PaperlessDebateManual2.3

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Paperless Debate: A How-To Manual

Aaron Hardy

Whitman College

Version 2.3

October 10, 2009


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Table Of Contents

INTRODUCTION 3

BENEFITS OF PAPERLESS 4

DESCRIPTION OF PAPERLESS 5REQUIREMENTS 6

HARDWARE 6SOFTWARE 7

INSTALLATION 10

WINDOWS 10MAC 11LINUX 11SETTING UP THE DESKTOP 11

ASSEMBLING A SPEECH 14

STEP ONE OPEN A SPEECHDOCUMENT 14STEP TWO OPEN FILES 15

STEP THREE SEND BLOCKS AND/OR CARDS TO SPEECH 15STEP FOUR ORGANIZE SPEECH 17STEP FIVE TRANSFER SPEECH 20RECAP 20SCREEN LAYOUT AND ORGANIZATION 21

PAPERLESS ORGANIZATION 23

FILE FORMATTING AND ORGANIZATION 23DIGITAL TUB ORGANIZATION 24BACKFILES 26

PRE-TOURNAMENT SETUP 28

IN-ROUND 29

PUBLIC RELATIONS 31

COMMON CONCERNS 33

THE DECISION TO SWITCH 33PRIVACY/SECURITY 37MACRO PROBLEMS 39PRE-ROUND 42IN-ROUND 42

CODE ANNOTATION 46

SMARTSELECTION 46TRIMSELECTION 48SENDBLOCKTOSPEECH 50SENDSELECTIONTOSPEECH 52MOVEUP 54

MOVEDOWN 58DELETEBLOCK 62HATMAKER 63CITEREQUESTDOC 63APPLESCRIPT VERSIONS 64

KNOWN ISSUES 66

FUTURE FEATURES/ADVANCED SUGGESTIONS 67


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Introduction

As the policy coach at Whitman College, I switched our team to completely paperless in the fallof the 2008-2009 season. As of this writing, we have successfully completed an entire year ofpaperless with 7 teams traveling on the national college circuit. There have been a few hiccups

and a lot of learning from our own mistakes, but on balance, our experience has beenoverwhelmingly positive. We have no intention of ever going back to paper, and based on thenumber of coaches and programs who have approached me about making the switch, Im surethat carting around tubs will be an anachronism sooner rather than later.

This manual is intended as a brief how-to for programs considering the transition to paperlessdebate. While it is heavily geared towards the evidence intensive nature of college policydebate, the information here should be broadly applicable to both high school policy programs aswell as other forms of debate, such as LD. Much of what is written here is an attempt atdistilling the experiences at Whitman over the last year, to give other programs a leg-up atavoiding some of our early mistakes.

Its my hope that our experiences (including this manual) can be the start of a collaborativeprocess with any program that chooses to move forward with paperless. Weve endeavored tomake the Whitman system available to anyone who wants it in the hopes that the community atlarge can help reach a set of best practices, recommendations, and improvements on theoriginal idea.

I remain indebted to several people who bear a public mention. First, Jim Hanson, on the cuttingedge of debate technology for a decade before I started coaching and a supremely supportivedirector through the transition. Second, the Denver debate team, who was completely paperlessyears before us and provided definitive proof of concept. Third, Sam King from Stanford, who

was invaluable in the process of upgrading to the second major version of the paperless macros.Lastly, all my debaters, who acted as (mostly) willing guinea pigs, and trusted that this wouldwork despite their many reservations.

A final comment for those still on the fence. Whitman had been bandying around the idea ofgoing paperless for years before finally making the switch. Tests were run, many systems weretried out, and a laundry list of hypothesized problems were presented (including by me) as death-knells for the whole project. Ultimately, what made the difference in the success of our switchwas not a radical improvement in technology or an advance of the underlying concept. Rather, itis attributable almost entirely to will power. Once the decision was taken that we would bedebating paperless no matter what three weeks down the line, terminal obstacles simply became

problems to solve, and the first tournament went off without a hitch. That Whitman Cohn/Strauscould receive a first-round bid to the National Debate Tournament in their first year of ourproject serves, I hope, as a tangible demonstration that paperless can succeed broadly, even at thehighest echelon of policy debate.

Any questions, suggested improvements, or criticism, about either paperless in general or thismanual in particular should be directed to me at [email protected]. I would welcomefeedback in any form.


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Benefits of Paperless

The benefits of debating without the need to lug multiple 50+ pound tubs of evidence all over thecountry probably doesnt bear much further explication. But, as we made the transition, wefound ourselves continually unearthing new reasons we were glad wed switched. Just to

mention a few:

Cost savings Probably the number one factor informing our decision to switch atWhitman. Obviously, it saves all the money spent on paper, printing, copying, expandos,and other tub-related supplies. It also saves all the costs associated with checked baggageon airlines with escalating fee structures, not an insignificant amount. Somewhat lessobviously, it also saves money on the size of rental vehicles needed for to transport theaverage 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 themultiple thousands of dollars. In a time when many budgets across the country are atsignificant 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 movingtubs, we can more easily replicate standard work done in many different rounds, we getback to the hotel earlier because we dont have to clean up, we can provide cite requestsof every card read in a debate within minutes, its somewhat less likely my students losetheir files...The list goes on.

Environmental benefits These are probably not very significant in the grand scheme ofthings, and using more laptops might offset any benefits but it does save a lot of paper,ink cartridges, increased weight on planes, etc...I wouldnt list this as an incontrovertiblereason to switch, at least without somebody doing some research but it might be a niceicing on the cake.

PR Whether the environmental benefits are real or perceived, the Whitman debate teamhas received a ton of positive press from the school over the transition. Ive heard similarstories from other schools who are switching. Theres never a bad time to impress theadministration, especially when money is tight.


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Description of Paperless

For those who havent yet seen a team debate paperless, heres a basic run-down of how itworks.

All files are produced electronically using the same Word template, which incorporates both thenormal formatting/organizing functions of a debate template, and a few added featuresspecifically for paperless. Files are kept centrally organized in a digital tub comprised offolders, 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 isaccomplished rapidly by using a set of simple Word macros which facilitate both transferringblocks 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 isavailable in the event of a tech failure.

It is then given to the opposing team. If the other team has their own laptop(s), theyre welcometo use them to view the file. If not, the paperless team uses their third backup laptop as aviewing computer for the other teams use for the whole debate. If for some reason the otherteam needs a second viewing computer, the paperless team can let the other team use one oftheir other laptops during their prep time.

The same will repeat for each speech (at least, those with cards). After the debate, the judge isobviously free to use either their own laptop or one of the paperless teams to look at the

evidence.

Are there differences between this and how a round proceeds under normal conditions withpaper? Yes, although not as great as some have envisioned. More importantly, theres now alarge reservoir of experience to draw from which indicates one thing conclusively it works. Alist of commonly asked questions and concerns are included near the end of this manual, whichshould 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, and mostly stuff everyone alreadyhas. As the number of teams doing paperless expands and they develop their own systemsindependently, the specifications will probably change but in its basic incarnation, paperless

just requires a few laptops and a word processor.

