FAQ — special cases and advanced configurations

Questions about atypical configurations or special cases: lessons that do not follow the time grid, fine-grained management of rooms and their specialisations, non-blocking conflicts, specific displays, traceability of inconsistencies.

Lessons with a custom time

Q. Part of the lessons in our school (about 20%) do not follow the standard time grid: precise exam durations, shifted times for some practicals. How to place a lesson that must start at 1:10 pm on a grid with a 10-minute step, and get a consistent end time?

A. Yes. A lesson can be entered with its own start and end time, without exactly matching the boundaries of the standard grid. In the placed lesson, use the Custom time button (Custom time) then fill in the start and the end.

The lesson is still taken into account in conflicts: teacher, room, class, group and resource are considered busy as soon as the custom time overlaps a time slot. For automatic generation, this position is locked.

The Off-grid configuration of a class is a different case: it is meant for calendar-mode classes configured off-grid whose every lesson must be stored with precise times.

See Off-grid lessons for the details.

Creating subjects with an existing parent and family

Q. When creating a custom subject, is it possible to select an already created parent subject and an existing family, without having to go through an external re-import?

A. Yes. The creation or edit window of a custom subject lets you directly select an existing parent subject (Parent subject field) and an existing family (field Family), without an external re-import. See Managing subjects.

Editing or deleting a room specialisation

Q. Why is directly editing or deleting a room specialisation not available (for example to fix a spelling mistake)?

A. The list of specialisations is computed dynamically from the rooms. To make a specialisation disappear:

• Remove it from all the rooms that carry it. On the next save, it disappears from the repository automatically.
• To rename it, create the new specialisation with the right label, replace it on the rooms concerned; the old one then disappears on its own.

The interface therefore offers no button for directly editing or deleting a specialisation. See Classroom specialisation.

Timetable filter by subject: plain subject vs subject with type

Q. When I filter timetables by subject, some lessons do not appear even though they are clearly visible when I filter by class. What is the cause?

A. The (subject, course type) pair is treated as an entry independent of the subject alone. Consequences:

• "Algebra" without a type and "Algebra — Tutorial" correspond to two different entries in the timetable.
• To filter on both at once, do not specify a type in the filter.
• If you need to audit all the types of a single subject, use the filters available in the view then check the results in the course list.

Displaying the last name in uppercase

Q. Is it possible to display last names in uppercase? Useful in particular when the last name is also a common first name (for example "Martin Pierre" vs "Martin PIERRE").

A. Yes. The name capitalization setting is configured in the school settings. It can apply to the first name, to the middle name if the option is enabled, and/or to the last name according to the name order configured for the school.

Lesson lock that does not appear in every view

Q. The lock on a lesson's position is not displayed systematically when switching views (sticky notes ↔ list).

A. The lock marker depends on the view and on the nature of the lesson. In the distribution views and some course rows, the lock is displayed as a icon. If a view does not show it, check the lesson's details before concluding that the algorithm can modify it.

Room assignment: favorite site and priority specialisations

Q. When assigning a room, the rooms of another site appear first even though the favorite site is checked. Why?

A. The sort uses by default the site attached to the class, not the user's favorite site. This is a deliberate behavior: the class drives the choice of the room. If the proposed order is not the expected one, check that the class is attached to the intended site in Edit.

For specialisations, review the proposed rooms and their compatibility warnings in the selector. Do not assume a sort that prioritizes best compatibility.

Total capacity = sum of the rooms (multi-room)

Q. When several rooms are assigned to the same lesson, does Omniscol compute the total capacity as the sum of the individual capacities, thereby avoiding false over-capacity alerts?

A. Yes. The total capacity is computed as the sum of the capacities of the assigned rooms. If the group fits within the sum, no alert is raised. This feature is available on all timetable types: weekly, cyclic, calendar.

If the sum remains below the group, the conflict is reported. The administrator can then:

• add an extra room,
• reduce the group,
• accept the conflict if it is deliberate (typical case: you know that not all enrolled students will attend).

See Multi-room.

Detecting inconsistencies of groups in a class division

Q. Omniscol reports "Different number of lessons for groups in class division" without specifying in which subjects the inconsistencies are. How to investigate in detail?

A. The advanced statistics panel of the hours distribution screen allows detailed inspection, notably by isolating the groups that interact on the affected time slots.

For schools where imbalances are numerous and intentional, a heuristic limits the display of alerts beyond a threshold to avoid an unmanageable list. It remains possible to export the courses and filter them in a spreadsheet for an exhaustive diagnosis.

Several comments with different restrictions

Q. On the same lesson, is it possible to add two comments with distinct publication restrictions (one for administrators only, the other for teachers)?

A. Yes. Each comment has its own publication restriction: administrators, teachers, or all users. Use the Comment button to add several comments and set their visibility separately.

Vertical timetable display (weekly load)

Q. To visualize the load of a group or the occupancy of a type of rooms over a full week, the horizontal display forces you to scroll. Is a vertical display available?

A. In the Timetable module, timetables are displayed horizontally. An equivalent vertical view exists in the Staffing module for related contexts (supervision grids). See Overview of the Staffing module and Display and UX.

Statistics: placed lessons vs created courses

Q. The counter on the "hours distribution" screen shows how many courses are created. Where can I see how many hours are actually placed in the timetable (vs created without placement)?

A. Two screens give two complementary measures:

• The Dashboard works on the operational timetable (lessons actually placed, possible merge of several published timetables, absences taken into account). The displayed percentages are relative ("93% of this class's hours"), not a placement rate.
• The hours distribution screen measures declared courses and the created volumes. If you need the placement rate, review the courses in the schedule view or export the list to filter the lessons without a position.

Adjunct / external teacher visible on the timetable

Q. Does the icon that distinguishes adjunct teachers from permanent ones appear next to the teacher's name in the timetable views?

A. Depending on the view:

• Grid view — space is limited and names may be abbreviated or truncated there as plain text; the icon does not appear there systematically.
• Lists, tooltips and selectors — wherever the full name is rendered, a icon precedes the name of the teachers whose record carries the External teacher marker.

This "external" marker is a Premium option; without it, no icon distinguishes adjunct teachers. See External teacher.