1. Get started
MacOS, Windows, iOS, Linux, tablet, phone, smartphone, iPad, iPhone,
Android, Chromebook
Overview
Prime Timetable is a school scheduling software designed for both
automatic and manual timetabling on any device. The software is used in
100+ countries for scheduling primary or elementary, junior/middle/high or
secondary schools, international schools, universities and other
educational organizations (art and language schools), as well as for
scheduling various events: school camps and courses.
Video tutorial: Introduction
tips, tricks, using
Video tutorials
It's recommended to
watch getting started tutorials
before using the app. Videos are only a couple of minutes long but packed
with tons of helpful info to boost your productivity. Subscribe to our
YouTube channel
to watch the latest tutorials for free.
pdf
basic,terms,glossary,dictionary
Interpret terms as best suits your organization, e.g. use
grade instead of class or course instead of
subject.
School
Institution designed to allow and encourage student groups to attend
school activities under the supervision of teachers
Subject / Course
For instance, Math, English, Biology, but also school recess, lunch,
some non-class activities like teacher meetings
Room
Place where school activity occurs, e.g. biology
room, history room, but also dining room, reception hall...
Teacher / Educator / Professor / Instructor
Person who teaches, guides, instructs, trains
or helps another in the process of learning knowledge
Student
Learner, or someone who attends an educational
institution
Class / Grade
Group
Class group attending a specific activity, e.g.
"English", "French" or "Italian" groups
Resource
Class, Teacher or Room
Period / Time slot
Activity
Structured period of time where a school
activity is intended to occur, e.g. lesson,
prep-time, lunch, recess, etc.
Card
Timetable / Schedule
Table which displays cards
Unscheduled card
Card waiting to be scheduled and therefore placed outside the
timetable
Pinned card
Card locked on a specific period, meaning it won't
be rescheduled while improving the timetable
Timetable view
Master or
individual view that displays activities,
e.g. class, teacher, room master view, Grade 8 view, etc.
Timetabler
Person who creates a school timetable
Conflict / clash
Group of cards on the same position or overlapping each other
Gap / Pause / Window
Empty period between school activities
Constraint
Requirement that should be met in the final timetable, e.g. gaps
should be forbidden for all classes
Time constraint
Manual timetabling
Working on timetable by manually dragging the cards
Automatic timetable generator
Algorithm that
improves a school timetable
based on entered data and constraints
Timetable validation
School scheduling/timetabling software
Software designed to simplify and automate scheduling/timetabling
process
MacOS, Windows, iOS, Linux, tablet, phone, smartphone, iPad, iPhone,
Android, Chromebook
System requirements
Software requires a modern browser such as
Chrome,
Firefox,
Edge or
Safari. Go to
https://primetimetable.com and
create a free account or
log in to start the app on any device.
Visit
our blog to find out more about
the latest releases.
Full features list is available
here.
5. Data
Basics
Resources are displayed in grids allowing you to quickly select, sort,
reorder and manage (add, edit and delete) data.
order,move up,move down,alphabetic,ascending,descending
You can sort days, periods, subjects, rooms, teachers, classes,
activities and other items by clicking desired column name. For
instance, in order to sort teachers by their names:
- Choose Manage > Teachers
- Click Name column in the grid header
- Click it once again to sort in the reverse order
- Select item(s) in the grid
-
Use up and down arrows in the bottom right corner of the grid to
reorder selected items
-
Hold down CtrlCmd key and click the items
-
Click the first item, hold down
Shift key, and then click the last item to
select a consecutive group of items
-
Hold down CtrlCmd key and press A to select all items
in the grid
rotated,rotation,day A,day B,cycle,rotating,6 day,5 day
Days
- Choose Manage > Days or click day name in the view
Set the number of days in the timetable cycle by selecting a desired value
in the combo above the displayed grid.
For instance, set 5 days for 1-week, or set 6 days if you are scheduling
Saturdays, or set 10 days for 2-week timetable and so on. Another option
is to create a separate timetable for each week or month and later
merge them into one. You can also set only one or two
days, e.g. "Day A" and "Day B" for rotating schedules. Each day has name
and short name.
-
Use
horizontal zoom to focus on specific day(s) or
-
Separate timetable into smaller once and later
merge them into all-in-one timetable
- Right mouse click day name in the view and choose Copy
- Right mouse click target day and choose Paste
Check copying cards for more info.
Use arrows in the bottom right corner of the grid to
reorder days. Related cards will be moved
accordingly.
Periods
time slot,time,times,bell
- Choose Manage > Periods or click period name in the view
Set the number of periods in a day by selecting a desired value in the
combo above the displayed grid. In case you are scheduling breaks, lunch,
after school activities or similar, increase the number accordingly. For
each period set start/end time (use 24-hour clock) and optionally name.
-
Set the maximum number of periods and then use
to forbid positions that are not allowed.
In case lower and higher grades have different period intervals:
-
The recommended approach is to find the least common denominator. For
instance, if some activities last 45 minutes while others are 15
minutes, add periods with 15-minute intervals and while
adding activities choose Triple length for
45-minute activities and Single length for 15-minute activities.