Since the entire system is built into a Microsoft Word template, a basic familiarity with how touse templates is assumed. If you need a refresher, Naveen Ramachandrappas guide is availableat http://debate.uga.edu/research_guide/howto.pdf. The Whitman template differs from the typeproduced in his guide, but the basic concepts are all still applicable.

Hardware

Laptops Right now, were of the opinion that this is unworkable without 3 laptops perteam. 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, itscertainly not a universal. Over the course of the year, the majority of our opponents haveopted to use our third laptop. I am sometimes asked what specs the laptops neededshould have I would say that essentially any machine capable of running Word will bemore than sufficient. Weve run paperless on 5 year old team laptops without anyproblems, both Mac and PC. More specific info about software, operating systems,etc...is included below. But, if youre looking to purchase some extra laptops for yourteam, 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. Theyre easily lost, occasionally

break, and are cheap enough to buy in bulk. One caution try to buy drives which have arelatively thin profile. Some of the wider versions can block access to other USB portswhich can make using a mouse or second drive difficult.

Power supplies Given the paucity of available outlets in most classrooms (especially inhigh schools), its a good idea to make sure each team is carrying a 3 outlet powerstrip/surge protector, a 3 prong plug adaptor, and a heavy duty extension cord (25 feet isprobably prudent).

Optional Hardware

Everything else we use isnt strictly required, but is recommended for contingency planning.

A portable podium of some kind. Since theyre not bringing tubs to tournaments, thedebaters found they didnt have anything to put their computer on while they stood tospeak. The best solution weve found so far is a portable telescoping podium. Webought seven of these: http://www.pctabletote.com/


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Theyre a bit pricey (~$50/per) and to be honest not all that durable, at least at the handsof my students. But, theyve served their function well, and theyre fairly light weight.

External Mouse The process of assembling a speech is much more rapid with anexternal mouse than a clunky touchpad, and it can come in handy while using thecomputer to speak from. Its even possible to program some of the higher-end mice withmultiple buttons to automate many of the common tasks used in paperless and essentiallyprep a speech with one hand. Ill leave that up to the tech savvy to figure out on theirown.

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 therewas a really, really horrible meltdown. Notably, there was not, and none of my teamsbother anymore because their comfort level is high enough with our system. It might behelpful to carry a few copies of your plan text for disclosure reasons, as my teams findthemselves constantly writing it out for the other team. Recently, my affirmative teamshave 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. Theoretically, any computercapable of running Word 2003 or later should work on any operating system, although it mightrequire some tweaks, especially when making the jump between Mac and PC, Word 2003 toWord 2007, or XP to Vista. We have successfully tested it under all of these configurations.


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That said, the recommended setup is Windows XP with Word 2003. Its the simplest, easiest tomaintain, the fastest running, and its what the system was designed under. This is what wevestandardized for all 21 of our laptops at Whitman, and its worked great, even when using Macsin dual boot mode. Since this level of standardization may not be possible at many institutions,just keep in mind that small changes may be necessary.

The Template

The most recent copy of Whitmans template is available athttp://www.whitman.edu/rhetoric/tech/Debate.dot. The macros needed for paperless could easilybe ported and modified from this document to your own template, or youre welcome to use oursand just change the header.

Operating System

It will work on any operating system, but weve found that paperless works significantly better in

Windows than in Mac OS. This is primarily because the Mac version of Word is terrible its alobotomized version, it runs slowly, and it handles macros poorly. I would recommend usingMac machines as viewing computers, for which they work fine. Another option is to havepeople with Macs run Boot Camp or Parallels and dual boot to Windows when they need to usepaperless. For more comments on using Macs with this system, see the Installation sectionbelow. I prefer XP to Vista, but havent really had any problems with Vista.

Windows 7 completely untested so far. Let me know if you try it and it works

The latest incarnation of the macros should also work in Linux , as long as you can get Word2003 working under Wine. This isnt for the faint of heart, and might require small macro

modifications but I can confirm it works.

Microsoft Word

Word 2003 is strongly recommended. Its the last version of Word that wasnt poorly designed.Word 2007 comes in second Its slightly bulkier, the interface is nonsensical, and macrosupport can be irritating, but it works fine. Word for Mac should be avoided when possible, asanyone who has used it can probably attest. If anyone uses Word 2010 and has feedback on it,let me know.

The one recent version of Word that WILL NOT WORK is Word 2008 for Mac. Microsoft

removed support for VBA macros, which renders paperless impossible. Theyve said supportwill be added back in for the next version of Word (2010, perhaps?) but for now, avoid thisversion. Some efforts are in the works to port the relevant paperless macros to Applescript,thanks to Brad Bolman and Peter Vale at Pembroke Hill see the section on Applescript belowfor more information.

Another comment about Word 2007 if youre going to use Word 2007, its recommended thatyou always save as a Word 97-2003 document (.doc) instead of a Word 2007 .docx file. First,


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this is because the system was designed in Word 2003, and compatibility with the .docx formatisnt tested very well. The macros will still run with .docx files, but its not preferred. Second, ithelps maintain compatibility with older files produced in previous versions of word whichprobably describes at least a portion of most teams backfiles.


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Installation

The only step required is to install the paperless template in Word and ensure macros areenabled. The exact process for doing this varies somewhat between operating systems andversions of Word, but is usually as simple as putting the template file in Words templates folder

and telling Word that it exists.

Important note While you can keep a copy of the template anywhere on your computer andcreate blank documents based on it, its still recommended that you put a master copy in theWord template folder. This is so that any file which was previously created in the template canfind it if necessary. After installing it, I would put a shortcut to the template on your desktop orquick-launch bar to make opening a new document based on the template quicker.

Upgrading or changing the template is then as simple as replacing the old version with theupdated one in the Word template folder.

Another note When navigating to the template folder, Windows by default hides the folder inexplorer. If the Application Data (XP) or AppData (Vista) folder doesnt appear, you needto change your folder view options to show hidden files and folders. If youre unsure of howto do this, check your operating system help file.

For the following examples, c:\ is the windows partition of your hard drive and username is thename of your currently logged in user. If you use multiple user accounts, make sure to install thetemplate for each of them.

Windows

Depending on which version of Word you have (2003 or 2007) and which operating system (XPor Vista), the Word templates folder will be stored at one of the two following locations:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates.C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

In Word 2003, put a copy of the template in this folder, and its installed. Make sure your macrosecurity settings are turned to low under Tools Macro Security.

In Word 2007, templates can be installed from anywhere using the Add-Ins manager. ClickWord Options in the main task bar, select Add-Ins, then select Templates in the Manage

drop down box and click Go. Click Add and navigate to the folder where you stored thetemplate. To make sure macros are enabled, go to Word Options Trust Center Trust CenterSettings.


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Mac

To install a template, put a copy of it in the Microsoft Office Template My Templates folder.The template will then appear in the Word Project Gallery.

Running paperless on a Mac requires a few tweaks:

To use any of the built in shortcut keys, you might need to change the Mac OS setting touse the function key. This is found under System Preferences Keyboard & Mouse.

