Scheduling Overview

This article will give you an overview of our schedule interface and instructions on how to use it.  If using a phone or touch interface (e.g. iPad or tablet), be sure to also review the following article for differences on how this interface works on those devices: https://support.timesync.com/hc/en-us/articles/210255686-Mobile-Site-for-smart-phones

This interface has many options for the schedule views.  These include a timeline (i.e. Gantt style with horizontal timeline), agenda (i.e. with a vertical timeline), list, and calendar (e.g. month or week).  Within these options there is flexibility on many properties, such as the number of days, the time slots, and the stacking of schedules. 

This interface also provides multiple ways to create and edit schedules by dragging and re-sizing.  There is also a right-click menu for short cuts to various schedule related functions.

Scheduling Instructions:

New schedule: There are multiple ways to open the window for making a new schedule.  

• Click on the grid in the row of the resource you want to schedule and in the date/time desired.  (This method defaults the resource and date/time, but it is not available on phones.)
• Or drag the  bar to this location.  (This defaults resource and date/time.) 
• Or just click on the +New bar to open the dialog for making a schedule.

Adjust the fields as necessary before clicking 'Make Schedule' to create the new schedule.

Edit schedule:

• Click on the schedule you wish to edit.  If the schedule is not your own, you need to be in dispatcher mode.  Or, you can right-click for the edit option when not in dispatcher mode and trying to edit another user's schedule.
• As an alternative you can drag the schedule to a different resource or time slot.  You will still need to confirm the changes in the schedule edit windows, but the new resource or date/time will be defaulted.
• You can also resize a schedule by dragging the beginning or end of the schedule bar.  Don't forget to confirm the changes in the edit window.

Schedule maintenance:  Drag the from the top of the schedule onto the schedule grid.  This will open the maintenance scheduling window with defaults set based on where the bar was dragged. (Or you can just click on the +Maint bar to open the dialog for making a maintenance schedule.)  You will only see the +Maint bar if you are authorized to schedule maintenance or if general users in your organization are allowed to schedule maintenance.

Schedule Notification: To be notified of a schedule slot becoming available, click on a schedule that is not yours while not in dispatcher mode during the time you desire.  Adjust the time to the minimum slot you would be willing to take.  You can also bring up the notification option by right-clicking the schedule.

Schedule Standby:  Right-click the schedule during the slot you want the standby for.  This will show the standby option if it is available.  If your organization does not allow standby scheduling or if the date/time you selected is too late for a standby, this option will not be displayed.

Preflight: The preflight screen shows user status and aircraft/boat status.  Schedules that have been preflighted show this status on the schedule.  Right-click a schedule that has not ended yet to preflight the schedule.  This option will only be displayed if your club has preflights enabled and your are authorized to preflight that schedule (i.e. it is your schedule or you are a dispatcher).  Or, use the menu to select 'My Pre/Postflight'.

Postflight:  The postflight screen allows you to enter the meter start and end for your flight for billing and possibly maintenance purposes.  Right-click a schedule that has a start time in the past to get the postflight option. Or, use the menu to select 'My Pre/Postflight'.

Display/Navigation:

Views: We provide several different layouts for the schedule data, including a timeline, agenda, list, or calendar.  Check out the different views to see which works best for your purposes.  Some views (e.g. month, agenda) may only be offered for a smaller number of resources.  If your club has a large number of resources, you can filter down to the resources you are interested in to see the other views.  See below for instructions on setting view defaults.

Timeline view - Below is the timeline view.  This is similar to the current schedule interface and can be displayed with 1 day or multiple days.  We can customize the number days, time slot duration and width, stacking, etc.

Timeline view with stacking - The 9-day and 30-day timelines currently have stacking of schedule for better readability.  The 30-day timeline is pictured below.

Agenda view - Below is the agenda-day view.  This view is currently available for 10 or fewer resources.  There is also an agenda week view that is available for 5 or fewer resources.

Calendar month view - Below is the month view.  This view is currently available for 5 or fewer resources.

List view - Below is the list-week view.  

Navigation

1. Date navigation can be accomplished with the following methods
• < and > moves forward and backward in time to the next date span, which is 1 day forward or back for the day view, 9 days for the 9 day view, and 1 month for the month view.  
• << and >> moves to the next or previous Saturday.
• The calendar icon to the right of the arrows allows you to pick a date to navigate to.
2. Right-click a schedule for short cuts to all available actions (i.e. context menu), which may include schedule edit, notification, standby, preflight, postflight, user status, etc.  These options will depend on the org configuration, your authorizations, and the time of day.
3. Click the hazard sign to the left of the resource name for resource status info (e.g. squawks, scheduled maintenance).  Currently the timeline view is the only view with the link to resource status.

Display Settings: 

 Filter: Open or close the filter by clicking on the 'filter by resource' button (seen in the image below).  You can filter by resource group or location. The example below has a filter set to AIRPLANE at CUYAHOGA COUNTY.  To select multiple rows, hold the 'Ctrl' key while selecting.  The resource rows will be updated as you change the rows selected.

Key: Open or close the schedule key by clicking on the 'key' button (seen in the image below).

The key explains the color coding of the schedules.  If the items in the key are not displayed, you may not have this particular feature enabled.

Schedule settings:

1. Clicking the gear icon will display a list of schedule settings and actions.
2. The save display selection will save the current screen settings as your default.  These settings include the expanded/collapsed nature of the filter and key boxes, the resource and/or location filter settings, the dispatcher mode setting, and the default view.
3. The other schedule pref selection will take you to a screen that will allow you to set other schedule defaults, such as view preferences.  See below for the full list.
4. The toggle resource filter and toggle key will eliminate the button completely that opens these controls.  This might be helpful for very small screens.
5. The question icon to the left of the gear will take you back to this article.

Dispatcher Mode:

The dispatcher mode check box will only be displayed if you are authorized for this mode.  This mode enables you to add, edit and cancel schedules for other users.  To turn on dispatcher mode, check the checkbox seen in the image below.  This default will be saved when selecting 'save display' from the gear dropdown mentioned above.

1. Using the View Button/List Sort you can hide unwanted views and sort the views into the preferred order by dragging the bar up or down.  The first view will be your default view that will be displayed when first navigating to this page.  The next two views will be assigned to the buttons.  The following views will be in the dropdown list.
2. The Refresh will specify the number of minutes between the automatic refreshes of the schedule.  The schedule will also be refreshed any time you make a change to a schedule.  And, there is a link for refreshing schedules on the schedule page.  (A manual refresh using the link should not be necessary.)
3. The Default Schedule Length will default the length of the schedule when creating a new one.
4. The Default Instructor will default the instructor when making a new schedule.  This option will be hidden if your organization does not schedule instructors in Schedule Master.
5. The Show Instructor Line in Make Schedule will determine whether or not the instructor line is defaulted to be displayed or to be hidden.  This option will be hidden if your organization does not schedule instructors in Schedule Master.
6. The Compress Timeline View will shrink the whitespace in the timeline view in order to display more resource rows on the timeline view.  This option is only available for clubs that have at least 20 resources.

 Note: We are still making improvements to this interface.  If you have any issues or improvement suggestions, please do not hesitate to email us with your feedback.