USER GUIDE AND

TUTORIAL
SCHEDULE24 STANDARD
USER GUIDE AND TUTORIAL

-DRAFT-
 User Guide and Tutorial - Contents

USER GUIDE AND TUTORIAL OVERVIEW................................................................. 2

How this Tutorial is structured .........................................................................................................................2

PRODUCT FEATURES OVERVIEW ............................................................................ 3

Workflow ............................................................................................................................................................3
Start your Schedule ...........................................................................................................................................4
Add and Remove People...................................................................................................................................4
Add more detailed information.........................................................................................................................4
Monitoring and Analysis...................................................................................................................................5
Publishing .........................................................................................................................................................5

STANDARD TUTORIAL ............................................................................................. 6

Exercises: Starting your schedule ..................................................................................................................6
: Launch Schedule24 Standard Edition. ..............................................................................................6
Exercises: Adding and Removing People......................................................................................................8
: Entering information in to the Personnel Manager. ..........................................................................8
: Changing how much of the Personnel information is displayed in the Schedule view...................10
: Saving and closing your schedule. ..................................................................................................10
: Importing Personnel from an existing schedule. .............................................................................10
Exercises: Doing your Scheduling...............................................................................................................12
: Using the Schedule Wizard to create a schedule pattern.................................................................12
: Highlighting weekends in the schedule view. .................................................................................21
: Extending a schedule pattern over longer time ranges....................................................................22
: Changing what you see and sorting the Schedule. ..........................................................................25
: Editing shift information. ................................................................................................................26
: Working with split shifts.................................................................................................................27
: Changing the color mapping for shifts............................................................................................29
: Entering information about Assignments........................................................................................30
: Entering information about Unavailability. ....................................................................................32
: Entering information about staff vacation or holiday. ....................................................................34
: Enter a Memo in your schedule. .....................................................................................................37
Exercises: Check how you’re doing ............................................................................................................39
: Working with the Cover Count display. .........................................................................................39
: Customizing the Cover Count display to monitor headcount. ........................................................40
: Using the Distribution Profile to monitor staff distribution. ...........................................................41
: How to display the exact staff working hours for a week. ..............................................................44
: How to display average staff working hours for a week. ................................................................46
Exercises: Publish your schedule.................................................................................................................47
: How to publish weekly schedules. ..................................................................................................47
: How to publish Day schedules........................................................................................................52
: Publishing a schedule to the web. ...................................................................................................54

STRUCTURED SCHEDULES..................................................................................... 57
Exercises: Re-visiting structured scheduling ...............................................................................................57
: 12 hour alternating shifts for 24 hours continuous working for a crew of 20 staff. ........................57
: Compressed 40 hour working week rotating long weekends..........................................................61
: Extending the Compressed Work Week Schedule..........................................................................64
: Schedule a Nine Day Fortnight. ......................................................................................................66
: Working with more than one schedule in the Schedule View Area................................................67

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User Guide and Tutorial - Overview

User Guide and Tutorial Overview

T his User Guide and Tutorial introduces you to the concepts of scheduling and
the workspaces of Schedule24 Standard. It has been designed to add to your
knowledge using a hands-on approach with a series of exercises that will
reinforce your learning and skill. These notes are also designed to serve as an
aide memoir and provide you with a reference for the future. Sufficient space has
been made for you to annotate these notes as you work through the exercises, and
you are encouraged to add comment if you think this will
help.
I C O N K E Y

1 Valuable information Just take a moment to familiarize yourself with the icon keys
! Tip on technique which indicate the purpose of the text you are reading.
These are used throughout the course and will appear at the
: Keyboard exercise
side of the text or paragraph of information.
& Course Note

How this Tutorial is structured

This tutorial is more than teaching which “key” to hit though of course it does that.
It will also help those that are totally new to the challenges of scheduling because
the tutorial sets a context for many of the problems people are faced with when
scheduling and suggests ways to overcome them.

The Standard Tutorial is designed to take you through the main features of
Schedule24 Standard in under an hour. It also follows the implicit workflow flow of
starting your schedule, doing your scheduling, checking how you are doing with the
monitoring and analysis tools before finally publishing your schedules.
This workflow is presented in the Navigation Bar sections where you can access all of
the common tools you need to do your scheduling.

1 While using Schedule24 Standard comprehensive and context sensitive help is

available by clicking Help > Schedule24 Help or pressing the F1 key.

2
 User Guide and Tutorial – Product Features Overview

Section

Product Features Overview

Schedule24 Standard supports a disciplined workflow for the
production of employee and workforce deployment schedules.
Schedule24 supports both structured and unstructured scheduling
styles.

Schedule24 Standard integrates scheduling process into one smooth workflow. Your
scheduling style will determine which features and tools to use.

Workflow
You will use a combination of tools to create schedules. These include the Schedule
Wizard for rapid start of structured scheduling and schedule editing tools to create
and modify your schedules. Finally, monitoring and analysis tools to check how you’re
doing before printing or publishing your schedule.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Product Features Overview

All the most common features can be accessed and used from the Navigation or
Shortcut Bar in addition to the Menu or toolbars.

Start your Schedule

Schedule Wizard The Schedule Wizard is a quick way to start scheduling especially if
you are not too sure what kind of schedule you want. You do not
have to think about the complexity of rotating or day off patterns in
your schedule. This is taken care off by simply selecting the available
options as you progress through the Wizard.

New Schedules You can create a new schedule from the beginning by selecting File >
New. Schedule Assistants will prompt you at each stage to make sure
you are entering the correct information at the appropriate time.

