spyware, and running too slowly to effectively open multiple word documents before the morning arrives. Clean off the desktop and USB drives. Since the desktop is used as a work space where Speech files are saved and copied, digital tubs are kept, etc...It s a good idea to clear everything else off, at least for the duration of a tournament. If there s an inordinate amount of clutter, it can just be temporarily stored in a new folder. It s also a good idea to create a folder for each tournament, so you can store (and label) Speech documents and update files as they are produced. It s also a good idea to start with a clean USB drive before each round this both ensures there s not confusion over which file to open, and prevents the accidental spread of either viruses or previous files. Make sure each laptop has the most recent version of the digital tub. While archived backfiles can be put on each computer at the beginning of the season and left relatively untouched, the master copy of the digital tub is constantly in flux. It s a good idea to have a complete copy on a USB drive before leaving for the tournament, just in case one (all) of the debaters forget to update their local copies. Make sure each computer is set up for paperless toolbars created, hibernation/screen saver turned off, updates turned off, screen rotation turned off, etc...

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In-round
After practicing with the whole paperless process a few times, I ve found most debaters are quickly comfortable enough with it to not dread the idea of trying it in a competitive setting. That said, here are a few suggestions (some duplicative with earlier tips) to make the in-round process go smoothly. Take special note of the admonition below to save files to the hard drive before copying them to the USB drive. In roughly chronological order: y Explain to your judge and opponents that you ll be debating paperless, and what that might entail for them. Explain the viewing computer, the USB jumping process, and any other logistical issues. Since the whole notion of paperless debate is still relatively new for many teams and judges, some are bound to have questions or concerns about the impact on evidence sharing, length of round, etc... Make sure you know if the other team wants to use their own computers to view your evidence, or would prefer to use the viewing laptop they take time to plug in, set up, etc...so don t wait until the round has already started. If you have concerns about the other team stealing your evidence instead of just looking at it on the USB drive, talk to them about it in advance. You can also ask the other team not to look ahead in the document while you re giving your speech if this is something which concerns you. Plug in and set up when you get to the debate, immediately get both computers plugged in so there s no battery problems. Figure out if you need extension cords, power strips, etc Also, set up your laptop stand in advance if you need it for a podium. Get a USB drive plugged in to the computer in advance, with a folder open to quickly facilitate copying to it from the desktop. This is important to facilitate rapidly moving files it can take a long time for a computer to recognize a drive, open a folder, etc... Both debaters should get a Speech document open on their computers. It should be saved on the desktop. You can also use the top page of your speech document or a blank notepad document to jot down coaching notes. Minimize the number of open Word files. If you re clearly done with a file, close it. Word can pretty easily handle a large number of open documents, but the more you push it, the more likely it is to freeze, or become unbearably slow. This is especially true right before you re about to speak the most important time for your computer to not have tech problems. Once you re done prepping your speech, save it. Then, copy it to the USB. Very important note: Do NOT save the file directly from Word on to the jumpdrive. If you do, Word sometimes gets very angry when you remove the drive. The only tech problems we ve had so far are related to making this mistake.

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Work out in advance with your judge whether you can stop prep before doing the USB transfer, or whether they consider that prep time. Trying not to irritate the judge is generally good practice, never more so than when doing something alien to normal debate. You should first hand the jumpdrive to your partner, who should copy it to their desktop and open it on their computer as a backup. Then you should set up on your podium, give the roadmap, etc... while your partner hands it to the other team or sets up the viewing laptop for them. It s helpful to maintain a consistent naming convention for all your speech docs, as well as a consistent organizational scheme on your desktop and jumpdrive. Since every speech starts out as Speech.docx it would quickly become impossible to keep them straight unless they re given more accurate names and organization. Use Reading View during your speech as described above, this makes scrolling through a document much easier, using only the arrow keys. Alternately, Page Up and Page Down should always work to advance pages. After the debate, you can politely remind your opponent and/or judge to delete their copies of your speech documents if anyone transferred them instead of leaving them on the USB drive. Keep every speech you give. This makes writing blocks, sharing work and intel, etc...much easier. What do I do if I have a catastrophic crash? If you ve done everything right, there won t be a problem. If something really insane happens, like in a speech, then you should be able to quickly switch to your partners laptop if you ve done the backup process correctly. In an absolute disaster, you should beg for mercy from the judge while you figure out what went wrong. Hopefully, they ll be nice

