FineTime 1.1 User Manual
Contents
1. FineTime requires you to enter six lists of school resource data The common properties of these school resource lists are detailed in the next section The following section describes the particular attributes of each of the resource lists 2 1 Entering and Editing School Details Each of the resource lists is accessed from a dialog invoked by one of the menu items under the Data menu The resource list dialogs all have the same format consisting of a list window showing the resource items a set of list modification buttons New Edit and Delete to the right of this window and a set of dialog control buttons OK Apply and Cancel below it 2 1 1 The List Window The list window allows you to select resource items by clicking on them with the mouse or by navigating using the cursor keys You can select more than one item at a time by holding the shift or control keys down while selecting additional items Selected items are shown with a dark background The list window also provides the facility to sort the displayed resource items according to any of their fields Simply click on the field header at the top of the window to sort the items according to that field in increasing order Click on the same field header again to reverse the order 2 1 2 The List Modification Buttons To add a new item to a resource list click the New button to invoke a resource dialog through which you can specify the properties of the new item The new it2. This page also allows you to specify the card colour for this teacher and the maximum number of teaching periods per week for the teacher The teacher s availability for teaching may be additionally limited by changing the marks under Availability The Courses page shows which lessons have been pre assigned to this teacher Click the Add button to assign additional lessons or click the Delete button to remove the se lected lessons from the allocation list Note that lessons do not have to be pre assigned to a teacher FineTime will allocate any unassigned lessons to available teachers during planning 2 2 5 Groups In order to create the cards representing lessons FineTime requires information on which students are enrolled for which courses A FineTime student group is made up of students who attend a particular set of courses together Examples of groups might be a class 3a or 4th year Latin FineTime allows groups following the same course to be taught together at one venue by one teacher Choose Data Groups from the menu bar to invoke the Groups dialog You can add modify and delete student groups from the list of groups as explained in section 2 1 Each group must be identified by a unique name specified in the Name field in the New Group dialog Figure 2 6 The dialog also provides the Courses field for you to specify the courses attended by this group and allows you to specify a preferred venue for the group this venue is automa
3. Dragging Lesson Cards To schedule or reschedule a lesson simply drag the card representing that lesson from the reservoir or timetable window to the appropriate position in the timetable window using the mouse When you release the left mouse button the lesson is assigned to the slot at the drop position as long as this would not violate the integrity of the timetable For example FineTime will not allow you to schedule the same group for two simultaneous lessons or to exceed the capacity of a venue If you attempt to schedule a lesson at a disallowed slot FineTime shows a message informing you why the lesson cannot be assigned and the lesson card is dropped back where it was picked up from As you drag a lesson card over the timetable window you see that FineTime highlights the slot at the current cursor position depending on whether the lesson card might be dropped there Valid slots for the lesson card are highlighted in green slots which are not suitable for the lesson card are highlighted in red Sometimes FineTime highlights a slot in yellow this means that you are permitted to drop the lesson card at that slot but a soft restriction see Section 4 2 5 would be violated If you drop the lesson card on a yellow highlighted slot FineTime shows a warning message but allows you to drop the lesson card there if you wish 4 2 2 Allocating Resources The current view setting see subsection 4 1 1 determines how resources are allocated t
4. case School tim appears in the text box embedded in the tool bar When the example timetable has opened you can see the scheduled lessons depicted as lesson cards in the timetable window making up the upper section of the FineTime window The lesson cards are arranged in columns according to the time of day and week when the lessons are given and in rows according to the current timetable view see Section 4 1 1 The timetable view is initially set such that the lesson cards are ordered by venue The lessons which have not yet been scheduled are shown in the reservoir section below in rows according to group The names of the groups taking each set of lessons are shown on the labels displayed at the left edge of the reservoir window 1 3 2 Saving a Timetable After you have created or modified a timetable you can save it to disc by choosing File Save from the menu bar If the timetable already has a name it is saved under that name If the timetable does not yet have a name the Save File dialog appears so that you can select a name and location for the new timetable The timetable is saved under the name you enter Should you wish to save a named timetable under a different name choose File Save As from the menu bar and enter the new name in the Save File dialog CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED 6 1 3 3 Closing a Timetable When you have finished working on a timetable you can close its file by choosing File Close from the menu b
