Book files

A Scid Book (suffix: ".epd") file is simply a collection of positions, where each position has some associated text. Old versions of Scid used a special format (suffix: ".sbk") for Book files, but since version 1.6 Scid uses the EPD (extended position description) standard file format.

An EPD file has a number of defined opcodes (fields) which are stored separated by semicolons (;) in the file but are shown on separate lines in a Scid book window to make editing easier. A semicolon within an EPD field is stored as "\s" by Scid to distinguish it from an end-of-field marker. Each position and its associated opcodes are stored on one single line in the EPD file.

Standard EPD opcodes include:

Book files have a number of uses: Scid uses a book file to classify games according to the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings (ECO) system, and you can create a book file for your opening repertoire, adding comments for positions you regularly reach in games.

You can create a new book file or open an existing one, from the [Book files] submenu of the [File] menu. At most four book files can be open at any time.

Book windows

For each open book file, you will see a window which shows the text for the current position. You do not have to press the Store button to store any changes you make to a positions text; the text will be stored whenever you move to a different position in the game.

Navigating Book files

To browse through the positions in a Book file, use the [Next position] and [Previous position] commands from the Book window [Tools] menu, or use the shortcut keys Ctrl+DownArrow and Ctrl+UpArrow. These commands move to the next/previous position in the file, clearing the current game and setting its start position.

Stripping out EPD fields

EPD files you find on the internet may contain fields that do not interest you, and they can waste a lot of space in the file. For example, an EPD file of computer evaluations might have ce, acd, acn, pm, pv and id fields but you may only need the ce and pv fields.

You can strip out an EPD opcode from all positions in the book file using the [Strip out EPD field] from the Book window [Tools] menu.

The book window status bar

The status bar of each book window shows:

(Updated: Scid 2.5, June 2001)


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