This article provides an overview of the RCC Schedule Manager used to create, manage and publish the operational schedule used at Regional Control Centres.
OVERVIEW
RCC Schedule Manager is a system for managing the daily operational schedule. It can be accessed from the Regional Admin page using a desktop or mobile device and allows you to:
Use RCC Schedule Manager to create and edit schedules for each day then separately publish one or more days when ready. This allows schedules to be prepared in advance and published as needed. It is also simple to unpublish the schedule by replacing a real schedule with an undated placeholder.
In summary, the workflow is:
- Select the desired date in the calendar on the Schedule Date Selector screen and click Schedule (or double click the date).
- Build the schedule for the selected date in Manage Schedule.
- Save the schedule for the selected day and optionally save for up to 7 days going forward.
- Click Preview to see how the schedule will look when published. Optionally add up to 7 days to the preview.
- Click Publish to publish the preview.
The published schedule will be immediately visible:
| Online version at | http://files.portal.em.vic.gov.au/refdocs/XXXschedule.htm |
| Print version at | http://files.portal.em.vic.gov.au/refdocs/XXXschedprt.htm |
(where XXX is the three letter region abbreviation in upper case)
The online version is optimised for online viewing. The page auto sizes to the available screen width and height with a fixed header and footer and provides a vertical scroll bar to view the main content of the schedule. This version also has a print button at the top left of the screen to provide a printable version as described below.
The print version is optimised for printing. It auto sizes to a portrait or landscape page with a fixed header and the main content of the schedule below. Pagination control ensures that each section of the schedule - AM, PM and Overnight - does not break across the page. There is no footer in the print version.
Schedules are grouped by AM, PM or Overnight and have fixed columns for Time, Meeting name, Location, Dial-in Number and Webex or URL. The AM group will always appear in a published schedule, even if it is blank. PM and Overnight groups will only appear if they contain at least one meeting. Meetings can optionally include columns for Chair and Minute taker. These additional columns can be used as required and will only be included in the published schedule if selected.
There are a number of built in usability features such as templates, pick lists, copy and paste, automatic formatting, background colours, sorting, and the ability to copy schedules to following days. The schedule for up to 7 days can be previewed, starting at the day selected and then published immediately.
Manage a Schedule
Start at the initial Schedule Date Selector screen and click a date in the calendar. Use the controls below the calendar to change months. Click Schedule to select that date. Alternatively, double click the date in the calendar. The Manage Schedule screen is displayed, showing the current schedule grouped by AM, PM and Overnight. Use the ◁ and ▷ arrows to the left and right of the AM label in the AM bar to move directly to the next or previous day without returning to the Schedule Date Selector screen. Use the ❱❱ or ❰❰ arrow at the far right of the AM bar to show or hide the Chair and Minutes columns.
The Manage Schedule screen also shows a Tier selector at the top left of the screen and a Save for 1 day selector at the top right of the screen. If a Tier has been set in the SCC Shift Plan for that day, the Tier level will be preset to that level. The save selector will default to 1 day but can be set to any value up to 7 days.
Add a line for a new meeting by clicking the 
box at the end of a line. This will create a new blank entry below the line. Enter a time for the meeting, followed by the meeting details. Times are entered as two hour digits and two minute digits, separated by a colon. Times are automatically formatted when you move away from the time entry box. For convenience, one or more numbers can be entered with hour(s) and minute(s) separated by a space, comma, full stop or colon. Move the cursor over a time and use the mouse wheel to increment or decrement the time in 15 minute intervals.
Phone numbers are automatically formatted when you move away from the phone entry box. For convenience, spaces do not need to be entered and will be added according to the type of phone number entered. Similarly, URLs will be automatically converted to clickable links in the published schedule when added in the location entry box.
Delete a meeting by clicking the 
box at the end of the corresponding line. All the meetings in a group can be deleted by clicking the 
box at the end of the column heading line for that group. Hold the Ctrl key when clicking the box to leave a nil meeting placeholder in the group. A line will be added below the column headings with "Nil" in the meeting name column.
Using pick lists to enter meeting details
Each column has a pick list associated with it to allow quick entry of meeting details. These details come from a master list containing preset entries for the standard meetings. Click the down arrow in the white box to the right of each column entry box to display a pick list for that column. Click an item in the list to transfer that item to the column. When the meeting column is selected, all columns will be filled with the preset details for that meeting.
Set background colour for a meeting
The background colour for a meeting can be set using the radio buttons at the top right of the Schedule Manager. The Colours setting will display the colours bar, allowing the background to be set to one of six preset colours. To set a colour for a row, click any column in the row, then click the desired colour. These colours will be saved with the meeting schedule.
Click the White-Grey radio button to set alternating white-grey backgrounds. The alternating colours will be maintained automatically, regardless of adding/deleting lines or sorting. Click the White radio button to set all white backgrounds.
Move or copy a meeting
When a meeting is deleted by clicking the box, the details are automatically saved to an internal clipboard. The meeting can be moved to a new location by holding down the Ctrl key when the box is clicked. This is just like adding a new meeting line below the selected line except that the new line will contain the meeting details from the clipboard.
