Update a regional Training and Exercising Schedule

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This article describes how to update a regional Training and Exercising Schedule and how to manage the associated documents.

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A number of regions maintain a Training and Exercising schedule that allows EM-COP users in that region to stay abreast of training and exercising events. The associated Regional menu on the EM-COP Desktop contains an icon to access the Regional Training and Exercising Schedule.

These schedules are maintained by a specified regional T&E manager, generally a VicPol REMI or other nominated regional EM representative. Training and Exercising events can be booked by any EM-COP user on the Regional Calendar. The T&E Manager processes these bookings by adding them to the Regional Training and Exercising Schedule which is then visible to all EM-COP users.

The master Training and Exercising Schedule for a region is held on the EM-COP Document Store as a macro-enabled Microsoft Excel Workbook.  The schedule is updated by downloading the current workbook, making the changes then uploading back to the Document Store.

The updated schedule is saved as both a XLSX file and a DAT data file using a macro in the workbook.  The data file is needed to allow the schedule to be displayed as an enhanced web page on EM-COP.  If you are unable to use macros, please contact EM-COP Support for further advice.

Detailed instructions for updating the Training and Exercising Schedule are given below.  Make sure you read and understand the Editing Notes below. The process may appear complex at first but should become relatively straightforward once you have done it a few times.

A. Download the Schedule workbook from EM-COP

1. Log in to EM-COP at https://cop.em.vic.gov.au and go to the Operations page on the EM-COP Desktop.
2. Scroll down to the Regions icon group and click the Region icon - SMR shown in example below.
   
3. Click the Admin icon and enter the password when prompted.  If you don't know the password, please contact EM-COP Support.
   
4. Click the Training Exercise Schedule icon on the Regional Admin menu to show the Upload page.
   
5. Click the  DOWNLOAD SCHEDULE  button at the top right of the Training and Exercising Schedule drop area, to download the schedule as a ZIP file.

B. Edit and save the Schedule

1. Go to the Downloads folder on your PC and click XXX-Training-Exercise-Schedule.zip to open the ZIP file (where XXX is the three letter region abbreviation).
2. Click the XXX-Training-Exercise-Schedule.xlsm file to open the Schedule Workbook.
3. If requested, click the Enable Editing button in the yellow strip at the top of the window.
4. Click the Enable Content button in the yellow strip under the main menu ribbon
   Note: You must have macros enabled to save the workbook and data file.
5. Go to the Training-Exercise-Schedule tab in the workbook
6. Right click the row label for the top entry (row 9) then click Insert in the pop-up menu to add a new blank line.
7. Enter the details of the training or exercise event. See Editing Notes below.
8. Finished events should be moved to below the grey line labelled COMPLETED
9. When the edits are completed, return to the Instructions tab
10. Click the  SAVE  button at the top of the page to save the Excel workbook and the data file to the Downloads folder on your PC.
    Note: You must have macros enabled to save the workbook and data file.
11. Close the Excel workbook
    
    

C. Upload the Schedule to EM-COP

1. Go to the Operations page on the EM-COP Desktop.
2. Scroll down to the Regions icon group and click the Region icon.
3. Click the Admin icon and enter the password.
4. Click the Training Exercise Schedule icon to show the Upload page
   
5. From the PC Downloads folder, drag and drop the workbook and data file to the drop area.
     a) XXX-Training-Exercise-Schedule.xlsm - the updated master schedule.
     b) XXX-Training-Exercise-Schedule.dat - the new data file.
6. Wait 10 seconds, then click the Training Exercise Schedule icon on the Operations page to check that the schedule has updated.

Editing Notes

1. The published schedule on EM-COP uses a wrapper to read the DAT file and add hyperlinks, dropdown lists and special formatting before displaying the Schedule.  The wrapper is already loaded on EM-COP.
2. Generally, formatting does NOT carry over from the spreadsheet to the published version. It is added by the wrapper.
3. The first line of the Description column is automatically bolded by the wrapper and should be kept short. Use Alt-Enter to add additional lines to a cell.
4. The more… and less… links are added automatically to the Description column by the wrapper.
5. Column headings are copied from the spreadsheet. Column colours are added by the wrapper.  Try not to add additional columns as this may confuse the wrapper and lead to unexpected results.
6. Lines in the spreadsheet that have a blank date will be hidden in the published version on EM-COP.  This allows you to pre-load an event and only make it visible when ready.
7. To add a dot point list, start the line in the spreadsheet with a - or * character. Use Alt-Enter to add additional lines to a cell.
8. To add a numbered list, start the first line of the list with a 1. Numbering continues until a line is found that doesn't start with a number.  Use Alt-Enter to add additional lines to a cell.
9. The COMPLETED line must be formatted as a single merged cell in the spreadsheet.  Do not delete or edit this line.
10. An email address does not need to be entered as a hyperlink - just type the email in.  The wrapper will create the hyperlink.
11. A web address does not need to be entered as a hyperlink. If you do use a hyperlink ensure the full address is in the text displayed.  Ensure the address starts with http:// or https:// and does NOT end with a full stop.
12. A link entered as https://www.test.com in the spreadsheet will display as www.test.com on the published page.
13. A link entered as https://www.test.com/Test.pdf in the spreadsheet will display as Test on the published page.
14. All filenames on the EM-COP Document Store are case sensitive.
15. When changing only the case of a filename on a Windows PC, you may need to add a step change that substantively alters the name.
        eg. Test.DOCX → TestZ.DOCX → test.docx
16. To quickly move an entry from Current to Completed, select the row, then right click and select "Cut" from the popup menu.  Highlight the row below the COMPLETED line then right click and select "Insert Cut Cells" from the popup menu.
17. The values in the Type filter are derived from the various values in the column.
    It is suggested to use Training, Discussion Exercise, Deployment Exercise and Functional Exercise

 

Uploading additional documents

The Upload page has additional drop areas to folders for supporting documents.

Folder Name	Purpose
Admin	Files for instructions or help on using the Training and Exercise Schedule.
Reports	Evaluation reports or other outputs from an event
Training	Pre-reading or other training/exercise materials for participants

To add a link on the schedule to a document

1. Drag and drop the file onto the relevant drop area on the Upload page.
   
2. Click the  LIST FILES  button above the top right of the first drop area. 
   
3. Go to the folder table and find the file in the list.  Right click the link abbreviation then click "Copy link address" in the pop-up menu.
4. Paste the link into the Training and Exercising Spreadsheet at the desired position.

You can also add additional folders and perform file management tasks from the List Files page.  More information is available here.