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Public Relations
In the very beginning of our paperless transition, Whitman proposed two community norms we thought would help facilitate fairness during paperless debates, as well as alleviate some of the concerns our debaters had. Neither norm was objected to by any of the people we debated over the course of the year, and they seem to have been reasonably accommodated by most if not all of our opponents. I list them again here as no more than an ongoing request it s certainly the case that practices will evolve along with the more widespread utilization of paperless debating, and these types of norms will likely take care of themselves, in time. More importantly, we feel it s the burden of the team pushing a new practice (paperless) to bear the brunt of the responsibility for accommodation should anyone disagree. Nonetheless, we feel the following practices would be best for competitive equity: y The opposing team should, to as reasonable a degree as possible, minimize looking ahead in the speech document to try and gain a competitive advantage by figuring out what will be read later in the speech. This is especially applicable in rounds where something such as a new affirmative is being read. While obviously only so practicable, we feel that an honest attempt is still better than nothing. Opposing teams or judges who opt to transfer the speech document to their personal computers should delete them at the conclusion of the debate. We feel that taking evidence wholesale is the equivalent of taking a paper file. We d hope the majority of the community would agree that stealing files crosses the line, especially given the easy availability of cites.

Two other issues bear mentioning in relation to paperless teams interacting with the non-paperless world, especially judges. y Prep Time Some judges have expressed concern that the process of jumping files, setting up computers, etc...takes too much time. In particular, they seem to be frustrated that it appears as if the paperless team is stealing prep while waiting for something such as a Word document to open on the viewing computer. While a legitimate concern, I think it is misplaced, for several reasons. First, after a season of debating with seven paperless teams, I can say that I ve noticed zero difference in the average length of time it takes to conclude our debates vs. rounds involving only paper. Secondly, I would say that paperless more frequently saves time, by eliminating the stolen prep involved in giving each teams evidence back to each other, searching under desks for piles of misplaced 2NC cards, or looking for the lost CP text. My hunch is that this time is significantly greater in the world of paper, but judges are used to it taking place, while they are not used to the time involved in jumping files. Tech problems While we have yet to have any truly terminal tech problems in the middle of a round, it s probably inevitable that it will happen at some point, if not to us than to some other debate team making the transition. To a certain extent, this can t be avoided but it s probably worth thinking through how the judge should deal with it. If a few debates a year have to conclude 5 minutes later while a debater gets one free reboot, it seems worth the myriad 39

other benefits it brings to the debate community. In general, I would just hope for patience on the part of the judges and debaters when this problem inevitably arises.

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Common Concerns
When told they would be debating paperless at their next tournament, my debaters immediately raised a host of questions and concerns, most of which seemingly took the form of what if s. This section will hopefully answer the most commonly asked of these. Much of the advice given here is repeated elsewhere, but this is an attempt to present it in a form more easily accessible when something goes wrong.

The Decision To Switch

What do I do if my computer crashes? This is far and away the most frequently voiced concern. As mentioned earlier, 14 debaters at Whitman debated an entire year without a crash but it is probably inevitable at some point. First, keep in mind that it s important to minimize the chance of a crash by practicing good preventative care on your computer. Ensuring your operating system is up to date, that you re running anti-virus software, and that the machine is physically well taken care of will go a long ways towards avoiding any problems. That said, if it does happen, there are several backups in place. Since each debater puts their speech on a jump drive and gives it to both their partner and their opponents, there should be at least 2 other computers looking at the current speech at any given time. After doing contingency drills with my debaters, they can swap out a crashed laptop in no more than a few seconds. If a computer crashes before the speech, a reboot will usually solve the problem and if the debater has been saving regularly, not much work should be lost. This concern is also not really unique to paperless anymore many teams flow on their laptops, or frequently read a card or two during a debate. While not as catastrophic as the previous examples, the debate community at large will have to eventually develop a set of norms surrounding how judges and competitors deal with the occasional crash.

Can t we switch half-way and still use some paper or printers? It s obviously possible to develop a debating method that falls somewhere in-between fully paperless and relying entirely on tubs. Several suggestions have been made, such as printing evidence before each speech, printing the evidence for the judge after the round, carrying only the most frequently used files in one tub, carrying everything in tubs except a few backfiles, etc... At Whitman, we toyed with all of these ideas, but ultimately decided that they defeated much of the purpose for us. Since the primary motivations for our switch were to eliminate baggage costs, printing costs, etc...and simplify the process of traveling with a large number of teams, creating another headache by making each team carry a printer, for example, wouldn t have met our needs. While I m sure that some teams will effectively implement a hybrid system, we have no regrets about our decision to remain completely paperless.

