School scheduling/timetabling software
Posts tagged school timetable software
Brand new Prime Timetable 4.0
Dec 18th
“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!
Print timetable – print what you see
Dec 13th
In Prime Timetable 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 timetables.
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).
Share school timetable with others
Dec 13th
Ok, so you’ve created a school account and would like to share it with other timetablers, teachers, colleagues, etc. Prime Timetable makes sharing school account easy. Just choose Owl > Share > Share with others to manage users who have access to timetables. In order to share timetables with teachers, colleagues, or someone else you need to enter their email and password, select privileges, and optionally enter first and last names. After sign-in, the newly created user can change their profile using Owl > Profile.
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!
Merging school timetables
Sep 24th
Timetablers working in campus school face unique timetabling challenges, e.g. they need to create a timetable for elementary and middle school and at the same time some teachers and classrooms may be shared in both schools! One option is to create a single combined timetable for all schools, but it has some obvious drawbacks: e.g. how to print separate timetables or share such combined timetable with students and teachers. It seems that a better option is to work on two separate timetables and then merge them in order to find out if there are any conflicts with shared teachers or classrooms.
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.
Customizing school timetable template using card designer
Sep 9th
We have received a lot of feedback on how you would like to represent a lesson in the school timetable software. For example, a university may need to show a teacher, subject and room all in one card in the class view, while in a primary school showing a subject alone is sufficient. A college may need to show only the class in the teacher view (sometimes adding room is desired), while in private schools (e.g. dance school, music school, etc.) there is also a need for adding a subject. Some schools need different order of items; in lots of cases there is a significant difference between showing a lesson in main or in single (individual) timetable. Also, there are numerous requirements for different background colors, card borders, etc. In the Prime Timetable we have come up with a flexible solution called the card designer that gives a timetabler the full power to set how timetable will be displayed on the screen, on the printed page and published web page.
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!
Instant timetable validation
Aug 4th
Creating a timetable can be a stressful task. For instance, are you able to remember forbidden positions for class, teacher, room or subject? Do you have an eye to spot the same subject appearing on consequent days or even the same day!? Are you sure that all teachers and classes have an allowed number of lessons and windows in your timetable? Do you have too many hard or too many easy subjects in one day? Are all rooms properly scheduled without conflicts? Is your timetable more or less valid when you reschedule a lesson? The questions and doubts go on and on. With Prime Timetable you can solve all these problems by utilizing excellent validation tools that will assist you all the way: instant validation and validation markers are a perfect fit for the timetabling job. Read on!
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!
Exchange school data with Microsoft Office and Google Docs
Jul 11th
Prime Timetable makes it easy to exchange school data with other software, whether you need to import or export. In both cases exchanging data reduces needless retyping.
How to import school data from Microsoft Office and Google Docs?
Whenever you open an empty timetable the owl will remind you about all importing options, so you don’t have to remember them.
Empty timetable on the left and copying teachers from Microsoft Excel on the right
Typically, you would want to import, e.g. list of teachers already entered in Microsoft Excel or Word or Google Docs. Make a selection, copy (Ctrl + C) and paste it (Ctrl + V) into the proper (teacher’s) data grid in the Prime Timetable. Our software will smartly recognize the format and do the parsing and importing for you.
Teachers pasted into Prime Timetable via Ctrl + V keyboard shortcut
If your data is stored in CSV (comma separated value) file, just drag that file from your desktop directly into the data grid and that’s it. Again, the software will recognize the format and import all data.
Copy and paste works across all data grids in our software, which means you can copy rows from one timetable and paste them into another one.
How to export school data to Microsoft Office and Google Docs?
You can export any data from Prime Timetable into Microsoft Office and Google Docs. Just select the desired data grid rows, copy (Ctrl + C) and paste them (Ctrl + V) into e.g. Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word. Data grid header will also be included as displayed in the screenshot below.
Teachers exported from Prime Timetable into Microsoft Excel using copy and paste
We believe that exchanging data with widely used software (Microsoft Office, Google Docs and others) will significantly improve your efficiency. Happy data exchanging!
