SM-Timetable: Tutorial

SM-Timetable Tutorial

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This is a tutorial to make you familiar with the features and capabilities of SM-Timetable. Before beginning it is helpful to understand that SM-Timetable is different from other timetable system you have used before.

SM-Timetable represents every student, teacher, class, period and other school resource on the screen as an item in a list. Choosing and manipulating items on the screen does almost all actions. For example, you need to specify the course of a particular class. To do this, you just click on the item for the course and drag it onto the class. To display the timetable for a particular teacher you click on the teacher item, and choose the Timetable page.

Of course, some of details of achieving both of these actions needs to be explained, that is what the rest of this tutorial is for, but the ideas are easy to understand. The main point is that in SM-Timetable you no longer have to negotiate what you want to do in a pop-up box with an OK and Cancel button, instead you just do it.

Installing and starting SM-Timetable

To install SM-Timetable on computer, do the following steps:

Close any applications that are already running
Click on the Start button, and then select Run.
Choose the Browse button to change to the folder with the downloaded file Smttrial.exe.
Select Smttrial.exe and choose Open.
Choose OK.
Follow the prompts until the installation is finished.

The first time you install SM-Timetable it is recommended that you accept the standard destination of the C:\SMTTABLE folder.

It is important to start SM-Timetable from the shortcut in the SMPCS Apps group from the Windows Start menu and Programs section. Later you can learn how to make a desktop icon, but for now please use the installed shortcut.

Once installation is complete you are ready to run SM-Timetable for the first time. You can start SM-Timetable from the Windows Start button by choosing Programs|SMPCS Apps|SM-Timetable.

When you need to exit from SM-Timetable choose the File|Exit command. SM-Timetable automatically saves all changes made.
In this document instructions such as "choose the File|Exit command" indicate to choose the Exit command in the File menu. Or if you prefer, some commands have a button on the toolbar for the same action.

Password

The default password for the Administrator is sunshine and you must press the Enter key after typing it.

Looking at SM-Timetable

One the left of the screen there is a list that is the School view. It is not labelled on the screen, but that is what it is referred to as in this tutorial and the other documentation with the program. The School view can display all the items that are required to build and work with a school timetable. The School view displays a list of folders. Each folder is an item on the screen that looks similar to the way folders of files are shown in a program like Windows Explorer.

As a folder, each item can contain further lists of items. By clicking on the small + sign to the left of a folder you can show the items of the folder. After first starting SM-Timetable only a few of the folders have items in them, but you can open them now if you want. When you open a folder you will see how the + turns in a - sign. Clicking on the minus will close the folder.

There are other ways to open a close the folders, one way with the keyboard and another with the mouse. Throughout this tutorial generally only one way will be explained to do most actions. Usually because it is the simplest to do, but as you continue to use SM-Timetable you may find quicker ways. These are detailed in the topics of the Help folder.

Open the Utilities folder now. When you do this you will see that a folder can contain not only a list of items, but also more folders. In this way items can be connected to other items by being positioned inside them. Some people find thinking of this as a tree with branches that are all attached to the root at the top that is labelled the school. (Proof that computer programmers need to get outdoors more, the root is at the top and the branches at the bottom.)

In the Utilities folder open the Advanced folder, if you have not already done so. Unless you have closed it, the Database folder should already be open, as it does so each time SM-Timetable is started. Don't worry too much about the name Advanced it is not possible to do any damage with the items in it.

The more hidden away an item is within a folder in a folder, the less likely it is to be something that you need to use everyday. This is one way SM-Timetable keeps things simple by only showing that details that you need, but always making them accessible with a click or two in the School view.

Before proceeding you should make sure the Help, Printer, and Export folders are closed. As before, if any of them are open you can close them by clicking on the - sign next to each. Having these closed allows you to be able to see the Default database item and the Sample database on the screen at the same time.

Click on the Details tab so you can see the path of the Sample data. By doing a click and drag on dividing bar between the two halves of the main window you can widen the School view to fully see the names of the items in the Advanced folder.

