APDL Eductation Resources/APDL Eductation Resources.iso/programs/admin/studentrec/StudrecDoc/Attend

Text File | 1992-10-21 | 13.2 KB | 282 lines

@#start

This is the user manual for !Attend. It is based on the Helpreader system
which makes it much easier to use than an ordinary text file. Throughout the
text you will find buttons like this @%start#.  Clicking with SELECT on
these buttons takes you directly to related parts of the manual. To return
to your original place, double-click anywhere in the text with ADJUST.
HelpReader remembers the last 8 positions. Clicking MENU in this window
allows you to choose the topic which interests you and go  straight to it.

                      (@%helpreader# More about Helpreader)


                                  !Attend

@#start
                                Starting up

  (a) If !Attend is already running (i.e. if its icon appears on the icon
      bar) simply drag the required database from the directory window and
      "drop" it on the !Attend icon.

  (b) If !Attend is not running, double-click on its icon in the directory
      window.  Wait for the !Attend icon to appear on the icon bar then
      proceed as in (a).

The data-entry screen, with a simple control panel at the bottom, will be
displayed. (NOTE. If no class-list file yet exists for the database, there
will be a short delay, with accompanying "hourglass activity", whilst
!Attend creates one.  Another, albeit much shorter, delay will occur if
there is no register file for the week to be entered.  Once these files
exist the data-entry screen will appear.)

@#enter
                              Entering absences

Check the date shown on the control panel. It defaults to the Monday of the
PREVIOUS week (since absences are normally entered the week after they
occur).  If some other week is required click on the "forward" or "backward"
arrow as necessary. Moving to a different week in this way will make !Attend
create a new register, as noted above, if one doesn't already exist.

Enter the required class and either click on OK or press RETURN. If you do
either of these things without entering a class a window will appear displ-
aying a list of possible classes.  The same window is called up by clicking
on 'List codes' @%codes#.

When the required class list is displayed absences may be entered by
clicking in the boxes to the right of the students' names. Click a second
time to cancel an entry.

Writing the absences to the register file occurs automatically whenever you:

                       *  change classes
                       *  change weeks
                       *  go to the print options
                       *  close the database

You never need to do anything to make this happen.

@#class
                           Printing class lists

A class list for subject teachers to report absences is obtained as follows:

         (a) Click MENU over the data-entry screen.
         (b) Follow the arrow to the right of the 'Class lists' option.
         (c) Enter the class code and click OK or press RETURN.

There are three options for the list destination:

         (i)   List to screen with optional save @%quick#
         (ii)  High quality output direct to printer
         (iii) High quality output to printer file

The second of these will be selected when !Attend is started up. It produces
a good-looking form, especially if a laser printer is connected to the
computer. If you have only a dot-matrix or ink-jet printer DON'T try to use
this method of printing unless you have plenty of time: it takes about 10
minutes per list.

Option (iii) is useful if you want to print to the laser printer but someone
else is using it on another computer. It produces the same "pretty" output
as (ii) but sends it to a file in a directory called 'PrintJobs', which is
inside the database directory itself, instead of to the printer. There is a
menu option, 'Show jobs done', which will display the contents of this
directory. When the laser printer becomes available you can simply drag this
file to the printer icon and it will be printed exactly as if you had used
option (ii) - except that the printing will occur "in the background" so
that you still have the use of the computer.

Using option (ii) or (iii) also gives you a choice of either a list covering
a single week or a much more comprehensive one which lasts for a whole term.
The latter is certainly the more desirable, IF you have the appropriate
printing facilities, and is indeed the default setting.

@#holiday
On these term registers each weekly column has the date of the Monday of
that week as its heading. If a term is interrupted by any full holiday
weeks, such as September or Spring Bank Holiday it is possible to make
!Attend skip them in the week sequence. To do this a line must be added to
the 'Config' file in the !Attend directory. This should take the form:

                   Mon 14-09-92/Mon 02-11-92 etc.

Note that dates are separated by a slash.

The fields beside the radio button allow you to set the term and the date of
the first Monday of term. Click on the arrowheads above and below the fields
if the values offered are incorrect. !Attend tries to be as "intelligent" as
possible here. The date offered will be the Monday of the current week and
the term will depend on the month. Anywhere from August to December results
in "Autumn" being displayed, January to March gives "Spring" and April
onwards gives "Summer". However, because of the movable nature of Easter the
setting of Spring and Summer terms should not be depended on.

@#quick
Option (i) provides the quickest way of obtaining a class list. It will only
give you weekly, not termly, lists so the buttons for selecting the type of
list are greyed out when you select (i). The completed list appears in a
window.  Clicking MENU over this window allows you to save the list. If you
simply click OK it will be saved, under the class name, in the 'PrintJobs'
directory. As an alternative to saving the file in 'PrintJobs' you may drag
it to any other directory window, or even straight to the printer icon if
the latter is displayed on the icon bar. In the latter case you will have no
saved file containing the list; only a printed copy. It is more usual to
save the list as a file and then print it by dragging it from the filer
window to the printer icon. The printed output is serviceable but not very
elegant.

Class lists for all the classes which !Attend knows about may be generated
in a single operation by typing ALL instead of a class code. Using the
"quick and dirty" option (i) will produce a single file which contains all
the lists. Dragging this file to the printer icon will produce each list on
a separate sheet of paper. Make sure that the size of paper loaded into the
printer is the same as that set by the printer configuration.

