"Dear timetablers,
Hoot, hoot, a brand new Prime Timetable 4.0 is here! A unique school timetable software for Mac and Windows just got better with over 100 new features that you have requested! We hope you will enjoy using it as much as we enjoy making it. There are some really awesome and exciting features that we are eager to share."
Print what you see
What you see on the screen is what is going to be printed. It's simple as that. You can easily print and customize both master and individual timetable view(s). The software will automatically do the paging when printing master timetable, and print timetable on a separate page when printing individual timetables.
Card designer
Use right mouse click on a timetable card to access card designer and customize style and appearance in any master or individual timetable view. You can customize background color, displayed text and border style and it will affect what is displayed on the screen, published web page, and how the timetable is going to be printed. All settings are saved inside a timetable document so you don't have to tweak it anymore.
Sharing timetable with others
Use Owl > Share > Share with others to share school account with other teachers, colleagues, etc. You can specify any of the following privileges for newly created users: owner, creator and viewer. The owner can manage other users, the creator can create and modify timetables and the viewer can only view timetables.
Instant validation & validation markers
Click on validate icon 
to turn on instant validation which provides immediate feedback upon any timetable change! Validation results window lists all timetable imperfections grouped and sorted logically. By selecting a timetable imperfection, adequate markers are displayed in the view. Validation markers are represented by red blinking rectangles appearing in any problematic period or card in the timetable view. Markers are transparent so you can easily spot and drag problematic cards to a better position and get instant validation feedback.
Timetable collaboration in the real time
Ever wondered if it's possible for two or more users to work on the same timetable at the same time? Well, yes it is! Welcome to the timetabling collaboration platform where you can collaborate both online and offline and let Prime Timetable do all synchronization for you.
Exchange school data with Microsoft Office and Google Docs
Do you already have school data in a Microsoft Office document? Maybe in Google Docs? No problem! Now you can easily exchange school data with Microsoft Office, Google Docs and similar software which will significantly reduce endless typing. Prime Timetable will smartly recognize the format and do the parsing for you.
Custom period labels
In the new version we have enabled adding custom period labels, e.g. "Break", "Lunch" etc. Also, it is possible to select more working days in a week and more lessons per day, so that you can set up to e.g. 10 days with 25 lessons, or 25 days with 10 lessons each day.
Download performances
In some countries/regions there are still schools which use slower Internet connections. That's why we have put a lot of effort into optimizing the time needed to download and view timetables. As a result, downloading and viewing timetables is 10x faster than before and is only a fraction of what it takes to open Facebook, Gmail or Hotmail.
Merge timetables
If you're a timetabler working on a campus school, you may face some extraordinary timetabling challenges, e.g. the need to create a timetable for elementary and middle schools with a possibility of some teachers and classrooms being shared in both schools at the same time! In such a case, you can work on two or more separate timetables and then merge them in order to find out if there are any conflicts with shared teachers or classrooms.
In Prime Timetable what you see on the screen is what is going to be printed. It's simple as that. You can easily print and customize both master and individual timetables.
How to print master timetable
Choose Owl > Print to print currently open timetable view (master or individual). Use Owl > Setup > Timetable info to change school name and academic year. Use mouse right click to access card designer to adjust how a timetable card is displayed in any given view. E.g. you can customize whether you want round or square corners or no border at all, choose background color and displayed text. Our software will automatically stretch timetable width to fit paper size and do paging when necessary. It is recommended to choose landscape paper orientation while printing master timetable. Use zoom to adjust timetable card height.
How to print individual timetables
If you want to print individual timetables (class, teacher, room or subject) use Owl > Print > Print all individual timetables. The software will go through all individual timetables and print them on separate pages. It is recommended to choose portrait paper orientation while printing. Use zoom to adjust timetable card height.
Reuse print settings with timetable templates
All adjustments made by card designer are saved into a timetable document, so you don't have to tweak them again. Furthermore, creating a new timetable document will copy timetable templates from a previously opened timetable. For instance, you may want to customize a timetable template to display short names in the master timetable view(s) and full names in individual view(s).
Ok, so you've created a school account and would like to share it with other timetablers, teachers, colleagues, etc. Prime Timetable makes sharing school account easy. Just choose Owl > Share > Share with others to manage users who have access to timetables. In order to share timetables with teachers, colleagues, or someone else you need to enter their email and password, select privileges, and optionally enter first and last names. After sign-in, the newly created user can change their profile using Owl > Profile.