-
Otherwise, consider creating a separate timetable for each school (and
optionally merge them later), or
- Use custom periods
-
Multi-select all periods except one and
click Delete
-
Click Edit and set start time to e.g.
08:00 and end time to 08:15
-
From the list above periods grid select the number of periods you need
Custom periods
Period intervals might vary across classes, e.g. when scheduling both
lower and higher grades in one timetable. If you don't want to work with a
load of 15, 10 or even 5 minute period intervals to accomodate for
differences you might consider using custom periods. In order to add a
custom period:
-
Choose Manage > Periods and select a default period to link a
custom interval with and then click
Add
-
Set start/end time and click
to choose class, subject, room or teacher custom period
- Select 'Drag related cards to specified interval' action
-
Choose resources/days that custom interval applies to and click
Add
Video tutorial: How to use custom periods
When custom period(s) are added, related cards will be resized and
repositioned based on the specified custom interval and its default
period. Choose
Help > Options > Period format > 12-hour or 24-hour clock
to display the custom interval in the desired format.
When you drag a card, the card's shadow changes its length and position
according to default and custom periods below. Thus, you will know exactly
where to drop the card. Also, filters will appear above the periods grid
if a timetable has custom periods. Choose a specific resource/day to
filter custom periods.
It's easiest to just replace default periods with custom periods only in
specified classes and their related individual views:
-
Choose Manage > Periods and select a default period to link a
custom interval with and then click
Add
-
Set start/end time, click
, and choose class custom period
-
Select 'Show custom period instead of default in the related
individual views' action
-
Choose classes that custom interval applies to and click
Add
For instance, the first period in
Grade 6A
starts at 08:25, whereas the first period in
Grade 12 IB
starts at 08:15 in the same timetable.
Notifications "understand" only default
periods, so if you place two or more cards on custom periods which are
linked to the same default period, these cards will be listed as
conflicts. Pin such cards to resolve conflicts. Also,
pin "custom" cards if you don't want them to be moved by the
generator.
-
Set custom period name in the following format: "!9:15-9:45" (without
quotes)
For more information about custom periods please refer to these
blog posts or take a look
at
K-5 example
with lots of custom periods for specific grades on different days, e.g.
for the same subjects, Kindergarten has different intervals compared to
lower grades.
Subjects
course,courses,edit subject,edit course
For each subject you can specify name (e.g. "Math"), short name (e.g.
"Ma"), color and optionally other constraint properties.
If you want to forbid positions only for a specific subject and class,
create a new "combined" subject e.g. "7A Math" and then switch to the
subject master view and forbid positions for this subject. After that
you will want to use the newly created subject when adding/editing
related activities.
Difficulty can be set to Low, Medium or High and
the generator will try to avoid scheduling too
many difficult or too many easy subjects per day. Otherwise,
notifications will show adequate warnings.
If Allow subject to be taught more than once per day is
unchecked, placing two or more subject cards a day for one class will be
reported as an error, for instance, 2 cards of English on Monday for 5A
class will show an error. If there are 10 English cards for 5A in 1-week
timetable, errors are not going to be displayed, because there are more
cards than days in a cycle and it's impossible to fix these errors.
Otherwise, if this option is checked, placing a subject's card more than
once in a day will never be reported as an error.
If Insert day off if subjects is taught 2 times per week is
checked, that subject will not be scheduled on subsequent days, e.g.
having that subject on Monday and Tuesday will show an error
notification.
In case that
Insert day off if subjects is taught 3 times per week is checked,
having subject on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will cause error
notification for a specific class, whereas Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
will be valid.
If you need to add English activities that include different grades then
you can add only one subject called "English" or create combined
subject, e.g. "English 5 + 6".
classroom,classrooms
Rooms
For each room you can specify name (e.g. "Physics lab", "Bio lab",
"Playground", "Meeting room", etc.), short name, color and optionally tags
(e.g. "1st floor, lab"), capacity, building name and other constraints.
In order to group rooms, specify their room tag, e.g. "1st floor". That
way, it will be easier to select them when adding or editing activities,
e.g. you can select alternative rooms by "1st floor" tag. Multiple tags
should be separated with comma.
Room capacity represents the maximum student seat number and can be used
for optimizing room usage for students. When adding/editing activities
you can filter rooms with desired capacity.
Building name can be used to filter rooms by building when
adding/editing activities or to optimize teacher's daily moves between
buildings.
staff,educator,professor
Teachers
For each teacher you can specify name, short name, color and constraints
related to teacher's positions, load, gaps and moves.
Maximum activities in a row assures that the teacher doesn't have
more than specified number of subsequent activities.
Maximum gaps per cycle/day can minimize the number of teacher
gaps (pauses/windows) per cycle/day.
Minimum activities to allow gaps assures the teacher has a
specified number of subsequent activities before gaps (pauses/windows)
are allowed.
Maximum deviation from average daily load is used to evenly
distribute teacher's activities across the cycle. For instance, let's
say a teacher has a 5-day cycle with total of 20 activities. Average
daily load is 20 / 5 = 4. If the value is set to 1 that means that
allowed daily load can be 3, 4 or 5 activities, while 2 or 6 activities
in a day will be reported as an error because the deviation is greater
than 1.
