Work with a Second Monitor

Many of our users work with a second screen and we recommend this way of working whenever possible. Extending your screen across two monitors means that you can have one dedicated to video playback and the other for working within the various Nacsport environments.

We especially recommend this configuration when doing presentations with Nacsport. You can set up a projector as the second screen, leaving you to control Nacsport from your laptop or PC screen, allowing your audience to focus only on the video.

Another good alternative is Duet Display, an app which can turn your iPad into a second screen.

The “Classic” Single Screen

Throughout the years we’ve seen many different users use many different screen configurations but, when it comes to single screen usage, the “Classic” seems to be putting the video player in the upper-left corner with the other environments scattered around the rest of the screen.

Depending on the stage of work, the Button Template, the Dashboard or the Presentation Window usually occupy the upper right corner, whilst the Timeline and Play by Play windows go at the bottom. Extra tools such as the Data Matrix usually overlap the other elements. 

Whatever the case, the decision is yours and yours alone about how you distribute your Nacsport windows...but we recommend that you never overlap essential elements such as the Template or the Video Player, as you will be working with these constantly and don’t want to be re-organising your screen and moving windows around every time you need to use them.

Transparent Templates Superimposed on Player

Although much less common than the “Classic”, this option isn’t just original but also extremely functional, allowing you to make the most of the space on a single screen better than any other.

So how do you do this? Easy! Create a full-screen template and position the buttons close to the edges, leaving room in the centre where you can position the video player, which will sit behind your template. Set the background of the template to transparent and there you go, a perfectly organised video tagging environment on a single screen. 

Saving Space with Vertical Templates

In every article we’ve published about Button Templates, we always emphasise the importance of having sufficient buttons to register all the different actions you want to analyse.

Having said that, you’d be ill-advised to create thousands of buttons “just in case”. It’s much better to have a well thought out and well designed template that’s functional and allows you to save as much space as possible. Nacsport has various features which allow you to reduce the size of your template without compromising how well it works. Features such as Clustered Buttons (see video below) and Nicknames and the ability to replace text with images.

Although this by no means a standard, this is a tip you might want to take into account. 90% of the templates we see every day are arranged vertically. Due to the natural orientation of the computer screen, this is the best way for video player and Button Template to co-exist.

Optimise Space with Panel Flows

This tip is aimed specifically at Pro and Elite users, these being the two programs which have the Panel Flows function included. This tool transformed sports analysis with Nacsport when it was released many moons ago, essentially allowing professional analysts to condense the often huge templates they worked with into a few single templates joined together sequentially. A complete game changer.

Due to their sequential nature and the fact that you don’t have all your buttons on the screen at the same time, Panel Flows can save a huge amount of space on the screen.

Predefined Video Player Size

The Nacsport video player is probably the most essential environment in the program. Without video there would be no analysis. Because of this, the player should be fundamental to your desktop configuration.

Nacsport gives you various default sizes for your video player: 25, 50, 75 or 100% of the original ration. This is extremely useful as it allows you to adjust the size of the player without losing the proportions of the original video.

Roll Up Register Control Window and Timeline

Both of these windows can be minimised to save space, depending on the way you work and whether or not you use these features.

The Register Control window is usually minimised to allow space for the Play by Play window, which gives you a much more complete log of your registered actions. The Timeline is usually minimised if you work by directly uploading your registers to the presentation.

You can roll up either window by clicking on the icon at the top of the window which shows two inward pointing arrows.

Every Window Can Be Resized

We’ve already looked at several different options for automatically changing the size of certain windows, allowing you to save space on your desktop. But beyond that, remember that every Nacsport window can be resized manually.

Of course, in some cases this will affect the contents of the window, vital information could disappear from view, so we advise you to play around with your configuration and find what works best for you.

Save Layout

So, you’ve taken all our tips into account and you’ve spent hours adjusting your windows and getting the configuration of your screen just right for your way of working. You don’t want to lose the work you’ve done, so you’ll want to “Save Layout”, which can be found in the options menu of the Register Control window, right next to the Play by Play icon.

Of course, you can continue to work on this and move different elements around and, if you feel that you would prefer to go back to your original design, simply choose the option “Load Layout” from the same menu.

Over to You!

So, there you have it. Some tips on how to organise your desktop workspace with Nacsport.

At the end of the day, the best layout is the one that works for you, so hopefully this article has given you some ideas on how to organise yourself effectively.

If you have any questions about any of the points raised in this article, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us at media@nacsport.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as humanly possible.

If you’re not yet a Nacsport user but think its adaptable, versatile style could be for you, click the link below to try a free 30-day trial of any product in our range.

Thanks for reading!