When using Mac Word, the macros will sometimes exhibit strange behavior, such ascutting off the first letter of a Block Title when moving blocks between documents. Thisis because some versions of Mac Word treat Page Breaks differently than all otherversions in Windows. The macros could easily be reprogrammed to take account of this,but it would likely mean that it would not be cross compatible with Windows. In general,the problems involved are aesthetic the macros will probably still work.

Linux

Definitely possible, but a complete explanation of getting paperless up and running on Linux isoutside the scope of this manual, and can be a fairly involved process. If youre interested inthis, feel free to contact me for more specific information.

The short version is that Word 2003 runs fairly well under Wine, and the macros work withminimal modification. Once you get everything up and running, installing the template is just amatter of following the directions for Windows above, by locating the same templates folderunder your ~/.wine directory

Setting Up The Desktop

There are a variety of other tweaks you can make to your computer to make it easier to usepaperless, especially in an in-round situation. A few suggestions follow:

Move the Windows taskbar to the left side of the screen, rather than the bottom. Usuallythis is accomplished by right clicking on it and unchecking Lock the Taskbar, thendragging it to the left side of the screen. This is so that you can more easily see a largenumber of word documents open without the taskbar grouping them. The taskbar canthen 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 thetoolbar, select Toolbars New Toolbar and then navigate to the folder which containsyour digital tub. This will create a toolbar with immediate access to all of your files. Itcan be dragged to show icons, or collapsed so that clicking one arrow will bring up adirectory listing of all the folders in your tub. You can even create multiple toolbars fordifferent folders, such as one for backfiles, one for current files, and one for theaffirmative. A helpful tip holding down shift while clicking to open a file will keepthe 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.

Turn off updates. Its recommended that you temporarily turn off any program whichwill try to update itself automatically, including Windows Update, just for the duration ofthe round (or the tournament). This is to avoid the computer trying to reboot itself


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automatically, or popping up annoying reminders about updates in the middle of aspeech.

Turn off hibernation/standby/screen savers. You should set your computer to never gointo 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. Thepower 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 haveassigned certain keystrokes that are used by the paperless macro. A prominent exampleis certain NVidia graphics cards which assign hotkeys which rotate the screen. This canbe turned off by right-clicking the desktop, selecting Graphics Properties Hot Keys and selecting Disable Hot Keys. Other programs may also exhibit similar behavior ifmacros arent behaving correctly, check your computer for other hidden programs whichmight have hot-keys.

Consider a separate user account for paperless. Since most people will not want theirscreen set up the same way for every day use as for paperless, consider adding a separateaccount in Windows used exclusively for debate. This will allow you to set up thedesktop to your specifications without interfering with everyday work.

Clear the desktop of non-essential items. Since the desktop is used to save Speechdocuments and copy them to the USB drive, its helpful to have it cleared of extraneousfiles. Useful things to keep on the desktop include: A folder with the most recent tub, ashortcut to the paperless Template, a pre-made blank Speech.doc, a folder for the currenttournament, and a shortcut to your external USB drive. See the screenshot above for a

sample layout.


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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. Youtake 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 Pastefunctions in Word. However, this is far too time-consuming to be practicable, as the effortrequired to switch between word documents, select the exact text you want to copy, and thenmove 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 simplefive step process.

Step One Open a Speech Document

This is the easiest part. Open a blank document based on the template, then save it to the desktopas Speech.doc. Older versions of the macros required this file to have the S capitalized, butthis is no longer the case. It should now work with any capitalization, and either .doc or .docx.So, speech.doc, sPeECh.dOcX, etcshould all work. However you spell it, this document mustbe open for the rest of the steps to work if its not, the macros will warn you.

You should make sure that you only have one document named Speech open at a time, or themacro might not send to the document you want. The macro will check that you dont have botha .doc and .docx file open, but not whether you have multiple files like speech.doc andSpeeCh.doc.


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Step Two Open Files

Open any files you want to use from your digital tub. This doesnt 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 cansend 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 asSpeech.doc, or have had the macros manually added. The picture below shows 3 open files onthe left side of the screen, ready to send to the blank Speech document on the right.

Step Three Send blocks and/or cards to Speech

This is accomplished through the use of two macros. In Word, these are namedSendBlockToSpeech and SendSelectionToSpeech. Both of these macros take cards from yourcurrent document, and beam them into your open Speech document, pasting them in at thecurrent cursor. The former will automatically send one block (which can be a card, block, orwhole section) at a time, the latter will send anything you currently have highlighted, whether a

single line, multiple pages, or even an entire file.

SendBlockToSpeech. By default, this is assigned to the hotkey Ctrl-Alt-. The symbol standsfor the Right Arrow Key. This macro will send over the current card, block, or hat,depending on where your cursor is currently located. A hat is a section header, and includesall the block titles in that section. The macro is smart it will determine what youre trying tosend over based on where your cursor is. So, if your cursor is in a card or tag, it will select andsend the entire card. If the cursor is anywhere in a Block Title, it will send over the entire block,


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regardless of page breaks. If the cursor is in a properly formatted hat it will send the entiresection.

This also means that its easiest to use Words Document Map to navigate your files if youclick on a Block Title or hat in the document map and then use the macro, the block you just

clicked on will be sent. If you put your cursor inside the block, it will send the closest cardinstead.

This is a large change from the previous incarnation of paperless Instead of basing the macroson page breaks, this version only looks for the Style of how the text is formatted. This places apremium on making sure your documents are formatted correctly, but also makes the macrosmuch more powerful. Note that if your template chooses to use Styles other than tag, card,Block Title, and hat, that youll need to change the macro code to reflect that.

One usage note regarding hats. The macro is only written to work with properly formattedhats. Properly formatted means that there are two adjacent lines (paragraphs, technically)

formatted as the hat style. This has the effect of adding white space to the document map.The included HatMaker macro will do this automatically. When running the macros on a hat,make sure your cursor is on the second text line, not the first blank line. Check the sections onfile formatting, and the HatMaker macro for more extensive usage notes.

The picture below shows a block which has just been sent to the Speech document on the rightusing the SendBlockToSpeech macro.


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SendSelectionToSpeech. This is default assigned to Ctrl-Alt-. This macro will send any textwhich you currently have highlighted. It doesnt differentiate by size, so this macro allows youto send over a single card, a tag, or select multiple blocks at once. It also pastes into Speech atthe current insertion point, which lets you quickly send a single card to the middle of anotherblock, for example.

Step Four Organize Speech

After youve sent as many cards or blocks as you want to Speech.doc, you just need to organizethem as you want to have them for your speech. This is accomplished with two other macros,MoveUp and MoveDown. MoveUp will move an entire block above the previous block, whileMoveDown will do the inverse.

In another change from the previous version, MoveUp and MoveDown are now capable ofmoving single cards, blocks, or entire hats. Just like SendBlockToSpeech, these macros work

based on where you have your cursor located. If your cursor is in (or near) a card, it will movethat card up or down within the same Block Title (it stops at the top or bottom of the block.) Ifyour cursor is on a Block Title, it will move the entire block. And if your cursor is on a hat, itwill move the entire section, including all the blocks.

MoveUp. This is assigned to Ctrl-Alt-. This will automatically select a card, block or hatdepending on where you cursor is located, then move it one slot up, above the previous card,block, or hat, respectively. Also be aware that you cannot move an item up higher than the topof the document.

