WinPicks displays the current date in the box on the left side of the tool bar. Before the season begins, the current date is set to the first day of the season. Once the season is in progress, WinPicks determines the current date using a two-step process. The first step is to read the system date from the computer's clock. For this reason, please make sure that your computer's clock is set to the correct date. The second step is to find the first date greater than or equal to the system date where games are scheduled to be played, but where the game data has yet to be entered.

For example, the system date might be Sunday, November 30th. The next date (after the system date) where games are scheduled to be played is Monday, December 1st. In this instance, the tool bar will indicate that December 1st is the current date.

The information included in the database depends upon the current date. For example, if your database method is a 4-game rolling average, the database will include the 4 most recent games played by each team prior to the current date. If you use a season to date database, the database will include every game played during the current season prior to the current date.

There are many reasons that you might want to change the current date. For example, you might want to look at the standings from three weeks ago, or a year ago. You might want to select a past season and view or print reports from that season. Or, you might want to test a prediction formula to see how well it would have performed in past seasons. Changing the date allows you to look at how things were at a given point in time, just as if you were looking at an old magazine or newspaper.

There are two ways to change the current date. The first way is to select a new date using the Current Date dialogue box on the left side of the tool bar. The second way is to select SET CURRENT DATE from the DATABASE menu and then to select the date that you want from the calendar.