Add and Remove People

Once you have started your schedule the next step is to add people. You
Personnel
Manager
manage all your staff and personnel information for your schedule using
the Personnel Manager. Personal details and contact information are all
maintained in the Personnel Manager.
Importing Using the Import Wizard you can import personnel information from
personnel another Schedule24 schedule.
information

Add more detailed information

Shift Editor You can view and work on multiple schedules in the Schedule Work
Area. The Shift Editor is a docking feature that can be moved around
your work area. It is used to enter and modify shift times and
descriptions. Both continuous and split-shifts can be scheduled. It can
also be used to enter unallocated work periods and days-off.

Assignments Individual or multiple assignments, or details about jobs or tasks, can

be scheduled to staff shifts. These are automatically tracked and
cross-referenced on published schedules, even when they are edited
and modified.
Unavailability
Unavailability can be recorded and warnings are displayed where this
conflicts with staff shifts or assignments.

Memo Other information can be attached to staff shift or calendar date

using the Memo feature.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Product Features Overview

Monitoring and Analysis

Scheduling can be a complex business, but it is essentially about the
number of staff distributed over time. A range of information can be
dynamically displayed including staff count, staff distribution and
working hours. Two features that work well together is Cover Count
and Distribution Profile.
Cover Count
Cover Count displays staff headcount at the bottom of the Schedule
for each day. The display list can be customized to alter the
information displayed.

Distribution Profile displays the distribution profile of available staff Distribution

over any selected date range. Zoom facility enables intervals of 15 Profile
mins to a day to be analyzed.

Working hours can be displayed as exact, average or projected Working Hours

totals for individuals and as daily totals by job title and by shift
category.

Publishing Publishing
schedules
A range of format options enable weekly schedules to be published
for forward planning and daily schedules for more detailed
operations. All information is automatically cross-referenced.

Publishing schedules to the web using the Web Wizard enables Web schedules
convenient access to schedule information from anywhere in the
organization.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Standard Tutorial

Section

Standard Tutorial
This tutorial will walk you through the main features of
Schedule24 Standard Edition. This schedule is based on a
requirement to deploy variable staff levels for a help-desk
facility over 24 hours.

After completing this tutorial you will be able to do the following:

1. Start your schedule

2. Add and remove people

3. Create a structured schedule

4. Do your scheduling

5. Check how you’re doing

6. Publish your schedule

Exercises: Starting your schedule

: Launch Schedule24 Standard Edition.

1. Click Start > All Programs > Schedule24 Standard and select Schedule24
Standard to launch the application.

2. Close the Welcome to Schedule24 Standard screen by clicking the Close

button in the bottom right hand corner of the dialog.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Starting your schedule

3. If the Navigation Pane is not displayed select View > Navigation Pane from
the Menu to display.

4. Using the mouse pointer click 1. Start your schedule bar if it is not already
displayed. Select the item Create a blank schedule from the list. This will
display a blank schedule. Alternatively from the Menu select File > New and
select New to display the New Dialog and click Blank Schedule.

5. A blank schedule with calendar information will be displayed, together with a

Schedule Assistant prompting for Personnel information. Accept the default
option Open the Personnel Manager and click OK. The Schedule Assistant will
close and the Personnel Manager will be displayed.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Adding and removing people

Exercises: Adding and Removing People

: Entering information in to the Personnel Manager.

& Using the small personnel list below enter the staff details into the
Personnel Manager

Title First Name Last Name Address Mobile

Mr Richard Allen 7 The Crescent 206-778-2345
Seattle WA 98667
Ms Fiona Frost 6 Philips Cross Way 206-778-2367
Seattle WA 98667
Mrs Beatrice Grant-Smith 54 Crocus Way 206-778-2368
Seattle WA 98667

1. Enter “Mr” in the Title box, “Richard” in the First name box, “Allen” in the
Last name box.
! Alternatively you can use the Title field for a job title description instead of
salutation and use it for a sort category in the schedule.

2. Select the Address tab to enter the address details and Contact tab for the
mobile number details.
3. Click the New Person button to enter the next record and repeat the
procedure for the third name.

& We will be using larger numbers of staff in later exercises, but for now this will
make you familiar with the Personnel Manager without doing too much data
entry at this point.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Adding and removing people

5. Click Save and Close button which will close the Personnel Manager and
update your schedule with the three staff names you have entered.

6. From the Toolbar Menu select the Personnel Manager. This will display the
Personnel Manager again.

7. Using the mouse pointer click the record for Fiona Frost in the Personnel
list. This will select the record and display a black triangle to the left of
the name showing it is selected.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Adding and removing people

8. Click the Delete button and Save and Close. This will remove Fiona Frost
from the Personnel Manager and up date the schedule display.

& Ignore the Cover Count numbers at the bottom of the schedule for now as
they will be explained in later exercises.

: Changing how much of the Personnel information is displayed in the

Schedule view

1. From the Menu select Tools > Options to display the Options dialog. Select
the View tab.

2. Uncheck the checkboxes for Title and check the boxes for First name and
Last name. Click OK to close the Options dialog and update the schedule
display.

! If your focus is on planning a schedule of job titles you can use the Title field
for job descriptions and just display that information.

: Saving and closing your schedule.

1. From the Menu select File > Save to display the Save As dialog.

2. Enter a suitable filename for your schedule. For the purposes of this
tutorial give it the filename Small Team. This will close the dialog and
Save your schedule with this filename.

3. From the Menu select File > Close to close your saved schedule. The
Schedule Work Area will now be empty.

: Importing Personnel from an existing schedule.

1. From the Menu select File> New > New to display the New dialog.

2. From the General tab double-click the Blank Schedule icon or highlight it
and click OK.

! Alternatively you can select Create a blank schedule from the Start
Your Schedule section of the Navigation Bar.

