Adding custom periods

In order to enter custom period interval(s) for specific day(s)/class(es)/subject(s)/room(s)/teacher(s) do the following:

When you enter new custom period(s), appropriate cards will be resized and repositioned based on specified custom interval.

Editing and filtering custom periods

If a timetable has custom periods, the filters will appear above the periods grid where you can choose whether to show custom periods or not. If you check “Show custom periods”, all custom periods will be listed in the grid logically and smartly grouped, e.g. all periods with the same name and intervals will be grouped in a single row. You can filter custom periods by choosing specific day and/or class/subject/room/teacher. To edit (grouped) custom periods, select period row and click Edit.

Custom period intervals displayed on the cards

If you want to display custom intervals on the cards, do the following:

Start time will be displayed in the upper left corner and end time will be in the bottom left corner of the custom cards.

Dragging custom cards

When you drag a card, the card’s shadow changes its size and position according to default or custom periods below. Thus, you will know the size and the position of dragged card before it is even dropped. In case there is more than one custom period defined for a single card, the subject custom period will have the highest priority, followed by room, teacher and class custom period.

Printing timetable with custom periods

In the Prime Timetable what you see on the screen is what is going to be printed. So, when you are finished with custom periods and optionally card designer settings, just choose: Print > Print timetable view or Print > Print all individual timetables.

Automatic timetable generator and other recommendations

Although custom periods give you the ability to create extremely flexible timetables, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. We recommend that you create a valid timetable first, and then adjust custom period intervals. Currently, custom periods are not supported in your published timetables. Using custom periods you can put 2 or more cards on the same position. At the moment, these cards are considered as conflicts by automatic timetable generator. To overcome this limitation:

• Change one of the resource’s short name to “-”.
• Check Help > Options > Exclude fake lessons while generating timetable.
• Click Ok.

Conflicted cards are rotated by default, so you might want to disable rotating conflicts:

• Uncheck Help > Options > Rotate conflicts.
• Click Ok.

Give us feedback

Wow! We didn’t even get a chance to update our Help or write this blog post and custom periods are already heavily used by many timetablers. We are excited more than ever to see what you are going to create. As always, your feedback is very much appreciated. Online user voice is open for anyone who want to participate in shaping our software. All in all, we hope you will use this feature wisely and wish you a very happy timetable customization!

• Check Owl > Help > Options > Show additional time request settings.
• Choose Owl > Manage subjects > Select specific subject in grid > Time request.
• New region Settings for unwanted and mandatory lessons will appear where you can set allowed number of unwanted or mandatory lessons per week and per day.

By setting allowed number of unwanted or mandatory lessons you are sending a directive to automatic timetable generator when to consider a timetable correct. If those numbers are set to “Arbitrary” (which is a default value), unwanted and mandatory settings will be ignored by automatic timetable generator.

Screenshot of setting mandatory (blue plus sign) and unwanted (yellow exclamation sign) lessons for Physics in Example 3

Automatic timetable generation is complicated!

It is complicated to make a machine allocate lessons that certain lecturers are to teach to certain groups of students in certain rooms and certain periods of time… and that all works out well in the end. It is that complicated that, generally, there is no solution. It is that complicated that only enthusiasts working in the field of artificial intelligence have been trying to find a solution to this problem.

PATAT conference to the rescue?

In 1995, the 1st International Conference for the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling (PATAT) was held in Napier University, Edinburgh, UK. It was the founding conference with a new one being held every third year and later every other year. So far there has been eight conferences and the ninth one will be held at Son, Norway, from 28th to 31st August, 2012. In order to better understand the complexity of the problem of “computer-aided timetable generation”, you may take a look at the official website of the ninth conference at www.patat2012.com. However, not even a series of conferences presenting the highest academic names from all over the world was enough to cope with such a difficult problem.

International Timetabling Competition

In order to intensify research in this field an “International Timetabling Competition” was organized in 2002 and held in 2003. The competition was sponsored by PATAT who offered prizes for the winners. From that year on, the competition is traditionally organized every four years. Currently, ITC2011 is being held, and since it is open for all, anyone can submit their work. In the meantime, the prizes have become even more appealing .

Euclid’s Fifth Postulate of Discrete Mathematics

Even though thousands of different experts have been dealing with the problem of automatic timetabling generation for 17 years, the problem remains unsolved. The only mathematically proven thing is the proof that the problem is unsolvable! Over the past couple of decades, the writer of this blog post has witnessed numerous unsuccessful attempts of creating an exact algorithm for school timetable generation. There are also anecdotes in which a programming teachers would give their ambitious students this problem as homework offering the highest grade as a prize until the end of their schooling. On various forums people desperately search for ”logical model for timetable generation”, “Help! I have to write a timetabling program for tomorrow”… This much resembles an unsuccessful 2000-year-old attempt to prove the parallel postulate using Euclid’s first four postulates which was “proven” by proving it can’t be proven.
The question is why organize all the conferences and competitions if the problem is unsolvable? What are we at Prime Timetable actually doing? Are we trying to solve the unsolvable? Have we succeeded? More about that and the parallels with “parallel postulate” in the future posts…

“Dear timetablers,
Hoot, hoot, a brand new Prime Timetable 4.0 is here! A unique school timetable software for Mac and Windows just got better with over 100 new features that you have requested! We hope you will enjoy using it as much as we enjoy making it. There are some really awesome and exciting features that we are eager to share.”