Timetable collaboration in real-time
Jul 2nd
All school timetable softwares (apart from one 
) are desktop applications which don’t allow multiple user access, e.g. you only get one license per computer, so only one user can run the application. Contrary to traditional timetable software, Prime Timetable is an innovative and modern online school timetable software that can be accessed from anywhere via Internet connection. That means that you can access it from your school, home computer or mobile. But, that’s not all: you can share your timetable with other teachers and collaborate simultaneously with all of them! Frankly, we were a bit taken by surprise that timetable collaboration has already been widely used among timetablers. We have seen scenarios where timetablers collaborate on the same timetable (!) from different countries (vacation, business trip, etc.). But how does it work?
To simulate multi-user collaboration just sign-in and open the same timetable in two tabs or browsers as illustrated in the screenshot below.
Simulating collaboration on the same timetable at the same time with two browsers side by side
Notice that the first user has 2 more teachers added and the second has just updated Teacher 1 into “Teacher 1 – updated”. What is going to happen when the first user clicks save and then the second one does the same?
Timetable changes are successfully synchronized when user clicks save
No need to bother, all changes will be properly saved and the last saved user will be synchronized with the latest changes (the owl will hoot what’s happened behind the scene). The first user will be synchronized upon the next save or open.
On the technical side, Prime Timetable uses “last save wins” concurrency model which we found suitable for timetablers. Individual entity properties are not going to be merged; instead, Prime Timetable will respect what the last timetabler had in mind, e.g. if the first timetabler set time request and at the same time the other one changed that time request along with other settings for the same teacher, all teacher’s settings would be updated as the last user saved them.
Overall, rest assured that you can freely collaborate even on the same school timetable, because all changes will be properly synchronized. Happy timetable collaboration!
Prime Timetable 3.0 is here
Jun 24th
“Dear timetablers,
I am proud to announce the release of new Prime Timetable 3.0 which brings the latest innovations in school timetabling at your fingertips and mouse clicks. Thanks to you I have grown much wiser and learned a lot ow(l)ing to your great online feedback and ideas, 90% of which has already been implemented! We are eagerly waiting for your new ideas and in the meantime check out our hot features.”
Mobile timetable
Prime Timetable works natively on both Mac and Windows as well as in any modern browser but this time we have made it accessible on any device with Internet access. In other words, now you can use your mobile phone to sign in and browse through your school timetables. Also, the teachers and students you have shared your timetable with can view it on their mobile phone.
Our software will automatically detect your device and instead of full blown Prime Timetable, a new Mobile Timetable will be shown, which is entirely built using standard web technologies accessible everywhere. Experience all advantages of sharing your school timetable on iPhone, iPad, Android, Nokia, Windows Phone… or any other smartphone or tablet.
3D school timetable
How to spot a lesson conflict in a 2D timetable? How to discover that under a card there is another card or many more? The answer is simple. Prime Timetable will automatically rotate each conflicted card by 30° to the left and right respectively. Also, each card has its own Z-order on Z-axis, thus creating a 3D timetable. To emphasize 3D even more, the shadow of the card being dragged is darker when dragged over the conflicted cards and lighter when there are no cards below. Clicking a card at the bottom brings it to the front, while other cards automatically rearrange. As always, to bring you the best timetabling experience all rearranging, rotating and moving is smoothly animated.
Extra views
Extra views are a great help if you want to adjust cards using only drag & drop (also known as manual timetabling). These views are fully interactive, just like the main view, meaning you can use all timetabling tools as usual, e.g. timetable generator, drag & drop, pin, sponge, undo/redo, etc. Of course, all opened timetable views will be automatically updated.
To open extra timetable view just click on teacher, class, room or subject icon in the bottom left corner when a card is selected. You can easily adjust the position and size of extra view which best fits your screen and display single extra view by clicking the first column.
Currently selected card in one view will be highlighted in all other views. Also, when doing drag & drop, the shadow of the card being dragged will be shown in all opened views, which allows you to track drop position, e.g. check that drop position is not already scheduled in another view.
Share timetable
Prime Timetable makes sharing easy: just choose ‘Share -> Publish to the Web’, click Publish to the Web button and voila! Your timetable will be visible to anyone you’ve shared the link with. The published web page will be accessible by any Internet device, so that people you share with can access the timetable even from their mobile phone.