3. This will display a blank schedule with calendar information in the

Schedule Work Area. The Schedule Assistant will also be displayed.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Adding and removing people

4. Select the option Import Personnel from an existing Schedule and click
OK. This will display the Insert Personnel from another Schedule dialog
with a list of Schedules.

5. Select the schedule Small Business Center Example and click OK. This will
close the dialog and update your schedule with the imported Personnel
information.

! You can open the Personnel Manager and explore the personnel you have
imported. Closing the Personnel Manager automatically saves any changes.

6. From the Menu select File > Close. When prompted to save the schedule
you can click No for the purposes of the tutorial which serves as an
importing example only. The Schedule Work Area will now be empty.

& You can create and work on more than one schedule at a time in the Schedule
View Area. Each Schedule has its own Personnel Manager so you might want to
decide whether you have all your personnel in one schedule, or separate
groups of people in their own schedule. Generally if you need to see
everything all at once use one schedule. If you have groups of people that do
not move between each other then separate schedules may be better.

1 Schedule24 Standard has a limit of 25 people for each Schedule. You can
however have as many Schedules as you want, and more than one schedule
can be displayed and arranged in the Schedule View Area.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Doing your scheduling

Exercises: Doing your Scheduling

You can schedule directly into a Schedule using the scheduling editing tools to
quickly create and build your schedules. A powerful alternative is using the
Schedule Wizard especially when you want to explore new or flexible ways of
working. These following exercises will show you how to do this.

: Using the Schedule Wizard to create a schedule pattern.

1. Launch Schedule24 Standard and close the Welcome Screen if you haven’t
already done so.

2. From the Start your Schedule section of the Navigation bar select the
EasyStep Schedule Wizard. This will display the Schedule Wizard Welcome
Screen.

3. Click Next to the Add Personnel section.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Schedule Wizard

4. Using the list of people below enter each in turn into the Personnel list.

Title First Name Last Name

Mr Peter Agar
Mr Javid Ali
Mr Richard Allen
Mr Geoffrey Bowman
Ms Fiona Frost
Miss Gwen Miller
Mrs Beatrice Grant-Smith
Mr John Jones

5. Enter First name in the First name box, Last Name in the Last name box
and Title in the Title box. Click Add to add the name to the personnel list.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Schedule Wizard

6. Click Next to the Add Shifts section.

7. In the Shift box enter “7a3p” (to denote 7:00a-3:00p) and in the
Description box enter “Early”. Select a color code for the shift by clicking
the color listing. Click the Add button to add this shift to the display list.

! If your preference is for 24 hour working select the 24 hour option. To

save time formatting 24 hour time can be entered as a continuous entry
e.g. 07001500 and the 07:00-15:00 formatting will be applied
automatically.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Schedule Wizard

8. Follow the step above to enter the following time and descriptions each
with a color code:

10a-6p Day
3p-11p Late
5p-1a Evening
11p-7a Night

9. When you have completed entering this list your display should look
something like this:

! If you make a mistake on entering information simply delete the entry and re-
enter. The entry order for shifts in this section becomes a choice option later.

10. Click Next to move to the Select Start Day section. Accept the default
start day Monday. Click the More button to display the information
feedback during design. Your display should look similar to this:

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User Guide and Tutorial – Schedule Wizard

& The feedback panel updates dynamically as you progress through the
Wizard. If your schedule plan requires more people than you have entered
default staff will be added automatically. If you scroll down you will see
two people have already been added at this stage of the Wizard. If staff
details are not entered you can still create a schedule plan.

11. Move the mouse pointer over the grid area and when the pointer changes
to a magnifying-glass icon double-click to zoom out and view more detail.

12. Click Next to move to the Fixed or Rotating section and select the
Rotating option.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Schedule Wizard

13. Click Next to move to Add Days Off section and select the Customize
option to display the controls for the days-off days-on work ratio. Accept
the 2 days-off default and increase the days-on to 6. Finally select the
Forward stagger option.

& This configures the days-off pattern on a rotating basis. So not all the staff
would be off on the same day. Ideal for 24 hour 7 day working. Note more
staff are needed for rotating days-off.

14. Monitoring the feedback panel the rest periods between shifts is displaying
‘0’ which indicates that somewhere in the design two shifts are adjoining
each other. To resolve this select the Backward stagger option for days-off
which re-adjusts the design to maintain sufficient rest periods between
breaks.

& Remember depending on the range of options selected during design the
information in the feedback panel will be dynamically updated.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Schedule Wizard

15. Click Next to move to the Staff Distribution section and select the
Customize, enter the desired number of staff in the staff column option.
This will display the staff distribution control. For the purposes of this
tutorial click the mouse pointer to highlight the staff column next to the
10:00a-6:00p Day shift.

16. Click again and enter 2.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Schedule Wizard

17. Click Next to move to the Direction of Rotation section and accept the
Forward default option.

18. Click Next to move to the Speed of Rotation section and select the
Customize speed option.

19. Enter 4 in the days box using the spin button, or alternatively using the
keyboard and click the schedule view once with the mouse pointer to
refresh the calculation.

& Entering 4 effectively speeds up the staff rotation through the different
shifts of the schedule. This means no one will work more than 4 days on
any one shift. But there is a problem. If you look at the feedback panel
you will notice that somewhere in the schedule plan the Minimum rest
periods between shifts is 3:00 hours. This is much too short a period
even though the Average rest periods between shifts is 16:23 overall.

20. Enter 2 in the days box using the spin button and place the mouse pointer on
the Add Days Off section title on the left hand side and click to return you to
the Add Days Off section.

