The first thing you need to do is populate the supporting databases. The specific instructions for each database is covered under the Supporting Databases section of the main contents page. We will give a short description of each here.
Once these databases are created save the file. This schedule program stores all databases and the schedule in a single file. So when you want to create your next schedule all you need to do is open up the last schedule file, save it to a new filename and then select File > New > Clear Schedule and Office Hours... This will clear the old schedule and office hours but keep the supporting databases. Edit the databases as needed, i.e. put in the new courses the department has created or the people it has hired, and then you are ready to go with the next schedule.
The File > New menu also has options for clearing just the schedule or just the office hours or to clear all of the databases. The File menu has standard options for saving and loading schedule files as well. One bit of advise about schedule making. Academic schedules tend to change frequently right up until the semester starts so when editing a schedule we suggest that before you make a series of changes you save the schedule to a different filename so that the previous one is not altered. For example, Spring2009_Draft001, Spring2009_Draft002, Spring2009_Draft003, ... Another feature of this program is that you can generate a report of the changes made to the schedule between a previously saved schedule and the current one.
Once the supporting databases have been input or you have loaded an old file and cleared the schedule and office hours you are ready to make a new schedule. You should see one window in the schedule creation area that lists all of the courses and professors in your databases, pictured below.
Creating a schedule has two phases to it. The first phase is to determine what courses each professor is teaching and the second is to place these courses into rooms and times. For the first phase all you do is drag and drop the course on the left to the professor on the right. Specifically if I wanted to give Don Spickler a Calculus I class I would put the mouse over the Calculus I course on the left, click the left mouse button and keep it down, then drag it to Don Spickler on the right and release the mouse. At this point you will see a list below Don Spickler containing the Calculus I class. Any subsequent courses I give to Don Spickler will also show up in this list.
You will also notice that when you do this the workload number changes for Don Spickler and the information for Calculus I also changes. The workload is a calculation that is particular for the Henson School of Science at Salisbury University but in parentheses is the number of total credit hours the professor is teaching, which may have some meaning outside the walls of SU. Also the number of sections of Calculus I increased and the staff list for Calculus I includes DES which is the short designation for Don Spickler.
You will also notice that there is a red icon in front of the Calculus I class in the course list for Don Spickler. These icon colors have a meaning in the second stage of the schedule making process. A red icon means that the course has not been placed in a room and time, a yellow icon means that the course has been partially allocated (i.e. three of the four contact hours have been placed in a room), a dark green icon means that the course has been fully allocated and a light green icon means that the course has been over allocated. One other icon color is the blue icon which means that the course is not bound by any time constraints, such as an independent study.
The second stage is when you take each professor's assigned courses and place them in a room and a time. There are many options for doing this but they will be covered in the section on the Room Viewer. Basically, you will open one or more room viewers and drag and drop the courses in the professor's course list to a room and time. When you do you will see the course in the room schedule and the course icon will change appropriately.
Also notice that the color of the course in the room schedule will match the color of the course icon in the professor's course list, except it is a little lighter so that reading the text is easier.
Now there are many other options and viewers that are discussed on other pages of this help system but the above procedure outlines the basic methodology of schedule creation. Once the schedule is created you can select one of several types of reports to print out the schedule information. You can also create graphical schedule cards for both professors and rooms, print a faculty listing and changes from a previously saved schedule.