Throughout this tutorial you need to know how to click and drag. This means clicking on and item with the mouse button and keeping the button pressed down while you move the mouse pointer. To finish the action you release the mouse button when the pointer on the screen is in the require position.

Getting the sample timetable

The item in the Database folder named Default represents all the information stored about a timetable. When you first start using SM-Timetable you only need a single database item, but later you may create other database items. The one that is named Default will be the current timetable that is in use now, that you want teacher to have access to. Later by making another database item, don't do it now, you can work on next years timetable separately from this years.

You can have up to 8 different distinct timetables, but only the first one in the list can be easily read by any staff person. Of course, not all staff can make changes to a timetable but usually you want to make it easy for staff to view and print the current timetable.

To save you the effort of making a timetable from scratch the Sample data item can be copied into the default database. Thinking back to what you read in the introductory paragraphs of this tutorial, can you guess how to copy the Sample data into the Default database?

If you thought about doing a click and a drag with those items, you're right. The questions is, do you drag the Default database item onto the Sample data, or the reverse? In this case you click on the Sample data item and drag it onto the Default database item.

The SM-Timetable there will usually be a specific direction items can be dragged to achieve a particular result. When an item can be dragged onto another, the cursor changes from the "not allowed" symbol into an arrow with a rectangle attached when the cursor is over the item where you want to drop it.

You can experiment with this behaviour now. Click on the Default item in the Database folder and drag it so the cursor is over the Sample data item. Note how the cursor is the circle symbol with a line through it. Release the mouse button and try it the other way. Click on the Sample data item and drag the cursor so it is over the Default database, the cursor changes to the arrow. This means you can drop, i.e. release the mouse button, the item there.

You can try dragging the Sample data item anywhere in the School view, and the only place it can be dropped is on the Default database item. If you have not already done so drag and drop the Sample data onto the Default database now.

When you do this, along the bottom edge of SM-Timetable a message may appear indicating what is about to happen. Some actions that have the potential to alter all the information in the database only occur after a delay. This is to allow you time to be sure it is what you want, and if not to cancel the action.

The cursor changes to the hourglass shape to warning you that this may take more than a moment. Along the bottom edge that is called the Status line a message indicates what is happening and on the right end of the bottom edge a gauge starts to fill. When an action may take a while the gauge fills to let you see that progress is being made. The gauge will not always fill steadily, but by the time it is filled the action will be complete.

Please wait for the copying of the Sample data. This action may take a significant amount of time, but note that copying information to or from a database are the most time consuming actions that can occur in SM-Timetable and should not be taken as an indication of how long most actions take.

Once the copying of the sample data is complete, the School view may flicker as the display is updated. All folders now have the small + next to them to show that they have items in them. You can now take a look in the folders to get an idea of the types of information stored in SM-Timetable. As each folder is opened the lists in the School view get longer and you will need to start scrolling up and down to be able to see different items.

The folders

When you first start to use SM-Timetable you may not remember the order of the folders in the School view and once more than a few are open; finding the items you are interesting may seem difficult. To help you there is the Folders menu at the top edge. In the Folders menu you can select the name of the folder you are interested in and the School view immediately scrolls to that folder. The folder will also be opened if it is not already.

Spend a few minutes now opening and closing folders and looking at the items in the School view. You can't cause any problems by doing this. (While doing this, actions will work faster if you have the Details page selected.) After having a good look you find the School view has a lot of items so much scrolling is required to move through the list.

To immediately tidy up the School view choose the Folders|Close all menu item. Do this now and the School view will return to how it was with all the items in the folders hidden.

Suppose you want to see the Timetable for Ms K. Hepburn who is one of the teachers in the Sample data. You can open the Teachers folder scroll down to HEPBURN Katherine and click on her, then click on the Timetable tab to the right of the School view. Do that now.

The timetable for the selected teacher is shown. The Timetable tab allows you to select the timetable view for the items in the School view. The idea here is that there are several different ways to see more about the items in the School view.

The Details, Personal, Information and Timetable tabs allow you to look at the specifics of the items in the School view in different ways. (The Scratchpad has a different purpose and will be explained later in this tutorial.) When you select a tab what you are looking at is referred to as that page. For example, the Information tab selects the Information page.

