ok here is the link to the excel file:
player.xls
i converted the version i've been using in excel 2007 to excel 2003. hopefully it still works.
ok, i'll try to explain the process. bear with me...
first, you need to get an excel file that has all of your buddy names in a column. the way i do this is by exporting from poker tracker. i configure the player filter on the preferences tab of the ring game player statistics window. then i go to the summary tab and click the "p" button next to "player performance summmary" (the 2nd "p" button from the top on this tab). clear all the checkboxes except "Player", then export to Excel.
note: if you're exporting buddies from more than one site, check the "site" field on the export also.
before we go further, you need to get some information from the config.xml file that Smart Buddy places in your user folder (it's somewhere in C:\Users on Vista, and somewhere in C:\Documents and Settings on XP). open this file in a text editor and look for a line that looks like this:
"<Player Star="false" PokerClientId="28" PokerNetworkId="2" PlayerId="-1">"
you need to figure out what numbers SB uses to identify each site for which you have buddies. if you have buddies from more than one site, you need to go through the file and write all these numbers down. in the above example, "28" and "2" are the numbers you need to know.
ok, next, you need to get those names into the excel file i've provided. first, look at the PT export file and find out how many buddies you've exported. next, make sure the values in the "PokerClientID" and "PokerNetworkID" columns are correct for the site your buddies are on. next, select the row of data in player.xls (range = A2:H2, the area that has a light blue background). what we need to do is create as many copies of this row as we have buddies. so if you have 500 buddies, copy this row to rows 3 through 501. here's how the file should look at this point if you have 10 buddies:
note: if you have buddies on more than one site, you need to change the "PokerClientID" and "PokerNetworkID" so that the correct number of rows exists for each site. i hope this makes sense...
now, select the buddy names from the poker tracker export, and copy them into the "Name" column (column "E") in player.xls.
now, you need to export this file to xml. in 2007 you need to configure excel to display the developer tab (look in office button | excel options), then click "export" in the "XML" section of the ribbon. in earlier versions, i'm not sure. most likely File | Save As will work if you select to save as an xml file.
now, open this xml file with a text editor (i use notepad). you need to copy the "players" section of this file to the smart buddy config.xml file. this file should be located in your user folder. here's a screenshot of how the xml file you've created should look (this example is with just one buddy), next to how config.xml should look after you've pasted the "players" section:
if you look through this file, you'll be able to figure out the logic, and you can mess with player groups if you want to, etc.
ok, that's all for my tutorial on "how to use excel in really convoluted ways that still somehow end up being quite useful". i hope everyone can figure out how to get this done from these instructions because i really don't feel like doing tech support on this...