School scheduling/timetabling software
Posts tagged sheduling
Request a timetabling feature or vote for existing ones
Sep 13th
Your feedback is crucial and therefore we have just started Prime Timetable user voice. The general idea is that you can shape Prime Timetable to suite your needs by entering a new idea or voting for existing ones. So, how does user voice work?
Entering a new idea
If you have an idea how to improve Prime Timetable, visit Prime Timetable user voice and write down your idea. If a similar idea doesn’t already exist, click on “Create new idea” button.
Vote for existing idea
Every visitor has 10 votes. Use them to vote for features/ideas that are most important for you. The more votes a specific feature has, the more likely it will be implemented first. When a feature is implemented you will get a notification and your votes back.
How long do I have to wait for a specific feature?
Since Prime Timetable is an online school timetable software as a service, we regularly publish updates on daily and weekly basis. Therefore you can expect the most voted feature(s) to appear within a month or sooner.
Fake teacher and class in Prime Timetable
Sep 12th
In order to enter a lesson the following questions need to be answered: who, what and where? But what if there isn’t a class for a lesson (e.g. teacher meetings), or a teacher for a particular activity isn’t needed (e.g. school recess, lunch), or there is neither teacher nor class (e.g. sports events)? In Prime Timetable, these non-existing teachers and classes are referred to as “fake“.
It is recommended that fake teachers and classes are entered prior to entering a lesson. For instance, add a fake class and subject called “Teacher meeting” and then add a lesson by selecting teachers who attend that meeting and a fake class “Teacher meeting”. Another example: add a teacher and subject called “School recess” and then add a lesson by selecting classes that have a recess and a teacher called “School recess”.
When you enter a lesson without specifying a teacher or a class, Prime Timetable will create a “Fake teacher” or “Fake class” for you.
Every resource that has short name set to “-” (minus sign) is considered fake. Fake lessons is any lesson that contains fake resource and can be excluded from automatic timetable generator in Help > Options.
You can be very creative in creating fake teachers and classes so that every school lesson/activity is displayed in all timetable views as a card available for manual adjusting, e.g. drag & drop. Additionally, fake teachers and classes can have their time request specified which automatic timetable generator can also take into account.
In a nutshell, sometimes fake can genuinely improve your timetable 
.
Single class, teacher, room and subject timetable view
Sep 5th
Master timetable view shows all classes, teachers, rooms or subjects in one place. Individual or single timetable view shows only one class, teacher, room or subject. To switch to single timetable view, you need to select a view (class, teacher, room or subject) by clicking view indicator icon 
and then click on the first column in the desired timetable row.
To revert to entire timetable view, press Esc key or select entire view by clicking view indicator icon.
Once you are in single timetable view you can still use all functionalities just like in entire view. That means you can drag & drop (undo/redo), use pin to pin/unpin, sponge to remove cards, or use zoom in and zoom out. In order to select other (single) timetable views, use the following keyboard shortcuts:
- Switch to previous/next entire or single view - [Ctrl + Alt + Up/Down arrow]
- Switch to first/last entire or single view – [Ctrl + Alt + Home/End]
To print single timetable view use browser’s print button or select Print in main menu. Also, you can export single timetable view to Html or Jpeg document by choosing “Owl > Save as“.
Below is a screenshot of single class timetable view:
individual class/grade timetable screenshot
Preview new version of Prime Timetable
Aug 10th
In the recent version of Prime Timetable we have added “Preview new version” option in main menu. Clicking it your current timetable will be opened in the upcoming Prime Timetable 2.0.
Here is the short list of what’s new in Prime Timetable 2.0:
- Instead of ribbon, there is only a school board with instantly available tools on board frame leaving more space for your timetables.
- There is a new optimized menu when you click the owl in the top left corner.
- New interactive board tools: Pin, Sponge and Zoom which make timetabling more fun.
- New Help -> Options where you can configure application as best suits your needs.