Still keeping Katherine Hepburn selected in the School view, click and the Details tab. Look at what you see. Then try the Information tab to see what you get and then back to the Timetable page. You will have noticed the row of buttons visible along the top of the Information and Timetable page. These buttons can be used to further control the presentation of the page.

The first button on the Timetable page has a small picture of a printer with some paper coming out of the top. At least that is what the picture is supposed to look like, you may need to use some imagination here. If you are connected to a printer, please make sure it is turned on and then click on the Printer button. After a few moments your first printed timetable should be in your hands.

The first time you print from SM-Timetable it will use whatever is set as the default printer on your system. If you have more than one printer available this may not be the one you normally prefer. By holding the mouse pointer over the Printer button some text appears which indicates the printer SM-Timetable sends pages to. How to change the printer is explained in the Help, which will be covered later in this tutorial.

When printing timetables the layout normally looks best when the page is printed sideways, i.e. in what is often called landscape. Have a guess which button must be clicked on to make the printing sideways. If you have trouble guessing, you can position the mouse pointer over each button to make short descriptive text appear about the button.

Set the page orientation to landscape and print the timetable for Katherine Hepburn again.

View and finding items

Now suppose you need as timetable for the student Donna Reed. You could open the Students folder and scroll through the list, but when you have hundreds of students in a school this may not be as quick as finding a teacher. You are about to learn two ways to help make is simpler to find a student.

With the View menu you can restrict what is shown in the School view. If you know the year of the student you are looking for you can choose the appropriate year in the View menu and then you don't have so many students to scroll through. In this case though you have no idea what year Donna Reed is in, so you can find them another way. Before going further choose View|All items.

Click on the white rectangle that is near the top of SM-Timetable, it is below the menu but above the tabs. This area is called the toolbar and has a few buttons on it. The rectangle that you need to click on is towards the right, just before the button that has a picture of a pair of binoculars. So maybe it looks more like a stack of black blocks, but you can always pretend.

Now you have a cursor in the rectangle and can type part of Donna Reed's name. Entering Donna should be enough. Now click on the Find (Torch) button, in a moment any item that contains those letters will be selected. In this exercise the part of the name entered is enough to find the correct student, but sometimes you will need to click on the Find button more than once. You do not need to be concerned about whether the letters are upper or lower case when finding items.

Information page

While keeping Donna Reed selected in the School view, select the Information page. The Timetable page can only display information that is a table of items. The Information page is more flexible and is used for a wide range of purposes in SM-Timetable.

On the Information page look at the buttons along the top edge. On the left is the same print button and next to it is another print button which will only print the currently viewed page. Then there are four buttons with a white rectangle in the middle, which are needed when the information requires more than one page.

The next two buttons with the letter F and the up and down arrow control the size of the displayed font. Whatever size font is selected on screen is the same size that is used for printing. Try clicking on either of these buttons and watch how the Information page changes. Holding the mouse over either button shows the current size of the font.

The next button you have used before as it changes the printing between normal or sideways. This landscape button is part of a group of five buttons. You can experiment with them now to see what they do. With the immediate change you get from those buttons there is no need to explain them here, just try each one and see. Do that now. Remember you can also position the mouse pointer over a button to get a description.

One button that does require an explanation is the Show alternate view of item. With a student there isn't an alternate view available so the button does nothing, but later you may get to see different information by using it.

Skipping over the button with the Lock on it, to the last three that control the magnification, also know as zoom, of the Information page. These don't affect the printing only what you see on the screen. What suits you best may be different but On a good-sized video display, choosing the middle "Make the page fit inside the window" works well when the page is set to the landscape setting.

Experiment now with the zoom buttons and the font size buttons. See what looks best for your eyes.

Getting back to the button with the lock on it. Sometimes you need to be able to select other items in the School while still keeping the Information page for comparison. This is what the Lock button is for. While it is active the Information page will not change. Turn on the lock and select another student in the School view. See, now click on the lock again so it is not active and what how the Information page immediately updates to the show the selected student.

