Resources

The Resources pane is where you define all the entities used for scheduling, including groups, students, teachers, rooms, and equipment. It also contains the time-related resources—such as days and time scales—that form the foundation of the timetable. The Resources pane is located in the second tab immediately after the Institution tab.

Resource Types

The Resources pane is divided into several pages, one for each resource type. You can use the toolbar at the top of the pane to navigate between these pages.

Time resources (the first two buttons):

• Terms, Weeks and Days
• Periods

Conceptual resources (the third button):

• Subjects

Physical resources (starting from the fourth button):

• Groups
• Students
• Teachers
• Rooms
• Equipment

Note: If there is a resource type that you do not need to schedule (for example, Equipment), you can disable it in the Institution pane on the Vocabulary page. Once disabled, it will no longer appear anywhere in the program. Some screenshots in this user's guide were taken from sample files where certain resource types are disabled. As a result, not all eight resource buttons may be visible in every screenshot.

What is the difference between resources and activities?

Resources themselves are not scheduled directly—you never schedule a standalone resource. Instead, scheduling is done through Activities. An activity is created by associating one or more resources together. An activity may include resources of any type and does not have to include all resource types. Even when only a single resource needs to be scheduled, it must still be included in an activity. When an activity is scheduled, it appears in the timetables of all participating resources. The process of creating activities is explained in the next chapter.

Terms, Weeks and Days

The first page in the Resources pane is the Days page.

The days defined on this page are generic, template-like days. A generic day is not bound to any specific calendar date. Activities scheduled on a generic day are repeated throughout the semester on multiple dates. These repetitions may occur once a week, multiple times per week, or once every two or more weeks. The following sections describe the possible scenarios.

Scenario 1: Weekly Timetable

In most cases, generic days form the basis of a weekly recurring timetable. If this is the type of timetable you are creating, enter the days as follows:

Note: A Week in the program can include even more than 7 days, if needed.

Scenario 2: Two-Week Timetable

When the timetable repeats every two weeks or longer, you can define two or more generic weeks, with a total of up to 30 generic days.

Scenario 3: Two-Day Timetable

When the timetable repeats on alternating weekdays, only two or three generic days are required. For example, if Monday, Wednesday, and Friday share the same timetable, and Tuesday and Thursday share another, two generic days are sufficient to represent this pattern:

Periods

The second page in the Resources pane is the Periods page. Periods are time intervals that divide the day into time segments in which activities are scheduled. Periods may be named or numbered—for example, Period 1, Period 2, Lunch, and so on. Each period has defined start and end times.

Periods can use the same start and end times on all days (Scenario 1 below), or different start and end times on different days (Scenario 2 below). In addition, you can define different sets of periods for different resources. For example, one group may use one list of periods, while another group uses a different list with completely different start and end times (Scenario 3 below).

Scenario 1: Same Periods for All Resources and All Days

The most basic configuration is to define a single list of periods that applies to all resources and all days. To do this, click the plus button on the right-hand toolbar and select Period (to add one period at a time) or Periods (5) (to add five periods at once). Repeat this process until you have the desired number of periods. To rename a period, select it and enter the new name in the Properties pane below the list.

It is also important to define the start and end times of each period. These are entered in the Properties pane after selecting a period. Make sure that period times do not overlap, and that each period’s start time is not earlier than the end time of the preceding period. When entering times after midday in the 12-hour format, be sure to append "p" or "pm" (for example, 4:00pm). Otherwise, the program will interpret the time as before midday.

Scenario 2: Different Periods on Different Days

The program also supports more advanced period configurations, where different days use different sets of periods. For example, the periods used on Monday–Thursday may differ from those used on Friday. To configure this, add another Periods List using the plus button. Once two periods lists are defined, assign the first list to Monday–Thursday and the second list to Friday. The result will look like this:

Scenario 3: Different Periods for Different Resources

The program supports multiple time scales, each with its own list of periods and each associated with different resources. For example, a school with different bell schedules for elementary and middle grades can define two time scales—one for lower grades and one for higher grades. Each time scale may have a different number of periods per day, as well as different start and end times. In addition, time scales can vary by day (as described in Scenario 2 above), allowing different sets of periods to be defined for different days.

