Football Manager 2012 Tutorial - The User Interface

Before starting to play FM12, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the user interface (UI) so that you can find your way around the game without a problem. The game itself has a tutorial that helps you become familiar with the interface, and which you can access by clicking on the button labeled "Tutorial: Learn how to play FM" in the main screen.



The Menu Bar
On top of the screen is the menu bar which contains several options and drop downs. You will be using the menu bar a lot to access main game features. The menu bar has the "Back" and "Forward" button, your name, Inbox, Team, Transfer Center, League, World Menu, Help icon and FM Menu.

Back and Forward Buttons
These buttons work similarly to the back and forward buttons on your browser. It will take you to pages that you were accessing previously.

Head Coach Home Button
Pressing the Head Coach Home Button - The button shaped like a house - takes you to the Head Coach Home screen where you can access a general status report of your current situation, including stats for your team, players, matches and finances.

Head Coach Name Button
Pressing the button that has your (head coach) name on it brings up a drop down list of information and actions not directly related to the team. This includes:
Inbox: Important news, mail and information relating to you and your club will arrive here.
Manage Subscriptions: This allows you to keep up to date with news subscriptions and remove unwanted subscriptions.
Player and Staff Search: Use this to help find the player you want.
Jobs: The Job Centre and Job Security Screen details the current job status of every head coach in the game.

Team Name Button
The Team Section includes information and actions related to your club. You can view your team and coordinate training, arrange tactics, and other preparations for your next match.
Backroom Advice: Get advice from your staff pertaining to various aspects of your club.
Team Report: Comprehensive breakdown of your team, with all the information needed to build a successful club.
Team Meeting: Lets you call a team meeting, generally requires a reason to do so.
Team Policy: Lets you assign roles to your assistant coach.
Transfer Center: Access transfer activity
Scouting: Manage and allocate scouts to find new talent for your club.
Boardroom: Interact with the board and see confidence and finances in this screen
Staff: See all non player staff such as assistant coach and youth coach.
Confidence: Six confidence markers showing how the club is confident with your leadership of it.
Finances: Access club finances including expenditure, incomes, and salaries

Competition Menu
This section includes all the information pertaining to the league your club is playing in.
League Table: Standings of the clubs in the league
Statistics Section: Player, Team and Injury stats
Headlines and Rumors: Headlines and Rumors regarding team, league, and transfers

World Menu
Access data from other nations

Help Icon
The question mark lets you access in game help in regards to the page you are viewing

FM Menu
Lets you sane the game, load game, or start a new game, as well as the ability to customize game settings.

The Calendar Bar
The bar on top of the interface shows the current week. Click on  a date to see any activities in that day, or to take some actions during that day.

Search
Use the search to search for players, clubs, nations and more.

Continue Button
Football-Manager is turn based. Click on the "Continue" button on the top right corner, to advance to the next day. If there are unread messages in your inbox, pressing "Continue" will take you to them to read and perform any necessary actions. If there are no unread messages, game will progress.

Inbox
The inbox shortcut icon displays the number of unread messages you have.
Unread inbox messages: The list of inbox messages is to the left. If the message is in bold, it has not been read. If there is a red exclamation mark near the subject, it requires an action or a response and the game cannot proceed until you resolve the issue. Keep clicking on "Continue" to advance through new items until you have read all of them.
Respond to a message: Some messages require action. You will be able to choose the desired action, such as confirming a decision, accepting and rejecting offers, and more.
Determine News to receive via subscriptions: You can subscribe to news related to other clubs, players, and staff.

Manage News Subscription
You can set up subscriptions about any player, staff, club, league or cup competition, nation and awards in the world. Usually you can right click on an entity, then click on "Subscribe" to add it to your news subscription. In the manage subscription screen you can unsubscribe and remove unwanted news subscriptions. You can also manage the categories of news to receive for each entity.

This concludes the User Interface Tutorial.