To see how SM-Timetable can store the image for a student, find Audrey Hepburn and select the Personal page.

Changing and adding items

A new student has arrived at the school, you're going to add them to SM-Timetable now. As you should have noticed when exploring the School view a different shape and colour represent each type of item. There is no significance to the shapes and colours used, although you are welcome to attribute your own meanings to them, they are different to make them easier to distinguish at a glance and to provides some visual cues while using SM-Timetable.

Given that you have been selecting a few students, note how they look in the School view. The main icons on the toolbar just below the main menu area of SM-Timetable are for making new items. Thinking about this, Click on the one you think will make a new student. Did you click on the red circle?

Doing this has two immediate actions. A new student is added to the bottom of the Students folder and the Details page is selected. Every new student item that is made is initially named New STUDENT. (Shown as STUDENT New in the School view because the family name comes first.) The Details page is where you can edit the name of the student.

Backspace over the family name and perhaps type your own. Then press the down arrow key to get to the Given line. Here there is no need to press the back space key because the whole line is already selected, just type the first name of your new hypothetical student. You may like to enter to a preferred name and set the correct sex, but you don't really have to for this tutorial. When you are finished press the Enter key and now you have added a new student to SM-Timetable.

New students and some other items always appear at the bottom of the list in the folder, but they will later appear in the correct position to keep alphabetical order. You can use the Details page to edit the details of items already in SM-Timetable. Select the item in the School view, make the changes and press Enter when you are finished.

Giving the student some classes

New students need to be in some classes, that's what school is for, right? There are two main ways to put a student in some classes. Either drag the class onto the student, or drag the student onto the class. Here you will drag the class onto the student.

Earlier it was said that the Scratchpad page is different from the other views of the data, now you get to use it. At the beginning when you did a click and drag from the Sample data to the Default database, it was possible because both items were on the screen in the School view at the same time. But that is not always possible, so what you do is copy the items from a folder onto the Scratchpad. Then you can click and drag items that are not normally nearby in the School view.

Click on the Scratchpad tab. Don't think too much about the things at the bottom of the Scratchpad page, they won't be used in this tutorial. Now scroll down to the classes folder, or you could use the Folders|Class menu item if you want, so you can see it. Click and drag the Class folder anywhere onto the Scratchpad page. When you release the mouse after a moment a copy of all classes are available on the Scratchpad.

In the School view, scroll back to the new student you made and named. Now it is possible to click on a class on the Scratchpad and drag it onto the student. Do this for a few classes of your choosing. While doing this you may get some warning messages about classes with periods that clash. If that happens you may need to choose a different class to drag onto the student.

Saving

After having made these changes, what about saving the information? SM-Timetable doesn't need a save command, as you make changes they are immediately stored. So you do not need to be concerned with such issues. In some software the ability to not save some work is used as a way of correcting mistakes, i.e. if a big mistake is made you don't save the file.

In SM-Timetable a more useful approach is used where there is an Undo feature that can reverse all actions done. There is an Undo button on the toolbar under the menu. Each time you click on the Undo button the most recent action is reversed. You can repeat this undoing as many times as required.

Since you have done some work, it is all saved and you may not have made any mistakes, but you can still see what has been done and is available for undoing. In the School view, scroll down to the bottom to the Utilities folder. Open that folder and also open the Undo folder. What you see is a list of the items that have been made, changed or deleted. Next to each item is the time the change was made.

Click on the Undo button now. The top item in the undo list will be removed and the last class that was added to the student will be gone. You can check this by scrolling back up the student you added. If you want to you can undo every action done so far in this tutorial.

What you now know

You now know how to create students and edit their names. You can also put them in classes. You learnt how the Information and Timetable pages are used and you know how to view and print a timetable for a teacher. You can also search for items in the School view. The Undo feature has also been explained and you have found that there is no need to think about saving in SM-Timetable.

One of the key features of SM-Timetable is that it is highly consistent with the way different actions are done. There is a certain symmetry that applies across the whole program. What this means in practice is that once you learn the basics you can apply them in many different way.