Common resources—such as teachers who participate in activities across different time scales (for example, teachers who teach both elementary and middle grades)—will use an hourly time scale in their timetables. In this view, periods are not displayed; instead, all scheduled activities appear at their exact assigned times.

Subjects

The third page in the Resources pane is the Subjects page. A Subject describes what participants are studying or doing during an activity. For example, subjects may include Chemistry, Math, Lunch, and others. A subject is not a physical resource, and therefore does not create conflicts due to double booking. Each activity can be assigned one or more subjects.

Subjects can be organized in a hierarchy, with top-level subjects, sub-subjects, sub-sub-subjects, and so on. A subject may be defined as a sub-subject of multiple parent subjects. The timetable of a parent subject includes all activities assigned to its sub-subjects. For example, if Chemistry and Physics are sub-subjects of Science, viewing the Science timetable will display all activities from both subjects.

The subject assigned to an activity is displayed in every cell where the activity is scheduled. Like all resources, a subject can be assigned a color. By default, the background color of each cell matches the color of the subject scheduled in that cell.

How to create sub-subjects?

To make one subject a sub-subject of another, first add both subjects to the list. Then select the subject you want to designate as the sub-subject, and in its properties choose the parent subject in the Sub-Subject of field. For example, to make Chemistry a sub-subject of Science, select Chemistry and choose Science in the Sub-Subject of property.

Groups

The fourth page in the Resources pane is the Groups page. A Group represents a collection of people who participate together in multiple activities. Groups usually have names such as 4A or 4B, representing a grade and a section, or 7-SMITH and 7-DOE, representing a grade and the homeroom teacher.

A group can be created with or without entering the names of its student participants. By default, groups do not have any students enrolled. The next page in the Resources pane is the Students page. On this page, you can add students and optionally enroll them in groups. When a student is enrolled in a group, all activities scheduled for that group appear in the student's timetable (unless an activity specifies an explicit subset of participants).

Not all schools need to define groups. Creating groups is useful only when the same set of students participates in multiple activities, as the group can then be assigned to all of those activities. If, on the other hand, students are enrolled directly in activities and each activity involves a different set of students, there is no need to define groups at all—only activities.

Just like subjects, groups can have subgroups. A group can act both as a subgroup and as a parent group, and it can even be a subgroup of multiple parent groups. In such cases, the group appears under each of its parent groups in the list. All activities scheduled for a subgroup appear in the timetables of all its parent groups (and their parent groups, and so on). Subgroups that share the same parent group are not considered conflicting unless there is at least one explicit student enrolled in both of them.

Students

The fifth page in the Resources pane is the Students page. A student is a human individual who participates in a group or an activity.

Students need to be entered only if personal student timetables are required. If you only need timetables for classes or groups, there is no need to enter students at all.

An individual student’s timetable includes all activities in which the student participates, either directly by being enrolled in the activity, or indirectly by being enrolled in a group that is assigned to the activity. Like all human resources, scheduling a student in two different activities at the same time results in a double-booking conflict.

Teachers

The sixth page in the Resources pane is the Teachers page. A teacher is a human individual who teaches, supervises, or assists in an activity.

A teacher’s timetable consists of all activities in which they take part. Scheduling two overlapping activities for the same teacher is considered a double-booking conflict by the program.

Rooms

The seventh page in the Resources pane is the Rooms page. A room represents a physical location where activities are held.

Rooms can be organized in a hierarchy of buildings and rooms. Buildings make it possible to display a combined timetable of all activities scheduled in their rooms. If this functionality is not required, it is perfectly reasonable to define all rooms as a single flat list without using a hierarchical structure.

Equipment

The last page in the Resources pane is the Equipment page. Equipment consists of movable physical items that may be required for an activity, such as TVs, projectors, microscopes, etc.

