First Class Development

Last week’s newsletter mentioned new licence checking measures that are being added to First Class. Here’s an explanation for each type of First Class licence.

First Class Standard Licence

The Standard Licence can be considered a single user, or more accurately a single PC licence. A First Class Standard Licence holder is entitled to install the software on one computer only (a notebook is acceptable if the timetabler wishes to have access to the software while at home). If a Standard Licence holder has multiple people at the school that require access to the software, they can only do this by accessing the program from the one computer. We would recommend that a school that has multiple people involved in timetable preparation purchase the Premier Licence to allow for greater flexibility.

First Class Premier Licence

A Premier Licence provides for unlimited use of First Class within the school campus. Your school can install First Class on as many PCs in the school as it wishes and the timetabler, year level coordinators and daily organisers can all install First Class on their home computers. It provides maximum coverage for schools that have a number of people involved in timetable preparation.

Licence Checking

The new licence checking procedure that will be part of the coming release will work as follows. For Standard Licence holders the first time you open an existing database it will be locked to the computer that you are currently using. You will be given the option to cancel this operation but the database will not open until you lock it to a computer. Once locked the database will not be accessible from any other computer. New databases that you create will also be tied to the PC they were created on. In the event that you have a computer failure, upgrade your PC or just wish to move to another nominated PC you can call our Support Centre for an unlock key which will give you time to move your data to a new computer. Premier Licence holders will be able to open any database as their licence entitles them to use the software on an unlimited number of computers.

The new licence checking procedure included in the upcoming release of the program will include the ability for Premier Licence holders to have year level coordinators take a copy of the database to work on student choices and blocking remotely and then re-import the results back into the main database.

  Download Access

  How Do I?

How do I delete the "Missing" year level after I have imported my data into a new database?

When you first import using First Class a "Missing" form, a "Missing" year level and a "Missing" year level for rollover are all created during the import process. These are created just in case you have some students that either have no form associated with them in the import file, or their form does not match those used for the timetable. Once these issues have been resolved, the Missing form and year levels are no longer needed and can be deleted. There are a number of places you need to look to see whether the Missing year level has any related data. These need to be addressed in the following order:

1. Form Maintenance

Make sure this list of forms corresponds to the forms in your school. If necessary add any forms that are not in the list. Save and close.

2. Student Maintenance

Transfer any students that are in the Missing form to the correct form.

3. Blocking Grid

Check the Missing year level's Blocking Grid and make sure that there are no subjects on lines and no lines on the grid.

4. Subject Maintenance

If students who are placed in the Missing form and Missing year levels have choices associated with them, then those subjects may become associated with the Missing year level. Make sure the Missing year level has no subjects associated with it.

5. Form Maintenance

Delete the Missing form

6 Year Level Maintenance

Delete both Missing year levels

The Missing form and Missing year levels should now be deleted. If there are any problems at any stage, it usually means that a previous step has not been completed.

How do I get a list of students that are "free" in a line in the Blocking Grid?

In certain situations all students may be assigned to fewer subjects than there are lines in the Blocking Grid or some students may not be undertaking a full course. In these situations it is helpful to know when these students are free.

To determine this you first need to make sure that students have been allocated to their classes. Then:

	Go to REPORTS>STUDENT>ALLOCATIONS
	Select the year level
	Click PREVIEW
	When the preview screen appears, right-click in the grid and select VIEW IN EXCEL. First Class will export the grid to Excel.
	From the Excel menu, select DATA>FILTER>AUTO FILTER. A drop arrow will appear at the top of each column.
	Click on the drop arrow for the first line and, select BLANKS from the drop boxThe filter will show only those students with no class in that line. This information can be printed or copied and pasted into another document.
	To show all students again, click on the same drop-arrow (now in blue) and select ALL
	You are now ready to show the blanks in the next line

We will be adding a report that will supply these details directly in a future release of First Class. This tip is meant only as a temporary measure.

  New First Class Training Date

Due to popular demand another Melbourne training date has been scheduled for the First Class introductory course:

Introduction to First Class

Friday 19 July 2002

This course provides a great overview of the software as well as tips for using shortcuts and other useful features. The cost of the course is $245 per person (ex. GST) for schools on Service & Support, or $345 per person (ex. GST) for schools that are not on Service & Support. A light lunch will be supplied and you will also receive a copy of the First Class training manual for you to keep.

On completion of the course you will know how to:

	Import data into First Class from First Class 6 and in the form of text files
	Export data from First Class to other programs
	Create and enter data into databases
	Create and enter data into a grid
	Resolve clashes
	Allocate students to classes
	Move students between classes
	Allocate extras
	Generate and edit a timetable

The course commences at 9.00 am and concludes at approximately 4.00 pm. As our training courses are a forum for you to have your questions about the software dealt with, we remain flexible about the finishing time. Our instructors want to make sure that you get as much as possible out of your day and part of this is ensuring that we spend as much time as necessary answering your queries!

  Website of the Week

www.howstuffworks.com

Have you ever wondered how hypnosis works? Or how an email can travel from your computer and arrive at its destination? If so then How Stuff Works is the website for you!

This site is interesting, fun to use and features some great graphics. The home page provides a summary of featured articles, as well as links to Top Articles and Top Questions.

The Stuff of the Day section features a Question of the Day as well as access to an archive of previous questions. You can submit your own question to Question of the Day and wait to see the answer!

How Stuff Works is a good source of information for interesting classroom discussions and will also satisfy your own curiosity about the world around us.

  Quote of the Week

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." Plato, Greek Philosopher

Regards,
Robert Bakker
Computer Techniques P/L
Phone: +61 3 9699 9777
Fax: +61 3 9690 2802
Email: firstclass@human-edge.com.au

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