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There s lots of paperless implementations out now, which should I pick? Totally up to you there s advantages and disadvantages to any system you decide on, and I m sure that the more teams that go paperless, the more options you ll have. Even better, design your own from scratch and mix and match the pieces that work well for you. Ultimately, most versions of paperless are pretty similar, so it s hard to go wrong. There are a lot of different needs and opinions on how various functionality should be implemented, how the macros should behave, etc I would guess that most teams will want their system to behave differently in at least some ways than ours. My goal has been to make our system both as simple as possible, minimizing the number of macros, things to remember, etc while ensuring that it s as powerful as possible. I ve also tried to incorporate a wide variety of suggestions, new features, and bug fixes sent to me by other people. As other people venture into the paperless world and come up with innovations, I ll definitely keep tweaking our template. I ve also done my best to make our system as portable as possible encouraging people to take it and make improvements of their own. My code isn t particularly decomposed by design. It s a little less computer programmer friendly, making it somewhat less generalizable and maintainable. But, I think it also makes it easier to understand in a sequential fashion for people who aren t programmers. It also has the advantage of a certain type of simplicity all the truly relevant code is contained in about 6 macros. If object-oriented programming and the difference between a function and a subroutine are lost on you, this could be an advantage to figuring out what s going on under the hood The only exception is the custom ribbon that s gonna take a working knowledge of XML. If any of the following three things are true: y You need to run paperless natively on a Mac (using Mac Word 2004) and can t use boot camp or parallels to run a new version of Word y You need paperless to work in older versions of Word like Word 2003 y You really want to run paperless on Linux using WINE Then you should stick with the previous version (2.0) of Whitman s macros. It s the only cross-platform solution that I currently know of.

What about Debate Synergy? Again, up to you. In some ways, the functionality of the Whitman template overlaps with that of Synergy, especially the new version. In other ways, they re designed to do totally different things. Whitman s system isn t designed to integrate with Excel, because none of my students flow on the computer. Similarly, both programs take a different approach to implementing some of the same basic functionality like sending to Speech. Try out both and see what you like and what you don t like.

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Several features of Synergy are totally awesome and I ve borrowed liberally from them in designing this new version. On balance, Synergy is a great program it ultimately comes down to a matter of taste. Certain aspects of Synergy don t appeal to me as much personally for example, I m not a fan of the Virtual Tub system, because I think it s clunky and encourages a block-dependent view of file organization, and too many proliferating word files. If I coached a high school team, I also think I might view this functionality differently. Again, up to you. It s worth keeping in mind that Synergy is designed to work with ANY debate template installed on top of it. It provides a floor that can be added to with other templates. So if there s something in Synergy that you particularly like, it s possible to use both systems simultaneously.

Can these macros be written in Applescript? Some similar capabilities have been replicated by Brad Bolman and Peter Vale, but it s nowhere near as fully-featured as a Windows based solution. Copies of their work is available from Whitman s tech page. As I find out more about the project, I ll try and keep this manual updated.

Can t we just use a printer before each speech? I think that it could work for some, and it's obviously each team's prerogative I'd be curious to hear how well it works for teams that try it. Some of our opponents through the year have opted to print our Speech documents, and seemed to have few problems. For our part, we considered the printer route pretty extensively and decided against it for several reasons. First, the logistics of each team carrying a printer are significantly more of a hassle than one spare laptop per team. A laptop fits in a backpack, a printer doesn't. Printers small enough to carry tend to print very few pages per minute and require cartridge replacement every couple hundred pages. Even with the perfect printer, it requires locating boxes of paper, toner, etc...for every tournament, which is a hassle we re glad to have left behind. Second, printers just aren't very reliable even less so than computers, and they hold up to travel abuse very poorly. We had a hard time keeping one team printer working, full of ink, and not jammed when we used paper I'd hate to try it with seven. Lastly, printers present a unique set of tech problems, like stalled print queues, incorrect drivers, or spooling errors which just add to the potential for things to go wrong during a debate. Also, it s pretty intangible but we enjoy that we don't still have one foot in the paper door.

