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| News
The latest happenings. |
| Screenshots
Every picture tells a thousand words. |
| Testimonials
User's comments. |
| Tutorials
Videos of Classmaker in action. |
| Download
Get Classmaker from here. |
| FAQ
For the technical stuff. |
| About me
Some details about Rob Kellock, Classmaker's programmer. |
 Classmaker |
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The school-wide lesson planning solution.
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What does Classmaker cost?
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Classmaker is freeware until April 01, 2010. It has no limitations except the expiry date that appears on the About screen. Periodically, I update the software and the expiry date ensures that everybody stays on the same version that I am running. I have used Classmaker successfully for my own teaching and as a diary since I first began developing it in 2005.
I am happy to answer a few questions by email, but if it becomes obvious that you or your school needs more comprehensive support than a couple of emails then a support contract is required for my time. |
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Minimum System Requirements
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Operating System: 32bit and 64bit Windows NT4, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7.
Screen Resolution: 800 * 600 pixels or better. Processor Speed: 800MHz. RAM: 32Mb. Disk Space: 20Mb. |
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Why isn't Classmaker a Web app?
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1. Web apps are slooow! Classmaker is orders of magnitude faster. As a busy teacher, I just don't have the time to wait for a Web app to respond, particularly when planning at home, where most of my planning is done. 2. Web apps are hopeless at multi-page printing. To generate a decent printout from a Web browser requires it to be converted to a PDF. When I want to get a printout, I want to get it as quickly as possible, with no formatting and no workarounds, just click on a button and it goes to the printer. 3. Web apps are insecure and easy to hack. I don't want to risk my database being hacked into over the Internet. Do you? 4. Web apps are difficult to install. You can install Classmaker from a single zip file that contains everything you need to get started right away without an IT expert looking over your shoulder. |
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How clicking works
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Right clicking on the Calendar and Long Term Plan screens brings up
a popup menu with various options. The Refresh menu and the Print Lessons are the most useful.
Left clicking on a coloured plan brings up its detail for editing. Classmaker uses the colour of the plan to locate it. Occasionally two colours are so similar the wrong plan is located. Refreshing the screen changes the colours and left clicking again will locate the correct plan. |
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Copying lessons between unit plans
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Quite often you want to copy a lesson between unit plans. To do this
click on the lesson to be copied, then click on the Unit Plan you wish to copy it to. Providing you don't
click on the new lessons now listed on the Lesson Plan list, you will find that your original lesson is still showing
on the Lesson Objective, Lesson Detail and Lesson Evaluation tabs. Clicking on the Add button now will
copy this lesson into the new Unit Plan.
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Emailing lessons when I'm off sick
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1. Download and install Ghostscript and GSView from http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/
2. Print your reports to File using a ps suffix e.g. Calendar.ps 3. Open the Calendar.ps file in GSView and convert it using pdfwrite 720 resolution to an easy to read PDF document. 4. Email your file as an attachment. Providing the recipient has a PDF reader e.g. Adobe Acrobat Reader, installed, they can read and print it. |
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What database is Classmaker using?
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Classmaker uses the open source Firebird database http://www.firebirdsql.org.
It is bundled with the Classmaker download, so you don't need to download it separately. To view and edit the database from outside Classmaker use IBAccess which also
comes bundled with the Classmaker download. The database is the file C:\Classmaker\Install\Classmaker++.gdb. Use the default user
password combination SYSDBA masterkey.
Whenever you backup the database two other files are created Classmaker++.bak (this is a compressed backup of the database) and Classmaker++.lkg (this is the last known good copy of the database if the backup process should fail). You should backup the database regularly and copy Classmaker++.bak and Classmaker++.lkg onto a removable media e.g. CD-ROM for safekeeping. |
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How do I change Classmaker's Children's Year?
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These are held inside the database. To change Children's Year open the database with IBAccess and edit the ChildYear table.
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How do I change Classmaker's Term Dates?
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These are held inside the database. To change term dates use IBAccess to open the database as a Dialect 3 database (Dialect 1 is the default in IBAccess and cannot utilise the Date field type) and edit the TermDate table.
The FirstDay field is the date of the Monday that falls in the first week of the school term not the first day of the school term.
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How do I change Classmaker's Calendar Times?
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These are held inside the database. To change calendar times open the database with IBAccess and edit the Settings table. You
can change the start time e.g. 9.00am, the duration of each period e.g. 15 minutes and the number of periods during the day e.g. 26.
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