Exporting your Timetable

Part 1 : Preparing for Export

Transferring your timetable data into another system by manually typing it in can be a tedious task, typically needing many hours of keyboarding and then very careful checking of data.
File->Export is designed to streamline and automate much of this task, and to ensure that the data is transferred accurately.

Before you use Export it is essential to ensure that the data in TimeTabler and the data in your target Admin System (SIMS.net, Serco Progresso, Phoenix, WCBS/PASS, RM Integris, SchoolBase, iSAMS, etc, etc) are consistent with each other.
In particular:  the Staff initials and Room names and Subject names must match, exactly.
You may have done this already, when you entered your Basic Data in TimeTabler.

This web-page explains how to check this, and produce the necessary data-file, in 5 steps.
A second document gives further details for the Export to each Admin System (see below).

Please note that the information given here about the different Admin systems is correct to best of our knowledge, but they may change it without notice at any time, so you should always download the latest version of this page.

The Export to SIMS .net is slightly different, so it is best to skip the rest of this document and go directly to the SIMS .net documentation by clicking here.

1.  Backup your TimeTabler data

Use File->TT-Backup to back up your complete TimeTabler data on to a USB FlashDrive 'memorystick' (or a clearly labelled floppy disc).
Keep this safe, so that later you can use TT-Restore to re-set TimeTabler, if you wish, see below.

2.  Staff initials
On the Main Menu in TimeTabler, choose BasicData->Teachers (or <Ctrl  T>) to see the Teachers Screen.

The Teachers list needs to show the same staff initials that are already in use by your target Admin system.
In TimeTabler you can choose to use either the "Initials" column or the "Full Name" column (but not both).

• If the "Initials" column already shows the correct initials, that's fine.
• However you may have used a different system of Staff initials in TimeTabler from the one in use in the Admin System.  In this case edit the "Full Name" column in TimeTabler so that it shows the Staff initials used in the Admin System.
  [The exception to this is if you are exporting to WCBS PASS, which instead has a feature called the "Timetable Import Code" which allows you to say in PASS, for each teacher, what are the matching initials in TimeTabler. See the PASS documentation for more details.]

On no account change the list order of Teachers.  Do NOT insert or delete Teachers.
See Section C12 in the Manual.

Note that it is case-sensitive.   ie. KJO is not the same as KJo.
SIMS and Phoenix allow only capital letters. The export to SIMS .net automatically converts the initials in TimeTabler to capital letters.

Check how many characters your target system allows.  RM Integris and Phoenix allow 4 characters; Nova-T4 allows 3, SIMS .net allows 4 and PASS allows 6.

Some examples, using the Full Name column on the Teachers Screen:

Initials	Full Name	Faculty	MainSubject	1stRoom	2ndRoom	3rdRoom
KJ	KJo
XX	PNE
CJo	C. Jo

Whichever column you have chosen to use, the initials must match exactly the ones used in the target system.
Note that this system allows you to use different initials in TimeTabler and your target system.
A teacher with a full name of *D will be ignored, as usual.  Special Resources are ignored.

3.  Room names
On the Main Menu of TimeTabler, choose BasicData->Rooms (or <Ctrl  R>) to see the Rooms Screen.
Then check that each Room name exactly matches a name in the target system.

Edit the room names in TimeTabler if necessary, but on no account change the list order.  
Do NOT insert or delete Rooms.

TimeTabler allows up to 5 characters.  Phoenix, Integris and PASS allow the full 5 characters, Nova-T allows only 3 characters.  SIMS-STAR-3 allows a maximum of 4 characters, upper-case only.  If you have SIMS STAR-2 you can ignore this room-matching.

4.  Subject names
On the Main Menu of TimeTabler, choose BasicData->Subjects (or <Ctrl  S>) to see the Subjects Screen.

The Subjects list needs to show the same Subject names that are already in use by your target Admin system. (This step is not needed for SIMS .net, see the correct documentation for that export.)
In TimeTabler you can choose to use either the "Abbrev" column or the "Full Name" column (but not both).

• If the "Abbrev" column already shows the correct Subject codes, that's fine.  Or you can edit it.
• However you may want to use a different system of Subject codes in TimeTabler from the one in use in the Admin System.  In this case you can edit the "Full Name" column in TimeTabler so that it shows the Subject Names used in the Admin System.

(In early versions of TimeTabler you could only use the "Full Name" column.)

Use the usual Edit method to enter the Subject code as used in your target system.  
It is usually 2 characters (although Integris will allow up to 6 characters, and Phoenix 4).
It is case-sensitive.  
Some examples, using the Full Name column:  

Abbrev.	Full Name	Teachers
Maths	Ma
Eng.	En
French	Fr
P.E.	PE

Ensure you use exactly the same names in the two systems.
eg. P.E. is different from PE
Note that this allows you to use different names in TimeTabler and your target system.

5.  You should also check that:

a)  The structure of the school week is the same in TimeTabler and your target system.

b)  The DayNames are the same in both TimeTabler and your target system.

c)  All the lessons on your timetable have a Subject, by using PrintMenu->Rooming Check, otherwise your target system will not recognise it.  (Or you can use a printout or the Class TimeTable Screen to do this, section F14 in the Handbook).

Now move to Part 2, by reading the instructions for your particular Admin System.

Click on one of the following links to download the pages you want:

1.	SIMS .net
2.	SIMS  :  NOVA-T4
3.	Serco-CMIS
4.	Phoenix e1
5.	Phoenix Gold
6.	RM  Management Solutions : Integris
7.	WCBS / PASS
8.	iSAMS
9.	SchoolBase
10.	School2000
11.	Hebron
12.	I.E.S.
13.	SIMS  :  STAR (DOS)
14.	If your Admin system is not listed here, you may be able to use  File->Export to ....->Customized File This will output the data in a format you can specify, providing you have the right information from the company that provided the Admin system. The details for this method are given in Section L of the Manual.

 
When you have finished Exporting, you may wish to:

• use File->Backup to save the TimeTabler data in this Export format, and then
• use File->TT-Restore to re-load the TimeTabler data that you saved in Step 1. This will restore your full staff-names (if you changed them in step 2 above) for your timetable printouts during the year.