5. top card at this slot with a gt sign after the group name to indicate that additional cards lie below this one If you click on a slot containing a card stack the top card is the one which is picked up Should you wish to reschedule or deschedule a lesson corresponding to a card lying below the top one click on the slot with the right mouse button to change the order of the cards in the stack until the card you want is at the top Now you can pick up and drag the card as normal 4 2 4 Automatic Scheduling The FineTime Timetable Solver uses an algorithm that mimicks a successive manual approach to optimally schedule the remaining unallocated lessons while observing the relevant hard and soft restrictions To invoke the Timetable Solver choose Edit Solve from the menu bar and click Start in the Timetable Solver dialog The solver then runs until either all the remaining lessons are scheduled or it determines that it cannot find a complete solution under the current constraints You may safely terminate the solving process at any time by clicking the Stop button in the Timetable Solver dialog if you wish Click the Close button to dismiss the Timetable Solver when you have finished with it The Timetable Solver applies the soft restrictions as described in Section 4 2 5 in that lessons may be scheduled to violate restrictions which are marked as allowed but will not violate restrictions marked as forbidden If it is not otherwise po
6. FineTime 1 1 User Manual Silverbean Software 13th October 2004 Contents 1 Getting Started 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 Installing FineTime 1 1 1 System Requirements 1 1 2 Installing FineTime for Windows 1 1 3 Installing FineTime for Linux Starting and Registering FineTime 1 2 1 Starting FineTime 1 2 2 Registering FineTime Managing Timetable Files 1 3 1 Opening a Timetable 1 3 2 Saving a Timetable 1 3 3 Closing a Timetable 1 4 1 Starting a Timetable Creating a New Timetable 1 4 2 Continuing your Timetable 2 Specifying your School Details 2 1 2 2 Entering and Editing School Details 2 1 1 The List Window 2 1 2 The List Modification Buttons 2 1 3 The Dialog Control Buttons Resource Types 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 4 2 2 5 2 2 6 Venue Types Venues Courses Teachers esi a Beg eb a ak a a a a A A A A OO O OO N NY NY WY WN Oo 0 on NN N CONTENTS 3 Importing and Exporting School Details 3 1 Importing School Details 2 22 Cum nn 3 2 Exporting School Details 2 22 Cum nn 4 Devising your Timetable 4 1 Setting the Timetable View 2 22 Como nn en 4 1 1 Viewing by Lesson Property 2 22 2m nommen 4 1 2 Setting the Zoom Level 0 0 0 0 000 0000 4 1 3 Setting the Card Colouring 2 2 2 Cm on nn 4 2 Scheduling the Lessons s s t 2 2 a 2 Cum 4 2 1 Dragging Lesson Cards 2 22 Cum 4 2 2 Allocating Resources 2 22 Cm non 4 2 3 Mult
7. The New Student dialog showing the 3rd year student Sarah Smith who is a member of class A3 and takes the Latin option course Choose Data Students from the menu bar to invoke the Students dialog You can add modify and delete students from the list of students as explained in section 2 1 The dialog used to add students or modify student details is illustrated in Figure 2 7 Chapter 3 Importing and Exporting School Details In this chapter we describe how FineTime can import the school details from a text based school resource file as well as export the school details as such a file 3 1 Importing School Details FineTime is able to import the school details it needs from a suitably structured text file which we call a school resource file These files have the extension csv which stands for character separated value Files of this type can be generated by a wide range of applications including Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet programs As an alternative to the school detail entry process described in section 2 1 you might therefore enter your school details using a spreadsheet or other program export your data as a csv file and then import this file into FineTime The exact format of the school resource file can be seen in the example file School csv which contains the resources used in the timetable School tim and can be found on the FineTime CD in the Examples directory To import a school resource file into FineTim