How do novices adapt to this system? To be honest, Whitman does not have a large novice contingent, so I admit that I can't speak very directly to these concerns. But, from working with the least experienced parts of my team and with high school novices learning paperless, my experience so far has been that novices are even better at using the system than more experienced debaters. The technological sophistication of the average 18 year 43

old has skyrocketed in the past five years, and the younger students on my team tend to be much better at using a laptop and quickly digesting electronic info than my older students. I m fairly optimistic that novices could quickly adapt and learn paperless they also tend to have problems keeping large stacks of paper organized.

Can this work on Linux, or with Open Office? Not yet. Open Office isn t good enough yet. It s pretty close to replicating most of the needed functionality, but support for macros is still pretty lagging, and it s lacking Draft View, which is a deal breaker. Hopefully in years to come this becomes a more viable option. I m also very confident that porting the whole VBA code base into Open Office s native macro format shouldn t be that hard. In many ways, it s better than VBA but the other failings of Open Office make this a very low priority right now.

What if I want to use the older version of Whitman s macros? Still downloadable (along with old versions of the manual) from Whitman s tech page.

What resources are currently available for paperless? The most recent information and version of the template will be available at: http://whitmanpaperlessdebate.wikispaces.com/ Largely duplicative with the above is Whitman s tech page. It has the most recent version of our template, this manual, etc http://www.whitman.edu/rhetoric/61tech.htm There s also an open wiki set up by JP Lacy with links to a ton of other helpful stuff: http://paperlessdebate.wikispaces.com You should also look into the Open Paperless Project it s an emerging Open Standard for encouraging debate template interoperability. The idea is to allow cards to be cut and pasted between differing templates, while ensuring that they all work seamlessly regardless of which implementation of paperless people choose to use. You can find links to more information about this project at the links above.

Privacy/Security
Won t people steal your Speech documents and keep all your cards? Probably. First, we choose to have a more optimistic view of the debate community, and assume until proven otherwise that our opponents will ask us for cites rather than wholesale take our evidence. While I m sure that some of the people we debate will lack scruples, I prefer to believe that this practice is not widespread. 44

More importantly, even if it happens frequently, it doesn t confer much of a competitive advantage to the team who chooses to do so. In an era of massive caselists and prolific cite requests, access to any piece of evidence read in a debate is already a matter of a few minutes work. I think that this concern also buys into the myth that not letting your opponents see your evidence somehow confers an important strategic benefit. In reality, most debates are won because of superior technique, argumentative capabilities, or ethos not because the other team didn t have a chance to digest your evidence. I ve frequently told my debaters that if we prepare effectively, we should be able to give the other team access to all our files for an hour prior to the debate and not have it affect our chances to win. Either way, I can t isolate a single debate that any of my 7 teams lost this year due to file stealing.

What happens if I break a new (advantage/disad/etc...) and don t want to give it to the other team before my speech? There are several solutions to this problem. First, take care with labeling the block titles in your Speech document something less descriptive than the argument name, such as New Advantage. Combined with asking the other team not to scroll ahead since you ll be breaking something new should go a long way towards restoring the strategic benefit of a few extra minutes of surprise. Secondly, you could save the new argument to a separate word document on the jump drive, and ask the opponent to only open that file once you reach that part of your speech. Finally, you could theoretically bring a paper copy of just your new argument.

Much like the concern about stolen Speech files, I think this falls under the category of scarier in theory than in practice. This ranked near the top of my debaters concerns before doing paperless now, they no longer even bother with any of the aforementioned solutions (except perhaps changing block titles). It became clear to them that the extra minute in which the other team doesn t know what your new advantage is just doesn t have much tangible bearing on the debate.

Won t people read ahead in the Speech document and gain a competitive advantage? This concern is pretty much the same as the previous two not as frequent or as big of a deal as people seem to expect. If anything, this works in the other direction our experience has borne out that opponents who have tried to read ahead have been much more likely to stop flowing, miss arguments, or even waste speech time answering arguments which were never made.

Doesn t sharing USB drives so widely present a virus risk? Yes. Ensuring that each computer is up to date with current anti-virus and spyware software is an important element of ensuring paperless is as safe as possible. It s also recommended that the USB drives used for paperless be used exclusively for that task if they are kept clean and wiped before each debate (or at least before each tournament), the virus risk can be minimized. I m fairly certain none of our computers has contracted a virus this year as a result of paperless and in this age of widespread file sharing, other risks seem much higher. 45

Macro Problems
My macros aren t working at all. Most of the time, this is because your macro security settings are set too high. See the Installation section for more specific information on how to enable macros. If this fails to fix the problem, ensure that the file you re using was made using the correct template especially when converting old files for use with paperless, it s easy to forget to use the template and paste them into a regular Word document. You should also check to make sure that you have the paperless template installed in the Word Templates folder if you are using a file which doesn t have the macros built in, it might be looking for the wrong file.