MoveDown. This is assigned to Ctrl-Alt-. This does the exact inverse, but moves the card,

block, or hat down.


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This picture shows a Speech document with five numbered sample blocks before using anymacros.


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This picture shows the same document after the blocks have been reordered using MoveUp andMoveDown.


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DeleteBlock. Theres also another macro, DeleteBlock, which will delete the current card, block,or hat. By default, this is Ctrl-Alt-End. This allows you to quickly remove blocks which youdetermine in the process of organization that youd 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 togetherquite a bit.

Step Five Transfer Speech

Once your Speech document is complete, organized, and youre ready to speak, you just need tocopy 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 thetransfer that way if something crashes during the transfer you still have a complete copy. Itsalso important to save the document on the local hard drive, not directly to a USB drive. This isbecause 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 withan explorer window open. Then, once the speech is complete, you only need to copy Speech.docfrom the desktop to the waiting directory and remove the USB key.

Its recommended that you first give the USB drive to your partner for them to copy to theirdesktop and have open during your speech. This way, if the speakers computer were to crash

during a speech, it can quickly be replaced with the identical document on their partnerscomputer.

The final step is to give the other team the Speech document which entails either giving theUSB drive to them for use on their own computers, or opening the relevant document on the 3rdviewing laptop.

Thats it youre ready to speak.

Recap

Get a Speech.doc file open on the desktop, then open all needed files. There are only fivemacros needed to assemble a speech paperlessly:

Ctrl-Alt- Sends over one card, block, or hat at a time, depending on your cursorCtrl-Alt- Sends over any amount of highlighted text.Ctrl-Alt- Moves the current card, block, or hat up one position in the document.Ctrl-Alt- Moves the current card, block, or hat down one position in the document.Ctrl-Alt-End Deletes the current card, block, or hat.


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Save your file, transfer it to a USB drive, jump it to your partner and opponents, and youredone.

Something not working? Macros seem broken? Check the Common Concerns section later inthe manual

Screen Layout And Organization

Most of my debaters find that it helps to conceptualize your desktop like a desk whichmoves workflow from left to right. Starting with the taskbar along the left side, whichkeeps the open documents organized, try to use approximately the left half your screenfor all the open files. Then, keep Speech open on the right side of your screen. Even ifyou cant fit two windows open side by side on your desktop, try to leave a little bit thatdoesnt overlap.

Use Normal view, also known as Draft view in Word 2007. This removes theheader, footer, and extraneous white space from your document view. It also makes itmuch easier to see manual page breaks, which can be helpful. I would recommend usingnormal view essentially 100% of the time.

Use the document map Most of you will be familiar with the document map fromcreating 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


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around within a file substantially faster. It also enables you to see where youre movingblocks to while using MoveUp and MoveDown. Id recommend leaving the doc mapturned on in all documents, at all times. If youre not familiar with the operation of thedocument map, its suggested that you read the template tutorial linked above.

Use Reading view (Word 2003), or Full Screen Reading view (Word 2007) whenactually giving your speech. This view will allow you to see one or two entire pages at atime, and quickly move through your document by using the arrow keys to move a pageat a time, instead of scrolling or using Page Down. If only one page is visible, tryshrinking the size of the document map horizontally until two pages appear.

Use the mouse wheel to zoom On many computers, holding down the Ctrl key whilescrolling the mouse wheel will cause Word to zoom in and out quickly. This can helpyou see more of the document or an individual card easily, especially if youre workingon a smaller screen.


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Paperless Organization

One of the most important aspects of ensuring that you can use the paperless system hassle-freeis effective file organization. Much like having dozens of reams of paper without indexes orblock 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.doc or politics.docwouldnt fare much better.

Using digital evidence to its maximum advantage has two parts individual file organization,and tub organization. Ill give a few tips for each.

File formatting and organization

Paying meticulous attention to how your files are constructed in Word is important to ensuringsmooth operation of the macros. This extends to making sure Block Titles and hats areformatted properly, page breaks are in the right place, the document map accurately reflects the

files contents, etc...

Using Page Breaks. Most importantly, ensure that you are using them, every time. Youshould resist the temptation to just press Enter until the next page starts. This is trueeven if the previous page runs right to the bottom, and Word automatically inserts a softpage break. Even though the newest macros will function without them, youll generallyfind everything runs smoother when you pay attention to this. Ctrl-Enter will insert amanual page break, and should be done before the start of every new block title.

Keep in mind you can use page breaks and Block Titles to define what gets sent overusing the macros such as having a single Block Title run over multiple pages. Instead

of including 3 or 4 duplicative block titles for a long shell, its possible to send over thewhole thing with one key stroke.

Use the Document Map as your index. My debaters rarely create an index on their filesany more instead, they pay more attention to making sure the document map is asorganized as possible. Especially for files under 100 pages, its easy to see most or all ofthe files contents with a glance at the doc map. One of the most important aspects ofkeeping the doc map organized is the selective use of white space created by usinghats which contain a blank line formatted as a hat (Heading 1).

HatMaker. Theres a separate macro written to do this automatically. By default, this isF11. It works by formatting two consecutive lines as hat, leaving any text youvewritten as the second line. To use it, either put your cursor on the text you want to makea hat, or just run the macro at the top of a new page and then type your hat title. It makesthe document map look like this:


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Be careful about blank lines formatted as tag style. This happens most frequently whenpressing enter while on a tag and making a blank line above it. You basically want anyparagraphs which arent explicitly a tag, cite, card, etcto be formatted as normal.Making this mistake wont break anything but you might find the macros take a littleextra work if your file is badly formatted.

Modularize your files. Its helpful to walk a balance between creating files which are toolarge to be easily digested with the doc map, and files which are so small as to requiredozens 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 foranswers to CPs, etc...and then keep them all in a separate folder, much like an expando.

Digital tub organization

Theres an infinite number of ways to organize your files on the computer but heres a basicrun-down of how weve done things so far, which has worked fairly well for us. The entire tubis stored on a network server run by the college, which gives us access to it in our squadroom, aswell as offsite using FTP. If a similar setup is impossible, theres many other alternatives, suchas designating one desktop as the master copy, purchasing a Network-Attached Storage device,or even just using a gmail account.

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 aseparate folder, its easy to keep a record of each topic. The other three areas go in a separatefolder 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 arecord of when files were completed.

3) Files sorted by subject This constitutes the main part of the digital tub. It has around 15folders, almost all with subdivisions, into which every file thats produced is sorted. Thisincludes folders for Disads, Critiques, Case Negs, etc...Relevant backfiles are just sortedinto the appropriate folders.

4) Private Tubs this section has a separate folder for each team on our squad. Its designed tobe a place where each debater can put their own reorganized versions of files, highlighted copiesof files, personal blocks, a completely revamped version of the main tub, or anything else they


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see fit to do with it. Its also a place where they are encouraged to upload their Speechdocuments from each tournament, sorted by round, so that they have a record of each speechgiven over the course of a year.

Heres a mock visual representation of the folder structure of our online tub. Indents represent a

level of subfolders:

Backfiles2005 China2006 Courts2007 Middle Eastetc...