The following privileges are available:
Timetable owner
Timetable owner is any user who first created the school account. The owner has the highest privileges, which include managing users. For instance, the owner can add or remove other timetable owners, creators or viewers.
Timetable creator
Timetable creator can create and change school timetables but can't manage other users.
Timetable viewer
Timetable viewer can view school timetables and is not allowed to save any changes.
Sharing timetable with others along with timetable collaboration in real-time and publish to the web, offers unique capabilities for sharing and collaborating on your school timetables. Hope you will enjoy them. Happy timetable sharing!
Prime Timetable is an online school timetable software which implies that the time it takes to download software is crucial for application performances and for general timetabling experience. To optimize download time we have focused on what is the most important for teachers and students: to display timetable first and then download the rest. Therefore, Prime Timetable is divided into two major parts: Viewer which is downloaded first, and a Maker downloaded later.
View timetable 10x faster
The major benefit for the teachers and students is that the timetable is downloaded and displayed 10 times faster! The Viewer takes only 100KB which is just a fraction of what it takes to open Facebook or Gmail.
Viewer
The Viewer loads and displays the timetable. It shows the title and animated cards. View indicator 
lets you choose different master views. In general, the Viewer is all you need to look into various timetable views and while you are at it, in the background, the Maker is downloading.
Maker
The Maker is responsible for all other scheduling work: managing school data, automatic timetable generator, notifications, extra views, print, drag & drop cards, etc. When the Maker is downloaded, the menu and all other timetabling tools appear and you can start working with them.
Once the app is started for the first time, both the Viewer and the Maker are cached by the browser, so the next time you open Prime Timetable it happens instantly - without any download at all! The previously opened timetables are cached and immediately opened, too.
We have really tried to bring you the best downloading performances and are looking forward to your feedback.
Timetablers working in campus school face unique timetabling challenges, e.g. they need to create a timetable for elementary and middle school and at the same time some teachers and classrooms may be shared in both schools. One option is to create a single combined timetable for all schools, but it has some obvious drawbacks: e.g. how to print separate timetables or share such combined timetable with students and teachers. It seems that a better option is to work on two separate timetables and then merge them in order to find out if there are any conflicts with shared teachers or classrooms.
Merging two timetables in Prime Timetable is easy:
- Open base timetable
- Choose Owl > Open > Merge Timetable
- Select the other timetable and click Merge.
What will happen in the merging process? If there is already a day, teacher, room, class or subject with the same name in the base timetable, it will be used as it is; otherwise, it will be added. Periods are going to be merged based on the intervals. Furthermore, all lessons from the second timetable will be added to the base timetable.
After merging, conflicts for shared teachers and classrooms can be easily spotted in the teacher and room views, so that the timetabler can fix them. This is where instant timetable validation helps tremendously.
Hey, that's all for now! Let us know if merging timetables suit your needs.
We have received a lot of feedback on how you would like to represent a lesson in the school timetable software. For example, a university may need to show a teacher, subject and room all in one card in the class view, while in a primary school showing a subject alone is sufficient. A college may need to show only the class in the teacher view (sometimes adding room is desired), while in private schools (e.g. dance school, music school, etc.) there is also a need for adding a subject. Some schools need different order of items; in lots of cases there is a significant difference between showing a lesson in main or in single (individual) timetable. Also, there are numerous requirements for different background colors, card borders, etc. We have come up with a flexible solution that gives a timetabler the full power to set how timetable will be displayed on the screen and on the printed/published page.
Choose ‘Owl > Print > Customize Cards' or just use mouse right click on the timetable card. The opened window shows the enlarged selected card with the options to customize its appearance and style. After any style change, the enlarged card will be refreshed as well as the current view, so you get instant preview of the new appearance.
Background card color can be from the current class, teacher, room or subject or you can choose no background color.
Card text can be a group, class, teacher, room or subject name or short name. Selecting the card text from a list will add it to the card, while clicking the text in the enlarged card removes it. Thus you can completely customize the text shown in the card as well as text order.
Card border can be set to: round, square, round (no border) and square (no border). Please note that if you choose no background color and no border you can still drag & drop such a card.