Equipment is the only type of resource that is quantified. An equipment resource has a quantity, which represents the number of identical items available in stock. The program allows multiple overlapping activities to use the same equipment, as long as the total demand does not exceed the available quantity. If more activities are scheduled at the same time than there are items in stock, the program reports a conflict indicating that there is not enough equipment to accommodate all overlapping activities.

Entering Resources

In this section, we describe how to add and remove resources, edit their properties individually or in bulk, and make the resource entry process quick and efficient.

How to add resources?

To add resources, click the plus button on the right-hand toolbar. This opens a menu where you can choose the type of resource to add. For example, to add a subject in the Subjects page, select Subject in the menu. The menu also includes options for adding multiple resources in a single operation, such as adding five subjects at once. After the resources are added, they appear in the list, where you can select them to edit their properties.

How to duplicate resources?

Another way to add resources is by using copy and paste. You can select an existing resource in the list—or multiple resources by clicking the first one and then Shift+clicking the last—press Ctrl+C to copy, and then Ctrl+V to paste. This duplicates the selected resources and adds the new copies to the list.

How to remove resources?

To remove resources, select them and then click the minus button on the right-hand toolbar. The selected resources will be removed from the list.

Note: Any operation in the program can be undone by clicking the Undo button on the left-hand toolbar or by pressing Ctrl+Z on the keyboard. If you remove something by mistake, simply press Ctrl+Z to undo the action.

How to edit resource properties?

When you select a resource, its properties are displayed below the list in the Properties pane. To edit a property, click it and then enter a new value using the keyboard, or choose one from a pop-up list.

How to edit the properties of multiple resources?

When you need to assign the same property value to multiple resources (for example, selecting the same parent subject for 20 subjects), you don’t need to edit each resource individually. Instead, select all the relevant resources and edit the property in the Properties pane. The change is applied to all selected resources in a single operation.

To select multiple resources, you can use one of the following three methods:

• Ctrl + click: Hold down the Ctrl key and click the items you want to select. Each click adds an item to the selection; clicking a selected item again removes it from the selection.
• Shift + click: This method is useful for selecting a continuous range of items. Click the first item, scroll to the last item, then hold down the Shift key and click the last item. All items between the first and last are selected.
• Click and drag: Click an item and, without releasing the mouse button, drag the mouse over additional items. Each item you pass over is added to the selection. Release the mouse button when you reach the last item.

Note: The steps described above apply only when Editing Mode is turned off. When Editing Mode is enabled, clicking an item starts editing it rather than selecting it. In this case, first turn off Editing Mode by clicking the pencil button, and then select multiple resources.

How to quickly edit names using only the keyboard?

To speed up data entry, the program allows you to edit resource names directly using the keyboard, without using the Properties pane. This Editing Mode is enabled by clicking the pencil button in the top-right corner of the screen.

In Editing Mode, clicking a resource name in the list allows you to edit it immediately. You can complete the entire editing process using the keyboard only: after editing a value, press the Down Arrow key to move to the next or previous resource. If multiple columns are available, use the Tab key to move to the next column. When you finish editing, press Enter.

How to assign colors automatically?

Instead of assigning a color to each resource manually, the program allows you to assign colors to all selected resources at once. To do this, click the paintbrush button on the right-hand toolbar. A pop-up menu opens with four options:

• Assign random bright colors - Automatically assigns bright colors to all selected resources.
• Assign random dark colors - Automatically assigns dark colors to all selected resources.
• Assign shades of the same color - Lets you choose a base color (bright or dark) and then assigns different shades of that color to all selected resources.
• Remove colors - Removes color assignments from all selected resources.

Note: If only one resource is selected, colors are applied to all resources in the list.

If you don’t like the randomly assigned colors, you can apply them again—different random colors are generated each time. You can also manually change the color of any resource by selecting it and choosing a different color in the Properties pane.

The next chapter: Activities.