Weeks view Weeks viewOther views: Components | Courses | Timetables
In this window you allocate the course lectures to weeks (or terms) in order to create meaningful teaching plans, to provide balanced load for components and to arrange the lectures of courses in a meaningful order. In some institutions or school types this kind of allocation is not made, since the same timetables are used during the whole school year. If you have selected the MAX number of weeks to 1 in Options|Limits, this view is not important.
The user interface in this view is analogous to spreadsheet applications. The table displays how lectures of each course are distributed over weeks (or terms), and user can input the weekly lectures in each cell as it could be done when using spreadsheet applications. However, Mimosa makes a big difference in the sense that it enables the user to view the number of lectures by components.
When user double-clicks the grid, Mimosa automatically begins to display all lectures that are related to some component. When changing the weekly lectures of some course, the changes are reflected to all components related to it, which is often much more relevant, since the goal is most often to create balanced weeks for classes, teachers, students etc.
The main things you can do in this view:
Alternatively, you can create different files for each week or term, but in this view it is possible to reuse the same courses over several weeks. Note that some courses contain lectures in all weeks, some are used only once in a certain week, whereas others are something between these extremes.
If you have only one term in a school year, this window is of no importance for you, since all the lectures are automatically allocated to this only term. In that case, set the number of weeks equal to one in Options|Limits. Activate then Timetables view and start inserting lectures into timetables.
You can easily change your one-term school year to a multi-term one. In Options|Limits you must first increase the maximum number of weeks to the number of terms that you would like to have in the school year. Click the grid at the first term column to activate it and then copy the lectures of the first term in memory by Edit|Copy week. Duplicate the first term by pasting the lectures to the second term and possible to the next terms with Edit|Paste week. All information (including timetabled lectures and bookings) from the first term will be duplicated. After duplicating, you can then make modifications to the other terms.
In general, the goal is to allocate the total sum of lectures of courses (MAX) over all weeks in the planning period. The sum of allocated lectures is automatically accumulated in the column (SUM), which is equal to MAX, if all lectures could be allocated, and otherwise less than MAX. When the weeks have different weights, it may sometimes happen that it is difficult or even impossible to allocate all planned lectures exactly (to yield SUM=MAX), since the lectures and weights must be whole numbers.
There are various ways to divide the school year into terms: they all can be of the same length, or their lengths may vary.
For example, suppose the weights of the weeks are 4, 6, 7, 6, 3, 7 and 5. A course with a total of 80 lectures in the planning period is easy to allocate to these weeks in several ways so that the sum of the allocated lectures yield the desired amount (SUM=MAX):
80 = 4x4 + 6x4 + 7x4 + 6x2 + 3x0 + 7x0 + 5x0 80 = 4x3 + 6x2 + 7x2 + 6x2 + 3x2 + 7x2 + 5x2
But some of the allocation patterns produce less lectures than planned (SUM<MAX):
79 = 4x4 + 6x4 + 7x3 + 6x3 + 3x0 + 7x0 + 5x0 68 = 4x4 + 6x0 + 7x4 + 6x0 + 3x3 + 7x0 + 5x3
After the lectures have been allocated to weeks, the final phase of the process is to insert each week’s lectures into the timetables, which is accomplished in Timetables view.
There exists a vast amount of useful tools and selections in this window. They help in the allocation process in roughly the same way as a spreadsheet program would. Some frequently needed techniques are automated, so by pressing only one key one can perform several functions simultaneously.
The Copy week, Paste week and Paste week Special selections in Edit menu give efficient tools for handling column data in the table. You can easily copy allocated lectures, timetables or bookings from one week to another. Insert, Delete and Split week commands enable to add and remove a week or split a week into smaller parts.
You can also copy onto the Clipboard the whole allocation table or just selected rows (to modify it in a spreadsheet program, for instance) or paste it from the Clipboard (generated by a spreadsheet program ).
You can view the allocated lectures in several modes: Default, Cumulative, Multiplied and view the timetables associated with any component or course or any week. See also the buttons.
Use Edit selection to change the current allocation or the weeks. Most of the commands used to manipulate single cells or rows are sometimes easier to invoke with the corresponding function keys. In most cases, it is essential first to click the appropriate column and row on the grid before invoking the command, since the actions are dependent on the active cell.
(Despite many similarities, the first three commands of the Edit menu do not use the same memory area as the Clipboard; rather they are intended to operate only inside this window. To communicate with other applications, use the commands Copy onto the Clipboard and Paste from the Clipboard.)
Saves the current week (a column in the table of weeks) temporarily in the memory - called the source week. Note that this information is NOT copied onto the Clipboard. It can be used only by the selections Paste week and Paste week Special (see below).
In the example below, user has first clicked the grid on week A2 and selected Copy week, then clicked the grid on week A3 and is ready to select, what to copy (Paste week) from week A2 to A3.