21. Click the Forward Stagger option. This will recalculate the stagger and
increase the Minimum rest periods between shifts back to 16:00 hours.

& There are too many permutations to explain each one in detail in this tutorial.
By navigating and modifying options between each section you can
immediately see the effect of your changes in the feedback panel. Scrolling to
the right of the schedule plan you can view the distribution of shifts and days-

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User Guide and Tutorial – Schedule Wizard

off people will work, and scrolling down you can view the headcount of staff
working each shift each day.

! You can make further modification to the Schedule in the Schedule View Area
using the schedule editing tools.

22. Click Finish in the left hand side Menu to jump to the end of the Wizard
and click Finish. This will display your schedule in the Schedule View Area.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Schedule Color Options

& The complete schedule plan will be displayed from the current date in the
Schedule View Area. Even though the current date may be a different day of
the week from the start day entered in the Wizard Start day box the schedule
pattern will be consistent.

23. From the Menu select File > Save to display the Save dialog. For the
purposes of this tutorial enter the filename “Small Team” and click the
Save button.

24. From the Menu select File > Close to close the schedule. The Schedule
View Area will now be empty.

: Highlighting weekends in the schedule view.

1. From the Menu select File > Open to display the Open dialog. Select the
“Small Team” schedule you previously saved. This will display the schedule in
the Schedule Work Area.

2. From the Menu select Tools > Options… > Color tab

3. Check the Day colors checkbox and highlight the menu item Weekends

4. Click the Color palette and select your preferred color to highlight
weekends.

5. Check the Weekends checkbox.

! You only have access to color palettes if the item has been highlighted. If
an item checkbox is not checked the color will not be displayed in the
schedule even though a color for the item has been selected.

6. Click OK to close the Options dialog and update the schedule view display.
The weekend days will now be highlighted in the selected color.

! Shift colors have priority over day colors in the schedule when turned on.
However the day color will always be displayed in the calendar header
dates of the schedule if checked for display. The schedule is viewed at
50%.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Extending schedule patterns

: Extending a schedule pattern over longer time ranges.

& A schedule created by the Wizard can be extended to build a schedule over
any time range using the schedule editing tools.

1. Open the “Small Team” schedule you previously saved if not already displayed.

2. From the Toolbar menu select the zoom setting 50% to increase the viewing area

3. Close the Navigation bar to increase the viewing area further.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Extending schedule patterns

4. Highlight the schedule pattern area created by the Schedule Wizard by clicking
the mouse pointer in the column heading for the start of the schedule pattern.

5. Hold down the Shift key and click the column heading for the end of the schedule
pattern.

6. From the Menu select Edit > Copy. Alternatively click Copy on the Toolbar menu
or click the right mouse button and select Copy from the pop-up menu.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Extending schedule patterns

7. Place the mouse pointer on the first column heading after the schedule pattern
and holding down the mouse button drag across and highlight the next 16 days.

8. From the Menu select Edit > Paste. Alternatively click Paste on the Toolbar menu
or click the right mouse button and select Paste from the pop-up menu.

& The 16 days is the number of days for this schedule pattern. You just need
to repeat the pattern every 16 days to a date you wish to extend it. Here
you have your schedule pattern for a little over a month.

! You don’t have to keep adding blocks of 16 days. If you repeat the above steps
but with the 32 days now entered you can speed up the process significantly.

9. Adjust the schedule view back to 100% using the Zoom feature.

10. From the Menu select View > Navigation bar to redisplay the Navigation bar.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Sorting the schedule

11. Save the schedule.

& More detailed information can be overlaid on shift schedules for controlling
and coordinating team working. The following exercises take you through
the additional features that enable you to focus on scheduling
requirements dealing with short notice changes, managing unavailability,
and scheduling assignments.

: Changing what you see and sorting the Schedule.

1. Open the Small Team schedule if it is not already displayed.

2. From the Menu select Tools > Options > View tab. This will display the
Options dialog.

3. In the Show in schedule section uncheck Title and Last name checkboxes and
check the First name checkbox.

4. Click OK. The schedule will change to display personnel first names only.

! You will find many of the options you need that change what you see in the
range of tabs available in Tools > Options.

5. From the Menu select Data > Sort by > Start time. This will sort and order
the schedule information by shift start times for the first day column by
default.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Editing shift information

! If you want to sort another day column in the schedule view just highlight
any cell in that day column and repeat the above step.

6. From the Menu select View > Shift Descriptions to display the shift
description.

7. Repeat the above step to change the shifts back to the time format.

: Editing shift information.

1. Open the Small Team schedule if it is not already displayed and from the
Menu select View > Hours to display the staff working hours column if not
already displayed.

2. Using the mouse pointer select the first day cell for “Gwen” in the first
column of the schedule.

3. From the Toolbar menu click Shift Editor to display the shift data box in the
Toolbar if it isn’t already displayed. Clicking the Shift Editor again will hide
the shift data box.

4. Use the mouse pointer and click in the text box displayed in the toolbar of the
Shift Editor. This will display a flashing cursor indicating you can edit the box
entry. Modify the 7:00a-3:00p to 7:00a-5:00p and click the button. This
will commit the change to the highlighted day cell.

5. Similarly highlight the first two day cells with 10:00a-6:00p shifts for
“Beatrice” of the same week and using the drop down list of the Shift Editor
select the 7:00a-5:00p shift from the list and click the Check or Tick icon
button. This will update both day cells with the same shift.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Working with split shifts

! You can highlight any range of cells to make shift changes to the schedule. The
window of this screenshot has been adjusted for illustration purposes.

