About Methods

You can choose methods from menus of frequently rung ones:

(To ring a pre-defined composition instead of simply starting a plain course of a method, pick one of the compositions shown on the rightmost menu above.)

You can choose the size of these menus using settings on the Preferences dialog:

If the method you want to ring isn't on the menu, you can pick it from a larger list:

The ticks on the above list indicate which methods are currently on the menu. If you choose a different method, it will be added to the menu, replacing the least-used one currently there. You can also set the ticks manually to populate the menu with exactly the methods you want (useful prior to a touch of spliced, for example).

Modifying Methods

Using the buttons on the above dialog you can add new methods, and edit or delete existing ones.

The delimiter characters ('|' and '/') that you can see in the place notation in the above picture are explained fully in the help that is supplied with the program. They are there to enable flexibility and generality in the definition and location of calls and in the use of methods in compositions.

Virtual Belfry comes with a list of methods already defined, including all the commonly rung ones. If you want to add others, the MicroSIRIL libraries are available on the Internet and it is an easy process to copy and paste notations from there into Virtual Belfry (and a click of a button will then make the small modifications that are needed to adjust the notation to the style used by the program).

Calling Touches and Splicing

If you are calling a touch manually (rather than ringing a pre-defined composition), there are three ways to make a call: To change method during a touch, choose the new method using the same menus or lists as above. Obviously you need to make your choice before the end of the lead where the splice is meant to take place. The quickest way to pick a new method from a menu is using the keyboard (to choose a minor method, press F6 to display the menu of 6-bell methods, then type the initial letter of the method you want to ring).