Starting and Stopping

Starting and stopping

To start the bells ringing rounds, click the large Start button in the middle of the screen, or the Start button on the toolbar. You can also press F9.

To make the bells ring your chosen method or call change composition, click again on the large button in the middle of the screen. This has helpfully changed to say Go now. You can also use the Go button on the toolbar, or press F11.

The G key also causes the bell to start ringing if they are currently stood, and to Go if they are currently ringing rounds. Finally, it causes a Bob if a method is ringing.

If you want to start again, you can force the bells back into rounds by clicking the large central button or the Rounds button on the toolbar.

To stand the bells, click on the Stand button . Abel will call ‘Stand' at the next handstroke, the bells will ring one further whole pull and then stop. If you want to stop immediately without waiting for Abel to call ‘Stand', press F9 or click the Start button.

You can also start from a row other than rounds. When the bells are stopped, if you double click any backstroke row in the blue line display, the method/composition will start from that row when you next press Go. You can also ring a method/composition from the start, with a start row other than rounds (and if you've done so, you can return to the start row by pressing the Back to Start button on the toolbar, or press F12). See Selecting a Start Row for further details.

Note that if you're ringing a call change composition and it ends with the bells not in rounds, Abel will continue ringing the change it's got to until you click Stand.

If you prefer, Abel can carry on ringing rounds after your touch has come round, as is normal with tower-bell ringing. To do this, look in the Ringing menu for Stand at Rounds. If there is a tick next to this option, Abel will stand automatically when rounds comes up. If this option is not ticked, Abel will carry on ringing rounds until you click the Stand button . S ee also Compositions about multi-extent compositions.

You can also start and stop the ringing by using external switches connected to the PC running Abel. This is particularly useful when you have external bells connected to the PC, such as in the tower.