: Working with split shifts

1. Using the mouse pointer click on the center of the Shift Editor Toolbar and
drag down into the Schedule View Area and release when the outline changes .
This will undock the Shift Editor and display additional shift editing controls.

2. Highlight the first day cell for “Geoffrey” 10:00a-6:00p shift.

3. Enter the following split shift 10:00a-2:00p, 6:00p-10:00p. The comma denotes
the split between the two tours of duty.

4. Click the Check or Tick icon button to update the information in the day cells.
A split shift is denoted by ‘x’ between the start and end time display in the
schedule view.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Working with split shifts

! Using this example of a split shift. a quicker shortcut is to enter 10a2p, 6p10p.
The time formatting is automatically added when entered. Similarly if using 24
hour format i.e. 10001400, 18002200. Alternatively you can use the Splits box
to split the shift and then use the mouse to adjust the Time bar in the Time
scale.

! If you want to delete one of the periods of a split shift while editing click the
period you want to delete with the mouse pointer and enter “1” in the Splits
box using the spin button. This will return the shift to a continuous shift
period.

5. Place the mouse pointer in the caption bar at the top of the Shift Editor
and drag the Shift Editor where the top of the schedule and Toolbar menu
meet in the Schedule View Area.

6. When the outline of the Shift Editor changes release and the Shift Editor
will re-dock itself into the Toolbar menu.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Color mapping shifts

: Changing the color mapping for shifts.

1. From the Menu select Tools > Options… > Color tab to display the options
for color mapping shifts.

2. Select and highlight the 7:00a-5:00p shift in the Shift settings list and click
the color palette to display the Color dialog.

3. Select a color and click Close to close the dialog.

4. Click OK to click the Options dialog and update the schedule color.

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User Guide and Tutorial - Assignments

: Entering information about Assignments.

1. Open the Small Team Schedule if it is not already displayed in the

Schedule Work Area.

2. Using the mouse pointer highlight the first day cells for “Beatrice” and
“Geoffrey”.

3. From the Menu select Scheduling > Assignments…. Alternatively you can
point the mouse pointer in the highlighted area and click the right mouse
button to display the pop-up menu and select Assignments…. This will
display the Assignments dialog.

4. Enter “Training” in the Type box.

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 User Guide and Tutorial - Assignments

5. Enter “Induction course” in the Description box.

6. Enter “Contact department supervisor at the training facility at 10am” in

the Details box.

7. Click Add and this will transfer the assignment to the Assignments list.

! Entries in the Type box are listed so they can be used again. Choose general
categories that you are most likely to use again for this box. It makes
managing information easier and prevents the list from coming too long.

8. Click OK to close the dialog and update both staff on these dates in the
schedule with this assignment.

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User Guide and Tutorial - Unavailability

& You can schedule multiple assignments to a staff shift. Assignment information
is also a publishing option for schedules. The Day Schedule in particular will
display all the information about assignments. Remember you can view
underlying information in your schedule using Infotip display.

: Entering information about Unavailability.

1. Open the Small Team Schedule if it is not already displayed in the

Schedule Work Area.

2. Using the mouse pointer highlight the third day cell for “Gwen”.

3. From the Menu select Scheduling > Unavailability…. Alternatively you can
point the mouse pointer in the highlighted area and click the right mouse
button to display the pop-up menu and select Unavailability…. This will
display the Unavailability dialog.

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 User Guide and Tutorial - Unavailability

4. Enter “Sick” in the Type box.

5. Enter “Heavy Head Cold” in the Description box.

6. Enter “Will try to get in tomorrow” in the Details box.

! Similar to Assignments entries in the Type box are listed so they can be used
again. Choosing general categories for this box makes managing information
easier and prevents the list from coming too long.

7. Click OK to close the dialog and update the schedule with this
unavailability.

33
User Guide and Tutorial – Staff Leave

& You can only schedule one record of unavailability for staff on one day.
Unavailability information is also a publishing option for schedules.
Unavailability and Assignments can not be scheduled together and will
generate a conflict warning when this occurs.

: Entering information about staff vacation or holiday.

1. Open the Small Team Schedule if it is not already displayed in the

Schedule Work Area.

2. Using the mouse pointer highlight the first five day cells for “Javid”.

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 User Guide and Tutorial - Unavailability

3. From the Menu select Scheduling > Unavailability…. Alternatively you can
point the mouse pointer in the highlighted area and click the right mouse
button to display the pop-up menu and select Unavailability…. This will
display the Unavailability dialog.

4. Enter “Leave” in the Type box.

5. Enter “Primary Leave” in the Description box.

6. Enter “Approved and confirmed” in the Details box.

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User Guide and Tutorial - Unavailability

7. Click OK to close the dialog and update the schedule with this leave
record.

& Similarly a scheduling conflict will be displayed. This will remove assignments
and shifts for the dates the person is taking Leave.

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 User Guide and Tutorial - Memo

: Enter a Memo in your schedule.

1. Open the Small Team Schedule if it is not already displayed in the

Schedule Work Area.

2. Using the mouse pointer highlight the first day cell for “Gwen”.

3. From the Menu select Scheduling > Memo…. Alternatively you can point
the mouse pointer in the highlighted area and click the right mouse button
to display the pop-up menu and select Memo…. This will display the Memo
dialog.

4. Enter “2 hours overtime incurred extending the shift to 5pm”.

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User Guide and Tutorial - Memo

! You can enter a large amount of information in a Memo. Text will

automatically wrap. Where you want to enter a break in the text to create a
paragraph use Ctrl Break to enter the next line.

