Old Weather Forum

An update to version 3.5 of the spreadsheets has been released.

New Features

Slight resizing of parts of LatLong wizard
Gordon requested that some boxes on the LatLong wizard be made a bit larger, as his Ubuntu setup had caused some parts to be hidden. So several parts of the wizard have been resized slightly to solve this problem while still looking neat.

New subtype "Bearing" for LatLong wizard
I had a few cases where Lat/Longs were recorded by Bearing, but there were also different values recorded as "Observed", such as on this page at Noon:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorag ... 6_0135.JPG

Since the normal "Bearing = Observed" rule doesn't work for these cases, I have added a new subtype "Bearing" to solve the problem.

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The Version 3_5 spreadsheets have been uploaded to their usual places. Feel free to download them at a time that is convenient for you, but there is no need to do so immediately.

Also: I have now joined the OW Spreadsheet development team, and the latter feature is my first contribution!
I only know how to do basic stuff at the moment, but I intend to learn more in the future.

An update to version 3.5 of the spreadsheets has been released.

New Features

Added new allowed terms for the verification of directions
Some of the older logs have Do for a ditto. This will no longer trigger a verification warning. Similarly, North, South, East and West are treated as N, S, E and W, so things like Northwest will not trigger a warning about N and S being in the same direction. Finally, the word and is treated as a +, which is allowed.

Most of our transcribers automatically write N for North, etc. but, for those who prefer to TWYS, you will no longer be troubled by unnecessary verification warnings.

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The Version 3_5 spreadsheets have been uploaded to their usual places. Feel free to download them at a time that is convenient for you, but there is no need to do so immediately.

An update to version 3.5 of the spreadsheets has been released.

Bug Fix

Somehow the tab stop sequence in the LatLong Wizard got out of order. Instead of a tab going from the N/W box to the Long Degrees box, it was going to the E/W box, and then to the Long Degrees box.

Fixed.

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The Version 3_5 spreadsheets have been uploaded to their usual places. Feel free to download them at a time that is convenient for you, but there is no need to do so immediately.

If you haven't seen it already, you might be interest to read The Origins and Evolution of Old Weather.

An update to version 3.5 of the spreadsheets has been released.

Improvements

The Patent Log verification now allows a maximum value of 125.

If the top line was very large, a MoveDown would move down too far. In that case, the screen moves down five rows instead of ten.

Fixed.

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The Version 3_5 spreadsheets have been uploaded to their usual places. Feel free to download them at a time that is convenient for you, but there is no need to do so immediately.

An update to version 3.5 of the spreadsheets has been released.

Bug Fixes

The SetNoonPort macro, Alt-O, was removing the Port Name when the Cancel Option was selected. Canceling the SetNoonPort macro now leaves the Port Name unchanged. Fixed.

Hanibal noticed that one of the Error Handlers was turned off. The error handlers allow a macro to exit gracefully in the case of an error. For example, an error is caused if several cells are selected and the UpAndOver macro is called. If this occurs when the Error Handler is turned off, the macro editing screen is displayed with the offending line in the macro highlighted. If the Error Handler is turned on, you get the message: Have you Highlighted more than one cell?

Other Error Handlers just display a message like: Something wrong here.

Hanibal’s discovery prompted me to check all the Error Handlers. A total of five had been turned over over the years. They are sometimes turned off for debugging purposes, but they were not tuirned on atain. They are now all turned on.

Improvements

When the SetNoonPort, Alt-P, is called, the Noon Port is now displayed at the bottom of the WR Data page. You can see the WR Data page with the Alt-R macro, or by clicking on the WR Data tab at the bottom of your spreadsheet. This is a very quick and easy way to double check your data entry for missing data before you move onto the next page.

Every once in a while, some transcribers, including me, forget to enter the PM weather on a page with the AM and PM weather in separate blocks. A macro now displays a warning if there are data in the AM but not the PM block.

MoveDown now moves the screen down so the middle row is now at the top of the screen.

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The Version 3_5 spreadsheets have been uploaded to their usual places. Feel free to download them at a time that is convenient for you, but there is no need to do so immediately.

Philip referenced the fact that OW is the only Zooniverse project where the volunteers designed and implemented their own data collection system. After finishing this latest update, I was curious about some of the numbers behind this project.

A very brief history

• Several years ago, Stuart suggested that it would be better to enter data using a spreadsheet with the image as the background;
• I did a test using Excel. I found that transcribing this way was faster, easier and more accurate than using the original method; and,
• Bob, in Washington, took on the project. He investigated the two major free spreadsheet programs and chose LibreCalc. Then he designed and implemented our current system.

Bob eventually got a new job, moved to Arizona and has a family. Because of his commitments, he is no longer able to continue his work with OW. However, his vision and the design of our system has proved to have been extremely well thought out. The spreadsheets have stood the test of time, as they continue to adapt to meet the needs and desires of the transcribers.