This is the default course of action:
If you want to store the information about a single week in a separate file and merge it to another file, use the command File|Extract week to create a file from this week only. Convert this file into text format with the command File|File Export, and then read that file into the application you want to merge this single week file to. Use the selection File|File Add to merge the file.
Copies the source week (a column in the table of weeks) including timetables from memory to the column (or week), which is currently activated.
With this option you can be more selective and use only the timetabled lectures or bookings from the source week and copy them to the desired week(s).
The lectures allocated to weeks and the bookings made to weeks remain exactly the same after this operation.
This option can be an extremely timesaving one in schools having many weeks in their planning period. It is now possible to utilise the timetabling work of the previous weeks all over again to weeks having at least some similarities. You can also clear all previous timetabled lectures before replacing them with the copied lectures. Courses with manually assigned rooms are copied as well.
When you have made bookings to some components (like teachers and rooms) for the first term, you can now copy them to the following terms, since they often follow the same pattern over the whole school year.
Mimosa checks that only those timetabled lectures are copied, which do not clash with other timetables or bookings, and that they are within the bounds of the allocated lectures. This is the reason why this process may take up a lot of time in large schools.
1 Timetables to this week (this week)
Copies all timetabled lectures from the source week to the current week.
2 Timetables to all remaining weeks
Copies all timetabled lectures from the source week to the current week and all subsequent weeks.
3 Bookings to this week (this week)
Copies all bookings in timetables from the source week to the current week.
4 Bookings to all remaining weeks
Copies all bookings in timetables from the source week to the current week and all subsequent weeks.
5 Single day of the week
Copies all timetables from a single day of the week (Mon, Tue,...) of the source week to a single day (Mon, Tue,...) of the current week. The selected days of week do not have to be the same, which enable the user to copy the timetable of Tuesday from the 1st week to the timetable of Thursday of the 3rd week and so on.
Copy onto the Clipboard [Ctrl+C]Copies the allocation table (of the selected courses) to the Clipboard to be used in other Windows applications.
Paste from the Clipboard [Ctrl+P]Pastes the allocation table from the Clipboard generated by other Windows applications.
Inserts a new empty week (or term) just before the current week. After inserting a new week, it also allows to combine timetables and bookings from the previous and next weeks (if they exist). For instance, selecting the row “Mon-Wed” with“ Thu-Fri” copies the automatically timetables of Monday to Wednesday from the previous and Thursday to Friday from the upcoming week. This option is useful, if the term break is the middle of the calendar week.
Deletes the current week (or column).
Splits the current week into two identical weeks with possibly different weights. This selection is available only if the weight of the week to be splitted is greater than one. If the week has the weight of 7 (=seven calendar weeks), you are prompted to select the weights for the two weeks from the following combinations:
[1w + 6w, 2w + 5w, 3w + 4w, 4w + 3w, 5w + 2w, 6w + 1w]
If you select the third alternative, the original week is replaced by two identical weeks with weights 2 and 5, and all subsequent weeks are shifted to the right.
Splits all weeks into weeks of unit weight. The number of all weeks after the operation equals to the sum of the weights.
In this selection you can clear only from the current week
1 Bookings from timetables
2 Lectures from timetables
3 Bookings from weeks
4 Lectures from weeks
Note that clearing of weekly lectures also automatically clears timetabled lectures from the same week.
In this selection you can compare the lectures of two weeks, i.e. two columns in the allocation table. After selecting the week you want to compare against the current week you will get a list of courses with differences in their lectures allocated to weeks (W) and timetabled (T). If you select a course from the list and press Ok button, this course is automatically located. You can copy the list of the courses onto the Clipboard by pressing Copy.
It is often useful to protect the allocation of lectures to weeks that are already history. This feature will ensure you that all first weeks preceding the selected week are protected and they cannot accidentally be modified (unless this parameter is changed).
At the start, the first permissible week is the first week (=1). You normally increase this number to the last completed week, as time goes on. When you later on use the [Insert] key to reallocate lectures or [Delete] key to remove them, for instance, their effect is limited only to the week range from first permissible to the currently active week.
These selections allow you to modify and duplicate courses while you are allocating the lectures. If you right-click on the grid, you will have the same set of commands.
Show lectures by components
This corresponds to double-clicking on the week grid to show lectures summed by course components
Show timetables [Ctrl+T]
When you have clicked a row and a column in the sum window, you can immediately view the timetable of that component with the following command or use the shortcut
Course info [Ctrl+H]
Displays the list of the components (collection) of the active course. If you also want to replace some of the components, remove or add a component, select the appropriate component and then click Modify? button. (In some instances, Modify? is not allowed, if the conflict checking cannot be performed.)