2008 Agriculture000 Files By Tournament

1 Gonzaga2 GSU

3 Kentuckyetc...Case Negs

BiofuelsCAFOsDairyetc...

CPsCritiquesDAsetc...zzz Private Tubs

Whitman AAWhitman BBetc...

Some of these folders have only a few files, while others have dozens, organized with numbersin the file names to give an expando-like feel to the folder.

Heres a hypothetical representation of a case neg folder:

Biofuels Neg Case 1 Solvency.docBiofuels Neg Case 2.0 Food Prices.docBiofuels Neg Case 2.1 Specific Food Prices Countries.docBiofuels Neg Case 3 Environment Advantages.docBiofuels Neg Case 4 Brazil Advantages.docBiofuels Neg CP 1 Tariff Only CP.docBiofuels Neg CP 2 Japan Rice CP.docBiofuels Neg DA 1 Cellulosic DA.docBiofuels Neg DA 2 Natural Gas DA.doc


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I also maintain a team Gmail account. This is useful for rapidly distributing files produced at atournament, files which miss the cutoff time to be uploaded to the server, etc...

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 thedownside of introducing another layer of complexity to the process. While weve decided thatits not worth the hassle in the short-term, Id be interested to hear if anyone successfullyimplements one.

Backfiles

One of the major questions people pose about making the transition to paperless is what becomesof old backfiles. Whitman is fortunate to have 12 years of backfiles in a backwards compatibletemplate 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 producedusing a template (or several templates).

In the first instance, the short version is that youre out of luck. While its possible to cut andpaste parts of PDF or TIF files into Word, it doesnt work very well, and cant easily beintegrated in with the rest of the paperless system. Paper backfiles are, well, onpaper...Fortunately, I sense that the majority of all files used in debates are produced during thecurrent year so as long as the switch to paperless is made in-between seasons, the impact of theformer problems should be minimized.

If, on the other hand, you have electronic backfiles which were produced using another Wordtemplate, they should integrate relatively hassle-free. Theres two ways to port your current filesto paperless.

1) The backward way. Theoretically, you could transfer the needed macros to your oldtemplate, potentially make some tweaks to the code to account for formatting changes, and haveit work. On the other hand, this would require transferring the macros back into any differenttemplate that another member of your team used, and then dealing with the programmaticdifficulties involved when collating blocks and formatting differences from a variety of differentsources. Id recommend option b.

2) The forward way. Design a standardized template (or steal ours) that will be used by everymember of the team, and make sure it has all necessary macros. Then, paste any relevantbackfiles into the new template and resave them in the new format.

The real key to whether this will work effectively is whether the templates youre trying tocombine into the new format are compatible. The most relevant question is whether the styleshave the same names. The macros are written to work with styles named tag, Block Title,


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and hat. As long as youre consistent with your names and change the macro code to reflectyour choice, they should work more or less without a hitch.

Another option is to just use the old version of the paperless macros based on page breaks,rather than headings. This ensures the maximum level of cross-formatting compatability.

Weve successfully tested the macros on a variety of other templates. Its been possible to getthem working, sometimes with a few small changes to the macro code. In general, the primaryconversion difficulties are only aesthetic for example, pasting old blocks into the new templatewill make document elements (such as tags) occasionally appear in the wrong font. This iseasily fixed by someone with a degree of Word savvy, using either the Styles and Formattingtools, or even just a Find and Replace of the offending styles.

One helpful tip is to locate the Match Destination Formatting option when pasting in blocks oftext. When you paste in text, a small clipboard icon will appear:

Clicking this will give you options to Match Destination Formatting, and Use DestinationStyles. Using these options in concert with Words Styles Pane should let you quickly changethe styles of the entire document.

Even when the aesthetics are left unfixed, the basic functionality of paperless is usually intact aslong as the Styles are called the right thing transferring to Speech.doc and moving blocks upand down. Any errors are usually fixable if you play with the file for a bit.


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Pre-tournament Setup

This is just a brief pre-tournament checklist to make sure youre ready to debate paperless.Mostly, its just a distillation of the preceding advice.

Drills, drills, drills Most of the difficulties Ive seen my debaters have with paperless sofar have been the exclusive product of a lack of practice. While I firmly believe thatdebating without tubs speeds up almost every aspect of the debating process, includingprep time, theres a definite element of relearning involved. While memorizing thehotkeys and understanding the basic elements only takes 5 minutes, becoming proficientenough with the system to deal with contingencies or be extremely quick takes hours.My debaters said their comfort level increased significantly after their second fullpractice debate but they have still needed lots of work as the season progressed onthings like efficient USB transferring, file organization, and keeping a consistentworkflow on the desktop. While this is a significant time investment, its useful toremember 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 aminimum of three laptops. Its probably also a good idea for the team at large to havesome backups, as debaters seem to be kryptonite to technology.

Check that each computer works my debaters seem to have a knack for ensuring thatany computer purchased the night will be infected with a virus, rife with spyware, andrunning too slowly to effectively open multiple word documents before the morningarrives.

Clean off the desktop and USB drives. Since the desktop is used as a work space whereSpeech files are saved and copied, digital tubs are kept, etc...Its a good idea to cleareverything else off, at least for the duration of a tournament. If theres an inordinateamount of clutter, it can just be temporarily stored in a new folder. Its also a good ideato create a folder for each tournament, so you can store (and label) Speech documents andupdate files as they are produced. Its also a good idea to start with a clean USB drivebefore each round this both ensures theres not confusion over which file to open, andprevents the accidental spread of either viruses or previous files.

Make sure each laptop has the most recent version of the digital tub. While archivedbackfiles 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. Its a good idea tohave 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/screensaver 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, Ive found most debaters arequickly 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 drivebefore copying them to the USB drive. In roughly chronological order:

Explain to your judge and opponents that youll be debating paperless, and what thatmight entail for them. Explain the viewing computer, the USB jumping process, and anyother logistical issues. Since the whole notion of paperless debate is still relatively newfor many teams and judges, some are bound to have questions or concerns about theimpact on evidence sharing, length of round, etc...

Make sure you know if the other team wants to use their own computers to view yourevidence, or would prefer to use the viewing laptop they take time to plug in, set up,

etc...so dont wait until the round has already started.

If you have concerns about the other team stealing your evidence instead of justlooking at it on the USB drive, talk to them about it in advance. You can also ask theother team not to look ahead in the document while youre giving your speech if this issomething which concerns you.

Plug in and set up when you get to the debate, immediately get both computers pluggedin so theres no battery problems. Figure out if you need extension cords, power strips,etcAlso, 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 quicklyfacilitate copying to it from the desktop. This is important to facilitate rapidly movingfiles it can take a long time for a computer to recognize a drive, open a folder, etc...

Both debaters should get a Speech.doc open on their computers. It should be saved onthe desktop. You can also use the top page of your speech document or a blanknotepad document to jot down coaching notes.

Minimize the number of open Word files. If youre clearly done with a file, close it.Word can pretty easily handle a large number of open documents, but the more you pushit, the more likely it is to freeze, or become unbearably slow. This is especially true right

before youre about to speak the most important time for your computer to not havetech problems.