Some of the numbers

• 5: People who have worked on the spreadsheet macros: Bob, Craig, Michael, Gordon and Chris (a.k.a. Hanibal);
• 26: The current number of spreadsheets being updated;
• 17: The number of unique logbook formats between 1860 to 1955 with the USCG, US Navy and the US Revenue Cutter Service;
• 394: The number of modifications made since the spreadsheets became operational;
• 14: The number of macro modules, where a module contains a number of subroutines and functions related to a set of operations, eg Verification;
• 32: The number of macro functions, eg ChangeDate;
• 140: The number of macro subroutines, eg Get_Image;
• 10: The number of dialog boxes, eg LatLong Wizard;
• 191: The number of message boxes, eg Warning! Bad Latitude Dir Given;
• 27: The number of configurable options to personalize the operation of the spreadsheet eg Crop Image;
• 46: The number of hotkey shortcuts, eg Ctrl-Alt-U to move the weather grid up; and,
• 8,890: Lines of macro code.

Well I am always dumbfounded by your skills - what an amazing wonderment this project is.

I am also suitably impressed.
Well done to all the s who made a contributed to it.

The completion of Kearsarge marks ship-year number 200 that we have processed since we started the OW Arctic/Federal Ships project!!!

Weather data:

Total number of weather records: 4,337,604
Total number of ice records: 33,940
Total number of miles travelled: 3,121,576
Total number of ship positions: 955,027

I also processed positions for 7 ships from Phase III. This was part of a test to see if having the hourly positions calculated using the Course and distance data improved the data for the climate models. The test was a success, which is why I calculate the hourly positions this way.

Positional data from seven Phase III ships:
Total number of miles travelled: 80,994
Total number of ship positions : 48,076

An update to version 3.5 of the spreadsheets has been released.

Improvements

Somehow, I inadvertently entered some bizarre combination of keys into the Event Wizard, which caused it to crash. I have added an Error Handler to it and to the Location and Sea Surface Wizards as well, so in the unlikely event this happens again, the wizards will close gracefully.

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The Version 3_5 spreadsheets have been uploaded to their usual places. Feel free to download them at a time that is convenient for you, but there is no need to do so immediately.

I noticed that the tabs on the LatLong Wizard somehow got out of order. The tabs went Lat Degrees, Minutes, Seconds, N/W, E/W, Long Degrees, Minutes, Seconds instead of Lat Degrees, Minutes, Seconds, N/W, Long Deg, Min, Seconds, E/W.

I re-set the tabs, and the updated spreadsheets are in the usual places. If this is not an issue for you, don't worry about it.

An update to version 3.5 of the spreadsheets has been released.

Improvements

The GoToEvents macro wasn’t showing the first two columns of the spreadsheet for logs with separate pages for Weather and Events. This meant that the buttons weren’t visible, and that has been fixed.

While doing that, I checked all the spreadsheets to ensure that the Events1Range exactly covered the area in the blue lines, and that the blue lines outlined the appropriate area on the Event Pages. There were a few spreadsheets that needed either the Events1Range to be re-defined and/or the area covered by the blue lines to be adjusted.

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The Version 3_5 spreadsheets have been uploaded to their usual places. Feel free to download them at a time that is convenient for you, but there is no need to do so immediately.

An update to version 3.5 of the spreadsheets has been released.

Improvements

Stuart wanted CopyDown to copy the last value in a string like: SSW | SW | S. You do not need a space around the '|' character, either, so it also works for ssw|sw|s. (Upper or lower case)

Previously, CopyDown would copy the entire string into the next cell. Now, for the string above, CopyDown will copy the ‘S’.

Note, this works only if you use the ‘|’ character to separate values.

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The Version 3_5 spreadsheets have been uploaded to their usual places. Feel free to download them at a time that is convenient for you, but there is no need to do so immediately.

Is this change for Copy Down in all columns?

I just had a case with an entry of 6 | 8 in the force column and then dittos in the next five rows below that. In this case the entire 6 | 8 needs to be copied.

Since the situation with the course direction is far more common, this is a good change. I just wanted to mention that there are situations where this change may cause the copy to be wrong.

For the force column, you should be entering 6-8. Think of the '-' as meaning 'to' as 6 to 8, which implies winds varying between 6 and 8. Think of the '|' as meaning 'then' as with courses when you have N|E. So your courses are N 6 and then E 8.

If the log keeper meant it started as 6 then ended as 8, then all your subsequent forces should be 8.

The first Alt1 from in the cell with the mixed reading saves the value and goes down one row. Hitting Alt1 a second time will enter the last of the mixed entries.
If you did not want the last of the mixed entries then your first Alt1 gives you a blank cell as usual. Pressing CopyDown when inside a cell acts the same way as pressing Enter.

Pressing CopyDown when not inside a cell gives you the last mixed value.