Objective: Edit your basic rota to define your own symbols.
Getting Ready: Before starting this lesson you should first complete lessons 1 and 2, "Register and log in" and "Set up the basic rota".
Action: If you are not already logged in as admin, log in as admin. Otherwise, if it is not already selected, select Your users & rotas in the top menu.
Action: Select Basic rota in the Your rotas menu.
Result 4a: You view your basic rota.
Your basic rota is a template. Later, you will learn to make copies of it to create rotas for specific periods of time.
Action: At the top of your basic rota, select the menu item called View symbols.
Result 4b: In a view of the symbol table, you see the full definitions of the symbols that appear in the Key at the bottom of the rota.
Not all the symbols listed are for shifts. Some are for activities, such as T for training or A for annual leave. The symbols for shifts, such as N for night and D for day are counted at the bottom of the rota, for each day. The Count as column of the symbol table shows which symbols are counted and what they are counted as.
Symbols can consist of one or more characters. In this table, a trailing "r" has been used to indicate a request, so Dr is a request for a day shift. It is important that you make all Hours credited for shift requests and Count as entries for shift requests the same as those for the corresponding shifts.
Action: At the top of your basic rota select the menu item called Edit symbols.
Result 4c: The view of the symbol table is replaced by a tabular entry form. Row 12 has been set out for bank holidays.
Action: In that row:
| * | replace the Posn value of 12 with 10.5, |
| * | replace the Symbol value B with H, |
| * | replace the Description entry with Statutory holiday, and |
| * | leave the Hours and Count as entries blank. |
Action: Press the Save symbol edits button.
Result 4d: You see that the corrected line appears after the original line 10 and before the original line 11. It has moved one position up the table and the symbols have all been renumbered.
You might wish to define a mnemonic symbol for a twilight shift, but the symbol T is already in use for Training. To control the width of your rosters, you will want to keep the number of characters per symbol down, so you might choose W as the symbol for a twilight shift and Wr for a request for that shift. Later in the tutorial, you will be able to use the entries you make for the twilight shift in learning to use a cluster of symbols for a staff member in one day and in learning to count shifts against more than one shift cover count:
Action: In the new (empty) row at the bottom of the table:
| * | For Posn enter 8.5. |
| * | For Symbol enter W. |
| * | For Description enter Twilight. |
| * | For Hours enter 5. |
| * | For Count as enter TWILIGHT. |
Action: Press the Save symbol edits button.
Action: In the new (empty) row at the bottom of the table.
| * | For Posn enter 9.5. |
| * | For Symbol enter Wr. |
| * | For Description enter Twilight requested. |
| * | For Hours enter 5. |
| * | For Count as enter TWILIGHT. |
Make sure that your TWILIGHT entry in the Count as column is exactly the same as the other.
Action: Press the Save symbol edits button.
Action: From the rota menu (above your symbol table) select item View rota.
Result 4e: You can see that the changed and new symbols appear in the key, and also there is a new line for the TWILIGHT count. You can see that the line for the TWILIGHT count has a distinctively coloured background to show it counts all staff unless they are supernumerary, independent of grade.
Exercise 4.1: Browse the example symbols to get ideas for defining your own symbols. In the Your rotas menu select Example symbols.
Exercise 4.2: Return to the symbol table of your basic rota and add to it definitions to suit your own needs. Keep those already in place, ready for later parts of the tutorial. When you have started a specific rota, you will be able to edit the basic rota's symbol table to fit your requirements exactly. You might like to take notes of the symbols and Count as entries you plan to use then.
Notes:
| * | To count a symbol and display the count at the bottom of the rota under each day put an entry in the Count as column. The words used in this column will appear at the bottom f the rota to label the counts. |
| * | If you want several different symbols to be counted under the same heading, then put exactly the same text in the Count as column for each of them. |
| * | Use words for symbols, rather than punctuation. Punctuation is used to invoke more advanced features of Self-Roster.co.uk. |
| * | If you want to delete a symbol definition, click on the Delete box to mark it, then press the Save symbol edits button. |
Action: When you have pressed the Save symbol edits button for the last time, select View symbols from the rota menu and check the definitions to make sure your changes have been saved correctly.
Congratulations: You have defined your own symbols in the basic rota.
Advanced symbol work: Near the top of the symbol table you have been editing, there are some examples of Count as entries for advanced symbol counting. Later in this tutorial you learn how to use clusters of symbols in rotas, count symbols in more than one cover row and track the skills mix in the counts.
Note: For now, the important thing to notice is that a day shift is equivalent to an early shift followed by a late one.