8. achers as explained in section 2 1 The New Teacher dialog has two pages labelled Details and Courses The Details page Figure 2 4 allows you to enter or change the teacher s attributes while the Courses page Figure 2 5 is used to assign group course combinations to this teacher New Teacher Details Courses Sumame Card colour Jones SSeS Forenamels Maximum workload James J 23 re periods per week Courses taught Availability Sport 4 English 5 Maths 5 Physics 5 Chemistry 5 Biology 5 French 5 German 5 History 5 Geography 5 Cancel Figure 2 4 New Teacher dialog Details page This teacher James Jones teaches maths and chemistry for a maximum 23 periods per week He is not available on Wednesday afternoons and prefers not to teach on Friday afternoons CHAPTER 2 SPECIFYING YOUR SCHOOL DETAILS 12 New Teacher Details Courses Group Course Periods Add Maths 2 5 Maths 3 5 Delete 4 8 Chemistry 5 L6 Chemistry Chemistry L6 Total periods 22 Cancel Figure 2 5 New Teacher dialog Courses page showing the list of group course com binations assigned to the teacher Each teacher is identified on the Details page by their surname and first names In the box below the name fields marked Courses taught you can mark all the courses defined in section 2 2 3 which this teacher may be allocated to teach
9. alog You can add modify and delete items from the list of courses as explained in section 2 1 The New Course dialog allows you to specify the name of the course and one or more venue type s required for any venue at which the course may be taught see subsection 2 2 1 The Card Colour button invokes the Colour dialog for you to specify the colour which is to be used to draw the cards representing lessons for this course The button colour reflects your current choice of colour for this course CHAPTER 2 SPECIFYING YOUR SCHOOL DETAILS 11 New Course Name Card colour Chemistry 4 m Required venue type s Classes per week Classroom a 2 H singe periods Physics Lab Chemistry Lab pH Z double periods Biology Lab N Art Annm 0 triple periods Cancel Figure 2 3 A New Course dialog in which a 4th year chemistry course is defined The course has two single period lessons and one double period lesson per week The lessons must take place in a chemistry lab The boxes below the Card Colour button are for you to enter the number of classes per week for this course with separate fields for single period double period and triple period classes 2 2 4 Teachers FineTime needs to know which teachers are available to teach the courses as defined above Choose Data Teachers from the menu bar to invoke the Teachers dialog You can add modify and delete members of staff from the list of te
10. ar If the timetable has unsaved changes the Save File dialog appears so that you can save your work After you have closed the file the timetable and reservoir windows are cleared 1 4 Creating a New Timetable In this section we explain how to begin creating a new timetable file with reference to the following chapters of this manual 1 4 1 Starting a Timetable After starting FineTime as explained in section 1 2 choose File New from the menu bar This invokes the Periods dialog shown in Figure 1 2 for you to tell FineTime how a day at your school is structured Enter the number of teaching periods per day in the first field and a number of check boxes appear in the region below Mark the boxes corresponding to those periods which are followed by a break so that FineTime knows that multi period lessons may not extend beyond these periods Periods 8 periods per day Break follows _ Period 1 Period 2 V Period 3 C Period 4 v Period 5 Period 6 Period 7 Cancel Figure 1 2 The Periods dialog for a school with 8 periods per day with breaks after the 3rd and 5th periods When you click the OK button the dialog is dismissed and you see that the headings for your new timetable have appeared in the timetable window The number of periods per day matches your entry in the Periods dialog Should you wish at a later time to change the structure of the school day used for your timetable you can invoke t
11. com puter 1 2 Starting and Registering FineTime In this section we explain how to start and quit the FineTime program and how to register FineTime for your school 1 2 1 Starting FineTime To start FineTime under Windows simply click on the Start button and choose the FineTime entry If you have accepted the default values during the installation process the FineTime entry will be located at Programs Silverbean FineTime When you run FineTime for the first time on your computer the program starts in its unregistered mode The full functionality of FineTime is available in this mode except that you cannot save or print any timetable files you create There is no time limit applicable for the use of FineTime in unregistered mode When you have finished using FineTime choose File Quit from the menu bar to ter minate the program If you are running FineTime in registered mode and have any unsaved work you will be prompted to save your data as detailed the next chapter 1 2 2 Registering FineTime To register FineTime you require a licence key a coded sequence of 8 numbers and let ters which is derived from the name of your school Please contact Silverbean Software at service silverbean com to obtain your licence key if you do not yet have one or if you would like a new licence key to match a modified school name When you have your licence key start FineTime and choose Settings Register FineTime to invoke the Reg