Minimum and maximum activities per day is used to make sure the
teacher doesn't have too few or too many activities per day.
Maximum moves between buildings reduces unnecessary teacher
moves. If required, teacher moves after the gaps can be ignored.
grade,grades
Classes
For each class you can specify name (e.g. "7A", "Grade 8", "Year 9"),
short name, color and constraints related to positions, load and gaps.
When a new class is added, the following set of
groups are created: Boys and Girls and Group 1 and
Group 2.
When Forbid gaps is checked, the class will have no gaps
(pauses/windows), meaning there will be no empty periods between
activities. Otherwise, each gap will be reported as an
error.
When Start on 1st period is checked, the class activities starts
from the first period. Otherwise, gap will be reported as an
error.
Allowed difference between maximum and minimum daily activities
assures that the class has nearly the same or equal number of activities
per day. For instance, if the value is set to 1 and class has 4
activities on Monday and 6 on Tuesday, this difference of 2 activities
between days will be reported as an error as it is greater than the set
value (1).
groups,division,divisions
Groups
A class can be divided into one or more sets of groups:
- Choose Manage > Classes
- Select a class on the list
- Click Groups
Manage group sets and groups for Grade 12 IB in
United States International example
A window with group sets for the selected class is displayed.
Add will add a new group set with 2 predefined
groups and Edit opens a window to manage
groups for the selected group set. For each group you can specify name and
short name.
Copy will copy selected group set(s) to
other classes.
Students
learner,pupil,junior,scholar,add student
- Choose Manage > Classes
- Select a class on the list
- Click Students
Each student has name, short name and groups it belongs to. By adding
activities for groups, students belonging to these
groups will be assigned to these activities as well.
Students can be imported,
sorted, reordered,
printed and you can view their
statistics.
Alternatively, students can be managed as classes or groups. For
instance, students are managed as classes in
English College Example
as there are fewer students.
lesson,lessons,activities,section,assignment,assign,allocate,allocation
Activities
Choose Manage > Activities to manage and filter activities or
view statistics. When adding, editing or copying
activities the following information can be specified:
- Teacher(s)
- Subject
- Class(es) and/or group(s)
-
Number of activities per cycle represents the total number of
recurring activities in one cycle (5 days for 1-week, 10 days for 2-week
schedule, etc.), for instance, a class can have 5 English lessons in a
cycle
-
Activity length can be Single, Double,
Triple and so on depending on default period interval, for
instance, if default period interval is 30 minutes and activity lasts 1
hour, length should be set to Double
- Desired and alternative room(s)
More... buttons allow you to add activities
with more teachers, classes, groups and rooms. For instance, more teachers
are needed for teacher meeting and more classes are
needed for lunch.
By adding activities you are creating cards in the related views that you
can freely drag to the desired time slot or let the
generator create the schedule for you.
With a couple of adds you can add any combination of activities and
their length. Let's say Math teacher John has 4 Single and 2 Double
activities in Grade 5:
-
Choose Manage > Activities > Add and select Math, Teacher John,
Grade 5, 4 times per cycle, Single length and click
Add
-
Repeat the above, add another activity and again select Math, Teacher
John, Grade 5, but this time choose 2 times per cycle and Double
length
The majority of activities require only one desired room. If the desired
room is unavailable, the generator will try to allocate the activity in
alternative rooms.
Otherwise, click
More... to add more desired rooms, e.g.
Physical education might require Sports Hall and Gym.
Click "Total: " above the activities grid to switch between full and
short names.
recess,snack,break,cafeteria
Lunch
In order to manage lunch, snack, recess, break or similar, add a new
period e.g. "Lunch" and place pinned cards there or forbid the whole
period.
meetings
Teacher meeting
There are two common ways to manage meetings: add one activity for several
teachers or add meeting activity for each teacher separately and then clip
related cards.
- Add "Teacher meeting" as a subject
-
Add new activity
- Set Teacher meeting as a subject
-
Assign related teachers by clicking
More...
- Leave classes/groups empty
- Optionally add desired room
-
Switch to teacher master view and drag meeting cards to desired
position and optionally pin them
-
Add teacher meeting as a new
activity for each teacher separately
-
Switch to teacher master view and drag meeting cards to desired
position
-
Clip related meeting cards so they are
scheduled/dragged together
History
The state(s) of timetables can be controlled by using the Undo/Redo
commands and the History panel. To undo the latest action click
. To redo the latest undone action click
. To display or hide the History panel click
.
Use History panel to jump to any recent state of the timetable created
during the current working session. Each time you apply a change to
timetable, the new state is added to the panel. For example, if you drag a
card, draw constraints, improve timetable, each of those states is listed
separately in the panel. When you select one of the states, the timetable
reverts to how it was when that change was first applied. You can then
work from that state. Once you reopen or save the document, all states
from the working session are cleared from the panel. If needed, History
panel can be resized and dragged elsewhere.
Use History panel to undo/redo several actions at once
History remembers the previous 100 states. Adjust the number in the
options.
Any action that causes a change to data will be listed in the History
panel. Instantly saved actions, such as publishing timetable, changing
school name and choosing a different skin will not be listed.
