Options menu Options menuIn this selection you can define and redefine all the parameters related to your data. When creating a new file it is useful to go through at least three first selections to set key parameters (Limits, Time and Categories). You can set limits, rules, colours and other preferences in these selections and change them later on when you wish.
When starting with Mimosa, the first three tabs are the most important:
Sets the upper bounds for the number of Weeks or terms (MAX=255), number of Days in each week (MAX=7) and Time periods or slots in each day (MAX=30).
It is essential that you do not supply more days or time periods than are needed, since it then scales down the size of the timetable grid on screen and in some reports. The limits can be easily changed any time later on, but they cannot be smaller than the corresponding maximum values that have been used in the current data.
If the maximum limits appear to be higher than is needed, and you cannot decrease them because there are assigned lectures and/or bookings in the timetables, that should be removed before they can be decreased and you can use the following method.
Note that the following commands are useful only after you have created timetables and want to effectively modify several of them at once.
Before using the following commands, you should Paint a rectangular area in the timetable grid that is going to be modified.
Erase lectures clears all lectures of the chosen courses from the timetables of the selected weeks and the painted area.
Swap lectures swaps the locations of the assigned lectures and the bookings in all timetables of the selected weeks and the slots in the painted area. After selecting this rectangle, you are prompted to select the first day of the week and the first time-period of the rectangle (with the same dimensions) which you are going to swap lectures with. These areas can overlap, and some of the bookings and manual rooms may disappear, because of their lower priority.
Buttons below add/remove days/slots
The four arrow keys enable you to shift days or slots of the Used area within the grid in each direction, provided that there are enough Days in week or Time periods to enable this operation (you may have to increase these limits to make all arrow keys enabled). When you click a cell in the timetable, all lectures and bookings in all weeks beyond this cell are shifted as indicated. Please note that you cannot always cancel this operation, as when you have shifted lectures to the left or upwards. Save your file on disk before trying this!
Make bookings assigns bookings to the slots, week and components selected by the user and Cancel bookings removes previously assigned bookings, respectively. The appropriate booking type (1,2 or 3) is selected from the box on the right. Use these selections when you want to modify several timetables at once.
In the following example, all selected lectures in the 10th and 11 slots are changed, depending on the operation in question.
Here you give names for all weeks (MAX 255), their lengths (1-255), days of weeks (MAX 7) and time periods (MAX 30).
Weeks or terms and their lengths:
Input the names of a maximum of 5 characters for the weeks (or terms) in the school year. Input also the length (or the weight) for each week, expressing in how many calendar weeks the same timetable system or schedule is to be followed within that week. The weeks (in this context) are identical to the calendar weeks only if the lengths of all weeks are equal to one.
The total number of weeks (defined in Options|Limits) in a school year is 255x255 weeks = 65565 weeks, and 255 weeks out of them are different. The length of the school year is often in round numbers: 30-40 calendar weeks.
If you have one term in the school year, or if you have all terms of the same length, it is a recommended practice to set 1 for their lengths. This is also the case when you have a school year of 38 weeks, but which is divided into 5 equal terms. In this case, it is not wise to try to synchronise the calendar with the terms (as described below).
There are several strategies for splitting the school years into weeks or terms. Some schools follow exactly similar timetables each week, whereas some change at least some of them in each calendar week. The application also gives the user the option to deal with several school years at once, since the maximum capacity of 255 weeks is normally large enough to contain several school years.
If all timetables remain identical throughout the whole school year you can omit the dates in this context and input the following data:
First day of first week
If you use calendar weeks, check [x] Replace weeks by dates. This option enables you to attach a true calendar with your weeks or terms, and also to show them in the reports and timetables. This option is not recommended if the terms are not whole weeks, since it violates the date synchronisation, which is based on fixing the first week’s Monday and then calculating the dates of other weeks according to their lengths.
If you have decided to use calendar weeks then define the First date of the first week to match the calendar you are going to follow (if you have a multi-term school year) by selecting it from the calendar that is displayed on this tab (this is enabled only if you have checked [x] Replace weeks by dates).
If you have selected to use calendar weeks, all week/terms names can be replaced by their week numbers by selecting the [x] Use week numbers option. According to a commonly accepted convention, the week number one is set to the week containing the year’s first Thursday, and all weeks are assumed to start from Monday. The week number definition follows to ISO 8601 standard, used widely in European countries.
If some holidays or other special weeks break up the normal school year, input them here, as if they were normal school weeks or terms. Make bookings to these weeks in Weeks view - to prevent the allocation of lectures to them and to keep the calendar synchronised.
When you change the lengths of weeks (which can also be done in Weeks view) or the First date of first week, all subsequent dates and date ranges change accordingly. You can use the current week’s date range also in reports when you select that option in File|Print.