12. e choose File Open from the menu bar and then select the entry School resource files from the file filter selector Select the required file and click OK You should now see the lesson cards corresponding to the imported school resource data in the reservoir area of the FineTime window 3 2 Exporting School Details In addition to reading the csv files described previously FineTime is able to generate such files for further processing by other applications You might also wish to create a school resource file for use as a base for creating a set of alternative timetables for the same resources To export a school resource file choose File Save As from the menu bar and select the entry School resource files from the file filter selector Enter a file name ending with csv and click OK to export the current school details under your chosen name 14 Chapter 4 Devising your Timetable Once you have entered your school details as described in chapter 2 you can begin the work of devising your timetable In the reservoir area of the FineTime window you can see the lesson cards which have been generated for each student group according to the courses they are taking Your task is to schedule the lessons by moving these cards to the appropriate locations in the timetable area of the FineTime window You may choose to schedule all the lessons yourself by dragging lesson cards from the reservoir to the timetable using the mouse or you can
13. e before actually printing choose File Print Preview from the menu bar to view the printout and then click on Print to start the printing 5 2 Printing Resource Timetables To print a timetable for a particular venue teacher or student change the view setting see subsection 4 1 1 to show the lessons ordered by that resource and click on the appropriate label at the left edge of the timetable window to invoke the Print Timetable dialog This dialog shows a preview of the timetable to be printed Click the Print button to define your printer settings and start the printout otherwise click Cancel to dismiss the dialog 19
14. em will be added to the resource list when you click OK in the resource dialog You can change the properties of a resource item by selecting just that one item and clicking the Edit button or by double clicking on the item This invokes the same dialog as clicking the New button does except that the dialog fields are filled with the current CHAPTER 2 SPECIFYING YOUR SCHOOL DETAILS 9 resource property values Change the fields to the desired values and click OK to return to the resource list dialog Should you wish to delete any resource list items simply select them in the resource list window and click Delete to remove them 2 1 3 The Dialog Control Buttons When you have finished changing the resource list click the OK button to make your changes permanent in FineTime and close the resource list dialog If you wish to make your changes permanent but do not want to close the resource list dialog yet click the Apply button Click the Cancel button to discard any changes you have made to the resource list dialog Note that you cannot discard any changes which have been made permanent by clicking the Apply button 2 2 Resource Types In this section we describe the particular attributes of each type of resource used by FineTime In particular we illustrate how items of each resource type can be added or modified using appropriate input dialogs 2 2 1 Venue Types Teaching venues may be defined as being of one or more particula
15. he Periods dialog by choosing Data Periods from the menu bar and change the fields accordingly The structure of the displayed timetable changes to reflect the new settings 1 4 2 Continuing your Timetable FineTime needs to be given information about your school such as details about staff and teaching venue availability to use when devising your timetable Chapter 2 ex plains how to enter these details into a new timetable using FineTime CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED 7 Alternatively FineTime can import this information from a so called school resource file as explained in chapter 3 School resource files have a simple text format and may be generated by a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel or by a text editor Chapter 4 explains how to go about devising your timetable once you have specified your school details Note however that you can still alter your school details while devising a timetable In that case FineTime will alter the timetable to maintain consistency If for example a venue is deleted from the list FineTime will remove all lessons that were scheduled to take place at this venue from the timetable and move them back to the reservoir of lessons which have not yet been scheduled The final chapter shows how to print out either the whole timetable or individualised timetables for the various school resources Chapter 2 Specifying your School Details In addition to the details entered in the Periods dialog
