The main purpose of the program is the edition of oob files. How to do this? First I will explain the idea of the additional files that come with the editor, as well as the workspace files.
The files in the DATA subdirectory contain initially a number of .inf files. Those files describe various parameters that are used by games from the Battleground series. All of them differ slightly, so this important data must be written in "target platform" files as I call them. One file contains the information for one game and this game is the "target" of the oob file. To make it easier to understand: for example in the Napoleonic series there are three types of cavalry ("Light Cavalry", "Heavy Cavalry" and "Cossacks"), while in American Civil War series there is only one type (just "Cavalry"). So when you would like to create a new unit of cavalry you will have to choose between three various types of them (if you make your Order of Battle for a Napoleonic game), or just one (for an ACW game). This and many other data is contained by the .inf files. To read more about them, visit >>Chapter 10<<.
The workspace files (saved with .txt extension) hold data for each session. If you edit for example a oob file that is in C:\NIR\BD directory, while using the unit picture file from C:\NIR directory you won't have to type in this data every time you load the OOB file. Instead you have to load just this workspace file, which will set up the program for you.
There are also template files but we can skip them now. We can now start creating a new oob for the "Napoleon In Russia" game. This will be in steps so you can easilly follow the instructions. I assume that the program is installed properly and it is working.
Open the File menu, either by clicking with mouse button on the name or pressing Alt+F keys.
Select New submenu (it is the first option).
From the New submenu choose Empty OOB.
Answer "Yes" on the question that has appeared.
Now go to the directory where you want to save your workspace file and put it's name into the edit box; press "Save" when ready; note that initially you are in the program directory.
A dialog box will appear like the one below:
Put in the title of the workspace if you want to; then you have to (without this you will not be allowed to proceed) set the oob file and the target file; press the browse button (marked with three dots) next to the OOB file label; you will see the "Save as" dialog box again; this time you must type in the name of the .oob file to be created; after this press Browse button next to the Target file sign; you will see the "Open" dialog box; now you must select the .inf file with the name Napoleon In Russia.inf; propably you will find it in the DATA subdirectory; you may also set up other files but this is not necessary; press "Accept" to proceed.
Congratulations! You have created an empty oob file.
As you see this was not that difficult. It is very similar when you want to edit an existing OOB file or start editing an attached OOB file. What is an existing file you propably know. The attached file is a complete oob file, that comes with a target platform file. For example you may have made several variants of Borodino oob and you want to make them easilly accessible for the users of the program (and yourself) next time. If you will select the File >> New >> Attached OOB option from the menu then you will see a selection dialog after pressing "Accept" like in step f. above. There you will have a chance to select one of the listed files. Program will then copy contents of the attached file to your new oob file so you will work on a copy instead of the original.
We are now back to the example. What you see in the big white box is the tree that shows all structures and units. Initially you will see just the armies and general supply wagons for them. You can navigate using mouse or up, down keys. Press enter to toggle items that contain sub-items (they are called "children"). The same you do by pressing the "+" sign on the left of the item name.
A useful information: the menu that is used most of the time is the Edit menu. You can access it quicker by pressing right mouse button on the selected item. The operations listed in the menu will be performed on the currently selected item.
How to edit items? Suppose you have expanded the "French Army" item and what you see is "French Army Leader". Let's see the properties of this leader and change his name to Napoleon (of course). You can access the properties dialog box eiter by selecting Properties option from the Edit menu or by pressing "Shift+Enter" with the "French Army Leader" selected.
How to add new items? We want to make a new brigade in the French army. We want it on the position next to Napoleon. Follow the instruction:
Select "Napoleon".
Open Edit menu.
Select Add next >> Structure command.
Select the type you want (in this example it's "Brigade") in the dialog box that has appeared.
Press "Accept" button
Congratulations! New structure of type Brigade was added! You may change it's name if you wish using the Properties command from Edit menu.
Now you propably would like to add some units with leader to the new brigade. We will do this in several steps. First we will add new leader, then make an infantry unit. After this we will use Copy & Paste commands to make several units (battalions) with the same parameters as the first one. After that we will have only to rename them.
Assuming the "New Brigade" is selected, open Edit menu.
Select Add child >> Leader command (the leader will not be added after the brigade, instead he will be in this structure, on the first position, use the Add child command to add items under the empty structure on the first position.
Select "Brigade Leader" type and press "Accept" button. You are not restricted only to Brigade Leaders in a Brigade structure, as in some games it is so. Note that automatically the "Leader Properties" dialog box was opened to allow you modification of the newly created leader.
Press "Accept" when done - leader is ready.
Assuming that the leader is selected, open Edit menu.
Select Add next >> Unit command.
Select the type of unit you wish, press "Accept", edit it's properties and finish by pressing "Accept" button second time. Name the unit for example "1st Bn./21st Ligne".
Assuming that the unit is selected, open Edit menu.
Select Copy command. Notice that the name of the unit is shown in the box to the right of the tree. It means that this unit will be copied when you use paste command.
Open Edit menu again, select Add Next >> Paste command. As you can see another "1st Bn./21st Ligne" appeared after the other. The new item will be automatically selected. Use Edit >> Properties command to edit the new unit (just change it's name to "2nd Bn./21st Ligne"). Repeat this operation to get more battalions.
Congratulations! You have made a successful Copy & Paste operation. With Cut & Paste there is no difference, except that source item will be deleted after the paste process.
It this way you can copy any element up to the wing size. Armies may not be copied. Deleting of items is simple. Just select the item and use delete operations. This item command deletes the marked item, while the second just it's child items. It will be time to proceed to advanced operations.