Introduction

Several years ago the Dutch Grandmaster (formerly of Byelorussia) Alexander Presman could not sleep. He turned in bed one way, another, an idea in his head would not let him sleep. Finally he left the bed and went to his computer. What he had done that night was a priceless gift to all checkers players in the World - a simple Diagram Maker that revolutionized checkers communication. And him administering a large web site, he made the program free and always available for all!

Part 1 - Where is it?

Let us learn how to use it - click the following link to go to the Draughts Diagrams page:
http://fmjd.org/dias2/index.php?game=64

What are these buttons for?

Let's put a few checkers on the board - click on the black checker in the tool bar (under number 64)

Now just start clicking dark squares on the board - on every click you will see a black checker appear!
Let's put some white checkers - click on the white checker (under the ? mark) and again start clicking on the dark squares to paste.
Do an experiment - click on every button in the tool bar, see what they do. For example clicking the right-most button will put 24 checkers on the board, and clicking the empty board button next to it will remove all checkers! Also clicking on the same square a second time will replace the checker there with another one, rotating between white man, black man, white king, black king and empty square.

Your first position

For this lesson place white and black checkers exactly like on this diagram. Remember that you can always remove the wrong checker, add another one, change colors, etc.

Your first diagram

The next step is to fuse the checkers with the board to create the diagram picture.
Click the Send button under the board.

There are several interesting options here like changing the design or Saving the diagram on the server.
For this lesson we will not do any of that - instead we will learn how to save the diagram on your own computer.

Saving the diagram on your own PC

Right-click the diagram and there select Save Picture As...

The "Save In" Dialog Box

This opens a window on your own computer similar to the one below, offering to save the picture.
Note that by default (in most cases) that will be a My Pictures directory inside the My Documents folder.
Agree to by clicking the Save button.

That is it - you just created your first diagram and saved it to your computer!

Part 2 - But wait - where is it? Where do I find it?

Your diagram is easy to find. Click the Start button in the bottom left corner and in there on My Documents.

Find the Directory

Remember that you saved the diagram inside My Pictures directory - double-click on it to open.

A different look

Keep in mind that your own screen might look different - for example you might see boxes instead of the list - the idea is to open the My Pictures directory no matter how it looks!!!

I do not see the diagram!

But what if you do not see the diagram inside the My Pictures folder - you just see a list of files?
In this case just change the View to show Graphics by clicking on the View button (on the top menu bar) and in the opened sub-menu select Thumbnails. (a thumbnail is a tiny copy of the larger picture).

Thumbnails

Part 3 - but how do I email it?

Emailing pictures depends on the Email program that you use. All email programs can attach the pictures - attaching means the pictures will be there, one just would need to click on the name of the attached file to see what's inside. But we want to see the pictures immediately, inside the email, we do not want to have a second step.

Let's fire up the Outlook Express, everyone's favorite Email program.
Click Create Mail.

I want to see the diagram in my email!

Make sure your Outlook Express is set to show "inline" pictures.
Click on the Format and in there select Rich Format.
Also make sure the Send Pictures with Message is selected.

Insert the Diagram

Now click the Insert button between the View and Format buttons.
If the Picture option is grayed out just click away and then click the Insert again.
Click the Picture:

The Insert Picture selection box

You will see a standard selection box offering to Browse for the file to insert - click the Browse button:

Find Picture selection box

It is unknown which directory is going to be opened - but it fairly easy to navigate inside
the Browse by clicking on the button on the left of the Look in: combo-box.

Find Picture selection box - more details

This open the directory structure of your computer - you can go from one directory to another.
In this particular example I just needed to double-click on the My Pictures directory.

Here it is!

Find and click your diagram and then click Open. Notice that clicking on the diagram places its name inside the File Name box for you.

Return to the Find Picture selection box

The selection is complete and you are back at the Find Picture tool - this time the Picture Source box is filled with the picture you chose. Click OK.

You are done!

And now the fruit of your efforts - the picture inserted directly into the body of your email - just add the text, the subject and the destination and fire away!

Conclusion

As you see making a diagram is fairly easy - the hard part is learn to email it.

Credits

This picture guide was made per Otho Bibbs request. In Memphis, at the 2007 APCA tournament, he was gracious to assist during my demonstration of the Draughts Diagrams Maker, and now wanted to have a more permanent guide.

Jake Kacher
October 25, 2007