Step 6b — Mass import of courses from a spreadsheet

If you already have the list of your courses in a spreadsheet — an export from your SIS, a schedule prepared beforehand in Excel, or even an export from another program such as Hyperplanning or Aurion — you can copy and paste it directly into Omniscol.

Accessing the import

In the Actions menu (on the hours distribution screen), choose "Table - import/export". If no class has been created yet, a direct link is also available.

The import takes place in four steps.

Step 1 — Paste the table

An editable area opens with a column template pre-defined by Omniscol. Columns are typed by position (3rd column = subject, etc.); you can rearrange the template columns so that they match the order of your source spreadsheet — which makes the copy-paste from Excel or Google Sheets clean, without rewriting your file.

Recognized fields:

• Class + subject (at a minimum, for a course to be valid),
• Duration, or start time + end time (and day for pre-placed lessons),
• Group (free-form separators for multiple groups),
• Course type (tutorial, lab, lecture…),
• Teacher(s) (free-form separators),
• Site + Room(s) (several rooms per lesson are possible, see multi-room),
• Resource(s),
• Alternating weeks (A/B, 1/2… format),
• Comment.

You can also import the list of courses already created (which is what the export produces) if you want to rework them in Excel and re-import.

Step 2 — Checking the schedule and sites

Omniscol displays the detected hours (still editable). If several sites are guessed, you can drag and drop misassigned classes, rooms and resources to the correct site. If a superfluous site was created, empty it and it will disappear.

Step 3 — Disambiguation

After the imported values are analyzed, the table reappears with drop-down menus on the ambiguous fields. Check and correct the proposed matches.

This is where you settle, for example:

• "Maths" = which exact subject (with or without a type)?
• "M. Dupont" = which of the three M. Duponts?
• "A102" = room A102 on the Lyon site, the Avignon site, or another?

Step 4 — Creating unknown entities

If the import detected entities that do not exist in the database (classes, groups, groups of groups, teacher, custom subject, course type, site, room, resource…), a final step asks you:

• to confirm their creation in the timetable,
• for custom subjects and some teachers, to request, if needed, creation on the Administration side to make them available across the whole school.

Limitations

The import automates preparation, but does not replace a human check:

• Complex courses (multiple alternations, concatenations, associations) are sometimes imperfectly rebuilt — plan for a manual finishing pass.
• With very specific internal naming schemes, some columns will remain ambiguous — you will settle them at step 3.
• For dedicated migrations from a specific program (Aurion, ASC…), specialized adapters are available.