FAQ’s
Q: Can I import the data from version 6 into the Windows version?
A: Yes, the application provides the capability to convert from version 6 to PDS Ministry Scheduler.
Q: How do I transport data from one computer to another?
A: The Export Data and Import Data commands allow you to back up your data to another location. This is useful as a simple data backup to guard against a computer failure. Using these commands, it is possible to back up your data to an external memory device (such as a CD-Rom or USB Flash Drive) and move it back and forth between your home and church.
Q: How do I specify different times for ministers with the same family?
A: There are several options for specifying different times for ministers with the same family. On the main menu, click Ministers, then Edit. Select a minister’s name, and click OK. Click the Family Mode drop-down list and select Alternate. This ensures that people with the same family code do not serve together.
As an alternative, you can enter a couple commissioned in the same ministry one time with a first name such as “Bob OR Mary”. Keep the minister weighting at 1 and the program will schedule a role for one person only.
A third alternative is to assign member preferences as adamant and assign the family members to different masses. In the Edit Minister window, under Qualifiers, select Prefs are Adamant.
Q: Can you increase the number of ministries?
A: A total of 15 ministry roles per mass may be named in the program. These may be combined with up to 256 different masses.
Q: Why did the program schedule the same person, a person commissioned as both a Lector and a Eucharistic Minister, to both ministries at the same Mass?
A: The most likely reason is that the minister was entered into the program two times: once as a Lector and again as a Eucharistic Minister. The program counts separate entries as separate people. Generally, it is recommended that each minister name be entered one time. In the Edit Ministers window, click Min and select multiple ministries.
There are times when you want to enter a minister more than once, once for each ministry in which they are commissioned. The advantage to doing this is that the minister will be in more than one minister rotation, once for each ministry. This results in this minister serving more often. To avoid scheduling the same person twice, in the Edit Minister window, under Family ID, enter the same family ID in all minister records. Next, click the Family Mode drop-down list and select Alternate.
Q: Why don't you change the program logic so families always serve together?
A: While many families choose to serve together, there are also families who cannot serve at the same time. The program accommodates both options by providing a Family Mode option of Together or Alternate. Together prioritizes the request to schedule all ministers in a family at the same mass. While it does not guarantee that all members will be scheduled at the same mass, it ensures that they will not be scheduled at different masses. The program attempts to schedule all individuals as fairly as possible, based on how recently the individual served as a minister. Because there are always exceptions and special requests, the program allows for specific assignments that help the scheduler accommodate many unique requests.
Q: Every week, the same people get the same assignments without any rotation. Why?
A: It is possible that there are two few ministers entered in the scheduler to provide a meaningful rotation. If all of them get assigned each week, everyone's Last Served date is the same and no chronological resorting occurs.
A second possibility is that a user actually scheduled some masses while intending to run a test only. If the user deleted the masses instead of exiting the program without saving, then the people who received these future assignments now have Last Served dates months ahead. When the chronological schedule sort occurs, these people are placed at the bottom of the schedule order until that future month passes.
To determine if this occurred, on the main menu, click Reports, then Custom. Set up the report to print each ministers’ name and date last served. Sort the report by date last served. Check the ministers’ records to see if anyone has a Last Served date in the future. If this is the case, on the main menu, click Ministers, then Last Served Date. Change the minister's Last Served date to a date prior to the period you are scheduling.
Q: I tried to schedule a Holy Day in the middle of the week, but no one received any assignments for that date. Why?
A: When a minister is first added to the program, the program default is to assign Monday through Friday as Bad Days (days when the minister is unavailable to serve at mass). Anyone with a particular day selected as a Bad Day will never receive assignments on that day, even if it is a Special Holy Day Mass.
You can disable Bad Day Checking in the Configure menu. However, this will also result in ministers being scheduled for this mass who really cannot serve weekday masses. To disable Bad Day checking, on the main menu, click File, then Configure. Click the Options tab. Clear the Enforce Minister’s “Bad Days” exception when checking Special Masses check box.
A better option is to not allow the minister to serve special masses. On the main menu, click Ministers, then Edit. Select the minister you want to edit and click OK. Under Allowed Types and Times, clear Special. Click OK to save changes. Only those ministers where Special is selected will now be assigned a role for those masses.
Q: How do I delete Away Periods? No matter what I do, the same date always returns.
A: Away Periods automatically delete when the return date passes. If a date is entered in error, then delete it by entering a return date that is in the past.
Q: I tried using Serve With for some ministers but I see that they have not received any assignments in a long time. What's wrong?
