First, a venue needs to be created. When you add the venue, you add:/p>

• Venue Information
• Icons and Notes for your internet sales for the venue
• Then you add the Pricing Maps
Venues also have Plays, Tasks and Default Resources attached to them.

There are four steps to adding a Pricing map to a Venue in Theatre Manager:

1. A graphic map or drawing of the basic outline of the space. The graphic map is a colourful representation of the space and different seating/pricing areas of the venue that makes it easier for customers and staff to visually locate the desired seating area. The graphic itself is just blocks of colour arranged so that they represent the space - the seats are added separately and do not need to be included on the drawing.
2. The seat squares/circles/ovals that are added on top of the graphic map drawing.
3. Numbering of the seat. This facilitates setting up the data file that tells each square/circle/oval "who" it is and "where" it is.
4. The Seat Names, or data file, that tells Theatre Manager how the seats are arranged numerically into sections, rows, and seats. It also dictates which pricing zones (or price codes) applies to each seat, and which are the "best seats" for online sales search by best available seating.

Step 1 - Create the Graphic

Venue map graphics or pictures are not required if reserved seating will be sold non-graphically (this is not common) or if the venue is used for festival or traveling troupe ticket sales. If the intention is to sell reserved seats visually, a graphic representation of the venue will need to be drawn in a graphic application and then placed into Theatre Manager. At this time, Arts Management recommends using a PowerPoint slide to draw the graphic image as it allows for small file size, and images can be saved in the correct format for both PC and Mac use.

Optimizing Graphic Map Size

Use vector based graphics (lines, squares, circles, letters, colour, etc) on your maps and do not use picture/image files (jpegs, tiffs, bitmaps, etc) or high bit depth (shadings and transparency) to minimize the size of the final graphic. Think simple - the graphic map, that sits behind the seat squares, does not need to be an elaborate representation of the venue. The purpose is to allow patrons to easily visualize the sections/zones within the venue.

You can do a fantastic map with lines circles and colour using vector graphics and the file size will be 50K +/-. Adding a picture can jump the size to a megabyte without trying. Smaller file sizes result in faster performance transferring the maps from the database and building the suggested seat graphics for the web. Theatre Manager limits the graphic map file size to less than 500kb for PC's, less than 200kb for Mac's. Less is more.

For Windows

The picture must be saved as a Windows Meta File (WMF) in a Windows environment (PowerPoint will do this). Drawing applications like Corel Draw can create WMF files - but be mindful of the file size. It's much easier for things to get "out of hand" in a drawing application than in PowerPoint. The Metafile must be placed in Theatre Manager on a Windows machine and must be smaller than 500kb in order to be read properly.

For Mac

For the Macintosh the file should be saved as a PICT file. Microsoft Office X - PowerPoint for Mac can save as a PICT file. Drawing applications like MacPaint or PC-Paintbrush can also create PICT files. The PICT file must be placed in Theatre Manager on a Macintosh machine and must be smaller than 200kb in order to be read properly.

If you are using PowerPoint for Mac to create your pict files, use version 8 or previous. In PowerPoint ver. 10, the .picts have changed and will not display.

Step 2 - Add the Seats

Place the seats on the map in the Pricing Map >> Graphic Map tab.

The seats within the venue are placed on the representation using the built-in Theatre Manager tools.

Click here to go to the Placing the Seats on a Venue Map page for more information.

Step 3 - Reorder the Seats

Proceed by reordering the seats on the graphic map to put them into a logical order. For more information on reordering seats click here.

Step 4 - Name the Seats

You name the seats within the venue. Naming seats allows you to define their physical loaction, such as Section A, Row 4, Seat 6.

For more information on naming seats click here.

Adding Best Seats for the Web Interface

The best seats function allows web users to quickly find the best seats online. For more information on he best seat settings click here.

Your Venue Map is now complete and ready for event setup.