The Assignments Editor is displayed when you select the Create Report or Open Report on the main application File menu. If you open a saved report, then the grid will automatically display all the assignments you previously made, and the file name will get displayed in the top left-hand corner of the dialogue. You can maximise the dialogue if you prefer to have a larger viewing area. This setting gets saved.

As you select or click a row in the schedule, the Not Available list will update to remind you which brothers can't be assigned.

There are several ways that you can populate the schedule. You are encouraged to read this whole topic to clearly understand what features you have available to you. 

Learn more about the Assignments Editor by looking through the rest of this help topic. Or, as an alternative, click on the item you are interested in on the screenshot above.You can directly jump down to any part of the help topic by clicking on the control that interests you on the screenshot above.

The editor has several menus. Click on the links below to learn more about each menu and their available features:

• File Menu
  This help topic provides details about the Assignments Editor File menu.

• Auto Assign Menu
  This help topic provides details about the Assignments Editor Auto Assign menu.

• Database Menu
  This help topic provides details about the Assignments Editor Database menu.

• Edit Menu
  This help topic provides details about the Assignments Editor Edit menu.

• View Menu
  This help topic provides details about the Assignments Editor View menu.

• Options Menu
  This help topic provides details about the Assignments Editor Options menu.

• Help Menu
  This help topic provides details about the Assignments Editor Help menu.

• Context Menu
  This help topic provides details about the Assignments Editor Context menu.

There two tabs that you can choose from in the editor:

• Editor
  This is the actual editor where you can add / remove meetings and populate your schedule.
• Preview
  This displays a preview of the schedule using your current report settings. Click the link to learn more.

Firstly, you will see a pre-filled in set of dates for your chosen date range. These dates are determined from the program options. So under normal circumstances you won't need to alter these dates. However there are some valid occasions when you might want to change a date (maybe you have the Circuit Overseer and thus the meeting has swapped to another day). So if you need to alter a date, just double click it.

When you double click the date, it looks like the snapshot shown here. You can then click on each part of the date and use the small up/down arrows to alter the value (or you can manually type the new value).

The date is displayed using your PC regional settings or can be customized.

You can include a notes at the bottom of your schedule. The notes can be managed via the context menu.

Tip! Did you know that you edit the existing schedules notes by double-clicking the cell?

To fill in an assignment manually, click the small dropdown list allow to display a list of names and simply select one. Likewise you can change a name by doing the same thing. The names that are listed depend on three factors. Firstly, they are based on the names you added using the Publishers Database. Secondly, it depends what meeting day it is, as only those available for the chosen meeting will be displayed. Lastly, a brother might have been specifically excluded from the meeting. You can also double-click the cell to go into edit mode and you can type in whatever text you like. This might be useful if you want to add a random brothers name (not on the dropdown list) or if you want to clear the cell contents. Click another cell, or press the Enter key to leave the edit mode. Press the Escape key to abort any changes made to the cell.

Use this dropdown list to select a brother to highlight all his assignments. This is very useful if you want to print or export the report for a brother in particular, since he will clearly see his assignments.

Someone might supply you with their own SRR file and the names they used may not match those that you have held in Meeting Schedule Assistant. Or, you may have assigned one or two individuals manually on the schedule (for whatever reason). In these situations you can click the Refresh symbol to update the drop-down list. It will examine the active schedule and update the list to include all of the assigned names

Use this feature with caution since the operation can't be undone! You can repeat the process at any time, but you can't undo it. Having said that, the list will revert back to the default set of names the next time the editor is started.

There are several options in the dropdown list for highlighting:

None	Select <NONE> to remove any highlighting from the schedule. Highlighted assignments are shown in cyan. Existing highlighted cells get removed (for example, conflicts of assignment).
All (Separate Pages)	This affects how reports are printed and exported. You end up getting a report for each brother with his assignments highlighted. Note that for HTML, it will seem that the tables are one under the other, but when you print, you will actually get a page break in between each one.
Selected (Separate Pages)	Choosing this setting works in exactly the same way, except that you can select which brothers you would like to include when printing or exporting. When this option is selected, the Select Brothers button becomes enabled. Press this button to alter the selected brothers. This selection is saved along with the rest of the programs settings.

When you use either of these advanced modes for printing and exporting schedules that only the brothers who actually have assignments will be included. There is no point printing or exporting a schedule for a brother who has no assignments.

This option is only enabled when using one of the advanced modes. Set this option if you want to include a schedule with no highlighting for the notice board.

Press this button to close down the Assignments Editor and return to the main dialogue. If you made changes to the schedule and did not save it, then you will be prompted to save your changes before closing the editor.

Everyone in  this list will be ignored when you use either of the following tools:

• Auto Assign
• Single Column

This list of publishers changes as you click on each row in the schedule.

The editor uses this order of precedence to decide who should be included in this list:

1. Any name in the Select a brother drop-down list that is not found in any cell drop-down list of names.
2. Any name in the cell drop-down lists that is set to be excluded by default.
3. Any name in the cell drop-down lists that has a Midweek Meeting assignment (see below).

Anyone that has one of these Midweek Meeting assignments can be added to the Not Available list. Simply toggle the checkboxes as desired. These settings are Schedule Type aware.

The list will be disabled when the schedule row is not classified as a Midweek Meeting or Weekly. Note: Midweek Chairman includes the Auxiliary Classroom Counsellor assignments. Midweek Meeting — Treasures includes the Teaching (Discussion Video) items.

You can easily see who has what assignment by clicking on the assignment name. This will select all assigned publishers in the Not Available list. Clear the highlighting by:

• Clicking a blank area on the assignments list.
• Selecting another meeting row on the schedule.

The assignment information is obtained from the Assignment History database.

Anyone that has one of these Weekend Meeting assignments can be added to the Not Available list. Simply toggle the checkboxes as desired. These settings are Schedule Type aware.

The list will be disabled when the schedule row is not classified as a Weekend Meeting or Weekly.

You can easily see who has what assignment by clicking on the assignment name. This will select all assigned publishers in the Not Available list. Clear the highlighting by:

• Clicking a blank area on the assignments list.
• Selecting another meeting row on the schedule.

The assignment information is obtained from the Assignment History database.

The status bar provides you with information about the selected row in the editor. Some shortcuts to frequently used features are also available on the status bar.

The status bar displays the date for the selected row on the left.

The date is displayed using your PC regional settings or can be customized.

You can enlarge or reduce the view of the schedule. Look here for more details.

This features is only enabled when you are using the Assignments Editor in Preview mode.

Hover the mouse over the Calendar to use status bar pane to see which calendars you are synchronizing with:

You will notice that as you click on each row, you will see a reminder telling you which meeting this date is for on the status bar. E.g:

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Hotkey	What it does
ALT + SHIFT + W	Displays the working data folder in File Explorer and automatically selects the active schedule template file.