"A 10-dog gangline with only 8 dogs on it, leaving 2 free places side by side": until now, you could not keep that. The screen drew it, then saving closed the gaps — the dogs behind moved up one place, and the next start no longer looked like your line. Not any more: a free place is a place, and it survives saving — in a rig template, in the start line, and in the places of a past outing.
What you do
The line has a length, and you set it. At the top of the line, "10-place line", with − and +. The count reads in words: "8 dogs · 2 free places". There is no separate "line" to create under Gear: the line is the length of the rig template or of the start line, and you set it there.
- + adds a pair in front of the wheel: the wheel dogs stay at the sled.
- − removes a free pair first. If there is none, a question names the dogs that would go back to the bench, and waits for your yes. Nothing disappears silently.
Tapping — the main way, gloves included. The gestures are the ones the phone's Line screen already knew:
- a bench dog, tapped on its own, goes to its usual place — with no history, the same place on the website and the phone, team rows first; when the line is full, it grows by one pair;
- tap a free place, then a dog: it goes there;
- a dog on the line, then another: they swap;
- a dog on the line, then a free place: it moves there — same tier, other side, included;
- a dog on the line, then the bench: it leaves the line;
- a row label, then another: the two pairs swap.
Dragging — a shortcut, for those who like it. On the phone, a 0.4 s press picks a dog up (a vibration says so); with a mouse, just pull. The place you aim at thickens and says what will happen: "Place here", "Swap", "Insert here". Dropped on an occupied place, the dog swaps with the occupant; on the bench, it leaves; on a row label, a pair is inserted there and the line moves back. A whole pair is dragged by its label: that is how you free the pair right behind the leaders.
With the keyboard, on the website. Tab to a dog, Space picks it up, the arrows aim at a place (→ from the right-hand column leads to the bench), Enter drops, Esc gives up, Ctrl+Z (⌘Z) undoes. Each step is announced to the screen reader.
The bench sits to the right of the line (the same word on the website and the phone), as a column: the line and the dogs waiting are seen together, without turning pages.
One drawing everywhere. The rig template (website and phone), the Line screen at the start, the start places of an outing on the website, and the team during an outing, on the phone: one screen instead of two. On the trail, you swap two dogs of the same tier, move a dog to the other side, and take a dog off the line — with a confirmation that names it, at the km where you are.
What others see, and what they don't
Your kennel's members see the line as you left it, free places included, on the outing and in the rig template. A free place is not a dog: each dog's load, "Places on the line" and the statistics count dogs, never places. None of it leaves the kennel.
What it doesn't do
- No "gear" line. A 10-place line is not an item under Gear: it is the length of your rig template or start line. This is not "not yet": it is the choice (see below).
- No adding a dog during an outing. On the trail, the bench only receives dogs taken off; a dog taken off does not come back.
- Shortening is never done by dragging. Throwing a pair away with an approximate gesture would be too easy: you shorten by tapping, with the question as soon as a dog is involved.
- The en-route changes of a past outing keep, on the website, their dog-by-dog list: the drawing is for the start. Saving them again keeps their free places.
- The phone does not yet compose the places of yesterday's outing with this drawing ("Correct the places" keeps its list): that is the next step, in the register.
The choices we made, against the obvious
Dropping on a dog swaps, instead of inserting. Inserting moves the whole line back — three dogs move for one gesture, and with gloves on you don't always see which. Swapping moves only one other dog, and it is what tapping already did. To insert, you drop on the row's label: a different gesture for a different effect.
Tapping stays the main way. A screen reads a glove badly: the long press gets lost, the finger slips on the way. Dragging is a shortcut, never a requirement — everything you can drag, you can also tap.
The pair is added in front of the wheel, not behind the lead. The wheel dogs are the sled's dogs: lengthening must not move them away from it.
No separate "line" object. You would have had to create the line, then the team on it, then link them: one more object to say a single thing, how many places. The length lives in the team itself.
See also the Guide: Recording a run with your phone and Rereading a run.