Once youre done prepping your speech, save it. Then, Save As and rename it on thedesktop as 1NCSpeech.doc or whatever your speech is. You should then drag and dropthe file to the jumpdrive. Very important note: Do NOT save the file directly from Wordon to the jumpdrive. If you do, Word sometimes gets very angry when you remove thedrive. The only tech problems weve 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 USBtransfer, or whether they consider that prep time. Trying not to irritate the judge isgenerally good practice, never more so than when doing something alien to normaldebate.

You should first hand the jumpdrive to your partner, who should copy it to their desktopand open it on their computer as a backup. Then you should set up on your podium, givethe roadmap, etc... while your partner hands it to the other team or sets up the viewinglaptop for them.

Its helpful to maintain a consistent naming convention for all your speech docs, as wellas a consistent organizational scheme on your desktop and jumpdrive. Since everyspeech starts out as Speech.doc it would quickly become impossible to keep themstraight unless theyre given more accurate names and organization.

Use Reading Layout during your speech as described above, this makes scrollingthrough a document much easier, using only the arrow keys. Note: If you accidentallyclick inside the text of a card, it will disable moving between pages with the arrow keysin favor of moving through the text. To fix this, press the Escape key once. 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 theircopies of your speech documents if anyone transferred them instead of leaving them onthe 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 youve done everything right, therewont be a problem. If something really insane happens, like in a speech, then youshould be able to quickly switch to your partners laptop if youve done the backupprocess correctly. In an absolute disaster, you should beg for mercy from the judge whileyou figure out what went wrong. Hopefully, theyll be nice


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Public Relations

In the very beginning of our paperless transition, Whitman proposed two community norms wethought would help facilitate fairness during paperless debates, as well as alleviate some of theconcerns 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 allof our opponents.

I list them again here as no more than an ongoing request its certainly the case that practiceswill evolve along with the more widespread utilization of paperless debating, and these types ofnorms will likely take care of themselves, in time. More importantly, we feel its the burden ofthe team pushing a new practice (paperless) to bear the brunt of the responsibility foraccommodation should anyone disagree.

Nonetheless, we feel the following practices would be best for competitive equity:

The opposing team should, to as reasonable a degree as possible, minimize lookingahead in the speech document to try and gain a competitive advantage by figuring outwhat will be read later in the speech. This is especially applicable in rounds wheresomething 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 personalcomputers should delete them at the conclusion of the debate. We feel that takingevidence wholesale is the equivalent of taking a paper file. Wed hope the majority ofthe community would agree that stealing files crosses the line, especially given the easyavailability of cites.

Two other issues bear mentioning in relation to paperless teams interacting with the non-paperless world, especially judges.

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 frustratedthat it appears as if the paperless team is stealing prep while waiting for somethingsuch 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 sevenpaperless teams, I can say that Ive noticed zero difference in the average length of time ittakes 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 ingiving each teams evidence back to each other, searching under desks for piles ofmisplaced 2NC cards, or looking for the lost CP text. My hunch is that this time issignificantly greater in the world of paper, but judges are used to it taking place, whilethey are not used to the time involved in jumping files.


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Tech problems While we have yet to have any truly terminal tech problems in themiddle of a round, its probably inevitable that it will happen at some point, if not to usthan to some other debate team making the transition. To a certain extent, this cant beavoided but its probably worth thinking through how the judge should deal with it. If afew debates a year have to conclude 5 minutes later while a debater gets one free

reboot, it seems worth the myriad other benefits it brings to the debate community. Ingeneral, I would just hope for patience on the part of the judges and debaters when thisproblem inevitably arises.


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Common Concerns

When told they would be debating paperless at their next tournament, my debaters immediatelyraised a host of questions and concerns, most of which seemingly took the form of what ifs.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 accessiblewhen 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 atWhitman debated an entire year without a crash but it is probably inevitable at some point.First, keep in mind that its 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 yourerunning anti-virus software, and that the machine is physically well taken care of will go a longways towards avoiding any problems.

That said, if it does happen, there are several backups in place. Since each debater puts theirspeech on a jump drive and gives it to both their partner and their opponents, there should be atleast 2 other computers looking at the current speech at any given time. After doing contingencydrills with my debaters, they can swap out a crashed laptop in no more than a few seconds. If acomputer crashes before the speech, a reboot will usually solve the problem and if the debaterhas 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 previousexamples, the debate community at large will have to eventually develop a set of normssurrounding how judges and competitors deal with the occasional crash.

Cant we switch half-way and still use some paper or printers?

Its obviously possible to develop a debating method that falls somewhere in-between fullypaperless and relying entirely on tubs. Several suggestions have been made, such as printingevidence 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 ofthe purpose for us. Since the primary motivations for our switch were to eliminate baggagecosts, 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, wouldnt have metour needs. While Im sure that some teams will effectively implement a hybrid system, we haveno regrets about our decision to remain completely paperless.


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Theres lots of paperless implementations out now, which should I pick?

Totally up to you theres advantages and disadvantages to any system you decide on, and Im

sure that the more teams that go paperless, the more options youll have. Even better, designyour own from scratch and mix and match the pieces that work well for you. Ultimately, mostversions of paperless are pretty similar, so its hard to go wrong.

There are a lot of different needs and opinions on how various functionality should beimplemented, how the macros should behave, etcI would guess that most teams will want theirsystem 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 ofmacros, things to remember, etcwhile ensuring that its as powerful as possible. Ive also triedto 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, Illdefinitely keep tweaking our template.

As of this writing, heres some of the primary ways that Whitmans template differs from others:

Cross-platform compatability. While its still designed with Windows XP and Office2003 in mind, I tried hard not to use anything that wouldnt work in any version of Officeor operating system you wanted to use it on. Its confirmed working on XP, Vista, Mac,and Linux, with several versions of Word, including with .docx files.

My code isnt particularly decomposed. This is by design, though it comes with certaindisadvantages. Its a little less computer programmer friendly, making it somewhat lessgeneralizable and maintainable. But, I think it also makes it easier to understand in asequential fashion for people who arent programmers. It also has the advantage of acertain type of simplicity all the relevant code is contained in about 6 macros. If object-oriented programming and the difference between a function and a subroutine are lost onyou, this could be an advantage to figuring out whats going on under the hood

Theres very little reliance on clunky and inelegant find functions. This probablydoesnt matter a ton in practice, but is still probably an improvement on our previousversion.

Support for multiline headers this makes the addition of whitespace to the DocumentMap possible without running afoul of any macros.Why is support for Mac Word spotty?

Blame Microsoft. The short version is that Mac Word seems to treat certain elements of thedocument differently than Windows versions, especially when accessed programmatically in


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VBA. In particular, where Windows versions use manual page breaks (^m in VBA code terms),these sometimes appear to Mac Word as section breaks. This means that some sections of codecan behave strangely.

Ensuring 100% compatibility is doable, but hasnt yet reached the level of top priority. Given

that Mac Word is an inferior program to the Windows versions in many other ways, motivationto accommodate this problem has been low.

Can these macros be written in Applescript?

