There are 3 options when downloading a Player.csv file. You may select a download that is alphabetically ordered by State and Club, or a download that is alphabetically ordered by Player name. The 3rd version adds in the latest player ranking details. Any of these 3 files can be used to Import into Sport, and they both give the same result. However, the State/Club ordering keeps the Player list together for the one Club, and may be simpler to use as a check by clubs. The 3rd version may be useful if you are considering using Seeding Teams – say for the first Round of a Swiss system event.

As these are csv files (csv = comma-separated-variable), they are very simple text files and can readily be opened in Notepad. You can also set your computer up to open csv files automatically in Excel. If you use Excel to view a Player.csv file then the actual separator is not a comma (,), but a semi-colon (;) – this is to make these csv files compatible with the way the Sport scoring program is set up. In this case to view every field in a distinct column within Excel (if that what you wish, but it’s not critical that you do) takes a bit of fiddling as normally Excel is set up to have a comma as the separator between fields.

To use the ‘;’ as the separator in Excel (and this will change the way Excel displays all .csv file, please note) is to change one of the options for Windows in the Control Panel. This varies slightly for different versions of Windows, but for Windows 8 and 10 the process is as follows:

1. Click on the ‘Windows’ icon at extreme bottom-left of the screen.
2. Click on the ‘Settings’ icon on the extreme left (bit like a cogged wheel) a little up from the bottom.
3. Click on the ‘Time and Language’ option (seems strange, but correct!).
4. Under the heading of ‘Related settings’, click on ‘Additional date, time & regional settings’ link.
5. Alongside the item ‘Region’, click on ‘Change date, time or number formats’.
6. Now click on the ‘Additional settings’ link (we are nearly there!).
7. In the next panel it should open on the ‘Numbers’ tag (if not, click on this tag).
8. The 8th field down is labelled ‘List separator:’ – now change this to a semi-colon ‘;’ (the default is a comma ‘,’).
9. At the bottom-right click on the ‘Apply’ button to lock this change in.
10. While this is all a bit tedious you can switch back to a comma (or a different separator) anytime you wish.

The Sport program itself is also a very clear way of listing players and licence detasils for your club. Just Import the Player.CSV file and then click on Players in the left-hand panel, then select you Club from the list.