A: It is possible that using the Serve With option is preventing a person from being scheduled. When using Serve With, everyone on the list has to be able to serve or no one serves. Be careful with using Serve With as you may unknowingly eliminate some people from your schedule. This is something you can detect with the Tabulate command. To access Tabulate, on the main menu, click Reports, then Tabulate. See the User Guide for more assistance with this tool.
Q: How can we use your program to schedule teams of people? We find that if the same people always work together, there is more harmony and better cooperation.
A: One way to implement teams is to assign the same class to a group of ministers and then require the class be used for each mass. In the Edit Minister window, click the Class drop-down list and select a class. In the Mass Edit window, under Minister Requirements, click the Class drop-down list and select the class you want assigned to the mass. Note: If you select Seed for class, everyone assigned to the mass must be in the same class.
Q: My pastor wants me to schedule servers based on their height. Can the program do that?
A: Yes. Class designation is a way to describe groups of ministers by an attribute or by which school class they are in.
To establish individual classes for "Tall", "Medium" or "Short”
- On the main menu, click File, then Configure.
- Click the Class Names tab. Under Class Name, click to highlight a class name you are not currently using.
- Enter a height description such as Tall. Set up each class, then click OK to save changes.
- On the main menu, click Ministers, then Edit. Select the minister’s name you want to set the class for, and click OK.
- Click the Class drop-down list and select Tall, Medium, or Short.
- Next, on the main menu, click Mass, then Edit.
- In the Mass Edit window, under Minister Requirements, click the Class drop-down list and select the class you want assigned to the mass. When you run the scheduler, it will assign the first server to the mass. It then assigns servers of the same class to this mass.
Q: For all reports, except labels, I can print to file. However, label reports do not have this option. I have not been able to figure out a way to save the labels so that I can transfer the file to print. I am able to preview, but I can not copy or save from that view. Any suggestions?
A: Use Adobe acrobat to print to a PDF file. Then, transfer the file.
A second option assumes you are trying to print from a printer attached to another computer. If networked, you can set up or install the printer as a network printer. For more information, see the installation instructions that came with your printer or check the Microsoft documentation that came with your operating system.
Q: How do we publish the schedules on our parish Web site?
A: On the main menu, click Reports, then Schedule. Click the Print icon, then click Display to show the output or the report on the screen. While the report is visible on the screen, click Print. In the Print drop-down menu, click Copy to Clipboard. This places the entire report on the Windows® clipboard. Next, open your word processor or spreadsheet and paste the contents. You can edit the report and save it as HTML in order to post to a Web site.
You can also save as a PDF document, which can then be posted to a Web site or e-mailed as an attachment.
Q: Is it possible to deactivate a minister without deleting him/her? We have many seasonal residents who are here for the winter and gone for the summer.
A: Yes, a minister can be permanently deactivated. In the Edit Minister window, select Don’t Schedule check box.
The minister can be deactivated for a specified time period such as vacation. In the Edit Minister window, under Away Periods, enter the date of the First Day Away and the First Day Back. When the return date passes, the minister will automatically be scheduled again.
Q: How do I handle special masses, such as Easter Vigil, that replace the regular Sunday morning mass?
A: First, do not delete the regular mass. If you delete the mass, the program deletes all references to it, including all of your ministers’ preferences.
On the main menu, click Mass, then Edit. Select the mass you want to edit and click OK. In the Mass Edit window, click the Replaces drop-down list. Select the name of the mass you do not want scheduled when the Special mass is scheduled. For this week, the program will not schedule this regular mass but will retain all preference information.
Alternatively, in the Mass Edit window, clear OK to Celebrate. You must select OK to Celebrate again to restore the scheduling for that mass.
Q: Is it possible to create a schedule just for the weekend masses and then run it again at a later time for just the weekday masses?
A: No. The program schedules everything at once (a week at a time) so it can keep track of family members.
Q: Each quarter the program chooses one or two individuals and doesn't schedule them at all. Once it chose to not schedule the same person for two consecutive quarters.
A: Check the minister’s Last Served date. As the program runs weekly schedules, it sorts all ministers by this date. People with the oldest date are considered first for a ministry assignment. If the date is in the future, the minister is placed at the bottom of the list each week. Also check Away Dates, Bad Days, Bad Masses and the ministry assignment. Finally, review the Serve With option.
If you still cannot determine why the individual has not been scheduled, select the Track in Scheduler check box in the Edit Minister window. The next time you schedule masses, the scheduling process halts and displays the reason the minister was not scheduled.