5. Click OK to close the dialog and update the schedule with the Memo
information.

& A red triangle displays a visual cue when a cell has a Memo attached to it. A
Memo is a publishing option for schedules. You can attach a memo to any cell
whether or not scheduling information is present and is useful for scheduling
notes.

6. Close the Small Team Schedule. If prompted to Save the file click Yes.
The Schedule Work Area should now be empty.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Check how you’re doing

Exercises: Check how you’re doing

During scheduling many changes may take place, which means you need to
monitor how these changes impact on providing the staff cover necessary to make
sure a business requirement is met. Too many staff can be as bad as having too
few. It is not sufficient to rely on having the correct number of staff if their
distribution is poorly balanced throughout the day.

Two important pieces of information for monitoring are provided by the Cover
Count and Distribution Profile. Additional scheduling views display staff working
hours including a calculator for a highlighted area in the schedule of total working
hours in the status bar.

: Working with the Cover Count display.

1. Open the Small Team schedule if not already displayed.

! The Cover Count is displayed at the bottom of the schedule. It displays the
total number of staff in the schedule.

2. Place the mouse pointer on the separation bar of the Cover Count display
until the pointer turns into a double-headed arrow cursor. Click and

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User Guide and Tutorial – Cover Count

holding the mouse button drag the bar down until the display is hidden
from view and release. This will hide the Cover Count display.

3. To display the Cover Count place the mouse just beneath the vertical
scroll bar. The mouse pointer will change to double-headed arrow. Click
and holding the mouse button drag the bar up until the Cover Count is
displayed and release.

! The Cover Count bar can be moved upwards or downwards to adjust the
amount of information you want to see displayed.

: Customizing the Cover Count display to monitor headcount.

1. From the Navigation bar Check how you’re doing section, select
Categories and ranges to display the Cover Count dialog. Alternatively
from the Menu you can select View > Cover Count > Customize view… or
using the mouse pointer on the actual Cover Count display click the right
mouse button and from the pop-up menu select Customize view….

2. From the Shift drop down list select “Working” and click the << button to
add it to the Schedule view list.

3. Repeat the above steps to add the following to the Schedule view list.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Distribution Profile

! This list is populated with the shifts entered in the Schedule view. If you
have the View > Shift Description displayed then the time format will be
replaced with shift descriptions where used.

4. Click OK to close the Cover Count dialog and adjust the Cover Count bar
upwards to display the additional entries.

: Using the Distribution Profile to monitor staff distribution.

1. Highlight any cell in the first day column of the schedule.

2. From the Menu select Data > Distribution Profile. This will display the
Distribution Profile. Alternatively you can click the Distribution Profile
toolbar icon, or select Show distribution profile by Shift from the
Distribution Profile section of the Navigation Bar.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Distribution Profile

3. From the Timescale dropdown list select “4 hours” to display a four hour
timescale.

! The view scale can be zoomed in to display 15 minute time intervals using the
Timescale options. In this example there is a maximum total of 3 staff
between 10am and 2pm and there is no break in staff cover in any 24 hour
period.

2. Using the mouse pointer highlight the first 7 days in the Schedule view.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Distribution Profile

! Any row can be highlighted to select the range of days you want to profile.

3. From the Menu select Data > Distribution Profile. This will display the
Distribution Profile. Alternatively you can click the Distribution Profile
toolbar icon, or select Show distribution profile by Shift from the
Distribution Profile section of the Navigation Bar.

& Note there is no staff cover during the night on Thursday and
Friday. This shortfall has been caused by Javid being on Leave.

4. From the Timescale: dropdown list select 4 hour zoom. This will zoom into
the graph area to display 4 hour time sections.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Distribution Profile

! The ‘redline’ graph displays the total number of staff on the left axis available
over the time range view on the bottom axis. You can scroll through the
selected time range using the scroll bar.

4. Close the Distribution Profile window.

: How to display the exact staff working hours for a week.

1. Open the Small Team Schedule if it isn’t already displayed in the Schedule
Work Area and using Sort by, order the schedule by Last name.

2. From the Menu select View > Hours. To display the working hour’s column
in the schedule against individual staff. Alternatively select Show/hide
hours total from the View hours and budget section from the Navigation
Bar.

3. From the Menu select Tools > Options > Calculation to display the
calculation settings for working hours. Alternatively select Customize
calculation from the View hour’s section of the Navigation Bar.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Weekly working hours

1 References to budget in the Calculation examples section of the dialog are

a feature of Schedule24 Professional.

4. In the Calculate over text box enter “7” days, and

5. In the display calculation for text box enter “7” days

6. Click OK to close the dialog and update the working hour view in the
schedule to display the exact hours worked by staff each week.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Working hour’s calculation

& The total hours are calculated from the first day column of the schedule
for 7 days. Scrolling the schedule forward will dynamically update these
totals and effectively display working hours over a “rolling” week.

: How to display average staff working hours for a week.

1. Select Customize calculation from the View hour’s section of the

Navigation Bar. This will display the Calculation options.

2. In the Calculate over text box enter “28” days, and

3. In the display calculation for text box enter “7” days

4. Click OK to close the dialog and update the working hour view in the
schedule to display the average hours worked by staff each week. Over a
period of 28 days.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Publishing schedules

! Monitoring average hours per week may be more practical than an exact
total that varies from week to week.

5. Save and Close the Small Team schedule.

Exercises: Publish your schedule.

How you communicate your scheduling information is as important as defining

scheduling strategy. You have two main formats for publishing schedules. Weekly
formats for forward planning and Day schedules for more detailed operational action.

: How to publish weekly schedules.

