These instructions are directed toward users of TimeLine Couse Scheduling Application version 0.4. Any questions, comments, or suggestions can be made by email to the author at jessbowers@aol.com. Please do not contact FSU or the FSU School of Motion Pictures, Television, and Recording Arts for information regarding this or the the application.
Introduction
Have you ever found yourself planning a new semester for your department, juggling groups of students, rooms to put them in, and instructors to teach them? Often times two courses are sceduled in the same room at overlapping times, an instructor is sceduled to teach two classes at once, or a group of students is told they must choose between two equally important classes held at the same time. In order to catch all of the potential conflicts on paper, you might have found yourself pulling your hair out.
Faced with this problem themselves, the Florida State University School of Motion Pictures, Television, and Recording Arts came to me with the idea of automating the task of course scheduling. Timeline is the result, helping you develop a conflict-free list of courses for any given semester.
Timeline is a course scheduling application. It helps to develop a list of courses for a department or school that include common elements such as instructors, classrooms (spaces), and classifications of students. Timeline looks for any conflicts among these elements and allerts the user to them.
This is NOT a completely finished application and I appologize for that -- or maybe I don't, seeing as how you obtained it for free. Anyway, YOU and your helpful suggestions and feedback will encourage me to continue this project and update the software as the need arises.
I make no claims about this software - since it is in a slightly unfinished form, do not expect it to take you to the moon. If you are not satisfied and you wish that I would change something, contact me. If you are dissatisfied and you don't care, then please drag the application into the trash and forget about it.
Getting Started - Opening TimeLine for the first time:
1. Double-click the application icon.
2. A dialog will appear asking for you to save a NEW Element file.
3. Specify the name and location of the new file.
NOTE: if this is not REALLY the first time TimeLine has been run on this machine, then you will get the Element file opened for you automatically. Once you have opened an element file for the first time, it will open automatically each time you run TimeLine.
4. A brand new course file window will be opened for you, at which point you are ready to begin scheduling.
Making a schedule:
1. Click in the course window.
2. Choose Add from the Edit menu.
This will add a course (in sorted order) to the schedule.
A dialog box will open asking you to give vital information about the course. This is called the "Detail" view of the course.
3. Go through and add all of the vital information about a course to the detail (tabbing between fields).
4. Click on "SET" to set the time and day the class will be scheduled.
5. Fill out the space (classroom), instructor, and classification (freshmen, sophmore, etc.). These items are your ELEMENTS. Since they must be kept track of in the element file, you will be required to verify each one of them by either setting up a new record in the element file, or selecting an already existing one from the element file.
NOTE: Each one of the "Elements" are the factors that you do not want to conflict between courses. For example, you would not expect an instructor to teach two classes that were given at the same time, nor would you expect a classroom to be scheduled for two different courses at the same time, nor would you expect a class (or group) of students to be in two different places at once. KEEP THIS IN MIND, because this is how the logic of the application works. DO NOT fill out the classification field for fun, but only if you MUST require ALL of the "Freshmen" (or whatever moniker you choose) to be attending the class. That way, if you schedule the "Freshmen" to be in another place at the same time, the application will alert you.
5. When you TAB from any of the element fields, the conflict window will BEEP to alert you that there is a conflict.
6. When you are done, you may click OK to save the changes you have made to the course entry, or click CANCEL to abort those changes.
Saving your work:
1. Element files do NOT need to be saved. They are maintained for you by the application.
2. To Save a Course file, select the Course's Window and Choose Save from the File Menu.
3. If you want to save it in a different location or under a different name, choose Save As...
The Element File and The Course Schedule File:
When using Timeline, you will encounter two different types of files: The Course Schedule file and the Element file.
•the Course Schedule file: The course file is a schedule for courses in the CURRENT Semester that you are planning. This is the file that you will be working with the most, printing out when you are done, etc.
•The Element File: The Element file contains all of the elements in your department, such as the instructors, spaces, classifications of students, and majors. Elements and the Element file are saved and updated automatically, so you generally will not have to worry about them. After you have specified the name and location of where your element file is saved, Timeline takes care of saving the element file and keeping track of it.
Creating a NEW Element File:
When you begin for the first time, you will want to create and save a NEW element file. If you are using TimeLine for the first time on this computer, then when you start the Application:
1. A dialog will appear asking for you to Open an already created Element file. Please choose CANCEL.
2. Choose New Element file... from the Elements menu.
3. Specify the name and location of the new file.
NOTE: The element file specified will open automatically when you open the application again.
Chances are, however, that you ran the application many times before getting entirely too frustrated, quit, and then came running to these instructions. Therefore, if Timeline has already been run a few times on this machine, then:
1. Choose New Element File from the Elements menu to create a new Element file.
Creating a New Course file:
1. After having either created a NEW element file, or opening an older one, Choose NEW from the File menu.
2. Specify the name and location of the new file.
3. An untitled, empty window will open.
Adding New Courses to your Course file:
1. After opening or creating a course file, Click on the Course file window and Choose INSERT From the Edit menu.
2. An empty Course dialog Detail will open and you will be able to fill in the necessary information.
3. Click either OK to close the dialog and add it to the Course file, or Cancel to forget the course you have started to fill out.
Removing Courses from your Course file:
1. Select the unwanted Course by clicking on it (the course will be highlighted).
2. Choose Remove from the Edit menu.
NOTE: Currently, this action is permanent.
That's the basics, now on to the more complicated stuff:
Opening Course files:
1. Simply choose Open from the File menu.
2. Or you can double click on the course file's icon in the Finder. Timeline will be opened and so will the course file.
NOTE: You cannot open or create a course file without first opening or creating an Element file.
Closing course files:
1. Simply close the Course file's window.
Changing Elements:
1. Select the Element that you want to change by clicking on it (the Element will be highlighted).
2. Choose Show Detail from the Edit menu.
3. A dialog will open, allowing you to see the Element and change its attributes.
4. Choose OK to close the dialog and modify the changes that you have made, or Choose Cancel to close the dialog and ignore your changes.
Changing Courses:
1. Select the Course that you want to change by clicking on it (the Course will be highlighted).
2. Choose Show Detail from the Edit menu.
3. A dialog will open, allowing you to see the Course and change its attributes.
4. Choose OK to close the dialog and modify the changes that you have made, or Choose Cancel to close the dialog and ignore your changes.
Conflicts: how to create them and how to avoid them.
A conflict occurs when you assign the same element to two separate courses at the same time. Conflicts will appear in the course's Conflict Window Within the conflict's detail window.
When you create a course, you set up the course's timeslot. By doing this and selecting certain elements to be included with this course, you tie up the elements for that timeslot. If another course tries to put itself into that timeslot, then there will be a conflict.
D E F I N I T I O N S
Element file: The file that contains all of the Instructors, Classifications, and Spaces that you will include in any course lists that you create.
• For example, you would have a single element file containing your whole faculty, all of the classrooms that you schedule classes into, and the names of all of the groups of students you schedule (freshmen, sophmores, seniors).
Course file: The files that contain lists of courses with common elements.
• For example, you would have a course file for FALL 94, containing all of the courses scheduled for the fall semester.
TimeLine: a Course Scheduling Application is copyright 1994 by J.S. Bowers. Any distribution must include all original documentation. The software is FREEWARE, and may be distributed and used freely and at no charge. Any commercial distribution or sale is prohibited. Hope you like it and it works well for you.
