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Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Feb 16, 2017 01:50 AM UTC:

The Diagram Designer indicates above its first 'box' containing text that it produces a HTML code (or 'string', if you prefer) that you can cut and paste (i.e. from the first box of text), say into a Comment you post, or into a submission for a chess variant that you might make instead. The default setting shows a chess diagram that uses abstract-style chess figurines. You can change whatever aspects of the diagram that you are able to (many, in fact), then click on "update" for your diagram, to see how it looks like once the changes are made, and then you can make further updates to the diagram if desired. When you're satisfied with how your diagram looks, you then copy the string for the diagram where it is indicated to do so (by selecting it, then hitting ctrl c) and then you can paste it somewhere on The Chess Variant Pages website where it will show the HTML string you copied as a diagram (i..e. in a Comment, or in a chess variant submission you might make [look up "Post your own Game" under your name {by pointing at it with the mouse} in the main menu at the top of a given page on this website - when submitting a chess variant, first you fill out an information page, then go to the next step {page} where you fill in details about how your game is played, and there is a space where you can paste {with ctrl v} your diagram's HTML string for the game's starting position {if any given by you}, i.e. in the "Setup" box.]).

Learning how to create all the types of diagrams I might wish to took me a while, and by no means have I learned everything. The webmaster Fergus Duniho may be the best person to ask on how to make trickier diagrams, if you don't want to try to understand all the instructions that you can read by clicking on certain links in the Diagram Designer. However, Fergus may be on vacation at the moment. The Diagram Designer, as I understand it, is a somewhat slightly limited version (in terms of types of diagrams it supports) of what you can do with Game Courier, in producing diagrams for games you wish to actually play on Game Courier, by the use of what are called presets.

P.S.: There's no doubt a way to save a diagram's HTML string on your computer once you've made your diagram, without putting it in a Comment or submission of yours, so that you can turn off your machine and use the string at a later time. For now, being something of a computer dinosaur, I simply 'save' my diagram (and thus its HTML string) by posting it in a Comment of mine, if I don't wish to use it right away in a submission that I may or may not decide to make.


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