If you use the code ALL when output is directed to a printer file (option
(iii)) then a separate file will be generated for each class. These files
are both large in size (about 84K each for the week lists and 240K each for
the term lists) and large in number. Make sure you have plenty of space on
the hard disc (at least 6MB for week lists and 15 MB for term lists) and
that 'PrintJobs' is empty before you begin, otherwise you may get a
"Directory full" error.

The classes which !Attend "knows about" are those displayed when you click
'List codes' @%codes#, and it is this list which !Attend consults when you enter
ALL.

A print operation can be aborted by pressing ESCAPE. Doing this when using
option (ii) or (iii) may leave the last list incomplete. You can tell this
by looking at the icons in 'PrintJobs': completed lists have a "printer"
icon, unfinished lists don't. Using option (i) the current list is always
completed before the print run ends.

For some classes you may require a provisional list without lesson times,
subject name or block. This may be obtained by typing BLANK.

@#tutor
                           Printing tutor reports

A weekly absence report to a group tutor is obtained as follows:-

         (a) Click MENU over the data-entry screen.
         (b) Follow the arrow to the right of the 'Tutor reports' option.
         (c) Enter the tutor code and click OK or press RETURN.

The displaying, saving and printing of tutor reports is as in option (i)
for class lists @%class#, the tutor code itself being used as the filename.
Typing ALL instead of a tutor code will print lists for all tutors displayed
by clicking 'List codes' @%codes#.  Note that the '0A' suffix should not be
typed when entering a tutor code, in fact only three letters CAN be typed.

@#student
                          Printing student records

A record of a student's absences from the beginning of the academic year (or
from whenever registers commenced) is obtained as follows:-

         (a) Click MENU over the data-entry screen.
         (b) Follow the arrow to the right of the 'Student record' option.
         (c) Enter the student key and click 'Find' or press RETURN.

The full name of the student located will be displayed. If this is the wrong
name click on the left/right arrow buttons to access adjacent names. If you
don't enter a key at all clicking 'Find' or pressing RETURN will access the
first student in the database.

When you have the required name displayed click OK. The absence record is
displayed, saved and printed in exactly the same way as class lists (option
(i) only) and tutor reports @%class#. The default file-name is the student key
itself.

An alternative method of obtaining such a report exists when you have a
class list displayed in the main data-entry window. Whilst entering absences
for a particular student it might occur to you that the name has been
cropping up rather often over the past week or two and you want to check the
overall picture. Double-clicking over the student's name with SELECT will
display exactly the same absence report as the procedure already described.

@#week
                       Printing the week's absences

Choosing this option from the main menu produces a complete list of all the
students who have missed classes during the currently selected week (i.e. as
displayed on the control strip at the foot of the main window) along with
details of the actual classes missed. The format is similar to that used for
student attendance records @%student#.

The order in which the students appear on the list may look rather odd. This
is because it is by order ofd record number rather than alphabetically.

@#listcreate
                        Creating a class-list file

It was mentioned earlier @%start# that a class list file is created at startup
without any user-intervention if no such file exists already. This file is
not, however, UPDATED automatically as records are added to, deleted from
and changed in the main database. From time to time therefore you will need
to rebuild the class-list file.  The means to do so is provided by a choice
on the icon bar menu, but you need the "Manager" level password in order to
use it.

@#register
                           Creating registers

Register creation is automatic @%start#. Whenever you try to access a week for
which no register exists, !Attend will create one. Each week has a separate
register and they are all stored in a directory called 'Absences' which is
inside the database directory itself. The name of each register is the date
of the Monday in the relevant week. Note that these names use the unorthodox
date format YY-MM-DD, rather than the more usual DD-MM-YY. This ensures that
they appear in the directory in chronological order.

There is an option on the icon bar menu to create a register for the week
currently displayed, but there should seldom be any occasion to use it. If
you do so, any existing register for the same week will be overwritten. You
will need the "Manager" level password in order to use this option.

@#codes
                                Class codes

In several places you will find a button called 'List codes'. Clicking on
this displays a window in which are listed the codes of all classes, incl-
uding tutor groups. Each entry in the list is made up of:-

   * The usual three-letter subject code (or staff code, in the case of
     tutor groups).
   * The block number. (5 is used for Core time and 0 for Tutorial.)
   * The letter 'A' or 'B', usually the former. 'B' is used where there
     are two teaching groups for the same subject in the same block.

The list is an ordinary Powerbase validation table and may be examined and
edited in Powerbase just like any other. It is also possible to edit and
add to the list within !Attend itself. The edited list can be sorted and/or
saved.  To do so, click MENU over the list.

@#closedown
                                Closing down

Open the icon-bar menu by clicking MENU over the !Attend icon.  If you have
finished with !Attend choose 'Quit'.  If, however, you have work to do using
another database choose 'Close database' instead.

@#credits
*****************************************************************************
 Interface Manager v.2.00
 © Simon Huntingdon

 Provides 'three dimensional' icons. Interface Manager is Public Domain and
 is not part of !Attend.

*****************************************************************************
 Sliding Heap v.2.00
 © Steven Haslam

 The Sliding Heap Manager is Public Domain and is not part of !Attend.
 Details are available from 'Heap Support' at the address below.

*****************************************************************************
 !Attend v.2.50
 © Derek Haslam