How to create a two-week timetable with slight variations

There are two ways to create a two-week timetable using Prime Timetable. One obvious way is to create one timetable and set 10 days. But that is not what you want to do if you need to make a two-week timetable with almost identical lessons. For example, let's assume that 4 days in a week have exactly the same timetable and there are some differences only on Friday. In this scenario we have two types of lessons:

  • (A) Lessons that are held the same number of times in both weeks
  • (B) Lessons that are held over one week but not the other.

All other variations boil down to these (A) and (B) types. For instance, there could be a lesson occurring 1.5 times per week, which means there are two lessons in the first week and one in the second. In that case one lesson is type (A) and the other (0.5) is type (B).

Here is the procedure of scheduling such two-week timetables using Prime Timetable:

  1. Create a new timetable with 5 days.
  2. Add all type (A) lessons using Manage > Activities > Add.
  3. Forbid Friday using the red marker (just pick the red marker and click on Friday in the timetable view)
  4. Generate the timetable using play icon.
  5. Fix all cards using the pin (just pick the pin and click in the top right corner of the timetable)
  6. Pick the red marker and click once again on Friday to remove the forbidden positions. Click all other days to forbid lessons on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
  7. Save two copies of this timetable: Week 1 and Week 2 using Save As > Copy of Timetable.
  8. For each timetable add type (B) lessons and generate the timetable again.

Of course, there are many more variations but the procedure is similar.

6/2/2014  two week, tips & tricks