You can change the date format as well in Edit format date format. If you input ddddd in the box below (=default), it will produce in most windows environments the same date format as you have defined in Windows Short Date style. Experiment with symbols d, m, and y plus dots (.) and slashes (/) to create the desired date format as displayed on the sample panel, for instance m/d/yyyy, d.m.yyyy or d.m.yy.
Days of week and Time periods:
Input these texts for the column and row titles in the timetables. The maximum size of the timetables is defined in Options|Limits.
Mimosa supports only one set of time periods (or slots, cycles). If they vary, it is a good practice to use letters (A, B, C, ..., J) or some other convenient symbols instead of time-periods and to map them to the time-periods of each class (or teacher) and day of the week. This information is then declared on a separate sheet for the school (as described in the artificial example below):
The titles of the days of the week can be chosen freely. You do not have to start from Monday if the first day of the week is another day. Suppose you are scheduling a seminar which starts on Tuesday, and lasts until the following week’s Tuesday. Friday and Sunday are free because of different religious requirements. Only one week is needed if you define the days of the week as follows (set Days in week = 7 in Options|Limits):
The Copy and Paste buttons enable you to copy text from the active text box onto the Clipboard and to paste text from the Clipboard. These tools are often useful, such as if you also use your spreadsheet application as a planning tool (see Clipboard).
Give names to categories for components and courses (MAX=7) and texts to be used in bookings for weeks and timetables (MAX=3). You can use more categories than you need for the moment. Write categories in the form X:CategoryName, where X is the letter or number to be displayed or printed for the name of that category.
Categories are often useful in the sorting of codes and selections, but the categories for components also have other properties associated with them (see Options|Timetables and Options|Weeks.
Note that the meanings of the categories of courses are not as obvious as they are with the components, but it is recommended that you group the courses according to their types.
With the help of bookings take care that you do not accidentally allocate lectures to a wrong week (of some course) or insert lectures into a wrong cell in timetables (of some component) by marking their status booked. You can make bookings to weeks in window Weeks and to timetables in window Timetables or in selection Tools|Show Timetables.
When you make bookings use the current default booking type (1, 2 or 3) for weeks and timetables. You can also change it in the selection Options|Default booking type.
The Copy and Paste buttons enable you to copy text from the active text box onto the Clipboard and paste text from the Clipboard (see Clipboard).
Prevent conflicts for
Select here those categories you want to check for conflicts (or clashes), such as classes, teachers, rooms, students, facilities. Only categories that do not require any physical resource, like subjects, are not normally selected here. For checked categories, the application keeps track of the feasibility of the timetables and prevents double bookings (or clashes or conflicts).
Only these categories are available to create and print timetables for and they are also automatically shown in the Timetables view. You can change this parameter later on, and if you check a category that is not previously checked, Mimosa automatically checks and removes possible conflicts.
Count gaps in timetables for
Select those categories that you want to have gaps counted for (among categories that you selected in Prevent conflicts for). A gap is defined as an empty slot between lectures. Normally, categories like rooms are not included in this selection. The quality or desirability of the timetables of classes, students or teachers (or other living resources) is often measures with this concept.
Show linked timetables for
Choose those categories of components that are displayed according to the active course in the master timetable in the window Timetables. You may sometimes want to limit the number of components with this option when you are particularly interested in viewing only some of them, but in almost all cases you should select the same categories you selected in Prevent conflicts for.
Category for classrooms
Select the category that represents the classrooms of your school. If you have not defined rooms in your school this selection has no effect. Some methods in Mimosa (like Tools|Select rooms manually) can utilise this particular category type with different techniques, since in some instances rooms can be replaced in courses more easily than components of other categories. This selection provides you with the option of assigning each lesson to a different room if you have not attached any room in the course collection.
If you want to assume that bookings in timetables are also interpreted as lectures in this counting, select
[x] Assume bookings as lectures (when counting gaps).
Define default block length (in Timetables view)
determines the number of blocks that are changed when you double-click the master timetable in the Timetables view. The default value 1 changes the value of a single cell, whereas higher values are recommended if the lectures are given in longer sequences (double periods or triple periods).
Show sums of components for
Select those categories that you want to include when you view the weekly sums of lectures in connection with the course allocation in Weeks view. This selection is useful when the collections of courses contain several components, but only some of the categories of interest with respect to their weekly sums of lectures (invoke the option in Weeks window with the command View|Sum window or double-click the grid).