16. iple Group Lessons 2 Cm ou nn 4 2 4 Automatic Scheduling 2 2 22 22 mn 4 257 Restrictions Se e 2 he na er N De Pa we een ao 5 Printing your Timetable 5 1 Printing the Whole Timetable 2 2 Emm 5 2 Printing Resource Timetables 2 2 Cum nn 13 13 13 14 14 14 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 17 Chapter 1 Getting Started 1 1 Installing FineTime FineTime is available for Microsoft Windows 95 98 ME NT 2000 and XP and for the Linux operating system The system requirements and installation procedures for FineTime under each of the two operating systems are detailed below 1 1 1 System Requirements FineTime runs on IBM compatible PCs equipped with a colour monitor capable of a screen resolution of at least 800 by 600 pixels and a graphics card able to provide at least 16 bit colour at this resolution We recommend a CPU speed of at least 266MHz and a minimum of 96MB of memory The program requires about 20MB of hard disk space A colour printer is recommended for producing timetable printouts 1 1 2 Installing FineTime for Windows FineTime for Windows is distributed as a self extracting executable file named FineTime lt lang gt lt ver gt exe where lt lang gt is the two letter language code e g EN for English and lt ver gt is the program version number e g 1 1 This file is located in the Windows directory on the FineTime CD To install FineTime for Windows change to the Windows directo
17. ister FineTime dialog illustrated in Figure 1 1 Enter your school name and licence key in the fields provided taking care that what you type matches exactly the information from Silverbean Software Click OK to dismiss the dialog you should now see the name of your school on the window title bar If your school name does not appear on the title bar repeat the registration procedure ensuring that the fields are filled in correctly If the problem is still not resolved please contact Silverbean Software for advice CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED 5 Register Fine Time School Name Anytown Secondary School Licence Key 12345678 Cancel Figure 1 1 The Register FineTime dialog 1 3 Managing Timetable Files FineTime stores each timetable you create on your computer s hard disc as a single file with the extension tim An example of a partially completed timetable called School tim can be found on the FineTime CD in the Examples directory The following sections explain how to open a timetable file so that you can work on it how to save the modified timetable and how to close the timetable file 1 3 1 Opening a Timetable The example timetable may be opened as follows Start FineTime and then choose File Open from the menu bar to invoke the Open File dialog Navigate to the Examples directory on the FineTime CD and select the file named School tim Click OK to open that timetable file The name of the timetable in this
18. k Roo Woodwork Roc Gymnasium 1 Snart Field Figure 2 2 This New Venue dialog shows a chemistry lab with a capacity of 35 students The lab is not available on Friday mornings and has limited availability on Thursday mornings The New Venue dialog shown in Figure 2 2 has fields in which you can enter the name and capacity of the venue The venue capacity determines the maximum number of students who can attend a lesson at the venue In addition the venue may be identified as being of a particular type by checking the relevant boxes under Venue type s and its availability may be limited to certain periods by changing the marks under Availability The type of the venue determines which courses may be taught there After you have confirmed or applied the Venues dialog you see that the timetable dis play changes to reflect your additions or modifications to the list of venues Each venue is represented by its own row of boxes in the timetable window 2 2 3 Courses A course is defined in FineTime as a series of lessons in the same subject which take place a certain number of times per week An example of a course might be Biology Year 4 Note that there may be multiple instances of the same course taught by different teachers to different groups of students e g if all classes in year four take the course Biology Year 4 Choose Data Courses from the menu bar to invoke the Courses di
19. o a lesson when it is scheduled by dropping a lesson card on the timetable window If the current view setting is Venues then the venue is set according to the timetable row CHAPTER 4 DEVISING YOUR TIMETABLE 17 corresponding to the drop position and a teacher is allocated automatically if the view setting is Teachers then the teacher is set by the drop position and a suitable venue is allocated automatically If the view setting is Groups then both the teacher and venue are set automatically by FineTime There may be occasions when more than one teacher or venue would be equally suitable for a particular lesson In such cases FineTime shows a list of the most suitable candidates for the lesson so that you can choose yourself which resource should be assigned to the lesson Should you wish to change a resource for a lesson for example because you do not agree with FineTime s automatic choice you can do this by moving the card to a different row in the appropriate view For example to change the teacher for a lesson select the teacher view and move the card to the desired timetable slot 4 2 3 Multiple Group Lessons If the capacity of a venue is sufficient FineTime allows you to schedule multiple lessons of the same course at the same venue with the same teacher To do this simply drag and drop the lesson cards as you normally would so creating a stack of cards each for a different group at a single location FineTime shows the