My macros keep disappearing from my document. There are a variety of reasons why you might open a document originally created in the debate template and find the macros are mysteriously missing. Most common is probably that your template is incorrectly installed, and you ve moved your file to a different folder than it was created in. Make sure that a copy of the template (Debate.dotm) is located in the correct Templates folder, and that Word knows it exists. More complete instructions can be found in the Installation section above. The other most common cause is that the file was PRODUCED on a computer with an improperly installed template. This means it is looking for its parent template in the wrong place. To fix this, go to Word Options Add-Ins, and select Templates from the Manage drop-down box and click Go. Then, in the top box for Attached Template click browse and select Debate.dotm from your Templates folder. This will add the template to your document and should fix your problem. Other possible culprits include: y Macro security settings make sure these are turned to low or "off" in Word. y Sending a file through email gmail and other software can strip macros for security reasons. y Saving as the wrong type of file save as Word 2003 .doc files. y Some other security program like anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc... One suggestion (with credit to Adam Symonds) is to put a copy of the template in Word s Startup folder. The location of that directory will alter depending on your exact software setup. To figure out where it is: In Word 2003: Go to Tools -- Options -- File Locations, Select STARTUP , then click Modify.

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In Word 2007: Office Button -- Word Options -- Advanced, scroll to the bottom, click File Locations, select STARTUP, then click Modify. If you can t find any other solution, one workaround you could consider is incorporating the macros directly into your normal.dotm file then they would be available to any file you opened no matter what.

I was using a macro, and then got an error message. It says Microsoft Visual Basic Run Time Error 4198, Command Failed and gives me the option to End, Debug, or Help. Almost every way you can break the macros has been error trapped in the code, and you ll get a message telling you what to do. When you get this message, it just means that you ve done something the macro didn t know how to handle. Fortunately, you haven t hurt anything it just means that whatever you just tried to do didn t complete properly.

If you click End or press E , you ll be returned to Word and can try and figure out what you did wrong. If you press Debug on accident, you ll be sent into the Word VBA debugger, with a lot of cryptic looking code instead of your Word document. To exit this, just close the window and click OK when told this will stop the debugger. If you find a reproducible error that crashes a macro, please let me know and I ll do my best to fix it.

I emailed a file to another team member, and the macros stopped working. Some email programs or online mail services have been found to strip all macros from Word files when sending them as an attachment, presumably as a security feature. If you find this happening to you, try sending the Word document in a zip file, or with a temporarily modified file extension, such as File.dco instead of File.doc.

I pressed the macro hotkey, and my screen suddenly rotated 90 degrees. This occurs on certain laptops using a particular graphics card software package. To get your screen back to normal, press Ctrl-Alt- . Then, right click on your desktop, select Graphics Options Hotkeys and select Disable hotkeys. How do I change the macro hotkeys?

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You can set Word to use any key combination you choose for each macro in lieu of the default hotkeys. Open the actual template file (Debate.dotm) and then go to Word Options Customize the Ribbon and then press the button for Customize Keyboard. Ensure Debate.dotm is selected in the Save Changes In box, and then scroll down in the left box to Styles and Macros the macros and styles that appear in the right box will then list their associated keyboard shortcuts and allow you to change them. Keep in mind that the ` key cannot be assigned using this method. Neither can Ctrl-Tab.

Move Up/Move Down don t work correctly it doesn t move what I expect it to. First, check the position of your cursor remember that the Move macros are designed to automatically select what to move based on whether you re currently in a card, block, or hat. If not, then this is likely caused by improperly formatted blocks in your source documents. This arises most frequently when attempting to use backfiles which weren t formatted in the paperless template. Turn on Show Formatting, and look into how the stuff you re trying to move is formatted odds are good you ve just accidentally formatted something incorrectly. For example if you have a bunch of blank lines in a block formatted as tag without any text, you ll sometimes have to run MoveUp or MoveDown several times to move a card down below the next actual card.