The oldest state is displayed at the top of the list, while the most
recent one is at the bottom. When you select a state, the states below
it are dimmed. This way you can see which changes will be discarded if
you continue working from the selected state.
report,reports,track,tracking,hours
Statistics
- Choose Manage > Activities
-
Total number of resources, activities and hours is displayed above the
activities grid
-
Click the class icon above the grid to cycle through classes, teachers,
rooms and subjects statistics
-
Open class combo to filter activities by specific class and
group/student and see their total activities count and total hours
-
Click the class icon above activities grid to filter activities by
teacher
-
Select a teacher from the combo to filter their activities and see the
total activities count and total working hours
Teacher's activities can be filtered by specific subject in case they
teach two or more subjects.
- Choose Manage > Activities
- Set desired filter above the grid
-
Click TXT icon to export report in tab separated values file which you
can copy/paste or open with spreadsheet app to customize and print
Based on selected filters you can export statistics for classes,
teachers, rooms or subjects, as well as individual class, group,
student, teacher, room or subject statistics. Individual statistics
provide more details, e.g. if a teacher teaches two or more subjects,
the statistics will be displayed for each subject separately. If some
activities are not scheduled, total hours will be approximated based on
the average period length.
7. Views
Master views
There are 4 master views: class, teacher, room and subject master view.
Each master view displays the list of related resources in the first
column along with cards in the respective rows, e.g. class master view
displays all classes and their cards and teacher master view displays all
teachers and their cards. Unscheduled cards for a resource are placed
outside of the timetable in the same row where the resource is displayed.
Click the indicator icon and then click
,
,
or
to switch to the related master view.
Individual views
In order to switch to individual class, teacher, room or subject view,
click the first column (resource name) in the related
master view. Individual class view can be filtered
by specific student or
group(s). Click student or group to view their
individual timetable and click again to remove the filter. When filtering
by students/groups, the related icons will replace the indicator icon.
Filtering 6A view to get individual student timetable for
Donna Gordon
While switching or filtering views, the browser's URL is updated
accordingly, so you can copy/paste URL and share it with others provided
they have access or the timetable is
published online. In that way you can easily
share a direct link to specific teacher, class or student timetable.
Once in the individual view, hold
CtrlCmd+↑,↓,Home,End
to navigate through other individual views. To revert to the master
view, click the first column again or select the desired view by
clicking the view indicator icon, or press Esc.
Zoom
-
Click
in the bottom right corner
-
Use vertical slider to adjust row height (master and individual views
are adjusted separately)
-
Use horizontal slider to adjust column width which helps when there are
lots of days and periods
Browser also comes with built-in
zoom:
-
Hold CtrlCmd and press
+ or - to zoom in or
zoom out
-
Hold CtrlCmd and press
0 to reset zoom to default value
8. Cards
Drag and drop
move,change,move card
- Select card by clicking it with the left mouse button
-
While keeping the left mouse button pressed, drag card to a new position
- Drop card by releasing the left mouse button
On touch devices use a finger to drag cards.
Two or more cards on the same position will be slightly rotated and a
conflict
notification will appear. Clicking a
card below will bring it on top.
Cards can only be dragged horizontally across the class, teacher and
subject master views to prevent changing the resource by mistake. Only
the room master view allows dragging cards vertically to change the
scheduled, desired or alternative room.
Select multiple cards
Select multiple cards in order to perform actions on more than one card.
For instance, drag and drop cards, or
edit multiple cards, clip,
copy, pin/unpin,
merge/split, etc. via card's context menu.
There are many ways to select multiple cards:
-
Click and drag the cursor across timetable. A rectangular marquee will
appear, with one corner where you started dragging and the opposite
corner where you stopped and all cards inside the marquee will be
selected.
-
Hold CtrlCmd while clicking cards to add or remove
cards from the selection
-
Hold CtrlCmd while clicking day, period or resource
name to (de)select the whole day, period or resource cards
-
Hold Shift while you click the last card that
you want to include in the new selection. The rectangular range between
the active card and the card that you click becomes the new selection.
Selecting multiple cards using rectangular marquee
status, status bar, card info
Card details
The details of the last selected card (or the currently mouse overed card
if there is no selection) are displayed in the bottom left corner. Icons
show/hide related
extra views. The text selects a resource in the
related grid. Click
to edit activity represented by the selected card.
Showing details of the last selected card: subject, teachers, classes and
scheduled + [desired] + (alternative) rooms
Edit cards
change,change cards,teaching
- Select one or multiple cards
- Right mouse click any selected card and choose Edit cards
-
Change subject, teacher(s), class(es)/group(s), length, desired or
alternative rooms
- Click Edit
substitute,substitution,absence
-
Switch to teacher master view and hold
CtrlCmd while
clicking teacher name to select all teacher's cards
-
Right mouse click any selected card and choose Edit cards
- Choose different teacher
- Click Edit
homeroom,home room
-
Switch to teacher master view and hold
CtrlCmd while
clicking teacher name to select all teacher's cards
-
Right mouse click any selected card and choose Edit cards
- Choose desired room
- Click Edit
-
Select one or multiple cards where teacher
assistant(s) are needed
-
Right mouse click any selected card and choose Edit cards
-
Click More... next to selected teacher.