- User interface is redesigned and more natural with curved lines and nature associations (e.g. form background looks like a piece of paper).
- There are lots of animations which make application smoother.
- Performances are increased. For instance, timetable view is rendered much faster in larger timetables.
All these changes make timetabling faster, easier and more fun. Here is the screenshot of our new school timetable software:
School timetable software screenshot
Using sponge tool in Prime Timetable
Aug 9th
Sponge tool 
is located in the bottom right corner of the board and is used to remove cards from timetable.
Using sponge tool is simple; just click sponge tool (or press [Ctrl + Backspace] key) to select it and then click card(s) you want to remove. Hold mouse left button to remove more cards.
How to remove the whole timetable or specific day?
With sponge tool selected, click on day or period (in timetable header) to remove the whole day/period or click on the first column in the timetable row to remove the whole row.
There are also keyboard shortcuts: Shift key affects the whole timetable, Control key affects the row and Alt key affects the current column. You can do the same even without using sponge tool, e.g. click on sponge tool with Shift key pressed and all timetable cards will be removed.
To drop sponge tool just click tool once again or click on an empty timetable period or use Esc key.
As always, undo 
and redo 
can be used to revert or to redo the last timetable change.
Using Pin tool in Prime Timetable
Aug 8th
Pin tool 
is used to pin/unpin card(s) on a specific position. Pin tool is located in the bottom right corner of the board.
Using pin tool is simple, just click pin tool to select it and then click card(s) you want to pin/unpin.
Pinned cards can’t be moved by drag & drop and won’t be relocated while generating or improving timetable.
When to use pin tool?
Pin tool is useful when you are satisfied with card(s) position and you want to assure that those cards won’t be moved by starting the generator or by improving the existing timetable.
How to pin/unpin faster?
With pin tool selected click on day or period (in timetable header) to pin/unpin the whole day or period or click on a timetable row (first column) to pin/unpin the whole row.
There are also keyboard shortcuts: Shift key affects the whole timetable, Control key affects the row and Alt key affects the current column. You can do the same even without using pin tool, e.g. click on pin tool with Shift key pressed and all timetable cards will be pinned.
To drop tool just click tool once again or click on an empty timetable period or use Esc key.
As always, undo and redo can be used to revert or to redo the last timetable change.
School timetable software for Mac
Aug 1st
Are you looking for school timetable software for Mac? If true, then look no further. Prime Timetable is unique and innovative online timetabling service available at http://www.primetimetable.com that works natively on your Mac OS X and is accessible even on mobile phone. Say goodbye to virtual PC emulators, no need for downloading unsafe files/programs from Internet. It just works! You can create your school timetable online on your home or school computer and share it with your colleagues or students who can access timetable on their iPhone, iPad, Android, Nokia, Windows Phone… or any other smartphone or tablet.
Of course, Prime Timetable also works on Windows and we are expecting to support Linux soon. Check out, what’s new in our latest release. Happy timetabling on your Mac!
Prime Timetable - school timetable software for Mac OS X screenshot
Supported browsers for Prime Timetable
Jul 15th
Prime Timetable is an online service for creating timetables available at http://www.primetimetable.com. It is unique and innovative timetabling solution that works right there in your browser of choice. Prime Timetable supports:
- Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8 and 9
- Firefox
- Safari
- Chrome
- Opera
Although various browsers are supported by Prime Timetable, there are some subtle differences that you can expect to find. For instance, each browser has its own printing ability, so you might expect different print output.
When in doubt, we recommend using Internet Explorer for your timetabling work, if available.
Welcome to Prime Timetable blog
Jul 1st
Prime Timetable blog is the place where we are going to write about online timetabling services available at http://www.primetimetable.com and generally about timetable software for schools, colleges and universities. We hope that you will be able to find lots of valuable timetabling/scheduling tips for creating timetables more easily and provide us with your feedback and comments which will help us shape our product to best suite your specific timetabling requirements. We wish you happy timetabling!