Duplicate course
A new course is created from the current course with the same
- name,
- category,
- number of lectures (MAX),
- collection of components and
- allocation or lectures to weeks.
The code for the new course is generated automatically by using the old stored code as the basis, as for the following three selections. You can easily change the code or name with the Recode and Rename commands.Split lectures (from week)
Splits the lectures of the original course to two courses from the active week on. All lectures and timetables in that week and after that week are copied to the new course and the lectures before that week are copied to the original course. Within the used course weeks, you can also select the last week where you want to restrict this operation to. In this way it is easy to create "exceptions" to coure collections, which takes place only one or more weeks. After the split is complete, user can change the component(s) of the course for specific week(s) only.
Balance lectures (from week)
Shares the lectures of the original course to two courses from the active week on by balancing all lectures in the active week and all weeks after that to obtain as similar week loads for both courses as possible. Within the used course weeks, you can also select the last week where you want to restrict this operation to.
Use unassigned lectures (from week)
Use all those lectures (from the active week on), which are not yet inserted into timetables and creates a new course from the basis of the remaining lectures. This selection is especially useful, when the user has noticed that it is impossible or extremely difficult to assign any lectures into timetables due to an inappropriate selection of the components (an overloaded room, for example). A new course is then created from the remaining lectures and the collection is modified to make the timetabling of the remaining lectures possible.
Recode
Recodes the active course.
Rename [F2]
Renames the active course.
Reinsert lectures [Insert]Use this command to automatically allocate the lectures of the current course, from the first permissible week and ending with the current week. Click the last week in your planning period and press the [Insert] repeatedly to see all seven different pre-programmed allocation patterns.
If you are about to allocate 30 hours to 10 weeks, the application would suggest that you pick one of the following 7 different allocation solutions:
In some cases, the allocation policy of the current course may fall into some of the provided patterns. If not, the allocation can be performed manually, or you can go to Options|Weeks and check those Allocation patterns for lectures that are appropriate for your school. Only the selected patterns are suggested.
Erase lectures [Ctrl+Del]This command erases all the lectures of the current course, from the first permissible week and ending the current week, including those which have been already timetabled, setting SUM=0 and DONE=0.
Erase timetables [Shift+Del]This command erases all the timetabled lectures of the current course, setting DONE=0.
Erases the value of the current cell.
Copy timetable to rightCopies all timetabled lectures of the active course and week to all remaining weeks, without altering the (possible) previously timetabled lectures.
Makes bookings to all those weeks of the current course, which are not already booked and cancels bookings from all weeks that have been booked before.
Makes bookings or cancels bookings in current week. When selected, extends this operation to all weeks.
Make bookings to all courses
Makes bookings to all courses of this week, which do not have any lectures allocated to this week.
Cancel all bookings
Removes all bookings from courses of this week.
Select courses for bookings
Selects courses where bookings are added to.
Book this cell [Space]Makes bookings to the current week and course if it is not already booked and otherwise removes bookings.
Selects the default booking type for timetables among the three choices defined in Options|Categories. If some of the first three options is selected, the corresponding booking type becomes the default booking type. If the fourth option is selected, the currently selected booking text can be changed.
Lock / unlock course [Ctrl+U]Locks or unlocks the current course. If the course is locked, all changes to weekly allocated and timetabled lectures are prohibited.
Removes unassigned (=allocated, but not assigned into timetables) lectures automatically from the selected part of the allocation table (setting DONE=SUM). This is a useful work-saving option when you have allocated more lectures to weeks than you have assigned to timetables, and you want to remove the extra lectures automatically.
1 This week
Removes unassigned lectures from the active week
2 This course
Removes unassigned lectures from the current course
3 All courses and weeks
Removes unassigned lecture from all weeks and courses
Sets the value of MAX to SUM in all courses, decreasing the maximum number of lectures in all courses to the sum of already allocated lectures.
Allocates all available (or currently unallocated) lectures to the active week or term.
Optimise
(demo)Allocates automatically lectures to weeks and assigns them into timetables, clears existing allocation and removes lectures from timetables. Use this selection to create a quick artificial, but feasible solution of your whole file, just to have a picture of the distribution of lectures and to test later the optimisation and reports. In some cases, it might be easier to reach the final solution from this approximate result than to start from an empty table.
Before trying this, save your current data on disk, because of many simplified assumptions that are made.
This selection is enabled only when the number of weeks exceeds one and it is intended to use as a demonstration tool only.
1 Automatic allocation
Allocates lectures to weeks automatically, but ignoring locked and completely allocated courses (MAX=SUM). This solution can be achieved by clicking the last cell with the [Insert] button on each course line. When distributing lectures to weeks, Mimosa utilises only those Allocation patterns for weeks that have been checked in Options|Weeks.
