Producing School Calendar

[Stuart_C]

So the premise is this, we have a school calendar that it produced that has all the important dates in, match fixtures, UCAS dealines, trips, talks etc etc. I've got it set up nicely in a shared folder on our mail server, some people use Outlook some use the web interface for our mail server and people can add it what they want. Sounds OK? Apparently not.

 

What people want, unfortunately including out deputy head, is to be able to see an "overview" of a month so that they can "see what else is going on and how their activity impacts on everything". Also just switching it to month view is not good enough because if there are a lot of events it doesn't show everything. you also have to scroll up and down if you use week view!

 

Now my initial reaction is "How on earth do you expect your comptuer to display such a vast quantity of information on screen? is there something stopping you flicking through each day around the point you want your talk and picking somewhere?"

 

However I was wondering what processes/software people use to create their calandars, is the request to see so much info unrealistic?

[bossman]

@Stuart_C:

 

Do you use Sims.net at your school?

 

If so then the school diary may be of interest.

[Stuart_C]

Hmm.. You know I hadn't though of that. The concern is that the creation of the Calendaer is vague until confirmed by the Dept Head. That means he may take things out. Having said that we are trying to encourage the use of SIMS amongst the staff and this might be another way. :twisted: Is there a way to export the information though? Or report on it?

 

 

I think I'll put some thought into that though if anyone's got any other ideas or comments I'll gladly listen.

[mb2k01]

What people want, unfortunately including out deputy head, is to be able to see an "overview" of a month so that they can "see what else is going on and how their activity impacts on everything". Also just switching it to month view is not good enough because if there are a lot of events it doesn't show everything. you also have to scroll up and down if you use week view!

 

Now my initial reaction is "How on earth do you expect your comptuer to display such a vast quantity of information on screen? is there something stopping you flicking through each day around the point you want your talk and picking somewhere?"

 

Honestly? Your initial reaction is completely valid!

Outlook users can have two calendars open side by side, so that gives an instant overview of your calendar and the school calendar?

 

While you can make a calendar more accessible (sharepoint / other web-based route etc), I doubt you are going to get a solution robust enough to satisfy your deputy head's needs - not more than the Outlook route anyway? (Of course that's just the two of us having a similar opinion, others might reply with something much better and prove me/us wrong!)

[Stuart_C]

It's not even that he's comparing calendars, it's just seeing one single calendar that contains too mcuh infor for outlook to display on one screen!

[Stuart_C]

@Stuart_C:

 

Do you use Sims.net at your school?

 

If so then the school diary may be of interest.

 

After trying it out it's usefull, but not in this isntance as people will still complain. On the up side I edge closer to just telling to stop being silly.

 

Any other comments on how people create their school calendars?

[Sylv3r]

I must admit I haven't looked into it, but I think you can create a public calendar using google calendar which will allow you to view a monthly / daily overview as well as letting specific people edit the calendar and others with view only rights.

[mossj]

buy big 32" screens for everyone?

[Edu-IT]

Google Calendar is great! I use it for my second job, and for personal, and it's very flexible.

[Stuart_C]

buy big 32" screens for everyone?

 

 

However I fear the Bursar's face would look more like