The best part is that all style changes are preserved and saved into the current timetable document as a timetable template. So, once you have customized the card appearance and saved timetable changes, the published web page will pick up the new styles as well.
Last but not the least, when you create a new document, all timetable style settings will be copied so you don't have to tweak styles again.
Creating a timetable can be a stressful task. For instance, are you able to remember forbidden positions for class, teacher, room or subject? Do you have an eye to spot the same subject appearing on consequent days or even the same day!? Are you sure that all teachers and classes have an allowed number of lessons and windows in your timetable? Do you have too many hard or too many easy subjects in one day? Are all rooms properly scheduled without conflicts? Is your timetable more or less valid when you reschedule a lesson? The questions and doubts go on and on. With Prime Timetable you can solve all these problems by utilizing excellent validation tools that will assist you all the way: instant validation and validation markers are a perfect fit for the timetabling job. Read on!
It takes only one click on validate icon to turn on instant validation. That means you get an instant validation feedback upon any timetable change. Just drag & drop any card or start the automatic generator to see the validation results immediately! You can even drag & drop cards in extra view, use undo/redo, change time requests or timetable data, open another timetable or do just about anything and still get instant validation feedback.
If there are no validation errors and warnings, the timetable is valid and you're good to go. Otherwise, the validation results window will list all timetable imperfections grouped and sorted logically and if you click any of them you will get markers displayed in the view.
Validation markers are red blinking rectangles surrounding problematic period(s) in the timetable view. Since they are transparent you can still easily spot and drag problematic cards to a better position.
Some validation errors are more easily understood in another timetable view, e.g. teacher conflict can be spotted only in the teacher view. Our software will automatically change the main timetable view into teacher view and scroll to that validation conflict. If the extra teacher view is already open, it will be used for teacher conflicts leaving the main view as it is.
Prime Timetable makes it easy to exchange school data with other software, whether you need to import or export. In both cases exchanging data reduces needless retyping.
How to import school data from Microsoft Office and Google Docs?
Whenever you open an empty timetable the owl will remind you about all importing options, so you don't have to remember them. Typically, you would want to import, e.g. list of teachers already entered in Microsoft Excel or Word or Google Docs. Make a selection, copy (Ctrl + C) and paste it (Ctrl + V) into the proper (teacher's) data grid in the Prime Timetable. Our software will smartly recognize the format and do the parsing and importing for you.
If your data is stored in CSV (comma separated value) file, just drag that file from your desktop directly into the data grid and that's it. Again, the software will recognize the format and import all data.
Copy and paste works across all data grids in our software, which means you can copy rows from one timetable and paste them into another one.
How to export school data to Microsoft Office and Google Docs?
You can export any data from Prime Timetable into Microsoft Office and Google Docs. Just select the desired data grid rows, copy (Ctrl + C) and paste them (Ctrl + V) into e.g. Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word. Data grid header will also be included.
We believe that exchanging data with widely used software (Microsoft Office, Google Docs and others) will significantly improve your efficiency.
Prime Timetable can be accessed from anywhere via Internet connection. That means that you can access it from your school/home computer or phone/tablet. But, that's not all: you can share your timetable with other teachers and collaborate simultaneously with all of them! But how does it work?
To simulate multi-user collaboration just sign-in and open the same timetable in two tabs or browsers as illustrated in the screenshot below.
Notice that the first user has 2 more teachers added and the second has just updated Teacher 1 into "Teacher 1 – updated". What is going to happen when the first user clicks save and then the second one does the same?
No need to bother, all changes will be properly saved and the last saved user will be synchronized with the latest changes (the owl will hoot what's happened behind the scene). The first user will be synchronized upon the next save or open.
On the technical side, Prime Timetable uses "last save wins" concurrency model which we found suitable for timetablers.
Overall, rest assured that you can freely collaborate even on the same school timetable, because all changes will be properly synchronized. Happy timetable collaboration!
"Dear timetablers,
I am proud to announce the release of new Prime Timetable 3.0 which brings the latest innovations in school timetabling at your fingertips and mouse clicks. Thanks to you I have grown much wiser and learned a lot ow(l)ing to your great online feedback and ideas, 90% of which has already been implemented! We are eagerly waiting for your new ideas and in the meantime check out our new features."
Accessible anywhere
Prime Timetable works on Mac, Windows and Linux, as well as in any modern browser but this time we have made it accessible on any device. In other words, now you can use your phone to sign in and browse through your school timetables. Also, the teachers and students you have shared your timetable with can view it on their phone.