Maybe, but its not something Ive looked into as of yet. Brad Bolman and Peter Vale arecurrently working on this, and a copy of their work so far is available from Whitmans tech page.As I find out more about the project, Ill try and keep this manual updated.

Cant 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 tohear how well it works for teams that try it. Some of our opponents through the year have optedto 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 severalreasons. First, the logistics of each team carrying a printer are significantly more of a hassle thanone spare laptop per team. A laptop fits in a backpack, a printer doesn't. Printers small enoughto carry tend to print very few pages per minute and require cartridge replacement every couplehundred pages. Even with the perfect printer, it requires locating boxes of paper, toner, etc...for

every tournament, which is a hassle were glad to have left behind. Second, printers just aren'tvery reliable even less so than computers, and they hold up to travel abuse very poorly. Wehad a hard time keeping one team printer working, full of ink, and not jammed when we usedpaper I'd hate to try it with seven. Lastly, printers present a unique set of tech problems, likestalled print queues, incorrect drivers, or spooling errors which just add to the potential forthings to go wrong during a debate.

Also, its 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 verydirectly to these concerns. But, from working with the least experienced parts of my team andwith high school novices learning paperless, my experience so far has been that novices are evenbetter at using the system than more experienced debaters. The technological sophistication ofthe average 18 year old has skyrocketed in the past five years, and the younger students on myteam tend to be much better at using a laptop and quickly digesting electronic info than my older


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students. Im fairly optimistic that novices could quickly adapt and learn paperless they alsotend to have problems keeping large stacks of paper organized.

Can this work on Linux, or with Open Office?

Yes and No. It definitely works on Linux if youve got some tech saavy, but Open Office isntgood enough yet. Its pretty close to replicating most of the needed functionality, but support formacros is still pretty lagging, and its lacking Normal View, which is a deal breaker. Hopefullyin years to come this becomes a more viable option.

Im also very confident that porting the whole VBA code base into Open Offices native macroformat shouldnt be that hard. In many ways, its better than VBA but the other failings ofOpen Office make this a very low priority right now.

As far as Linux goes, I can confirm that running a pretty standard Ubuntu 9.04 installation, the

macros work on Office 2003 running under Wine 1.1.27. Most of the development for the latestmacros actually took place under this setup, so its definitely a viable option.

A full explanation of how to setup everything you need to run paperless under Linux is outsidethe scope of this manual, but heres the basic process:1) Install Linux2) Install Wine (only certain versions work)3) Install Word 2003 under Wine, tweak4) Install VB runtimes, tweak more5) Install the template into the appropriate spots in your ~/.wine directory6) Modify the macros to avoid certain functions that dont work right

7) Probably some more tweaking

The most important change to make to the macro code is to strip out any part of the code thatchecks for whether Speech.doc is open. The reason is because parts of Application.Documentsarent accessible to the Wine transparency layer (I think). That entails getting rid of a few blocksof code in SendBlockToSpeech and SendSelectionToSpeech, and replacing them with a differentcheck. This removes some of the power of the macro (like supporting either .doc or .docx), butmakes it work in most circumstances.

Somewhere before the code that actually does the sending to Speech, add something like:

'Trap for Speech.doc not being openOn Error GoTo ExitErrHandler:

Then, add an Exit Sub at the end of your normal code, then the following at the end, justbefore End Sub.:

'Error handler for Speech.doc not being open. 4160 is "bad file name"ExitErrHandler:


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If Err.Number = 4160 ThenMsgBox "Speech.doc is not open"Exit Sub

Else: MsgBox Err.Number & Err.DescriptionEnd If

If anyone is interested in more specifics about how to do this, feel free to contact me.

What if I want to use the older version of Whitmans macros?

Theyre still included in the newest template for backwards compatability. Theyre the macroswith names that start with Old like OldSendBlockToSpeech.

What resources are currently available for paperless?

The first place to start is at Whitmans tech page. It has the most recent version of our template,this manual, etchttp://www.whitman.edu/rhetoric/61tech.htm

Theres also an open wiki set up by JP Lacy with links to a ton of other helpful stuff:http://paperlessdebate.wikispaces.com

Privacy/Security

Wont 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 assumeuntil proven otherwise that our opponents will ask us for cites rather than wholesale take ourevidence. While Im sure that some of the people we debate will lack scruples, I prefer tobelieve that this practice is not widespread.

More importantly, even if it happens frequently, it doesnt confer much of a competitiveadvantage to the team who chooses to do so. In an era of massive caselists and prolific citerequests, access to any piece of evidence read in a debate is already a matter of a few minuteswork. 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 wonbecause of superior technique, argumentative capabilities, or ethos not because the other teamdidnt have a chance to digest your evidence. Ive frequently told my debaters that if we prepareeffectively, we should be able to give the other team access to all our files for an hour prior to thedebate and not have it affect our chances to win. Either way, I cant isolate a single debate thatany of my 7 teams lost this year due to file stealing.


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What happens if I break a new (advantage/disad/etc...) and dont want to give it tothe other team before my speech?

There are several solutions to this problem. First, take care with labeling the block titles in yourSpeech document something less descriptive than the argument name, such as New

Advantage. Combined with asking the other team not to scroll ahead since youll be breakingsomething new should go a long way towards restoring the strategic benefit of a few extraminutes of surprise. Secondly, you could save the new argument to a separate word documenton the jump drive, and ask the opponent to only open that file once you reach that part of yourspeech. 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 scarierin theory than in practice. This ranked near the top of my debaters concerns before doingpaperless now, they no longer even bother with any of the aforementioned solutions (exceptperhaps changing block titles). It became clear to them that the extra minute in which the other

team doesnt know what your new advantage is just doesnt have much tangible bearing on thedebate.

Wont people read ahead in the Speech document and gain a competitiveadvantage?

This concern is pretty much the same as the previous two not as frequent or as big of a deal aspeople seem to expect. If anything, this works in the other direction our experience has borneout 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.

Doesnt 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 isan important element of ensuring paperless is as safe as possible. Its also recommended that theUSB drives used for paperless be used exclusively for that task if they are kept clean and wipedbefore each debate (or at least before each tournament), the virus risk can be minimized. Imfairly certain none of our computers has contracted a virus this year as a result of paperless andin this age of widespread file sharing, other risks seem much higher.


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Macro Problems

My macros arent working at all.

Most of the time, this is because your macro security settings are set too high. See theInstallation section for more specific information on how to enable macros.

If this fails to fix the problem, ensure that the file youre using was made using the correcttemplate especially when converting old files for use with paperless, its easy to forget to usethe template and paste them into a regular Word document.

Another problem might be that Word has not correctly assigned hotkeys to each macro selectTools Customize Keyboard (in Word 2003), and then make sure each Macro is assigned to aunique key combination. If this still fails to fix the problem, make sure that there are no otherprograms interfering with the use of the macro hotkeys, such as graphics software. Macs in

particular should try using the Function key in addition to the hotkeys. Check the setting inSystem Preferences Keyboard & Mouse to use the F keys as standard function keys.