1. Open the Small Team schedule.

2. From the Toolbar Menu click the Week Schedules icon. This will display the
preview of the Small Team Schedule in weekly format.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Page Setup

! Publishing options are available in Setup to change the layout and how much
information you want to publish.

3. Click the Setup button to display the Page Setup dialog.

4. Select the Weekly Schedule tab if it is not already displayed and select the
Full page optimization option.

5. Uncheck the Black and white checkbox if it is checked. Accept the remaining
default options.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Page Setup

1 Your computer must have the appropriate printer drivers installed otherwise you
will not have access to printing controls. If you do not have a color printer then
the preview schedule will only display black and white.

6. Click the Page tab and select the Landscape option. Check the Fit to Page
checkbox.

7. Click the Margins tab. Enter “0.8” in the Top and Bottom margins and “0.6” in
the Left and Right margin boxes. In the Center on page section check the
Horizontal checkbox and uncheck the Vertical checkbox.

& Margins are dependent on paper size and amount of information content.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Week Schedules

8. Click the Print Area tab. In the Start box enter a date and in the End box
enter a date two weeks later. This tutorial schedule starts on a Monday, so
two weeks following will be a Sunday.

9. Click the Header/Footer tab. In the Center Section enter “Weekly Plan”. In
the Right Section enter “Printed on [spacebar]” and using the mouse pointer
click the Date icon [spacebar] and enter “at [spacebar]” and again using the
mouse pointer click the Time icon.

10. Click OK to display the preview.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Week Schedules

& This format groups and arranges personnel in a continuous weekly calendar
repeating each week for the date range selected.

11. Click Setup to display the Page Setup dialog. Click the Weekly Schedule tab
if not already displayed. Select the option Print as schedule grid and click OK
to display the alternative format for Weekly Schedule.

& This format publishes the schedule as it is displayed in the schedule view
on your screen.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Publishing Day schedules

12. Close the Small Team Schedule. If you are prompted to save, close
without saving. To discard the Page Setup options used for the weekly
schedule exercise. The Schedule Work Area should now be empty.

: How to publish Day schedules.

1. Open the Small Team Schedule.

2. From the Toolbar Menu click the Day Schedule icon. This will display the
preview of the Small Team schedule in Day format. Select Page Width to
enlarge schedule content for viewing.

3. Click the Setup button to display the Page Setup dialog.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Day Schedules

4. Click the Day Schedule tab if nor already displayed. Select the Shift option.
Accept the other default settings. Click OK to display the Day Schedule by
shift order.

5. Close the Preview.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Publishing web schedules

: Publishing a schedule to the web.

1. From the Menu File > Page Setup > Week Schedules. This will display the
Page Setup dialog. Click the Weekly Schedule tab if not already displayed.

2. For the purpose of this tutorial enter “Sunday” in the Day of week to start
box to display that day as the start day for the web schedule. Uncheck the
Black and white checkbox. Click OK to close the dialog.

3. Select Publish your schedules to the web from the Web publishing section of
the Navigation Bar. This will launch the Web Wizard.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Web Wizard

4. In the Select calendar and personnel settings enter the date for the first
column in the schedule in the Start box and a date two weeks following in the
Finish box. Click Next.

5. In the Title box enter “Company Intranet”

6. In the Comments box enter “Contact me about any changes”

7. In the Author box enter “My name” and in the E-mailbox enter “My Email”.
Click Next.

8. For the purposes of this tutorial it is not necessary to enter any information
about the web site pathname.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Web Wizard

9. Click the Preview in Browser button to view the web schedule as it would be
published to a web site and viewed by other team members using their web
browser.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Structured scheduling

Section

Structured Schedules
There are a range of shift patterns that are in common use across
a wide range of industries. A particular scheduling strategy that
may have been used exclusively by a particular industry may now
find itself equally effective in totally unconnected industries
seeking new ways of flexible working to meet business
requirements.

Exercises: Re-visiting structured scheduling

There are a range of shift patterns that are in common use across a wide range
of industries. For example the 4 days on 4 days off 12 hour shift pattern used
almost exclusively by Fire Fighters for many years is now adopted by teams of
technical developers in Network Support Services. The following exercises are
to show further worked examples of these common shift patterns.

& None of these exercises will involve entering staff details and will leave the
Wizard to create the default numbers of staff for each design. Therefore
the following exercise will start in the Add Shifts section of the Wizard.

: 12 hour alternating shifts for 24 hours continuous working for a

crew of 20 staff.

1. From the Start your Schedule section of the Navigation bar select EasyStep
Schedule Wizard to launch the Schedule Wizard. Alternatively from the Menu
select File > New > EasyStep Schedule Wizard…

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User Guide and Tutorial – Structured scheduling

2. Enter the following shift details and description in the appropriate boxes.
Select your color preference for each shift.

Shift Description
6a6p Day
6p6a Night

3. Click Next to Select Start Day and accept “Saturday” as the default Start day.

4. Click Next to Fixed or Rotating section and select the Rotating schedule
option. Click the More>> button to display the feedback information panel.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Structured scheduling

! Double-click the schedule pattern to zoom out and display more detail.

5. Click Next to Add Days Off section and select the Custom option to display
the work day-off ration controls.

6. Enter “4” in the days off box and “4” in the days on box and select the
Forward stagger option.

7. Click Next to Staff Distribution section and enter 5 staff for each shift row.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Structured scheduling

& You will see in the feedback panel that to deploy this number of staff
will require a team of 20.

