What is new in the Marsoft Decision Support System (MDSS)?
2003 Q2 - Chinese Dry Bulk Trade demand forecast and historical data has been broken out from Asian Trade demand.  

1998 Q4 - Dry bulk fleet development including figures for new orders, orderbook, deliveries and scrapping are available for four size classes: 
Handy: 10-40,000 dwt
Handymax: 40-60,000 dwt
Panamax: 60-80,000 dwt
Cape: 80,000 + dwt

How can I setup the system to run multiple sessions?
The MDSS is capable of running multiple sessions at one time; however, the resulting increase in system resources and RAM (physical memory) may reduce the efficiency of your system. To run multiple sessions of the MDSS, you will need to change the MDSS icon property setting on your computer:

Warning
If, after reading the following instructions, it is not entirely clear to you on how to proceed, please consult with someone from your technical staff or call Marsoft technical support (617-369-7807). If you do not properly follow the instructions below, you can accidentally disable MDSS and be prevented from running it.

1. Select the icon that you use to run MDSS and right click on it using the mouse right click button (this will bring up a pop-up context menu). The icon that you use to run MDSS may be in one or more places on your computer, depending on your computer's setup -- any one of the following will do:
• the MDSS icon on your computer's desktop (root screen/background window);
• the MDSS icon located under the Start Menu/Programs Group; to find this icon, right click the Start menu button on your computer (usually located in the lower left-hand corner), and click on "Open" in the resulting pop-up context menu. Then double-click on the "Programs" icon, and finally, double-click on the "Marsoft Executive" icon. You should now be able to see the MDSS icon. Right click on it.
3. Select "Properties" from the pop-up context menu, after right-clicking on the MDSS icon. In the resulting Properties dialog window, click on the "Shortcut" tab.
4. In the "Target" text box, you should see a line of text that is similar to this: "C:\Marsoft\BDSS\BDSSMAIN.XLS" (this path may differ, depending on where you installed MDSS on your computer). This is the command that is executed when you double-click the MDSS icon on your computer.
5. You will need to prepend an additional command to the existing command in the Target text box, in order to load a separate Excel 97 session each time you run the MDSS. To do this, select the first character space in the textbox with your mouse pointer, thereby UNhighlighting what's already in the textbox, and type the following, in front of the text already in the box:  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" (includethe quotes). Then, surround the pre-existing command with its own set of quotes, also. Please keep in mind that this assumes that Excel 97 is setup in this particular directory (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office). If this is not true then consult with your systems administrator for the exact location of this file. When you are done, the Target text box should read: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe" "C:\Marsoft\BDSS\BDSSMAIN.XLS" (the quotes are necessary). Your path to BDSSMAIN.XLS may differ from this example.
6. Click "OK" to close the Properties window.

How do I move the system from one directory to another (or to a new drive)?
The Marsoft Decision Support System is designed to be setup on your system with pointer files. These files (INI files) allow the system to locate the MDSS program and data files. Also, the system uses Excel in a manner in which links are formed to other worksheets -- moving them can cause problems. If you need to move the system, you will need to uninstall the current version and re-install the system using the original system CD-ROM. Once you have installed the system in the new directory, you will need to copy the existing scenario files from the old directory to the new directory. If you opted to use the system's default directory structure, these files will be located in the following directory: "C:\Marsoft\Bdss\Data". You must copy all these files and paste them to your designated new directory. If you fail to copy these files you will lose all your old scenarios that you created. After you have copied the appropriate files, you can delete all files under your old directories.

Note:
- Do not delete the old directories until you have copied and pasted your own scenario files.
- If you have both the Marsoft Decision Support System and the Ship Credit Manager (SCM) system then re-install the MDSS first and then SCM. If you move one system you have to move the other.