If the Ctrl key is pressed when the box is clicked, the details are still saved to the internal clipboard, but the meeting remains in place. The meeting can be then be copied to a new location by holding down the Ctrl key when the box is clicked.
Get meetings from SCC Schedule
Click the Get SCC button to get the current meetings in the SCC Schedule and merge them into the Regional Schedule in time order. This is an easy way to pre-populate the SCC meetings. These meetings will not be colour coded, allowing you to identify the merged meetings. You can then colour code the meetings that you want to keep or delete the meetings that aren't relevant to the Regional Schedule.
Sort the Schedule
Click the Sort button to sort the schedule by start time, followed by meeting name. This is an easy way to re-order the schedule after a change in meeting time.
Load and save a schedule using a template
Templates can be created and saved on the fly for AM, PM and Overnight groups for each Tier level. These templates are intended to provide an easy way to carry forward a schedule set relevant to the current operations and tier level. The template can be quickly added and adjusted to suit the current day.
Click the 
box at the end of the AM, PM or Overnight bar to load the current template for that group and the currently selected Tier level. Click the 
box to save the current meetings as the new template for that group and tier level.
Undo changes to the Schedule
Click the Undo All button to undo all changes made since the last save. Note that changes are automatically saved when you preview the schedule so you won't be able to undo changes if you preview then return to the Manage Schedule screen.
Save a schedule for one or more days
Click the Save button to save the schedule for the selected day. Set the number in the Save for day select box at the top right corner of the screen to greater than 1 to also save the schedule to following days. The schedule will be saved automatically when the Preview button is clicked or if the ◁ and ▷ arrows are clicked to change the day.
Please note that the schedule will not be saved when the Back button is clicked to return to the Schedule Date Selector screen unless you have clicked the Save button beforehand. This allows you to cancel any changes. The Undo All button cancels any changes made since the last save.
Publish a schedule for one or more days
Click the Preview button from the Schedule Date Selector screen to preview the schedule as it will be published. Note that the AM group will always be shown in the preview, regardless of whether there are meetings scheduled. However, the PM and Overnight groups will not be shown unless there is a least one meeting scheduled. If you want to show the PM or Overnight group for clarity, add a Nil meeting to the group in the Manage Schedule screen.
The number in the Show day select box at the top right corner of the screen sets the number of days to display in the preview. This number of days will be used in the published schedule and will be preset to the value used the last time the schedule was published. To change this value, click the down arrow head and select a new value. Set the background colours to the desired setting. The screen will refresh to show the selected days and other settings in the preview. Click Publish to publish the schedule as displayed.
All schedules are saved in the Schedule Manager so it is easy to view any schedule for any date. A copy of each published schedule is also retained in the archive.
Re-publish a schedule automatically each day
From the Preview screen, click the Auto radio button for the Publishing mode at the top left of the screen. This will set the schedule for the current day to automatically republish at midnight for the following day. The re-published schedule will use the columns setting - that is, Chair and Minutes columns shown or hidden - and the background colours that were set when the source schedule was published.
The Auto mode allows you to set up and maintain a fixed schedule for each day without having to specifically publish each day. The schedule can be changed at any time to reflect a new set of meetings. This will then become the re-published schedule. Auto re-publising can be turned on or off at any time.
Auto re-publishing on a given day will only occur when there is not a schedule already set for that day and a valid schedule exists for the previous day. You can create a schedule for a specific day in the future and have schedules auto re-publish for the days leading up to that day. Note that auto-republishing will continue using the updated schedule for the following days unless you specifically set a different schedule for the day after or turn off auto-republishing in the Preview screen.
Print the schedule
Click the Print button to print the schedule. This will create a plain page version of the schedule without the footer, suitable for printing in portrait or landscape page format.
Unpublish the schedule
The schedule can be unpublished by replacing the published schedule with an undated placeholder page. This page simply states that no schedule is available for the current period and can be left in place during any period when no meetings are being scheduled, such as when the centre is not activated. From the Schedule Date Selector, click the Unpublish button to immediately unpublish the schedule.
Update Master Meetings List
The master meetings list used in the pick lists can be updated by clicking the Meeting List button on the Schedule Date Selector screen. This will show the current meetings in Manage Meetings. Managing the meetings list is similar to managing schedules. Add, delete, copy & paste, formatting and background colours work the same way. Meetings can have mutiple entries with different start times. The meeting will only appear once in the pick list in Manage Schedule but the time will be chosen based on whether the meeting is added to the AM, PM or Overnight section of the schedule. Meeting times from 06:00 to 11:59 are assigned as AM, 12:00 to 23:59 are PM and midnight to 05:59 are Overnight.
Click Sort to sort the list by time. Click Sort while holding down the Shift key to sort the list alphabetically by Meeting name. Click Save to save the meeting list. The pick list will appear in what ever order is saved. Click Back to return to the Schedule Date Selector screen. Please note that the meeting list will not be saved when the Back button is clicked unless you have clicked the Save button beforehand. This allows you to cancel any changes. The Undo All button cancels any changes made since the last save.
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