Word stops responding with one of the macros all I get is an hourglass. This is probably caused because a macro is in an infinite loop. I m pretty sure this won t happen, because any circumstance where an infinite loop is possible has been coded around. But, if all else fails, you can manually stop a macro by pressing Ctrl-Break. Break is also sometimes labeled Pause on the keyboard.

I get a Code execution has been interrupted error when I run any macro. This usually happens after having pressed Ctrl-Break, and VBA can get grumpy. Try pressing Ctrl-Break again. It s also worth pressing Debug and manually pressing the Stop button in the VBA Editor. This error is quite rare, and frequently doesn t have an exact cause.

Pre-Round
How do we integrate backfiles produced in other templates? This is largely discussed above in the section on File Organization the short version is that you should be able to adapt the macros to work in most templates. Either you can integrate the macros back into your old files so that you can send them as-is to a Speech document, or you can cut and paste files from the old templates into a new template document. This will likely give rise to some small aesthetic

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problems, such as incorrect font sizes but in general, paperless functionality should remain intact. Also read the section on the Converter macro above.

Isn t highlighting files harder? To a certain degree, yes. Our template has a built-in highlighter function which is fairly rapid with practice. It is, however, slightly slower than doing it by hand. I think that this is made up for by the benefits of only needing to highlight any card once it can then be copied to other files, or complete files can be shared by the team, saving duplicative highlighting efforts.

In-Round
What about prepping before the block? There s only one viewing computer, but both negative debaters might need to see evidence. In reality, this hasn t presented much problem most opponents have been happy with one viewing computer, as the 1NR has a sufficient amount of prep time during the 2NC to look at any evidence they need. They can also prep without looking at the cards for at least a few minutes there s usually analytics to write out, evidence to pull, etc... For opponents who have insisted that having two computers is important, we ve had two solutions, both of which have worked either they have used their own computer as a second viewing laptop, or the 2AC has offered their computer as a stand-in until the 2NC is done prepping. Since the affirmative is usually backflowing until the 2NC is ready to speak, and the 2AC doesn t have to give another speech which requires pulling evidence, their need for a laptop is minimal for those few minutes.

Doesn t this make debates take longer? No if anything, I think debates conclude faster. Occasionally, paperless can cause a short delay while transferring files between laptops, and some judges have commented on this as a source of irritation. I think this is largely an issue of perception those delays tend to occur at moments in the debate which people aren t used to. On the other hand, paperless completely removes time spent looking for lost cards in jumbled stacks of paper all over the room saving time both during the debate (when debaters ask for cards and have to stop prep), and lots of time when the judge is calling for cards. After a year worth of debates, I never had the feeling at a tournament that Whitman s debates were getting out significantly later than others. No tab room ever complained. And we were usually waiting for 10 minutes or more before our opponents showed up from moving their tubs between buildlings.

I just like paper tactile feel and organization are important to me.

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This would be my number one problem with paperless as a debater there is admittedly no easy substitute for spreading out lots of files, or the feel of holding a stack of cards in hand. Partly, I think this is just an issue of familiarity and training my younger students have a much easier time with this than my older debaters. It s fairly clear from observation that my debaters are much more organized using the computer the inability to lose cards during a debate is a boon. How do I mark a card while giving a speech? While in Full Screen Reading View, click on the part of the card where you stopped and press the ` key. It will insert a marker, like this:

My debaters have also taken to saying marked at xxxxxx when marking to let the other team know where they stopped if they re following along. In practice, this system has presented no problems that I m aware of.

What if I send over more cards than I m going to read to my Speech document? This is no different than giving the other team a block with multiple cards but only reading the top one. Some responsibility is on the other team to flow the speaker and pay attention to which cards are read or to clarify in cross-ex if there s any confusion. This also provides an incentive for the opposing team to follow along in real time, rather than skip ahead. The speaker can also opt to keep a file or two open on their computer to read a few extra cards should they have time and then jump those last couple cards to the other team during cross-ex.

What about using Dropbox for transferring files instead of USB drives? Dropbox can be very useful, and in some circumstances could replace using a USB drive. However, we ve found that many tournaments we attend have pretty spotty internet access, so having USB as a backup is probably wise. There are also logistical difficulties with a large number of people using Dropbox simultaneously (finding the right file, files named similar things, etc ). I d be interested to hear if anyone uses this as their primary file transfer mechanism.