Note that current selected teachers are displayed as "Current"
-
Select teacher assistant(s), click
Ok and then
Edit
repeat
Copy/paste cards
Cards can be copied from one resource/day/period to another:
- Select one or multiple cards
-
Right mouse click any selected card/day/period and choose
Copy
- Right mouse click resource name, desired day or period
- Choose Paste from the context menu
Right mouse click day to open context menu
clear,remove,delete
Clear/delete cards
-
Click the
and then click card, day, period or resource name, or
-
Right mouse click any card, day, period or resource name and choose
Clear from the context menu
Cleared cards will be placed outside the timetable, along with other
unscheduled cards.
-
Click the
and then click the top right corner, or
-
Hold
Shift key while clicking the sponge tool
-
Right mouse click unscheduled card(s) and choose
Delete from the context menu or
-
Select one or
multiple unscheduled cards and then press
CtrlCmd +
Backspace or
-
Choose Manage > Activities and click
Delete
Merge/split cards
Merge allows combining two or more cards into one, thus avoiding
conflicts:
-
Right mouse click any conflicted/rotated card to open the context menu
- Choose Merge
Two or more cards can be merged into one if they are on the same position,
have the same subject, length and rooms, but different teacher(s) and/or
class(es)/group(s).
Video tutorial: How to merge cards
Split is the opposite of merge as it creates more cards out of the one
when there is more than one group or teacher. For instance, if card has
2 teachers and 3 groups, 6 new cards will be created after split all
with only one teacher and one group. In order to split card:
- Select card(s) which have more than one teacher or group
- Right mouse click selected card(s) to open context menu
- Choose Split
Customize cards
change text,template,style,custom text,edit card text,change card
text,change card name,edit card name,rename card,card text,change text
To change the text, background color and border in any
master or individual view:
-
Right mouse click the card and choose
Customize from the context menu or
-
Choose
Print > Customize Cards
The opened customization panel shows the related card enlarged. Changing
the text, background color or border will update cards in the related
view.
Video tutorial: How to customize cards
The text inside the cards can be any combination of class, teacher, room
or subject names, their short names or even custom text. Selecting the
text options from the list will add the related text to the cards, while
clicking a row in the enlarged card will remove it.
Background card color can be picked from the current class, teacher, room
or subject, or you can choose no background color.
Card border can be set to: round, square, round (no border) and square (no
border).
- Right mouse click the selected card and choose Customize
- Choose Set custom text option from the list
-
Enter text that will be displayed in individual views
- Enter short text that will be displayed in master views
Click "Use default" button to remove custom text and use default
instead.
9. Constraints
time request,block,forbid,restrict,availability,not allowed,time
off,part-time teacher
Markers
Marker draws or erases forbidden, unwanted or mandatory positions for
classes, teachers, rooms and subjects. When a marker is selected,
previously drawn marks will color (red, yellow and blue) while the cards
fade away. To draw or erase marks click on any position in the timetable
view or any day/period/resource with a selected marker. To drop the marker
press
Esc or click outside of the timetable.
Markers can be used in any master,
individual or
extra view and
notifications will be updated upon any
change.
Forbidden (red minus), unwanted (yellow exclamation mark) and mandatory
(blue plus) marks in the teacher master view
-
Pick the eraser
to erase already drawn marks
-
Mouse over the first column in the timetable while using the marker
for
forbidden, unwanted or
mandatory positions
- Click Copy to
-
Select resources and click Ok
block,forbid,time off,time request,break
Red marker
In order to draw forbidden positions for specific resources:
- Switch to the desired view
-
Pick the red marker
to draw/erase minus signs
Forbidden positions are useful when you want to specify when a part-time
teacher is not available, or to avoid students having the last period on
Friday, or to mark already booked room, or to avoid having difficult
subjects on the last period and similar.
Video tutorial: How to draw forbidden positions
Yellow marker
Drawing unwated positions is used to avoid or completely miss certain
positions for specific subject or resource:
-
Switch to the desired view and pick the yellow marker
to draw/erase unwanted positions which are displayed as yellow
exclamation marks
-
Mouse over the first column (resource name) to open unwanted settings
- Set allowed number of unwanted activities per week/day
If allowed number of unwanted activities per week/day is set to
Arbitrary which is a default value, unwanted positions will be
completely ignored by the generator.
-
Choose Open > Open Examples and open
Example 3
where all classes have 2 lessons of Physics per week
- Switch to the subject master view and pick the yellow marker
-
Note that there are 5 drawn unwanted marks displayed as exclamation
marks for Physics at the end of every day
-
Mouse over Physics subject to note that
Allowed number of unwanted activities per week is set to 1
This means that only one lesson of Physics per class is allowed at the
last period. Otherwise, there will be a warning when clicking the
bell icon and the
automatic generator will try to fix this
constraint for you.
Blue marker
Drawing mandatory positions is used to favor or mandate certain positions
for specific subject or resource:
-
Switch to the desired view and pick the blue marker
to draw/erase mandatory positions which are displayed as blue plus signs
-
Mouse over the first column (resource name) to open mandatory settings
-
Set allowed number of missed mandatory activities per week/day
If allowed number of missed mandatory activities is set to
Arbitrary which is a default value, mandatory positions will be
completely ignored by the generator.
