COW: your workflow

[FreeRepublic]

I often create a blank COW Ebook and then import pgn, sometimes with comments. It's probably best to resize the COW Ebook window and panes, before importing the PGN.

I think I'm going to change my practice in regards to color dots. In the past, I would do an initial import without a color dot. Additional imports would receive a dot. Now I intend to do an initial import with a yellow dot. My what-if analysis will not have a color assignment. The original purchased (or otherwise constructed) Ebook will remain untouched. I suspect this was Mike's idea from the beginning. If so, I'm only now appreciating it.

Later PGN imports to a given Ebook will receive a green dot to distinguish them from the original book and my own what-if analysis. I may continue to reserve red for Stockfish analysis.

P.S. I will repeat an earlier suggestion that users have an option to precede imported text (comments) with text when making a PGN import. For example: "Schulien: " prior to importing any comment from Charles Schulien, or "Kuljasevic: " prior to importing any comment from Kuljasevic.

[reivax]

Can you go deeply with that explanation and your use of the colours ? I am not sure I did understand them correctly.

Thx

[FreeRepublic]

One can assign a color dot, red, yellow, green, to a candidate move. One can also refrain from assigning a color dot. So that is a fourth option.

Assigning dots, move, after move, after move is time-consuming and tedious, so I just don't. Things get interesting when the process is automated.

Let's say you obtain a PGN file of annotated games. You can tell COW to assign a yellow dot to candidate moves prior to import. Let's say the imported PGN file, now a COW Ebook, has 20,000 positions. If I'm not mistaken, that means 20,000 candidate moves. All candidate moves will have a yellow dot!

You are free to analyze any position, playing out what-ifs. The additional candidate moves will not have a dot. Consequently, you can distinguish, at a glance, between the original input and your own analysis.

I routinely assign a red dot to a candidate move that has been suggested by Stockfish. So a Stockfish suggestion immediately stands out. The problem here is that the process is not automated. I will assign a red dot to the first suggested move, but it is simply too tedious to manually dot every subsequent move.

I hope that helps.

[reivax]

Yes, thanks !

I do not know where are all the COW users. Nobody is ever sharing any tip or feedback. Mike is almost silent and never go here.
That's very frustrated to know we have a good product but nobody is claiming for it anywhere.

[FreeRepublic]

Yes, thanks !

I do not know where are all the COW users. Nobody is ever sharing any tip or feedback. Mike is almost silent and never go here.
That's very frustrated to know we have a good product but nobody is claiming for it anywhere.

I agree. It seems to me that there should be more discussion.

[koltanowski]

I found this about the "Certainty Slider":

Finally there's the certainty feature.

Do you see the control to the right of the Informant symbol? You can slide it left and right to stand for how certain you are about this assessment. If you are highly confident that the assessment for this position is correct then slide the tab to its highest notch. If you're not so sure, then move the tab lower.

[FreeRepublic]

COW saves your work automatically. This can have pros and cons.

Sometimes I have an Ebook that is in pretty good shape. I want to make it better, not worse with excessive (junk) analysis. So I do my analysis in a second Ebook and only retain the best line for the initial Ebook. Here are the steps I go through.

Working in my Ebook, I play out to a position that I wish to analyze. Then
PGN - Export Line as a game (erase) ("one game")
File - New Ebook ("Analysis")
PGN - Import Games ("one game")
Go - Next Branch
This creates a second COW Ebook that displays the position that I will analyze. After analyzing the position, there are several ways to proceed. I will often play to the end of the most critical line that I have found. Then I proceed much as before:
PGN - Export Line as a game (erase) ("one game")
Activate my first Ebook, then
PGN - Import Games ("one game"). Assign a red dot for the new analysis.

Now my initial Ebook has been improved with well-conceived analyis identified by a red dot.

It sounds more complicated than it is and, with practice, it becomes second nature.