I sent something to my Speech document, and now it looks weird (bigger font, out of order, etc...) Keep in mind that both Send macros will send your selection to the current insert point in the Speech document. Odds are good that you accidentally had the cursor in a Block Title or other area of formatted text and Word attempted to apply that formatting to everything you sent. Try pressing Undo and then resending the blocks to the bottom. This is now largely error-trapped to prevent you from doing it but it s still possible to get around.

Doesn t paperless make cite requests super easy?

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Yes. There s even macros built in to our template to make it go faster. CiteRequest. Put the cursor inside any card text and press Ctrl-Q. This will automatically reduce the card to just first and last sentences, ready to be sent as a cite. CiteRequestDoc. This will automatically convert the entire file into cites, while leaving block titles, hats, and page breaks making it easy to organize the cites you want to send. This is purposefully not assigned to a hotkey, because it pretty much irreversibly destroys the document and isn t something you want to run accidentally. It will also prompt the user before converting, as an extra safety precaution. To run this, just go to the toolbar under Cite Request and manually select it. There s several other ways to implement this macro such as having it open a new document for the cites. I prefer the functionality this way, because it s simpler -- but it should be easy to incorporate this code into a variety of other applications. The code for this macro also has the benefit of being pretty efficient. Note that it skips any card shorter than 20 words to avoid getting stuck in an infinite loop.

Can I flow on my laptop? In short, yes. With a little practice you should be able to use Alt-Tab to switch between your flow and your Speech document during the speech. Another suggestion that I haven t tried personally is to keep two columns of your flow open on the far left of the screen, and put the Speech document to the right so you can see both at the same time. Nonetheless, I recommend to my students that they flow on paper. I think that it helps them to see connections between arguments and focus on the big picture. It also helps to minimize computer distractions during the speech.

Doesn t the laptop hurt my ethos? It certainly runs the risk of getting in the way, but perhaps not appreciably more so than a stack of tubs and expandos. Suggestions to think about when learning to speak exclusively off a computer: y Make sure the laptop doesn t block your view of the judge putting it slightly to one side helps. y Remember to look up doing drills where you practice not remaining glued to your computer are worthwhile. y Practice reading off the computer and experiment with different layouts, zoom levels, resolutions, fonts, etc...You may find one combination works significantly better for you than others.

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Macro List
All of the included macros in the template are listed here with a brief description, for reference purposes. All of the paperless macros were coded by hand using Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications. I make no claim that these are written as efficiently as they could be, nor that they are particularly elegant and in some circumstances I ve sacrificed elegance on purpose for straightforwardness. The macros are divided into four code modules Format, Paperless, Advanced, and Ribbon.

Format
y y y y y PasteText Pastes the current clipboard contents as unformatted text, and automatically strips out Lexis Enhanced Coverage links. RemoveReturns Removes hard and soft returns from the current selection. EightFont Sets all non-underlined text in the current paragraph to 8pt font. Highlight Toggles highlighting on and off. AutoUnderline Turns on an auto-underliner. Caps-Lock turns it off. Written that way to avoid reference to the Windows File System Object, which should make it more likely to work on a Mac when it comes out.

Paperless
y y y y y y y y SendToSpeech Sends the current selection to Speech, or the current card, block or hat. If in Reading view, inserts a card marker. MoveDown Moves the current unit down one slot in the document hierarchy. MoveUp moves the current unit up one slot in the document hierarchy. NewSpeech Opens a new Speech document based on the Debate template and names it based on user input and the current date/time CopyToUSB Copies the current document to the root of the first USB drive StartTimer Starts a user supplied timer, named Timer.exe in the Word Templates folder SwitchWindows Cycles through currently open windows. DeleteHeading Deletes the current card, hat, or block.

Advanced
y y y y y y CiteRequest Turns the current card into a cite-request ready format. CiteRequestDoc Turns the whole document into a cite list. RemoveBlanks Removes blank lines from appearing in the Navigation Pane. ShowComments Toggles showing or hiding Word comments, used for warrants boxes. AttachTemplate Attaches the debate template to the current document to fix lost macros. Would be most useful placed in a Global Template or normal.dotm to be available to fix files. ConvertBackfile Converts a file produced in a previous version of the Whitman template to the new version. Rough and possibly buggy, but useful.

