2. Account
account,trial
Free sign up
To evaluate the software and see if it meets your school needs,
you first need to sign up:
-
Click Sign up on the
home page
- Choose Free plan
-
Type your email address and desired password and optionally
provide school info
- Click Start my free month
By signing up you get a 30-day free trial and premium support
included. Support team will contact you shortly after the sign up
to provide you with the necessary guidance and answer any question
you might have.
login,sign in
Log in
To start Prime Timetable you need to log in first:
-
Click Log in in the header of the
home page
- Enter your email and password
- Click Log In
After successful login, the last opened timetable will be
displayed.
forget,forgot,lost,account,retrieve
Forgot password
-
Go to forgot password page
-
Type your email and click Send code
-
An email containing a code (random alphanumeric string) will be
sent to you
-
Copy and paste the code from the email and enter the new
password
- Click Change password
Login window will open where you can log in using the new
password.
Log out
To leave the app:
-
Click
in the top right corner
- Click Log out
Your session will end and
home page will show up.
user,account
Profile
-
Click
in the top right corner and then
My profile
-
Set your email and password used for login, and your first and
last name
- Click Edit
zip
Download my data
One of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) rights is
Right to Data Portability:
-
Click
in the top right corner, then
My profile and then
- Click Create archive
- Click Download now
Created archive is available for download for the next 24 hours
and contains all your data: school info, timetables, users and
communication with support team.
Delete school account
gdpr,terminate,unsubscribe,deactivate,cancel,cancellation
request,suspension,termination,disposal,erase
Right to Erasure or Right to be Forgotten (one of
General Data Protection Regulations rights) have user with the
Owner role who can delete school
account by following below steps:
-
Click
in the top right corner, then
My profile and then
-
Click Delete school account and
confirm
The whole account including timetables, users and all related
school data will be deleted in the next two weeks.
School info
By signing up a new school account is created
that can be
shared with other colleagues and teachers. In order to provide more info about your school:
-
Click
in the top right corner
-
Click Purchase and then select Free
plan
-
Click Add more info in "Step 2. School account info"
-
Enter your school name, address, contact name, phone and other
info
-
Click Continue evaluation to save
changes
If there is more than one account for your school,
contact us to
merge them.
Extend subscription
If subscription is about to expire or free evaluation period is
over:
- Go to plans and pricing
-
Select Basic (up to 40 teachers) or
Premium plan (up to 100 teachers)
-
If you want to take advantage of special discounts, choose
billing term by dragging year slider
- If you are not logged in enter your email and password
- Click Buy from 2Checkout
You will be redirected to 2Checkout form where you can purchase
the software online.
2Checkout supports Visa,
MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Diners, JCB, PIN debit
cards with the Visa or MasterCard logo, Debit cards with the Visa
or MasterCard logo and PayPal.
Contact us
for alternative payment methods.
windows,mac,ios,ipad,iphone,android,windows phone,chromebook,linux
Create application shortcut
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 that
app starts in the full window
just like 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.
5. Data
rotated,rotation,day A,day B,cycle,rotating,6 day,5 day
Days
- Click day name in the view or choose Manage > Days
For each day set name and short name.
E.g. for 1-week timetable set 5 days, for 2-week timetable set 10
days and so on. If there are many days and periods use
horizontal zoom to focus on
specific day(s).
Instead of creating all-in-one timetable sometimes it could be
more practical to create one timetable for each semester, term,
month or week and then create a copy to modify
it for the next semester, term, month or week.
Days can be imported and
reordered with arrows in the bottom right
corner of the grid. Rename day to e.g. '9/5/2019' instead of
'Monday' if you need the actual dates.
Periods
time slot,time,times,bell
-
Click period name in the view or choose Manage > Periods
For each period set start/end time and optionally name. For start
and end time use 24-hour clock, e.g. instead of 01:15 set 13:15.
Choose
Help > Options > Period format to
control how periods will be displayed in the view.
If the number of periods vary from day to day, set the maximum
number of periods for all days and then use
to forbid positions that are not allowed.