Upper limits for lectures in week
Enter the maximum number of lectures in a week (1...255) that should not be exceeded in this component category per week. This helps to ensure that the weeks remain reasonably balanced. Depending on the type of school, this limit is often around 20-30 weekly hours in the case of students and teachers. If you also check
[x] Show when week sum limits are exceeded
the cells that exceed these limits are displayed in red colour in Weeks view, provided that you have selected the option View|Sum window (double-click the grid). This useful window shows the total sum of weekly lectures associated with the current course. Selecting
[x] Add bookings to weekly sums
also adds the bookings to the lectures and provides in many cases a more realistic picture of the weekly load.
Allocation patterns for lectures
In window Weeks window you have the option to let Mimosa allocate the lectures to weeks. Clicking the [Insert] key gives you 7 different kinds of allocation patterns for the active course, from the first permissible week to the active week. Every time you click [Insert], the next pattern from the following set is provided, allocating the lectures evenly to weeks with symbol X, and omitting weeks with symbol 0.
If some of the patterns are not appropriate, leave them unchecked.
[x] Automatic timetabling when allocating lectures (in Weeks view)
Checking this option automates the insertion of lectures in the Weeks view when you allocate lectures to weeks. When the number of lectures in some cells is increased, the application automatically inserts the missing lectures into the timetables as in Tools|Optimise|Initial solution.
Define texts that should be printed for the reports instead of the texts that are suggested in the upper list.
Define translations for some common words that you want printed in reports.
In this selection you can define all colours of the application, including both the screen, course and component colours. It is also possible to set the colour for each component and course individually, but here it is possible to set for several items at once, such as for the whole category. The colours are displayed on screen, and also in web reports.
Screen colours
The idea to use specific colours for each item on screen is to help the user to identify them easily. A set of eight predefined colour Themes is provided, if you do not prefer to use the default colours of the application (they can be reselected by clicking Restore factory settings). Themes enable to use selected subsets of colours that may better suit your preferences, state of mind or the current desktop colours, without tailoring them individually. Note that if you screen is unable to reproduce all colours of your palette, select then 16 colours from the schemes.
Default colour is used as a background colour in all dialog windows and on the top panel. The colour selection depends on your computer setting, and Mimosa uses the colour "Sky Blue" as default. You can try other colours from the dropdown list.
If you want to use the grey scale (black, grey and white colours) instead of those colours which you have defined or that were available as default colours when you started the application, uncheck
[X] Apply screen colours
and if you would prefer to come back to the set of colours that Mimosa provides you as defaults colours, click Restore factory settings
Clicking the Define background colour and Define foreground colour buttons enables you to pick a new colour for the item you have first activated from the grid below. This enables to tailor the screen colours according to your preferences.
Course and component colours
You can also define colours for each course and component separately, and use them in, for instance, the Timetables view or HTML-reports. You can also use the appropriate colour button elsewhere in the application.
Use the buttons Define course colours and Define component colours if you want to change colours of several codes (such as the whole category of codes) at once. You can change the background colour only, and it is recommened to prefer light colours. Pick the codes from the code list, select the colour and click Ok to accept it. The Black colour cannot be used in selections.
If you do not want to display these colours, uncheck
[X] Show colours for courses and components
and if you want to completely clear all assigned colours, check
[X] Clear all course and component colours
File info
This displays the name and the time of the last save of the current file.
File description
In this memo you can attach short notes (255 characters) from the current file; it may contain information about the latest change or a short reminder about things that are important.
[x] Show above text as a reminder at startup
If checked, the above text is automatically displayed at startup, so that you and other possible users of Mimosa know what you should be aware of.
You can also use this text at the bottom of each page in Report 3, if you select the option [x] Description as footer in File|Print|Timetables.
Comment for reports
If you want to add a short comment of MAX 63 characters to the reports, you can input it here and it will be stored with the current file.
Show text file annotation
If you have stored the text file filename.txt into the same folder where your current Mimosa file filename.mfw is stored, you can select when this file is shown for viewing and editing. This file can contain additional textual information about the Mimosa file you have been accessed. Select Never, if you do not want to view/edit it, or Open, Save or Open+Save, if you want to view/edit thid file during file when opening or saving your Mimosa file. To create this text file, select first the option Save or Open+Save.
Text file annotation is particularly useful if you want to share some information and conventions about it with other users.
File selections
[x] Open last accessed file at start-up
If you select this option, the file that you have last read into Mimosa will automatically be opened when this application is started again. This selection overrides the alternative method of adding the file name to the command line, which is intended to do the same task.
[x] Create backup copy (.bak)
This option is intended to prevent losing your data accidentally (because of a power failure or a file save error). When you save your file on disk, a backup copy of the original file (with the file extension of .mfw replaced by .bak) is automatically created and stored on disk. If you have to revert to the original file, the backup file must be renamed to a valid Mimosa file (with the extension .mfw).