You needn’t worry about any subsequent changes to the published timetable as it will be automatically updated when the timetable is saved. Furthermore, the published web page will refresh every 20 minutes to ensure the latest timetable version is delivered to all.
Here are some online examples of published timetables: Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, Example Brazil, Example Egypt, etc. As always, you can click on the first column to open single timetable view.
Online and offline timetabling
In case your school doesn’t have reliable Internet connection or you would like to use Prime Timetable instantly from your desktop without going to web site and signing in, we now support both online and offline school timetabling.
Even if the Internet connection drops or you are only occasionally connected you can still continue working on your timetable. When the Internet connection is back, your local changes will be synchronized with our server so that you can share your timetable with others.
For our premium customers we’ve even enabled entirely offline timetabling work. Just go to Help -> Options and click Install Prime Timetable button which will install the software on your computer. You will get the newly installed program in Program Files and a new desktop icon. Starting Prime Timetable from your desktop allows you to access your timetables whenever you want with or without Internet connection and thus avoid going to Prime Timetable web site and signing in.
New design
Instead of Microsoft Office ribbon we have introduced good old wooden board and instead of classical popups we have turned to recycled paper as the background of our forms. Luckily, no trees were harmed or cut down while turning our user interface into more eco-friendly environment . We hope you like our new redesign!
Prime Timetable 3.0 screenshot - Mexico example
New timetabling tools and options
Pin 
, sponge 
and zoom 
make timetabling more productive, yet game-like. All timetable view operations such as drag & drop, pin, zoom, print, undo/redo and others are also available in single class, teacher, room and subject view and extra views. To select single view just click on the first column in a timetable row.
The new Help -> Options form allows you to tailor the school timetable to suit your needs, e.g. you can set default timetable view, set save reminder interval, set whether conflicted cards need to rotate, show or hide rooms in single view, show subjects in teacher view, show period intervals instead of numbers, show additional time request settings, exclude fake lessons while generating the timetable and Install Prime Timetable on your desktop.
Other improvements
There are lots of other improvements, such as lesson statistics and filtering, browsing timetables using back and forward, keyboard shortcuts. We have made Prime Timetable Manual in PDF format for download and print for those who don’t want to browse online help,
Timetable view performances are vastly improved so that large schools/colleges with 500 and more subjects/teachers can use our software without interruptions. Furthermore, our software will automatically adjust according to your computer’s performances, e.g. faster computers will display card animations, while slower computers won’t have such smooth experience. Talking about performances, timetable loading, importing and saving is 10x faster now!
What is next?
We have lots of plans for future releases. Since Prime Timetable is an online software as a service, you can expect frequent updates and improvements soon! As always, all our software updates and new versions are free of charge. Since, your feedback is crucial we have created Prime Timetable user voice, where you can shape our product to suite your needs by entering a new idea or voting for existing ones.
This release brings Prime Timetable one step closer to our goal – to give you the best timetabling experience world-wide. Thank you for being part of it.
Prime Timetable for mobile
Jun 20th
Prime Timetable is web based school timetable software that works natively on both Mac and Windows as well as in any modern browser. Ever wondered if it could work on your mobile phone? Well, it can . We have made it accessible on any device with Internet access! In other words, now you can use your mobile phone to sign in and browse through your school timetables. Also, the teachers and students you have shared your timetable with can view it on their mobile phone.
Do you have to do anything to enable this? No. Our software will automatically detect your device and instead of full blown Prime Timetable application, a new Mobile Timetable will be shown, which is entirely built using standard web technologies accessible everywhere. Mobile Timetable enables you to browse your timetables and choose different views. Similar to how Prime Timetable works – just click on the first column to switch to single view.
Mobile Timetable works on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone, Nokia and other smartphones and tablets
Here are some timetable examples that are accessible via mobile phone: Example 1, Example 2, Example 3, Brazil Example.
Dear timetablers, make the best of these unique timetabling features. Reach other teachers and students, seamlessly share timetables and collaborate using modern online technologies accessible everywhere. Happy mobile timetabling!