Marker settings when mandatory marker is selected
-
Choose Open > Open Examples and open
Example 3
where all classes have 2 lessons of Physics per week
- Switch to the subject master view and pick the blue marker
-
Note that there are 15 drawn mandatory marks (plus signs) for Physics
(3 first periods x 5 days)
-
Mouse over Physics subject to note that 'Allowed number of missed
mandatory activities per week' is set to 14
This means that one lesson (15 mandatory - 14 allowed to be missed = 1
mandatory) of Physics per class must be placed within the first three
periods. Otherwise, there will be a warning when clicking the bell icon
and the automatic generator will try to fix this constraint for you.
lock cards, fix cards
Pin
-
Click
and then click card(s), day(s), period(s) or resource(s) you want to
pin/unpin, or
-
Right mouse click any card, day, period, resource and choose Pin/Unpin
from the context menu
The pin is useful when you are satisfied with the position of card(s) and
want to make sure that these cards won't be moved while
improving the timetable. Additionally, by
pinning conflicted (rotated) cards related error
notifications will be removed. Also, pinned unscheduled cards will be
ignored by the generator. To drop the pin press
Esc or click an empty cell.
Video tutorial: How to pin cards
join,clipping,link,relation
Clip
Clipped cards have a little clip icon in the top left corner and will be
scheduled, selected, dragged and removed all together. Clipping can be
useful for electives, e.g. when one class group has French and the other
German language (see
Example 3) or when two or more activities from different classes needs to be
scheduled at the same time. In order to clip two or more cards:
Video tutorial: How to clip cards
Only non-conflicted cards with the same length and which are on the same
day and period but have different set of teachers and classes can be
clipped. Otherwise, the clip won't be visible in the context menu.
- Right mouse click any already clipped card
- Choose Unclip
- Click any already clipped card
-
Hold CtrlCmd to add additional cards to selection
- Right mouse click any selected card
- Choose Clip
10. Generate
Improve timetable
generator,solver,builder,optimizer,creator,scheduler,engine,optimize,play,module,automatic
Click
to start improving the timetable. The automatic generator will try to find
the best solution by rearranging cards in order to solve all constraints
and avoid any conflicts.
Video tutorial: How to automatically generate a school timetable
-
Hold Shift key while clicking
-
Use keyboard shortcut: CtrlCmd + Shift +
Space
-
Clear all cards and then click
Best practices
-
First generate a timetable with no constraints at all and then gradually
add them. If the timetable can't be generated even without constraints
revise your entered data by checking
statistics.
-
The generator will always try to find a better solution no matter how
hard the constraints. If there is no progress for a couple of seconds or
so, stop the generator and revise constraints or data.
-
Always follow basic timetabling rule:
One school resource during one period can be scheduled in only one
activity, otherwise, there is a conflict. If you need more resources click
More... to add
activities with more than one group, class,
teacher or room.
-
As long as there are cards scheduled on forbidden positions, card
conflicts or class gaps, the generator will not be working on improving
the rest of the timetable because of
priorities
-
Click
to open notifications and start
resolving them, e.g. pin or
merge conflicted/rotated cards, or mark gap
position as forbidden, or
clip elective cards
-
Keep in mind that all changes can be reverted using
history
Improvement priorities
Automatic generator is supposed to solve about thirty highly complex
requirements. Since these are commonly conflicted and it is usually
impossible to solve them all, priority levels have been introduced, which
the generator manages in the following way:
lower priority requirements will not be solved as long as there are
unsolved higher priority requirements.
The problem is that the generator is not always capable of detecting that
some requirements cannot be satisfied and will keep trying to solve them
at all costs, perpetually working without progress, leaving the rest of
the timetable in poor state. That's why it is necessary to prepare quality
data in order to help the generator do its best. Notifications are an
irreplaceable tool for this task. However, some of the oversights made
while entering data cannot be seen even in the notifications. The problem
can be solved only if you abide by the following rules:
-
Do not expect an instantly perfect timetable, because it is impossible
to know beforehand whether such timetable is even possible
-
At first, set moderate requirements and let the generator automatically
create the timetable
-
Only when you manage to get a valid timetable should you gradually
increase the requirements and start the automatic improvement again
The generator recognizes three levels of priority, each consisting of a
number of individual requirements:
1. Fatal error level
This group includes:
- card conflicts
- cards scheduled on forbidden positions
- class gaps
As long as any of these errors exist, the generator will not be working
on improving the rest of the timetable. Here are some typical beginner mistakes that should be avoided at all
costs:
-
A teacher/class has so many forbidden positions that some cards must be
placed on a forbidden time slot
-
There are more activities you want to put in a room or assign to a
teacher than the total number of periods in the timetable
-
Too many forbidden positions for a specific activity and related
resources
2. Difficult warning level
Difficult warning level includes only one item: a subject appears in some
class timetables more than once a day. You should make sure to enter as
many subjects as really taught in the school and choose the right subject
for each activity.
3. Warning level
There are over twenty different warnings that will often appear in
notifications. The generator will solve them only when all other errors
and warnings have been solved.