[x] Create text file copy (.mxt)
With this option you can also save the file automatically in text file format (.mxt), when it is saved as a normal Mimosa file (.mfw). This option is useful when the same data is used by other applications. The text file name remains the same as the main file, with the extension .mfw replaced by .mxt.
[x] Add file at startup (File|File Add|Relevant courses)
This option works just like the corresponding selection File|File Add|Relevant courses by adding a Mimosa text file (.mxt) to the file of the main file when the application has started. Use the Browse button to select the file that is automatically added at start-up (see File|File Add|Relevant courses).
Other selections
[x] Automatic refresh during file open
When reading a file into the application, the Window|Refresh function is automatically invoked. It calculates the sum of the lectures for components with the help of their course links.
[x] Show memo [Ctrl+K]
This selection enables you to use the memo box on the bottom right of the screen. You can add text of up to 240 characters for each component and course. All memo lines are saved in Mimosa file. You can also edit this file with all text editors. With the OK button you save the memo and with the Erase button it is cleared and you can also move and minimise this window. Memos the electronic equivalent of paper sticky notes. Use notes to jot down short ideas, reminders, and anything you would write on note paper.
[x] Show left buttons
Checking this option displays the main buttons of the current window on the left (default). Unchecking this option increases your work space and simplifies the user interface.
[x] Show top buttons
Checking this option displays the buttons on the top (default). Unchecking this option increases your work space and simplifies the user interface.
[x] Show timetables
Checking this option displays a small timetable of the active course or component Components, Courses and Weeks view (default). Unchecking this option hides the timetable.
Hidden text separators
You have the option of hiding parts of texts in the name field of components and courses in reports and on screen. You can add short comments, tags and/or monetary figures between the selected separators that are not visible to users if you put them inside the separators [ ... ], ( ... ), { ... } ,\ ... \ or / ... /, as shown below:
Room 234 [rent $10 / hour] capacity 30 students
If you have selected [ ... ] as the separator, it will be displayed and printed as "Room 234 capacity 30 students".
If the closing separator is missing, all last characters beyond the opening separator are hidden. If you have selected / ... /, the name will be displayed as "Room 234 [rent $10".
Select the option Don’t hide (=default), if you would like to always show the names exactly as they are given.
Component code case
When inserting a new component or editing an existing one, this option allows you to automatically change the case of the component code to UPPERcase or to lowercase. When default is selected, the component code is not changed.
Course code case
When inserting new courses or editing an existing one, this option allows you to automatically change the case of the course code to UPPERcase or to lowercase. When default is selected, the course code is not changed.
Displays some of the key parameters of the current file in the following format:
StatisticsShows a tabbed notebook containing six tabs of statistical information of the current data file, see Statistics.
This window lists some typical simple problems you may have in your current file, such as missing categories, courses, components, collections, unallocated lectures and so on. Issue this command if you need a hint as to what you should do next.
Select components or component categories for which you want to look for the maximum weekly lectures. From the selected week on, the components and weeks having the greatest number of lectures per week are sorted and displayed in decreasing order of weekly load. This selection can be used to identify overloaded weeks and resources.
This selection counts the load of all slots in the timetables of components from the selected week on, by summing up all events (courses, bookings and manual rooms) of each timetable cell. The list is sorted and displayed in decreasing order of slot load, so that the first items on the list refer to those slots that may be overloaded and can cause bottlenecks in creating of timetables.
The number (MAX=xx) is the theoretical maximum slot load in each slot and it is always larger than or equal to the number of events in the list.
Code selectionYou can use the code selection window here to calculate how many of the components and courses satisfy your selection criteria and also obtain the number of lectures associated with it. The code selection window also appears when selecting codes for the reports, onto the Clipboard or when you select which courses you want to split into a separate file in the File|File Split command. You can perform the code selection by
You can select what type of information
is to be displayed in timetables on screen or in hint rows about the active courses and components. This selection is basically followed as a default, but when entering the Timetables window, the mode is automatically set to Code, since the available space is often too small to display both the code and the name in the same cell.
You can prevent unwanted allocation of lectures into weeks and later on into timetables by inserting a booking text of your three predefined texts. Select here which of those texts you use as defaults.
Everything that is copied onto the Clipboard, is also possible to save in a text file too. This option enables to overcome the 64 kilobytes Clipboard size limit, and you can create text files for file transfer and publishing purposes without the need to convert them separately.
Select the appropriate text file type (.txt, .csv, .htm or .html) and also the file name. When you next time copy data onto the Clipboard, it is also stored to the file you selected, without the 64 kilobytes size limit mentioned above. Several applications can read these text files directly.
The currently active week is the last week that you have activated or modified in Weeks view or Timetables view. This week is always visible in the bottom right corner on the screen.