The app is entirely built using standard web technologies accessible everywhere. Experience all advantages of sharing your school timetable on iPhone, iPad, Android, or any other smartphone or tablet.
3D school timetable
How to spot a conflict in a 2D timetable? How to discover that under a card there is another card or many more? The answer is simple. Prime Timetable will automatically rotate each conflicted card by 15° to the left and right respectively. Also, each card has its own Z-order on Z-axis, thus creating a 3D timetable. To emphasize 3D even more, the shadow of the card being dragged is darker when dragged over the conflicted cards and lighter when there are no cards below. Clicking a card at the bottom brings it to the front, while other cards automatically rearrange. As always, to bring you the best timetabling experience all rearranging, rotating and moving is smoothly animated.
Extra views
Extra views are a great help if you want to adjust cards using only drag & drop (also known as manual timetabling). These views are fully interactive, just like the main view, meaning you can use all timetabling tools as usual, e.g. timetable generator, drag & drop, pin, sponge, undo/redo, etc. Of course, all opened timetable views will be automatically updated.
To open extra timetable view just click on teacher, class, room or subject icon in the bottom left corner when a card is selected. You can easily adjust the position and size of extra view which best fits your screen and display single extra view by clicking the first column.
Currently selected card in one view will be highlighted in all other views. Also, when doing drag & drop, the shadow of the card being dragged will be shown in all opened views, which allows you to track drop position, e.g. check that drop position is not already scheduled in another view.
Share timetable
Prime Timetable makes sharing easy: just choose 'Share -> Publish to the Web', click Publish to the Web button and voila! Your timetable will be visible to anyone you've shared the link with. The published web page is accessible by any device.
You needn't worry about any subsequent changes to the published timetable as it will be automatically updated when the timetable is saved. Furthermore, the published web page will refresh every 20 minutes to ensure the latest timetable version is delivered to all.
Online and offline timetabling
In case your school doesn't have reliable Internet connection or you would like to use Prime Timetable instantly from your desktop without going to web site and signing in, we now support both online and offline school timetabling.
Even if the Internet connection drops or you are only occasionally connected you can still continue working on your timetable. When the Internet connection is back, your local changes will be synchronized with our server so that you can share your timetable with others.
For our premium customers we've even enabled entirely offline timetabling work. Just go to Help -> Options and click Install Prime Timetable button which will install the software on your computer. You will get the newly installed program in Program Files and a new desktop icon. Starting Prime Timetable from your desktop allows you to access your timetables whenever you want with or without Internet connection and thus avoid going to Prime Timetable web site and signing in.
New design
Instead of Microsoft Office ribbon we have introduced good old wooden board and instead of classical popups we have turned to recycled paper as the background of our forms. Luckily, no trees were harmed or cut down while turning our user interface into more eco-friendly environment :). We hope you like our new redesign!
New timetabling tools and options
Pin 
, sponge 
and zoom 
make timetabling more productive, yet game-like. All timetable view operations such as drag & drop, pin, zoom, print, undo/redo and others are also available in single class, teacher, room and subject view and extra views. To select single view just click on the first column in a timetable row.
The new Help -> Options form allows you to tailor the app to suit your needs, e.g. you can set default timetable view, set save reminder interval, set whether conflicted cards need to rotate, show or hide rooms in single view, show subjects in teacher view, show period intervals instead of numbers, show additional time request settings, exclude fake lessons while generating the timetable and Install Prime Timetable on your desktop.
Other improvements
There are lots of other improvements, such as lesson statistics and filtering, browsing timetables using back and forward, keyboard shortcuts. We have made Prime Timetable Manual in PDF format for download and print for those who don't want to browse online help,
Timetable view performances are vastly improved so that large schools with 200 and more subjects/teachers can use our software without interruptions. Furthermore, our software will automatically adjust according to your computer's performances, e.g. faster computers will display card animations, while slower computers won't have such smooth experience. Talking about performances, timetable loading, importing and saving is 10x faster now!
What is next?
Since Prime Timetable is an online software as a service, you can expect frequent updates and improvements soon. Your feedback is crucial and therefore we have created Prime Timetable user voice, where you can shape the product to suite your needs by entering a new idea or voting for existing ones.