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Migrating from a homegrown Excel spreadsheet

Many institutions — especially small structures, private schools, short training programs — still manage their timetable in a homegrown Excel spreadsheet. Migrating to Omniscol is in that case particularly simple: no proprietary format to decode, just a little discipline to structure the data.

Before starting: sort things out

A timetable spreadsheet often piles up several "tabs" of different kinds: the list of teachers, the list of classes, the list of subjects, the timetable grid, miscellaneous notes. Before the import, clarify:

  • the list of teachers (a clean tab),
  • the list of students (a clean tab, if it exists),
  • the list of classes and their headcounts,
  • the list of rooms,
  • the courses: for each row, class, subject, teacher, room, day, time, duration.

If your spreadsheet does not separate this information, do it now — it is needed for the import anyway.

Expected import format

The import happens by copy-paste from your spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers, Calc…), into a documented column template. Columns are recognized by their position (you rearrange the template so it matches your file), not by the header name. See Preparing your data for a mass import for the details (column order, date formats, subject codes, etc.).

For courses, the Mass import of courses from a spreadsheet is the dedicated tool: you copy-paste the rows of your spreadsheet directly into an editable area, with a one row = one course structure.

How-to

  1. Clean up the source spreadsheet: remove unnecessary columns, harmonize the labels (a teacher must not appear under three different spellings).
  2. Prepare one tab per entity type: teachers, students, classes, rooms, courses — you will paste each tab in turn.
  3. Omniscol test account to validate the import risk-free.
  4. Successive imports, starting with the reference data (teachers, rooms, subjects) before the courses that refer to them.
  5. Check the Omniscol diagnostic to detect what was not interpreted correctly.
  6. Run a test generation (even if you keep the manual placement from your spreadsheet) to validate feasibility.

Benefits of migrating

  • A single tool brings together the spreadsheet, the timetable PDFs and the updates that circulated by e-mail.
  • Real-time updates: everyone sees the latest version as soon as it changes.
  • Automatic distribution: iCal, display panels, student and teacher portals.
  • Diagnostic: Omniscol detects the conflicts your spreadsheet lets through.

Keep the spreadsheet as a read-only archive

No need to delete your historical spreadsheet. Keep it read-only as an archive (for example in a shared folder) — it can help if you want to look up an old configuration. Omniscol then becomes the operational source of truth; the spreadsheet remains a historical record.

How-to

Migrating a homegrown Excel timetable

  1. The simplest case: a timetable managed in a homegrown Excel file. No proprietary format to decode, just some discipline to structure the data before the import.

  2. Before the import — sort things out in the source spreadsheet. If your file mixes teachers, classes, rooms and courses on the same tab, first separate them into thematic tabs: teachers, students, classes, rooms, courses.

  3. Clean up each tab: no unnecessary columns, harmonize the labels (a teacher must not appear under three different spellings), remove merged rows. One row = one entity.

  4. Omniscol test account: create a test account before touching production. You validate the imports risk-free.

  5. Successive imports, in dependency order: reference data first (teachers, rooms, subjects), courses next (they refer to them). Use the Mass import of courses from a spreadsheet for the courses — you paste your rows into it directly from the spreadsheet.

  6. Diagnostic: Omniscol detects the inconsistencies (courses without a room, unknown teachers, conflicts) that your spreadsheet does not see. Fix them before switching over.

  7. Test generation (optional — if you want to keep manual placement) to validate feasibility. Switchover: your old Excel file stays read-only as an archive; Omniscol becomes the source of truth, with automatic distribution (iCal, panels, portals) and real-time updates.

See also

See also