You should also check to make sure that you have the paperless template installed in the Wordtemplates folder if you are using a file which doesnt have the macros built in, it might belooking 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 yourtemplate is incorrectly installed, and youve moved your file to a different folder than it wascreated in. Make sure that a copy of the template (debate.dot) is located in the correct Templatesfolder, and that Word knows it exists. More complete instructions can be found in theInstallation section above.

Other possible culprits include:

Macro security settings make sure these are turned to low or "off" in Word. Sending a file through email gmail and other software can strip macros for security

reasons.

Saving as the wrong type of file save as Word 2003 .doc files. 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 WordsStartup folder. The location of that directory will alter depending on your exact softwaresetup. 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 FileLocations, select STARTUP, then click Modify.

If you cant find any other solution, one workaround you could consider is incorporating themacros directly into your normal.dot 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 VisualBasic 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 youll geta message telling you what to do. When you get this message, it just means that youve donesomething the macro didnt know how to handle. Fortunately, you havent hurt anything it justmeans that whatever you just tried to do didnt complete properly.

If you click End or press E, youll be returned to Word and can try and figure out what youdid wrong. If you press Debug on accident, youll be sent into the Word VBA debugger, witha 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 Ill do my best tofix 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 Wordfiles when sending them as an attachment, presumably as a security feature. If you find thishappening 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 yourscreen back to normal, press Ctrl-Alt-. Then, right click on your desktop, select GraphicsOptions Hotkeys and select Disable hotkeys.


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How do I change the macro hotkeys?

You can set Word to use any key combination you choose for each macro in lieu of the defaulthotkeys. Naveens template introduction linked near the beginning of this document providesdirections on how to do this.

Move Up/Move Down dont work correctly it doesnt move what I expect it to.

First, check the position of your cursor remember that the Move macros are designed toautomatically select what to move based on whether youre currently in a card, block, or hat.

If not, then this is likely caused by improperly formatted blocks in your source documents. Thisarises most frequently when attempting to use backfiles which werent formatted in the paperlesstemplate. Turn on Show Formatting, and look into how the stuff youre trying to move isformatted odds are good youve just accidentally formatted something incorrectly.

For example if you have a bunch of blank lines in a block formatted as tag without any text,youll sometimes have to run MoveUp or MoveDown several times to move a card down belowthe next actual card.

If your problem is with a hat, ensure that its a properly formatted two-line hat for a more in-depth explanation, check the relevant sections on the HatMaker macro.

MoveUp also doesnt move a larger section above a smaller section if the smaller section is atthe top of the document so, for example, if your document has a card on the first page withouta block title, you cant move an entire block on the second page above the card.

Moving/Sending a hat doesnt work right.

This is probably because you have your cursor on the blank line of the hat instead of thesecond line. The macro will still run, but it wont send or move anything. Make sure yourcursor is on the text part of the hat before running the macros.

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. Im pretty sure this wont happen,because any circumstance where an infinite loop is possible has been coded around. But, if allelse fails, you can manually stop a macro by pressing Ctrl-Break. Break is also sometimeslabeled Pause on the keyboard.


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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 pressingCtrl-Break again. Its also worth pressing Debug and manually pressing the Stop button in theVBA Editor. This error is quite rare, and frequently doesnt 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 youshould be able to adapt the macros to work in most templates. Either you can integrate themacros back into your old files so that you can send them as-is to a Speech document, or you cancut and paste files from the old templates into a new template document. This will likely giverise to some small aesthetic problems, such as incorrect font sizes but in general, paperless

functionality should remain intact.

Isnt highlighting files harder?

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

How do I make Word 2007 always save as .doc instead of .docx?

Click the Office Button, then Word Options. Select the Save category, then change the drop-down box for Save files in this format to Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc).

In-Round

What about prepping before the block? Theres only one viewing computer, butboth negative debaters might need to see evidence.

In reality, this hasnt presented much problem most opponents have been happy with oneviewing computer, as the 1NR has a sufficient amount of prep time during the 2NC to look atany evidence they need. They can also prep without looking at the cards for at least a fewminutes theres usually analytics to write out, evidence to pull, etc...

For opponents who have insisted that having two computers is important, weve had twosolutions, both of which have worked either they have used their own computer as a secondviewing laptop, or the 2AC has offered their computer as a stand-in until the 2NC is done


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prepping. Since the affirmative is usually backflowing until the 2NC is ready to speak, and the2AC doesnt have to give another speech which requires pulling evidence, their need for a laptopis minimal for those few minutes.

Doesnt this make debates take longer?

No if anything, I think debates conclude faster. Occasionally, paperless can cause a short delaywhile transferring files between laptops, and some judges have commented on this as a source ofirritation. I think this is largely an issue of perception those delays tend to occur at moments inthe debate which people arent used to.

On the other hand, paperless completely removes time spent looking for lost cards in jumbledstacks of paper all over the room saving time both during the debate (when debaters ask forcards 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 Whitmans debateswere getting out significantly later than others. No tab room ever complained. And we wereusually waiting for 10 minutes or more before our opponents showed up from moving their tubsbetween buildlings.

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

This would be my number one problem with paperless as a debater there is admittedly no easysubstitute for spreading out lots of files, or the feel of holding a stack of cards in hand. Partly, Ithink this is just an issue of familiarity and training my younger students have a much easier

time with this than my older debaters. Its fairly clear from observation that my debaters aremuch more organized using the computer the inability to lose cards during a debate is aboon.

How do I mark a card while giving a speech?

Most of my students just use their mouse to click at the part of the card where they stoppedreading, then press Enter a few times to make clear where they stopped. If its only one or twocards, this can even be done after the speech. Remember, if youre in reading view and you edita card text, youll need to press Escape to re-enable the arrow keys.

My debaters have also taken to saying marked at xxxxxx when marking to let the other teamknow where they stopped if theyre following along. In practice, this system has presented noproblems that Im aware of.


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What if I send over more cards than Im going to read to my Speech document?

This is no different than giving the other team a block with multiple cards but only reading thetop one. Some responsibility is on the other team to flow the speaker and pay attention to whichcards are read or to clarify in cross-ex if theres any confusion. This also provides an incentive

for the opposing team to follow along in real time, rather than skip ahead. The speaker can alsoopt 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, weve found that many tournaments we attend have pretty spotty internet access, sohaving USB as a backup is probably wise. There are also logistical difficulties with a largenumber of people using Dropbox simultaneously (finding the right file, files named similar

things, etc). Id be interested to hear if anyone uses this as their primary file transfermechanism.

Reading View suddenly stopped working, what do I do?

Most likely, youve accidentally clicked inside a card, switching Word into edit mode. To re-enable navigation via the arrow keys, press Escape once.

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 theSpeech document. Odds are good that you accidentally had the cursor in a Block Title or otherarea of formatted text and Word attempted to apply that formatting to everything you sent. Trypressing Undo and then resending the blocks to the bottom.

Doesnt paperless make cite requests super easy?

Yes. Theres 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 automaticallyreduce 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 blocktitles, hats, and page breaks making it easy to organize the cites you want to send. This ispurposefully not assigned to a hotkey, because it pretty much irreversibly destroys the document


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and isnt 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 Macros to

PaperlessDebateManual2.3

Documents

Transcript of PaperlessDebateManual2.3