Print what you see

What you see on the screen is what is going to be printed. It’s simple as that. You can easily print and customize both master and individual timetable view(s). The software will automatically do the paging when printing master timetable, and print timetable on a separate page when printing individual timetables.

Card designer

Use right mouse click on a timetable card to access card designer and customize style and appearance in any master or individual timetable view. You can customize background color, displayed text and border style and it will affect what is displayed on the screen, published web page, and how the timetable is going to be printed. All settings are saved inside a timetable document so you don’t have to tweak it anymore.

Sharing timetable with others

Use Owl > Share > Share with others to share school account with other teachers, colleagues, etc. You can specify any of the following privileges for newly created users: owner, creator and viewer. The owner can manage other users, the creator can create and modify timetables and the viewer can only view timetables.

Instant validation & validation markers

Click on validate icon  to turn on instant validation which provides immediate feedback upon any timetable change! Validation results window lists all timetable imperfections grouped and sorted logically. By selecting a timetable imperfection, adequate markers are displayed in the view. Validation markers are represented by red blinking rectangles appearing in any problematic period or card in the timetable view. Markers are transparent so you can easily spot and drag problematic cards to a better position and get instant validation feedback.

Timetable collaboration in the real time

Ever wondered if it’s possible for two or more users to work on the same timetable at the same time? Well, yes it is! Welcome to the timetabling collaboration platform where you can collaborate both online and offline and let Prime Timetable do all synchronization for you.

Exchange school data with Microsoft Office and Google Docs

Do you already have school data in a Microsoft Office document? Maybe in Google Docs? No problem! Now you can easily exchange school data with Microsoft Office, Google Docs and similar software which will significantly reduce endless typing. Prime Timetable will smartly recognize the format and do the parsing for you.

Custom period labels

In the new version we have enabled adding custom period labels, e.g. “Break”, “Lunch” etc. Also, it is possible to select more working days in a week and more lessons per day, so that you can set up to e.g. 10 days with 25 lessons, or 25 days with 10 lessons each day.

Download performances

In some countries/regions there are still schools which use slower Internet connections. That’s why we have put a lot of effort into optimizing the time needed to download and view timetables. As a result, downloading and viewing timetables is 10x faster than before and is only a fraction of what it takes to open Facebook, Gmail or Hotmail. Wow. Lightning fast!

Merge timetables

If you’re a timetabler working on a campus school, you may face some extraordinary timetabling challenges, e.g. the need to create a timetable for elementary and middle schools with a possibility of some teachers and classrooms being shared in both schools at the same time! In such a case, you can work on two or more separate timetables and then merge them in order to find out if there are any conflicts with shared teachers or classrooms.

What’s on the horizon?

These are just some of the highlighted features and we are already working on some exciting new ones. Since its launch 2.5 years ago, Prime Timetable has been updated on weekly basis (!), so you can expect more goodies very soon! Thank you all for your support and great new ideas. Oh, and if you are satisfied with Prime Timetable and would like others to know about it, please spread the word. Until the next time, we wish you and yours a happy holiday season and happy timetabling!

How to print master timetable

Choose Owl > Print to print currently open timetable view (master or individual). Use Owl > Setup > Timetable info to change school name and academic year. Use mouse right click to access card designer to adjust how a timetable card is displayed in any given view. E.g. you can customize whether you want round or square corners or no border at all, choose background color and displayed text. Our software will automatically stretch timetable width to fit paper size and do paging when necessary. It is recommended to choose landscape paper orientation while printing master timetable. Use zoom to adjust timetable card height.

Printing master timetable

How to print individual timetables

If you want to print individual timetables (class, teacher, room or subject) use Owl > Print > Print all individual timetables. The software will go through all individual timetables and print them on separate pages. It is recommended to choose portrait paper orientation while printing. Use zoom to adjust timetable card height.

Reuse print settings with timetable templates

All adjustments made by card designer are saved into a timetable document, so you don’t have to tweak them again. Furthermore, creating a new timetable document will copy timetable templates from a previously opened timetable. For instance, you may want to customize a timetable template to display short names in the master timetable view(s) and full names in individual view(s).

Sharing timetables with others

The following privileges are available:

• Owner
• Creator
• Viewer

Timetable owner

Timetable owner is any user who first created the school account. The owner has the highest privileges, which include managing users. For instance, the owner can add or remove other timetable owners, creators or viewers.

Timetable creator

Timetable creator can create and change school timetables but can’t manage other users.

Timetable viewer

Timetable viewer can view school timetables and is not allowed to save any changes.

Sharing timetable with others along with timetable collaboration in real-time and publish to the web, offers unique capabilities for sharing and collaborating on your school timetables. Hope you will enjoy them. Happy timetable sharing!