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Ribbon
y y y y Onload Required subroutine that deals with opening the custom ribbon tab. RibbonMain Main control subroutine for the Debate tab. Just routes which button was pushed to the correct other macro. Connects with the built-in XML code designing the ribbon. AutoOpen Ensures documents based on the template open in Draft View with the Nav Pane turned on. AutoNew Ensures new documents created from the template open in Draft view with the Nav Pane turned on.

Applescript Versions
Brad Bolman and Peter Vale of Pembroke Hill have developed a working implementation of paperless for Applescript. The code is too lengthy to include here, but all the relevant scripts are available from Whitman s tech page: http://www.whitman.edu/rhetoric/61tech.htm Brad says that: The difference with Applescripts is that, unlike Macros, they cannot be attached to documents so each user must move the Applescript into their scripts folder and then assign it a hotkey, but that can be done with the template. However, since both systems contain nearly all the same class/items/etc. this should make it possible for Mac users to use their computers in debates even running Word 2008. Peter says that: we have finally created 4 Applescripts that can automatically select a section of text in between two page breaks and then send that to Speech.doc, select and send a single card to Speech.doc, move a block up, and move a block down in Speech.doc. A couple of Notes: You can't select text and then run the scripts or else there will be an error. All of the scripts are based on page breaks except for the CardSendtoSpeech, which has to be changed for the style of the tag and card in the template normally used. There are also a lot of notes in the code text that explain all of the steps. The scripts have to be saved in Documents --> Microsoft User Data --> Word Script Menu Items Also, I'm going to be working on moving pieces of evidence up and down, I just haven't finished those quite yet.

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Known Issues
Most of the macro code is error trapped to ensure stability and avoid annoying error messages in general, it s pretty hard to break the system. I ve also gotten rid of most of the previous known bugs in the last version of the macros. I would expect most bugs to be caused by improper formatting. However, if you come across anything strange, please let me know. As of now, this is what I know about: y When you try to Send To Speech using the macro without a Speech document open, it will automatically prompt you to save one. If instead you try and cancel the save, the Send macro won t complete, and will prompt you again to create a Speech doc. This can be exited by pressing Ctrl-Break, or more simply, just by actually saving a Speech doc. The MoveDown macro very occasionally crashes for what appears to be no reason. It will give a 4198 error, but then work flawlessly when rerunning the macro on the same block of text. If you figure this out, please let me know. The Eight Font macro will sometimes turn the whole document into 8pt font when trying to run the macro in a paragraph with zero underlined text. Can be easily un-done, but can be annoying. Screen rotation when using hotkeys known conflict with certain graphics card software see the Common Concerns section for instructions on how to turn this off. Conflicts with the Microsoft Language Bar. This is perhaps the strangest behavior we ve seen while using paperless. Some versions of Office come with the Microsoft Language Bar, which includes a rudimentary Speech-to-Text tool. This can be turned on inadvertently while using Word, which will then attempt to convert speech picked up by the computers built-in microphone into text in your open document. If you find random words and fragments of sentences appearing seemingly out of nowhere in your Word documents, try disabling the Language Bar. Somewhat embarrassingly, this took two days and four people to figure out.

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Future Features/Advanced Suggestions

I think the latest incarnation of the paperless macros is a big step over the system we used last year. While that was fully functional, this version has a lot of new functionality, a lot of bug fixes, and incorporates a lot of improvements other people have suggested or come up with on their own. As people continue to come up with ideas or even just wishlists, please let me know. Things I plan to fix in the future: y Cleaning up the PasteText macro to be more efficient and bug test a variety of less frequent Lexis Enhanced Coverage scenarios. Rewriting the CiteRequestDoc macro to not rely on the Cite style this is done to differentiate between Normal text and the rest of a cite line. Easy to do, but not high priority Writing my own version of an auto-cite macro. It s hard. Rewrite the auto-underliner to fix the Caps Lock hack. There are easy solutions available, but all rely on complicated function calls or accessing the Windows File System Object which I ve tried to minimize to be forward looking with Mac compatability. Programmable mouse integration. Since many higher-end mice come with multiple buttons, including the ability to assign each one to a keystroke, it s possible to program a mouse to use all of the paperless macros using one hand. Use of AutoHotKey to speed desktop setup. AutoHotKey is a free program designed to quickly automate tasks in Windows, such as opening programs, reorganizing windows, etc...Essentially, it adds macro support for all Windows applications. Many possibilities exist, such as assigning one keystroke or desktop shortcut to automatically open a Speech doc and all your affirmative files, then organize them on the desktop in a standard layout.

y y

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