Ad-hoc changes to a published timetable

Omniscol is not just a timetable generator for the run-up to the school year — it is also an operational tool for handling day-to-day changes throughout the year.

Turn on edit mode

Click Reorganisation. All open calendars switch to reorganization mode. Newly opened calendars are also directly editable.

Move to the week you want to change (timeline at the top).

Edit a lesson

Click a lesson: a panel appears (you can move it or make it semi-transparent) with all the editable attributes:

• teacher(s),
• group, if any,
• resources,
• room(s) (see multi-room),
• memos.

Edit several lessons at once

In reorganization mode, Shift+click on several lessons selects them together (from two onwards, they stand out highlighted). The panel then becomes a shared form: the room, the teacher(s), the resources, the memo or the duration you set there apply to all the selected lessons on save — handy for switching a whole block of lessons to another room in one go. See Editing a lesson.

Rather than clicking each lesson, the Selection menu of the form widens the selection in a single click:

• by time window — the whole day, week or month (depending on the timetable type);
• by similarity — the following similar lessons (same class, subject, group and time slot: the recurrence of a course);
• by division — the lessons of the same group in a division.

Each entry shows the number of lessons it adds, and a toggle restricts the scope to the current calendar or extends it to all open calendars.

The neighboring duplication menu () copies the lesson(s) — as several copies, or up to a given date on a calendar timetable. Its detailed behavior is described in Distribute the hours and create the lessons.

Detach or delete a lesson

To detach a lesson from the grid, click the icon in the panel or double-click the lesson. It joins the area of unplaced lessons on the right, where you can also edit it.

To delete it, open its panel and click Delete: where detaching keeps the lesson in the area of lessons to re-place, deleting removes it from the timetable. Like any change, it appears in the list of changes, where you can undo it (see below).

Move a lesson

Open the lesson and click its placement button (Place on timetable, the pin): the possible time slots appear as colored dots (green → red depending on conflicts). Click the new time slot.

To move a lesson between weeks, two options:

• month view — display several weeks at once, then reposition the lesson on the desired time slot;
• detach / switch week / re-place — extract the lesson, change the active week, place it again.

Difference with calendar timetables

On a calendar timetable, a change directly affects the dated lesson (already unique for that date).

On a weekly or cyclic timetable, an ad-hoc change does not break the typical week — it is recorded as an exception on the date concerned. The other weeks keep following the typical week.

See and undo changes

The View list of changes button lists the changes in progress over the period. You can undo them individually.

On a weekly or cyclic timetable, an ad-hoc change is recorded as an exception on its date: it remains undoable at any time from this list.

⚠ On a calendar timetable, by contrast, changes are consolidated permanently on save: undo them before saving.

These changes apply to a specific date, not to the structure of the timetable. The structure — classes, groups, typical week — is edited when building the timetable, not here. Editing a past date therefore corrects the history of that single date: do it knowingly.

Conflict detection

Conflict detection works in edit mode just as in the Timetable management module: as soon as you move or edit a lesson, Omniscol checks in real time for double bookings, capacity overruns, time constraints and absences.

On the calendar, a conflicting lesson carries a double colored outline — red for a blocking conflict, orange or yellow for a hindrance to arbitrate. The details (conflict type, lessons involved, and for instance a missing room) appear in the tooltip when hovering over the lesson.

The full list of conflict types, the severity levels and the diagnostic panel are described in Conflicts and diagnostic.