If some activities last 45 minutes and others 15 minutes, add
periods with 15-minute intervals and while adding
activities choose triple length that last
45 minutes (3 * 15min = 45min).
If lower, middle and high schools have different period intervals
consider creating a separate timetable for each school and
optionally merge them later or
use custom periods
Periods can be imported,
sorted and reordered.
In order to quickly add lots of e.g. 15-minute period intervals:
-
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
In order to add custom period interval for specific day(s) and/or
resource(s):
-
Click on a default period for which you want to add another
custom interval and then click Add
- Set start and end time
- Choose class, subject, room, or teacher custom period
-
Choose days and/or classes, subjects, rooms or teachers where
the new interval applies
- Click Ok
Video tutorial: How to use custom periods
If a timetable has custom periods, the filters will appear above
the periods grid. Check show custom periods and choose
specific day and/or class, subject, room or teacher to filter
custom periods.
When custom period(s) are added, related cards will be resized and
repositioned based on specified custom interval and their related
default period. Choose
Owl > Help > Options > Period format > 12-hour or 24-hour
clock
to display custom interval within these cards in 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.
Notifications "understand" only
default periods, so if you place two or more cards on custom
periods which are all related 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.
In order to change the related default period, select a custom
period(s) and click up/down arrow in the bottom right corner of
the periods grid. Custom text can be displayed in the top and
bottom left corner of cards if custom period name is set in the
following format: "!10:45-11:20".
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
Click Add to add a new subject, or
select the existing subject to edit, delete or copy using the
buttons on the right. Each subject has the following properties:
- Name, e.g. Math
- Short name
- Color
- Difficulty: Low, Medium or High
- Allow subject to be taught more than once per day
- Insert day off if subject is taught 2 times per week
- Insert day off if subject is taught 3 times per week
The generator will try to optimize each
day so that students don't get 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.
classroom
Rooms
Click Add to add a new room, or select
the existing room to edit, delete or copy using the buttons on the
right. Each room has the following properties:
-
Name, e.g. "Computer lab", "Physics lab", "Bio lab", "Conference
room", "Playground", "Meeting room", etc.
- Short name
- Color
- Tags, e.g. "1st floor, lab"
- Capacity
- Building name
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. Multiple tags should be separated with comma.
Room capacity represents maximum student seat number and can be
used for optimizing room usage for students.
Building name can be used to optimize daily moves between
buildings.
staff,educator,professor
Teachers
Click Add to add a new teacher, or
select the existing teacher to edit, delete or copy using the
buttons on the right. Each teacher has the following properties:
- Name, e.g. John Smith
- Short name
- Color
- Maximum activities in a row
- Maximum gaps per cycle
- Maximum gaps per day
- Minimum activities to allow gaps
- Maximum deviation from average daily load
- Minimum activities per day
- Maximum activities per day
- Maximum moves between buildings
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
Click Add to add a new class, or
select the existing class to edit, delete or copy using the
buttons on the right. Each class has the following properties:
- Name, e.g. 7A or Grade 8 or Year 9
- Short name
- Color
- Start on 1st period
- Forbid gaps
- Whether groups have to finish activities at the same time
-
Allowed difference between maximum and minimum daily activities
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.
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).
When adding a new class, the following set of groups will be
created: Boys and Girls and Group 1 and Group 2.
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
groups already added. Delete will
delete selected group set(s).
Copy will copy selected group set(s)
to other classes.
Edit opens a window to manage groups
for the selected group set. Add will
add a new group. Edit allows changing
group's name and short name.
Delete will delete selected groups (at
least two groups are required). Both group sets and groups can be
reordered by using up and down arrows in the bottom right corner
of the grid.
In
Example 3
5-A class is divided into French and German groups, and related
cards are clipped so they will always be
scheduled on the same position. In
Egypt example
11A class is divided into Art, Cooking and Music groups.
Students
add student,change student,edit student
Students can be managed in two ways:
In
English College Example
students are managed as classes. The other option is to manage
students as groups, e.g. here is direct link to
5A class. Click the class icon in the top left corner to filter
activities by groups/students.
lesson,lessons,activities,section,assignment,assign,allocate,allocation
Activities
Choose Manage > Activities to manage activities and
view statistics. In order to speed up the
process it's recommended to
import activities via Excel/Sheets. Alternatively, add activities for one class and then
copy and
edit cards for other related classes or
leave the desired room empty and
assign teachers to their homeroom later.