For example, you learnt how to add a new student to SM-Timetable. Click on the student button on the toolbar and then edit the lines on the Details page. Now that you know this, you also know how to make a teacher, class or any other item in SM-Timetable. The steps are identical.

You found that by clicking on a student item in the School view you can see a list of the classes that student is in on the Information page, which can be printed out. Knowing this, how do you think you could print out the name of a class with a list of the students in it? You could try it before reading further if you like.

If you scrolled to the Class folder and clicked on a class and then clicked on the Information tab, you got the list you needed. Now suppose you want to see the times when that class is on, what do you do? Try it.

Click on the Timetable page, of course. At any point while doing this you can print what you see.

Here is a more difficult question because it uses an item of the School view that has not yet been mentioned. You need to print a page that shows all the classes in Year 10 on a timetable grid with each day and period shown. How could you do this? As a hint, what folder do you think you have to look in to find the item that will give this information? Try your ideas when you are ready and stop reading now.

In the Year folder there is an item for every year in the school. By opening that folder, you could use the Folders|Year folder menu item if you want, and clicking on the Year 10 item, you can then see the information on the timetable page. Because the number of classes on each period is large you probably wont not be able to see them all on the screen, but if you print the Timetable page, it can all fit if you haven't made the font size too large.

This is one of the strengths of SM-Timetable; you can view and print information with very little work or experience from you.

Deleting items

You have added and changed a few items, now you will find out how to delete them. In the School view go to the Student folder again. You are about to delete a student. Find a student that you want to delete, perhaps an actor you don't particularly like. Lori Singer comes to mind, but you can pick anyone.

Before we delete him or her from SM-Timetable spend some time clicking on the Details, Information and Timetable pages. You can look at the Personal page if you want, but there isn't space in this tutorial to cover what it is for, although you may guess, that page can also store a photograph of the student.

Common actions that are related to the specific item that is selected in the School view are available from a pop up menu that you show by clicking the right mouse button. Do this now, right click on the student item you have selected. The menu has several items, but you can see that the Delete one is not active. This is just a small precaution to prevent any surprises if a cat runs across the keyboard and randomly hits several keys.

So first choose the Enable delete item in the pop up menu. Right click for a second time on the student and choose Delete. The student is gone and any reference to that student in classes is also removed. Most items in the School view can be deleted in this way. As with other actions the effect is immediate and there is no need to do a save to make the change permanent, although by now looking in the Undo folder you can see the student in case you make a mistake and want the student back.

Removing an association

Other times you don't need to delete and item, but instead you need to remove the association, or connection between two items. In this case, you are removing and item and it is done in a similar way to deleting. You can try this now.

Go the Class folder. Open the class item so you can see the students in the class. Click on any student in the list so he or she is selected. Now right click on the student. There is the Remove item in the same position as where you previously saw the Delete. Click on Remove and the student is removed from the class.

Removing is done any time you want to remove the association between two items. This is different from deleting because the item is still in the School view in its folder, but it no longer connected to the item it is removed from.

Now you know how to add, change and delete items and alter the associations between them.

Using the help

In the Utilities folder there is the Help folder. This folder contains the help system for SM-Timetable. By opening a folder and clicking on an item you can read the help description on the Information page. As with anything shown on the Information page you print it if you want to have a copy on paper.

The Help is designed to be read in sequence, although you can skip over sections such as "Installing on a network", if that is not your concern.

The "How do I" section has the answers to commonly asked questions about SM-Timetable and is a recommended first stop if you have a question about the program that you cannot figure out.

Spend a few minutes now looking through the Help information.

Summary

You now know enough to use SM-Timetable on a day to day basis. You can:

Search for students and teachers
Print timetables and class lists
Make changes to the details of the school timetable

The symmetry of SM-Timetable means you can make an educated guess on how to get different types of information from SM-Timetable. With the undo feature at your disposal you can:

Try out different actions and experiment with the program without the risk of messing up.

There is a second tutorial that covers making a timetable. Click here to do it next.