8. Click Next to Direction of Rotation and accept the Forward default option.

9. Click Next to Speed of Rotation and accept the Change Shift after Days Off
default option.

10. Click Finish to close the EasyStep Wizard and display the schedule in the
Schedule View Area.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Structured scheduling

11. Save the schedule with the filename “Alternating 12hr Continuous Working”.

12. Close the schedule. The Schedule View Area should now be empty.

: Compressed 40 hour working week rotating long weekends

1. From the Navigation Bar select Blank schedule. This will open a blank
schedule and display the Schedule Assistant dialog.

2. In the Schedule Assistant select the Import Personnel from an existing Schedule
option and click OK. This will display the Insert Personnel dialog.

3. Select the schedule “Small Business Center Example” and click OK.

4. From the Menu select Tools > Options… View tab. Uncheck the Title checkbox
and click OK to display staff First name and Last name in the schedule view.

5. From the Menu select Data > Sort by > Last name to sort the schedule view by
staff Last name.

& For the purposes of the tutorial adjust the schedule view so the first column day is
“Monday”.

6. Using the mouse pointer highlight “Peter Agar” day cells from “Monday” to
“Thursday” and drag the mouse down to “”Frederick Braithwaite”

7. In the Toolbar menu click the Shift Editor and enter “8a6p”. Click the Check
button to enter the shift into the highlighted area.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Structured scheduling

8. Highlight the “Friday” and “Sunday” day cells for the same member of staff.

9. From the drop down list in the Shift Editor select and enter “Day Off” into the
highlighted area.

10. From the Menu select Tools > Options… >Color tab and choose your preferred
color mapping to the shift and Day off and click OK to update the schedule color.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Structured scheduling

11. Using the mouse pointer highlight “Phillip Bunting” day cell for “Monday” and drag
the mouse down to the “Monday” day cell for “Beatrice Grant-Smith”.

12. Using the Shift Editor drop down list enter “Day Off” into the highlighted day
cells.

13. Highlight the same staff day cells from “Tuesday” to “Friday” and enter the
“8:00a-6:00p” shift into the highlighted section with the Shift Editor. Finally
add “Day off” to the same staff weekend day cells.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Structured scheduling

& The benefit of this shift pattern is staff completes a full working week and enjoys
the benefit of a longer weekend either by having the “Friday” or “Monday” off.

14. Save the schedule with the filename “Compressed Work Week”. Do not close
the schedule.

: Extending the Compressed Work Week Schedule

1. Open the “Compressed Work Week” schedule if it isn’t already displayed.

2. Close the Navigation bar and zoom the Schedule View Area to 50%.

3. Using the mouse pointer select the area already scheduled and select Edit >
Copy from the Menu. Alternatively using the right mouse button select Copy
from the pop-up menu.

4. Highlight the following week days cells for the same staff and select Edit >
Paste from the menu. Alternatively using the right mouse button select Paste
from the pop-up menu.

& This will repeat the compressed week schedule into the following week. One
drawback however is the same staff has the same days making up their “long
weekend”. An alternative would be to rotate the “Friday” and “Monday”
making up the long weekend.

! Even at extreme views color mapping the shifts is a powerful way to structure a
scheduling strategy.

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Structured scheduling

& Using the Copy and Paste editing tools you can rotate the long weekend days
off so staff have an equal share of “Monday” and “Friday” days-off and
working.

! You can keep a check of working hours using the View > Hours column display and
also by highlighting a schedule area to read the total hours in the Status Bar.

5. Save the schedule.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Structured scheduling

: Schedule a Nine Day Fortnight.

& A variation on a compressed work week is the Nine Day Fortnight. Essentially
the daily work hours are extended sufficiently to accrue the work hours over a
14 day period for a day which is then taken off.

1. Adjust the schedule zoom to 100% for normal viewing.

2. Highlight the day cell for “Roger Green” on “Monday” to “Friday” and using
the Shift Editor enter “08:30a-5:26p” shift and click the Check button to
enter the shift into the highlighted area.

3. Highlight the day cell for the same staff member on “Monday” the following
week and enter “08:30a-5:26p”. Highlight the days “Tuesday” to “Thursday”
and enter “08:30a-5:18p” using the Shift Editor.

& In this example “Roger Green” works 5 days one week and 4 days the
following week due to the time accrued working extended working hours
rather than full 10 hour shifts each day.

4. Save the schedule .

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 User Guide and Tutorial – Working with multiple schedules

: Working with more than one schedule in the Schedule View Area.

1. With the “Compressed Work Week” schedule displayed open the “Small
Business Team Example” schedule.

2. From the Menu select View > Navigation Pane to display the Navigation bar.

3. From the Menu select Windows > Arrange… to display the Arrange dialog.

4. Select the Horizontal default option and click OK to display the two schedules
in the Schedule Work Area. Sort both schedules by Last name.

! The schedule editing tools are only active for the schedule having focus,
i.e. the schedule with the highlighted caption bar.

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User Guide and Tutorial – Working with multiple schedules

& You can Copy and use Paste Special to transfer information between the
two schedules. Using the information in the “Small Business Team
Example” copy selected information and paste into the “Compressed Work
Week” schedule.

These examples bring the tutorial to a close. You will have a sound grasp how
to navigate the Schedule24 environment and how and when to apply the
schedule editing tools.

For further information or support please visit www.schedule24.com.

All trademarks acknowledged.

© Intellicate Limited 2000-2006. Schedule24 is a registered trade mark in the United Kingdom and/or in
other countries.
All reasonable precautions have been taken in the preparation of this document, including both technical and
non-technical proofing. Intellicate and all staff assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No
warranties are made, expressed or implied with regard to these notes. Intellicate shall not be responsible for
any direct, incidental or consequential damages arising from the use of any material contained in this
document. If you find any errors, please inform Intellicate. Whilst every effort is made to eradicate typing or
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 2006 Intellicate Limited

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