Download and view timetable 10x faster

The major benefit for the teachers and students is that the timetable is downloaded and displayed 10 times faster! The Viewer takes only 250KB which is just a fraction of what it takes to open Facebook, Gmail or Hotmail. It takes only 1-2 seconds on average Internet connection to download Prime Timetable Viewer.

You won't even notice download progress anymore

Prime Timetable Viewer

The Viewer loads and displays the timetable. It shows the title and animated timetable cards. View indicator lets you choose different master timetable views and if there are any conflicts those cards will be rotated. In general, the Viewer is all you need to look into various timetable views and while you are at it, in the background, the Maker is downloading and the progress is displayed in the upper left corner.

Progress of downloading Prime Timetable Maker

Prime Timetable Maker

The Maker is responsible for all other scheduling work: managing school data, automatic school timetable generator, instant timetable validation, extra views, print, drag & drop cards, etc. When the Maker is downloaded, the menu and all other timetabling tools appear and you can start working with them.

Once our software is started for the first time, both the Viewer and the Maker are cached by the browser, so the next time you open Prime Timetable it happens instantly – without any download at all! Even previously opened timetables are cached and immediately opened.

We have really tried to bring you the best downloading performances and are looking forward to your feedback. Hope you will enjoy instant timetable viewing as much as we have enjoyed making it!

Merging two timetables in Prime Timetable is easy:

• Open base timetable
• Choose Owl > Import > Merge with other timetable
• Select the other timetable and click Merge.

Correct elementary and middle school timetable before merging

What will happen in the merging process? If there is already a teacher, room, class or subject with the same name in the base timetable, it will be used as it is; otherwise, it will be added. Periods and days are also going to be merged based on the same name. If a period doesn’t have a specified name then it will be merged based on what’s displayed on the screen; e.g. period interval or period number. Furthermore, all lessons from the second timetable will be added to the base timetable.

Merged school timetable with displayed conflicts for shared teacher and room

After merging, conflicts for shared teachers and classrooms can be easily spotted in the teacher and room views, so that the timetabler can fix them. This is where instant timetable validation helps tremendously.

Hey, that’s all for now! Let us know if merging timetables suit your needs. Request for merging timetables as well as 50+ others have been implemented based on Prime Timetable online feedback. So, thank you all for your suggestions and ideas (keep them coming!) and happy merging.

To open the card designer choose ‘Owl > Print > Card designer’ or just use mouse right click on the timetable card. Card designer form shows the enlarged selected card with the options to customize its appearance and style. After any style change, the enlarged card will be refreshed as well as the current view, so you get instant preview of the new appearance.

Customizing school timetable template for the class using card designer

Background card color can be from the current class, teacher, room or subject or you can choose no background color, which is useful in some printing scenarios.

Card text can be a group, class, teacher, room or subject name or short name. Selecting the card text from a list will add it to the card, while clicking the text in the enlarged card removes it. Thus you can completely customize the text shown in the card as well as text order. Group text can be added only in the individual or main class view and will be shown only if the card represents a group and not the entire class.

Card border can be set to: round, square, round (no border) and square (no border). Please note that if you choose no background color and no border you can still drag & drop such a card.

Customizing school timetable template for teachers main view

The best part is that all style changes are preserved and saved into the current timetable document as a timetable template. So, once you have customized the card appearance and saved timetable changes, the published web page will pick up the new styles as well. And you know what? Prime Timetable needs no print preview at all, because what you see on the screen is what is going to be printed, so by customizing the card appearance you are customizing timetable print output too!

Last but not the least, when you create a new document, or import timetable in the new document, all timetable style settings will be copied so you don’t have to tweak styles again.

We hope that the highly flexible card designer will allow you to create timetable templates that meet all your school requirements. Otherwise, please drop us a line in the comments below or add your suggestion in customer feedback. We wish you a very happy timetable customization!

It takes only one click on validate icon to turn on instant validation. That means you get an instant validation feedback upon any timetable change. Just drag & drop any card or start the automatic generator to see the validation results immediately! You can even drag & drop cards in extra view, use undo/redo, change time requests or timetable data, open another timetable or do just about anything and still get instant validation feedback. Awesome, isn’t it?

If there are no validation errors and warnings, the timetable is valid and you’re good to go. Otherwise, the validation results window will list all timetable imperfections grouped and sorted logically and if you click any of them you will get markers displayed in the view.

Validation results window on the right and validation marker displayed in the last timetable row as a flashing red rectangle pointing to a card conflict

Validation markers are red blinking rectangles surrounding problematic period(s) in the timetable view. Since they are transparent you can still easily spot and drag problematic cards to a better position.

Some validation errors are more easily understood in another timetable view, e.g. teacher conflict can be spotted only in the teacher view. Our software will automatically change the main timetable view into teacher view and scroll to that validation conflict. If the extra teacher view is already open, it will be used for teacher conflicts leaving the main view as it is.

Dragging a problematic card in order to fix teacher windows and getting instant validation feedback

We hope that these unique validation tools will maximize your timetabling efficiency and minimize your stress. Happy instant timetable validation!