11. Validate
validator,verify,verification,correct,health,status
Notifications
Notification number in the bell icon
shows the total number of errors or warnings. The number is instantly
updated along with all notifications upon any change. The bell icon shows
or hides the notification list. The notification list can be dragged and
resized to best suit your device screen.
Video tutorial: How to validate a timetable
The timetable is valid if there are no notifications, which means that all
entered requirements and constraints have been resolved. The red
notification indicates that the timetable has a fatal error which needs to
be fixed, whereas the blue one represents a warning. When red or blue
notifications are clicked, related cells will blink in the view, making it
easy to spot the problem. To stop blinking click the notification category
title or click the bell icon to hide the whole notification list.
resolve,ignore,exception,error,warning,errors,warnings,clash
Resolve notifications
In some cases there might be exceptions to the rules, e.g. two or more
cards might be purposely scheduled at the same position causing a
conflict, or a class gap should be allowed only for lunch (otherwise gaps
are forbidden), or unscheduled card(s) should be ignored, etc. These
exceptions will appear on notification list and must be resolved first at
all costs, before the automatic generator can move
towards solving other constraints and conflicts.
Conflicts should be resolved by
merging cards. If merging is not possible or
desired (e.g. conflicted cards have different subject, room(s) or
length), pin conflicted/rotated cards using the
and related notifications will be removed.
Mark a gap as forbidden using the
and related notifications will be removed. Additionally, uncheck
Manage > Classes > Edit > Forbid gaps for specific classes.
The notification "subject appears more than once in a day" can be
resolved by pinning these cards or by checking
Manage > Subjects > Select specific subject > Edit > Allow subject to
be taught more than once per day.
The notification "missing groups in the class" can be resolved by
unchecking
Manage > Classes > Select specific class > Edit > Forbid gaps.
If you pin unscheduled cards the generator will
ignore them and the related notifications will be removed.
To exclude specific subject, room, teacher or class from
notifications and
improvement process:
-
Set "-" (minus without quotes) as a short name for the item you want
to exclude
-
Check
Help > Options > More options > Exclude items with short name set
to "-"
For instance, set short name to "-" for Lunch (subject) and Gym (room)
and all errors and warnings related to Lunch and Gym will be completely
ignored and won't be automatically improved.
13. Share
user,users
Share with others
Choose Share > Share with others to manage people who have access
to school timetables. The following roles are available:
The owner is a person who created the school account and has the highest
privileges. The owner can add or delete other owners, creators or viewers.
The creator can create and change timetables but can't manage, add or
delete other people who have access. The viewer can only view timetables
and is not allowed to move cards or save changes.
concurrency,multiple users,sync,multi-user
Timetablers can collaborate on the same timetable and at the same time.
All saved changes will be seamlessly synced and merged across any device
you or your colleagues might be using. For instance, one timetabler can
change a teacher's name and the other one their short name, but there will
be no overwrites after saving changes.
In the rarest edge case when merging is not possible (e.g. timetablers
have both changed the same teacher's name), the software uses "last save
wins" model: the name saved by the latter timetabler will overwrite the
name saved by the former, while all other changes will be properly
merged. Changes made to previously deleted resources will be ignored.
Publish to the Web
A teacher, class/group or student can have direct access to their
timetable simply by bookmarking the web page which shows it. Note that
individual class view can be
filtered by specific student or group. The
published web page is accessible from any device, including phones and
tablets, and is automatically updated when the timetable is saved.
Furthermore, the page will automatically refresh within minutes to make
sure the latest timetable changes have been delivered to all. In order to
publish a timetable:
- Choose Share > Publish to the Web
-
Click Publish to the Web
-
Copy and share the provided link
-
Click "View published timetable" to visit the published web page
If you need the list of links to all individual class, student, teacher
and room timetables, click
and then "Download links for individual timetables"
- Choose Share > Social Networks
-
If timetable is not published, click
Publish to the Web and
customize it by choosing skin, period format,
etc.
-
Click
or
to share timetable on Facebook or Twitter
- Choose Share > Publish to the Web
- Click Unpublish
A previously published timetable will no longer be accessible to
everyone.
Advanced customization
Timetables can be completely customized to match your school branding.
With a bit of HTML and CSS knowledge you can:
- Add custom school logo
-
Set custom font family, size and colors, e.g. to match styles in your
school website
-
Make any other HTML or CSS changes
United States International
and
United States
examples are already customized with the most common changes:
- Choose Open > Open Examples
-
Open "United States International" or "United States" example
-
Choose Open > Timetable Info and click
-
Examine Custom HTML and Custom CSS, read the comments and
copy/paste the relevant parts in your timetable but change url to your
school logo, font styles and colors
All textual fields in software supports html tags so you can set teacher
name to e.g.:
<span style="font-weight: bold; font-size:14px; color:red;">Mr. John
Cleese</span>
That will display only
Mr. John Cleese
in bold using larger font and in red color.