Subjects, teachers, classes, groups and rooms are displayed in the
grid using full names by default. Click "Total: " above the grid
to switch between full and short names.
When adding, editing or copying activities the following
information can be specified:
- Teacher(s)
- Subject
- Class(es) and/or group(s)
- Activities per cycle count
- Activity length: single, double, triple, etc.
- Desired room(s)
- Alternative room(s)
Click More... to add more teachers,
e.g. two teachers might be needed for Physical education.
Activity can have any number of classes/grades and/or groups.
Choose Manage > Classes > Groups to manage class
groups. In
Example 3, French and German groups are clipped so
that they will always be scheduled on the same position, and 2
classes have Physical education (PE) at the same time. Right mouse
click these cards and choose Edit activity to better
understand the example.
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.). E.g. 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. E.g. if default period interval is 30
minutes and activity lasts 1 hour, length should be set to double.
The majority of activities require only one desired room. If more
than one room is required click
More... to add more rooms, e.g.
Physical education might require Sports Hall and Gym. If desired
room is unavailable, the generator will try to allocate the
activity in alternative rooms.
recess,snack,break,cafeteria
Lunch
In order to manage lunch, snack, recess, break or similar a new
period should be added (e.g. "Lunch"). There are two common ways
to manage lunch: lunch as pinned cards and lunch as forbidden
positions.
Lunch as pinned cards
Kindergarten through 5th grade example
shows lunch as pinned cards
Lunch as forbidden positions
United States International example
shows lunch as forbidden periods
meetings
Teacher meeting
There are two common ways to manage teacher meetings: add one
activity for several teachers or add meeting activity for each
teacher separately and then clip related cards.
Meeting as activity with several teachers
- 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
appropriate position and optionally pin them
Meeting as clipped teacher cards
-
Add teacher meeting as a new
activity for each teacher separately
-
Switch to teacher master view and drag meeting cards to
appropriate position
-
Clip related meeting cards so they are
scheduled/dragged together
Select multiple 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
order,move up,move down,alphabetic,ascending,descending
Sort and reorder
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
To reorder items in the grid:
- Select item(s) in the grid
-
Use up and down arrows in the bottom right corner of the grid to
reorder selected items
Undo and 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.
Use History panel to undo/redo several actions at once
Keep the following in mind when using the History panel:
-
Publishing timetable, changing school name, skin,
switching/zooming views, dragging/resizing windows and similar,
are not reflected in the History panel.
-
Once you reopen or save the document, all states from the
working session are cleared from the panel.
-
States are added to the bottom of the list. That is, the oldest
state is at the top of the list, the most recent one at the
bottom.
-
Each state is listed with related icon and the name of the tool
or command used to change the timetable.
-
When you select a state, the states below it are dimmed. This
way you can easily see which changes will be discarded if you
continue working from the selected state.
-
Selecting a state and then changing the timetable eliminates all
states that come after it.
-
If needed, History panel can be resized and dragged elsewhere.
-
History panel lists the previous 100 states by default. The
number of remembered history states can be changed in the
options.
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 finger to drag cards.
If there is already a card on the drop position, those conflicted
cards will be slightly rotated. Clicking the bottom card in
conflicted group will bring it to the front.
Select multiple cards
Select multiple cards in order to perform bulk actions on more
than one card, like multiple drag and drop,
edit cards, clip,
copy, pin/unpin,
merge/split etc. using 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.
-
On touch device, hold card with one finger while tapping other
cards, day, period or resource name with other fingers
Selecting multiple cards using rectangular marquee
Click empty cell to reset selection or click any non-selected card
without CtrlCmd or
Shift key pressed to start a new
selection.
status
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 rooms + [desired rooms] + (alternative
rooms)
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 (Tuesday in the screenshot) and choose Paste
from the context menu to copy the selected cards into the specific
day
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
substitution,absence
Substitute teacher:
-
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
homerooms
Assign a homeroom to a teacher:
-
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
Add teacher assistant(s):
-
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
clear,delete
Remove cards
-
Click the
and then click card(s), day(s), period(s) or resource(s),
-
Right mouse click any card(s), day, period or resource and
choose Remove from the context menu or
-
Select one or multiple cards and then press
CtrlCmd +
Backspace
Removed card(s) will be placed outside the timetable, along with
other unscheduled cards.