20. r types in FineTime This information is used by FineTime to determine which courses may be taught at a particular venue For example you may wish to specify that the course Biology Year 4 may be taught only in a biology lab of which there are three called Lab 1 Lab 2 and Lab 3 In this case you might specify a venue type Biology Lab and specify that Lab 1 Lab 2 and Lab 3 are of type Biology Lab You would also specify that course Biology Year 4 requires a venue of type Biology Lab New Venue Type Name Chemistry Lab Cancel Figure 2 1 A New Venue Type dialog specifying the Chemistry Lab venue type Choose Data Venue Types from the menu bar to invoke the initially empty Venue Types dialog You can add modify and delete items from the list of venue types as explained in section 2 1 The New Venue Type dialog see Figure 2 1 has just a single field for you to enter the name of the venue type CHAPTER 2 SPECIFYING YOUR SCHOOL DETAILS 10 2 2 2 Venues FineTime defines a venue as any place where a lesson may take place Examples of venues might be Room 42 Field 3 or Chemistry Lab 1 Choose Data Venues from the menu bar to invoke the Venues dialog You can add modify and delete items from the list of venues as explained in section 2 1 New Venue Name Capacity Chemistry Lab 1 a5 students Venue type s Se Classroom a Physics Lab Chemistry Lab Biology Lab Art Room Music Room Metalwor
21. ry on the FineTime CD double click on the FineTime setup program and follow the instructions given Please note that if you are installing FineTime on a computer running the NT 2000 or XP variants of Windows you must have administrator access rights It is not necessary to reboot your computer after the install process has completed Should you wish in future to uninstall FineTime select Settings from the Start menu and then System Software Now double click on the FineTime entry and confirm that you wish to remove FineTime When you click OK FineTime will be removed completely from your computer 1 1 3 Installing FineTime for Linux FineTime for Linux is distributed as an RPM Redhat Package Manager file named JSinetime lt lang gt lt ver gt 1 i386 rpm where lt lang gt is the two letter language code e g en 3 CHAPTER 1 GETTING STARTED 4 for English and lt ver gt is the program version number e g 1 1 This file is located in the Linux directory on the FineTime CD To install FineTime for Linux log on as root and proceed as follows Open a terminal window change to the Linux directory on the FineTime CD and enter the command rpm Uvh fineTime lt lang gt lt ver gt 1 1386 rpm This installs FineTime in the directory named usr lib finetime Should you wish in future to uninstall FineTime log on as root and enter the command rpm e finetime lt lang gt FineTime will then be removed completely from your
22. s of limited availability lessons with multiple groups taught together more than one lesson of the same type per day lessons given by a teacher other than the usual one lessons given by a teacher other than the preferred one lessons given at a venue other than the preferred one Cancel Figure 4 1 The Restrictions dialog showing settings which include allowing groups to be scheduled at times of limited availability forbidding more than one lesson of a type per day and discouraging lessons at venues other than the preferred one To specify how you would like FineTime to treat the soft restrictions choose Settings Restrictions from the menu bar to invoke the Restrictions dialog as shown in Figure 4 1 Now use the mouse to drag the sliders to positions corresponding to the degree to which you would like FineTime to enforce each of the soft restrictions Chapter 5 Printing your Timetable In this chapter we explain how you can generate a printout of the entire master timetable We also show how to produce individualised timetable printouts for par ticular teachers students or venues 5 1 Printing the Whole Timetable To print the complete timetable first select the desired view setting see subsection 4 1 1 and then choose File Print from the menu bar to invoke the Print dialog Select the range of pages you would like to print and then click OK to start printing Should you wish to check the printout appearanc