2 Automatic timetabling
Inserts lectures into timetables according to a simple heuristics, ignoring locked courses and courses that are completed timetabled . The same result can be achieved when you check [x] Automatic timetabling during allocation of lectures to weeks in selection Options|Weeks. If you want to apply more detailed rules to the initial solution and to optimise the current solution, select Tools|Optimise|Initial solution.
3 Both
This selection performs both tasks 1 and 2 in a single run.
4 Clear lectures from weeks
Clears the current weekly allocated lectures plus timetabled lectures.
5 Clear lectures from timetables
Clears the timetabled lectures.
The most common selections in this menu are easier to activate by clicking the corresponding buttons or using the keyboard shortcuts.
Select
fontSelects the font used in the grid of this window.
Course info [Ctrl+H]Displays the list of the components (collection) of the active course. If you also want to replace some of the components, remove or add a component, select the appropriate component and then click Modify? button. (In some instances, Modify? is not allowed, if the conflict checking cannot be performed.) See Course info for more information.
Sum window [double-click]This is one of the most important features in the Weeks view. It sums automatically the lectures over all components in the active course collection and shows how the weekly allocation of the course lectures is reflected in the components.
Right-click on the sum window to have more options. The numbers of the sum window can be viewed in several formats, like the numbers in the allocation table. You can mark or unmark those courses on the allocation table, which are linked with one or all of the components shown in the sum window.
Click the row in the sum window that interests or needs to be corrected (because of an inappropriate allocation, for instance). You can then scroll through all linked courses with the shortcuts [Ctrl+N] and [Ctrl+P] to find out which of them need to be corrected. The linked courses are marked in black.
You can have different views to the numbers just like when working in the allocation table:
Course Info [Ctrl+H]
Displays information on the active component.
Show timetable [Ctrl+T]
When you have clicked a row and a column in the sum window, you can immediately view the timetable of that component.
Cumulative (Σ)
Multiplied (x)
Percentages (%)
Show excess
Choose if you want to display those cells with different colour, which exceed the limits selected in the menu command Options|Weeks.
Hide this category
All components of the current category are not shown in the sum window.
Show all categories
All components of all categories are shown in the sum window.
Replace component (component) of (course) [F5]
Shows a list of components of available components of the same type as the active one and prompts the user to replace it. See also Replace component.
Next marked course [Ctrl+N]
Activates the next marked course.
Previous marked course [Ctrl+P]
Activates the previous marked course.
Lock marked courses
Locks all currently marked courses and prevents changing them accidentally.
Unlock marked courses
Unlocks all currently marked courses.
Clear all marks
Removes marks from all currently marked courses.
Show timetables [Ctrl+T]This selection shows timetables of the current course in a separate window.
Find course ... [Ctrl+F]By entering the code or name (or a substring) locates the first course that matches the search criteria and makes it the active one. The search method is not case-sensitive. Press [F3] to locate the next code with the same search criteria.
This extended search mode allows the user to locate only those courses that have some of the selected components in their collections or those that do NOT have any of them. Press [F3] to locate the next code with the same search criteria.
In collections
Finds those courses that have one or more of the selected components in their collections.
NOT in collections
Finds those courses that do NOT have any of the selected components in their collections.
Locates the next course that matches the search criteria and makes it the active one.
Marks all courses linked with the component that you select from the list and changes the first marked course as the active course.
Activates the next marked course (activated from the Sum window, shown in black).
Activates the previous marked course (activated from the Sum window, shown in black).
This option allows the user to view more or less information about the courses (to make less or more room for the weeks on the screen). Use this option if you have many weeks and they do not fit the screen. Row numbers and course codes are always displayed. The selection provides the following options:
If you have selected to view the allocation in the Graphics instead of Numbers mode, you can then modify the appearance of the grid from the following options:
Multiplied lecturesDisplays the numbers of the allocation table MULTIPLIED by their week weights. This option is sometimes useful if the weeks do not have the same weights (or lengths).
Cumulative lecturesDisplays the numbers of the allocation table CUMULATIVE starting from the first week. If the weeks are not of the same weights, set also the previous option MULTIPLIED on.
Timetabled lecturesDisplays the timetabled lectures plus weekly-allocated lectures in the form Timetabled/Allocated (x/y, x=0,1,2,...,y). Examples: 3/4, 0/5 and 2/2. This helps to view how many of the allocated lectures have already been timetabled. If both numbers are same, all lectures have been timetabled.
Displays the grid widths proportional to week lengths instead of constant widths.
NumberShows the lectures in cells as numbers (default).
PercentagesShows the lectures as percentages (the maximum number of lectures of the current course = 100%).
GraphicsShows the lectures as a sequence of bars in the cells.
Note that if you select both "Timetable lectures" and "Graphics", you can see the timetables of courses graphically on the screen. In this case, you might like to increase the font size in this window too see single slots within grids.