In order to remove all cards from the timetable click the top
right corner with sponge selected.
Alternatively, hold Shift key while clicking the sponge tool.
Delete cards
-
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 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 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. Choose Set custom text option from the
list to enter custom text to the selected card(s) that will be
displayed in individual views and custom short text that will be
displayed in master views. Click "Use default" button to remove
custom text and use default instead.
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).
Customization changes are also saved in the timetable document.
Creating a new document will copy the customization from the
previously opened one.
9. Constraints
time request,block,forbid,restrict,availability,not allowed,time
off,part-time teacher
Use markers to draw constraints
Marker draws or erases forbidden, unwanted or mandatory card
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 master teacher view
block,forbid,time off,time request,break
Draw forbidden positions
-
Pick the red marker
to draw/erase forbidden positions
Video tutorial: How to draw forbidden positions
Draw unwanted positions
-
Pick the yellow marker
to draw/erase unwanted positions (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.
Draw mandatory positions
-
Pick the blue marker
to draw/erase mandatory positions (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
Copy marks to other resources
-
Mouse over the first column while using the red, blue or yellow
marker
- Click Copy to
- Select resources and click Ok
Erase marks
-
Pick the eraser
to erase already drawn marks
lock cards, fix cards
Pin cards
The pin
is useful when you are satisfied with the position of card(s) and
want to make sure that those cards won't be moved while
improving the timetable. Click the pin and
then click card(s)/day(s)/period(s)/resource(s) you want to
pin/unpin, or right mouse click any card/day/period/resource and
choose pin/unpin from the context menu. To drop the pin press
Esc or click an empty cell.
Additionally, related conflict notifications will be removed by
pinning conflicted/rotated cards. Also,
pinned unscheduled cards will be ignored by the generator.
Video tutorial: How to pin cards
join,clipping,link,relation
Clip cards
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
In order to unclip cards:
- Right mouse click any already clipped card
- Choose Unclip
Unclipping already clipped French and German groups
In order to add cards to existing clip relation:
- 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. Total generation progress
is displayed in the window title as well as progress for specific
categories: card conflicts, forbidden positions, class gaps, same
day subjects, unwanted or mandatory positions, class and teacher
warnings. During the generation process,
pinned cards won't be moved.
Hold Shift key while clicking the play icon
to remove all non-pinned cards and start generation from scratch.
Video tutorial: How to automatically generate a school timetable
Improvement tips & tricks
-
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/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. Conflict or
gap exceptions should be resolved first. For example, if you pin
conflicted/rotated cards with
or mark gap position as forbidden with
, related notifications will be removed.
-
Instead of pinning, a more convenient way to resolve conflicts
is to merge cards: right mouse click
the rotated card and choose Merge from the card's context
menu. When you clip two or more cards, they
will always be scheduled on the same position.
-
Changes can be reverted by using
undo/redo icons
and there is also a history icon
which lets you see all previous changes and undo more actions at
once.
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
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.
Resolve 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.
Resolve gaps
Mark a gap as forbidden using the
and related notifications will be removed. Additionally, uncheck
Owl > Manage > Classes > Edit > Forbid gaps for specific classes.
Resolve subject warnings
The notification "subject appears more than once in a day" can be
resolved by checking
Manage > Subjects > Select specific subject > Edit > Allow
subject to be taught more than once per day.
Resolve missing groups
The notification "missing groups in the class" can be resolved by
unchecking
Manage > Classes > Select specific class > Edit > Forbid
gaps.
Resolve unscheduled cards
The notification "unscheduled cards" can be resolved by
pinning unscheduled cards. The generator will
ignore pinned unscheduled cards.
Exclude resources
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
Owl > Help > 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.