23. see the lessons ordered by group To return to the venue view choose View Venues from the menu bar 15 CHAPTER 4 DEVISING YOUR TIMETABLE 16 4 1 2 Setting the Zoom Level The lessons cards appearing in the timetable and reservoir windows show information about the properties of the lessons depending on the current view setting This infor mation is abbreviated to fit on the lesson cards FineTime allows you to change the size of the lesson cards using a zoom function to provide eight levels of detail Choose View Zoom In from the menu bar to increase the card size This allows more information to be displayed on each card the disadvantage is that fewer cards can be show on the screen at once For an a better overview of the timetable but with less information shown on each card choose View Zoom Out from the menu bar 4 1 3 Setting the Card Colouring The lesson cards displayed in the FineTime windows can be coloured according to either their teacher or course Choose View Colour by Teacher if you would like the lesson card colours to reflect their teachers otherwise choose View Colour by Course to see the cards coloured according to their courses Note that when the cards are coloured by teacher lesson cards in the reservoir take the colour of the teacher assigned to lessons of that type If no teacher is assigned to that lesson s group course combination the card appears white 4 2 Scheduling the Lessons 4 2 1
24. ssible to schedule all the lessons the Timetable Solver may schedule lessons such that restrictions which are not marked as either definitely allowed or definitely forbidden may be violated but it will try not to Note that the Timetable Solver does not move or remove any lessons which have already been scheduled when it is started If you would like to reschedule all the lessons choose Edit Clear All to move all the lesson cards to the reservoir before invoking the Timetable Solver CHAPTER 4 DEVISING YOUR TIMETABLE 18 4 2 5 Restrictions As we have mentioned earlier in this section FineTime does not allow lessons to be scheduled such that they would be in conflict with other lessons For example lessons with the same student or teacher may not be scheduled at the same time The rules governing this behaviour are called hard restrictions they are always applicable In addition to the hard restrictions FineTime implements a number of so called soft restrictions whose applicability may be set as desired An example of a soft restriction is the rule that only one lesson of a particular type may take place per day You can instruct FineTime to either ignore this rule to regard it as a recommendation or to strictly enforce it according to your requirements Restrictions Forbid Permit scheduling of groups at times of limited availability scheduling of venues at times of limited availability scheduling of teachers at time
25. tically selected for the group s lessons if possible The availability of the group for teaching may be limited to certain periods by changing the marks under Availability After you have confirmed your group definitions you see that the reservoir area of the main window contains a number of cards Each of these cards represents a lesson to be scheduled for a particular student group CHAPTER 2 SPECIFYING YOUR SCHOOL DETAILS 13 New Group Name Preferred venue A3 Room 3 Courses attended Availability Religious Studies 3 Physics 3 Chemistry 3 Biology 3 French 3 German 3 History 3 Geography 3 Latin 3 ue ar Figure 2 6 The New Group dialog Group A3 takes all the 3rd year courses except German and Latin preferably in Room 3 The group is not available for the last period of the afternoon 2 2 6 Students Lastly FineTime requires a list of all the students taking part in the scheduled courses Each student has a name gender for export purposes and a list of groups of which the student is a member Lower grade students are typically members of just one or two groups representing whole classes higher grade students are more likely to be members of many groups each following a single course New Student Name Member of Sarah Smith v A3 a 3 Geography Gender 3 Latin C Male Female 3 Art v Cancel Figure 2 7
26. use FineTime s automatic scheduling feature to considerably ease your task It is also possible to combine the manual and automatic approaches to create your optimum timetable while still saving a great deal of time and effort In section 4 1 of this chapter we describe how you can set the timetable view to highlight different aspects of your timetable and to facilitate lesson scheduling Section 4 2 explains how to schedule lessons by dragging lesson cards with the mouse and how to use automatic scheduling 4 1 Setting the Timetable View 4 1 1 Viewing by Lesson Property After you have loaded a timetable or imported a school resource file into FineTime you see that the timetable window shows a list of the venues to which lessons may be allocated down the left edge of the window The lessons currently assigned to each venue are depicted in the timetable row adjacent to each venue label As you shall see in the following sections of this chapter it is also very useful to be able to view the timetable with the lessons arranged according to properties other than their venues FineTime allows you to change the timetable view to so that the lessons are ordered by either venue teacher or group To order the lessons by teacher choose View Teachers from the menu bar and the timetable window changes so that the teachers are listed at the left edge of the window and the lessons are ordered accordingly Choose View Groups from the menu bar to
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