User's Guide
Thank you for choosing Lantiv Scheduling Studio!
Please use the guide below to become familiar with the program and fully understand its capabilities. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at support@lantiv.com — we’ll be happy to help.
1. Getting Started
When you open a file, the first thing you see is the program's workspace. It is made up of several panes, including the Resources and Activities pane, the Navigation pane, the main Schedule pane, the Properties pane in the bottom-right corner, and a few others. Everything you do in the software is done through these panes, so we begin by explaining what each pane is and how it is used.
2. Institution
The Institution pane is where you select the type of your institution (e.g. college, university, training center) and enter its details. It is also where you configure the vocabulary used throughout the program to refer to different types of resources (such as instructors or faculty, activities or sessions etc.). The last page in this pane is the Properties page, which allows you to add custom properties—fields that store textual data—for resources.
3. Resources
The Resources pane serves as the program's database. This is where you define terms (semesters), days, time scales or periods, courses, groups, students, instructors, rooms and equipment. Resources can be entered manually, one by one, or imported, as described in the last chapter of the user’s guide. This section explains the role of each type of resource, how to enter resources, how to edit their properties, and the meaning of each property.
4. Activities
Activities are the building blocks of the schedule. An activity brings together several resources that are scheduled at the same time. For example, a course, an instructor, a group of students, and a room can all be combined into a single activity. When an activity is scheduled, all of its participating resources are booked for that time. In this sense, scheduling is essentially the process of deciding when each activity takes place. This section explains how activities are entered in the Activities pane and describes the different properties of activities.
5. Scheduling
Activities can be scheduled either by using drag and drop or by defining a recurrence pattern, which includes the days of the week, start and end dates, and start and end times. This section describes the exact steps for scheduling activities using both methods. It also explains how to move existing cells (a cell is a single scheduled occurrence of an activity), copy them, delete them, and edit their properties.
6. Conflicts
A conflict occurs when two activities are scheduled in a way that causes them to interfere with each other. The most common type of conflict is a double-booked resource, such as a room scheduled for two activities at the same time. The program continuously monitors your actions and automatically warns you whenever a conflict is created as a result of a change you make. This section describes the different types of conflicts, the Conflicts Window (the warning shown when a conflict is detected), and the Conflicts Pane (which lists all existing conflicts in the schedule).
7. Combinations
In institutions whose time scale is based on periods—the Combinations engine is a powerful, semi-automatic tool that helps find multi-step ways to move a cell, schedule an activity, fill a cell, or move an activity to a different room, without creating conflicts. This section describes the Combinations pane and explains how it can help you resolve "dead-end" situations, where there is no easy or straightforward way to perform these actions.
8. Changes
In most academic institutions, the schedule is planned in advance before the semester begins. This is the purpose of Planning mode (the button in the bottom-right corner of the screen). Once the semester starts, however, daily adjustments may be needed due to unanticipated changes, such as sick leave or other unexpected events. By switching to Changes mode, you can easily record and manage these day-to-day changes. This section explains exactly how this is done.
9. Reports
A report is a textual table made up of rows and columns. The program can generate various types of reports based on the data you have entered and the activities you have scheduled. This section summarizes all available report types and explains how to apply filters, sort the data, and configure the content and appearance of reports.
10. Printing and Exporting
The schedule and reports can be printed or exported. The graphical schedule can be exported as a PDF file, an image, a website, or a slideshow presentation. Text-based reports can also be exported to a text file, such as a CSV file, which can then be opened in programs like Excel. This section explains how to print and export data and describes the available print and export options.
11. Importing Data
The software includes a powerful import capability. You can import text files, XML files, and even data from websites. The program can accept virtually any data format, because during the import process you specify what type of data is contained in each column or field of the imported file. This section demonstrates how to import resources, activities, and even an entire existing schedule.
12. Working Online
When you subscribe to the program, you receive the credentials for your server. You need to connect to this server when you start working with the program. This section explains how to connect to the server, how to create a new file on it or upload an existing one, and how to manage the users who are allowed to connect to the same server.
13. Subscription
Our software is provided as a cloud-based service and as such requires a subscription. This chapter addresses frequently asked questions about our subscription business model and the cloud-based aspects of the software. It also explains the concept of concurrent users, which defines how many users can work on a server at the same time and how this affects the subscription price.
Have a question? Email us at SUPPORT@LANTIV.COM