15. Help
Options
Choose Help > Options to customize the following:
Skin
Choose blue (default), green, red, violet, orange, pink, cyan, brown, gray
or dark skin.
time
Period format
Choose period name or number, 12-hour or 24-hour clock for displaying
period intervals in the views. For instance, if you choose 'Name or
12-hour clock', you can customize a specific period by setting period name
to e.g. "Lunch" thus overriding the default 12-hour clock display.
Default view
Set master view that will be displayed when application starts.
Save reminder
Set save reminder interval. Default is 20 minutes.
History states
Set the number of history states that you can
undo/redo.
Choose Help > Options > More options to customize the following:
Rotate conflicted cards
Set whether or not conflicted cards should be rotated (checked by
default).
Show notification number
Set whether notification number in the top right corner should be shown
or hidden.
Show tips & tricks
The owl will hoot useful info related to the current context if this
option is checked. Experienced timetablers might want to hide tips &
tricks and uncheck this option.
Exclude items with short name set to "-"
Any subject, room, teacher or class with short name set to "-" will be
completely excluded from notifications and timetable improvement process
if this option is checked. For instance, set short name to "-" (minus
without quotes) to Lunch subject or Gym room and all related
notifications will be instantly removed.
issue,problem,bug,error
Troubleshooting
-
Click
in the top right corner:
-
Click My profile to make sure that you
are logged in and that you are assigned
Creator or Owner role
-
Check your expiration date because your account might have expired
and you need to
extend subscription
lock,locked,abuse,terminate
-
Save your schedule as a local file to create
a backup on your device and optionally
save changes on our server
-
Force refresh in your browser, e.g. CtrlCmd + F5 so the
app can load properly
-
Try installing any other modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge
or Opera) and try again
-
If the issue persists,
contact us
and we will get back to you as soon as possible
Tips & tricks
prevent,loss,undo,restore,undelete,history
windows,mac,ios,ipad,iphone,android,windows phone,chromebook,linux
Desktop icon enables fast and easy access to Prime Timetable. In the
latest Chrome browser choose
Menu > More tools > Create shortcut... > Create, and the owl icon
will be added to your desktop. Shortcut can be customized so the
app starts in full screen
just like other desktop apps. For other browsers check
how to create a desktop shortcut to a website
and for tablets and phones use a feature called
add to the homescreen.
Frequently asked questions
General questions
In order to evaluate some printing/exporting options you need to open
one of our examples. Other than that, no limits.
There is no need to create more than one account. Instead, choose
Share > Share with others to
manage people who have access to school timetables.
The following roles are available: Owner, Creator and Viewer.
Data questions
Custom periods let you create flexible schedules where activity interval
depends on specific day/class/subject/teacher.
Read more about custom periods.
Check
15-minute interval example. Basically, add periods with 15-minute intervals and while adding
activities choose triple length for activities that last 45 minutes (3 *
15min = 45min). Use horizontal zoom if there are
lots of days/periods.
With a couple of adds you can add any combination of activities and
their length, e.g. choose
Manage > Activities > Add and select Math, Teacher John, Grade 5,
3 times per week, single for length and click Add button, then
repeat it, add another activity and again select Math, Teacher John,
Grade 5, but this time choose 2 times per week and double length.
Choose Manage > Activities > Add.
More... buttons allow you to add activities
with more than one teacher/class/group/room. Read more about
activities.
No. Timetablers can collaborate on the same
timetable and at the same time. All saved changes will be synchronized
and merged across any device you or your colleagues might be using.
Generator questions
If you use the clip, the cards will be
scheduled/dragged all together.
The generator will always try to find a better
solution no matter how hard the constraints. If there is no progress for
a couple of seconds or so, stop the generator and revise constraints or
data. We strongly advise to learn more about the
generator and its
priorities.
Sales questions
Saving changes is disabled, your account might be locked and after some
time your data might be deleted. If you want to continue using it,
purchase the software.
Yes. Plans are related to the total number of unique teacher names in
all created timetables.
Please do
contact us. In
general, the price is proportionally higher, e.g. for 150 teachers it is
1.5 * the price of Premium plan, for 200 teachers it is 2 * the price of
Premium plan and similar discounts are applied for multi-year purchase.
The price is related to the country where the school is located.
International schools fall under the curriculum-based pricing. For
instance, if the school follows British curriculum, the prices will be
the same as in the United Kingdom.
Yes, for multi-year purchase. If you want to take advantage of special
discounts (up to 40%), select
Basic or
Premium plan and then choose billing
term by dragging the year slider below.
2Checkout supports various
payment methods such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express,
Diners, JCB, PayPal and
many more. In some cases an 'authorization failed' error message pops up during
payment process. Here are some alternatives to consider:
-
Try another credit card or check with your bank why they stopped the
transaction. The reason might be that the purchase is marked as
suspicious. Mark the purchase as regular if you have that option in
your e-banking app.
-
Pay via PayPal: instead of entering the credit card information choose
to pay via PayPal.
-
Pay via credit card using
Payoneer service.
Send us your full name,
email, country and state (if applicable) and we will send you the
request for payment via Payoneer.
-
Wire transfer of money, we will send you the invoice with SWIFT code
and other bank and company details.
-
Check is another option, 'Pay to the order of' should be the name of
the company: "Danijel Stulic PR Micria".
-
Contact us
for more alternative payment methods.