MarkBook's Attendance Setup Screen

    MarkBook^®     section 6-1

Attendance Setup Screen Including User-defined Letter Codes & Bar Codes

Setup Menu from the Main Operating Screen

Reach Attendance Setup from MarkBook's Main Operating screen, section 3-1, by clicking Setup in the upper menu bar and selecting Attendance. Add/edit these settings as you see fit.

Setup Menu from the Main Operating Screen

Other setup items are listed at the right. Click any of these setup items to alter MarkBook's defaults.

Attendance Setup

In the School Year section, select the starting month. September is the default but it can be altered to August.

In the Input Format box, set which of the two attendance input screens you prefer to open as the default when you enter attendance data. Your choice is a grid (looks like a standard monthly attendance sheet - see section 6-2) or a seating plan (shows the seating arrangement as you would view it from the front of the classroom - see section 6-3). The former is preferable if you input your attendance randomly as time permits. The latter is best if you have a computer in your classroom and you wish to enter attendance on the spot for every class. For any change made in Setup, click Save in the lower right of this screen to keep your change (button not shown in this example).

If you have two or more sets of assessment data, two or more sub-groups within your class, or if you have two or more subjects being taught to the same group (all called Mark Sets - see section 4-3), you have the option of keeping one common attendance record for all Mark Sets OR separate attendance records for each Mark Set. Click your choice in the Record Keeping box.

To show accumulated attendance data on your report screens by default, fill in the Attendance cell in the On Reports Show box. Your other option is to display Student Ages by default. The decision is not critical - you can easily click from one to the other on the report screens. You can print both on reports and you will select this option just prior to printing.

ATTENDANCE LETTER CODES

What are the two basic attendance terms used in your school? The two windows in the box labeled The term... are user-definable. "Absent" and "Late" are MarkBook's defaults. Click in the window and edit these to other words like Tardy as required. The limit is six characters. After any change, click Enter on your keyboard and the single-letter code to the right of each window self-edits to begin with the first letter of the chosen word.

Attendance Word Codes

Set up any new Attendance Codes using letters of choice. Select a Value using the pop-down menu shown. Click Apply to add this new code into the list at the right. Note some codes have zero value such as school sponsored absences. On days with a double class, use 1, 2, or 3 to describe an individual's attendance as shown.

Elementary teachers may wish to use M - Abs AM and P - Abs PM for half-day absences.

Select a default code for Absent and Late. "A" and "L" are the supplied defaults. To change a selection, click on the desired Description, and then click on Make Default.

The Value counts towards any attendance summary that MarkBook displays as in section 8-1 or prints on reports as in section 9-6.

For any change made in Attendance Setup, click Save in the upper right corner of your screen to keep the change. These changes will synchronize onto your PalmOS handheld or Pocket PC as described in the MarkBook CNX digital manual.

ATTENDANCE BAR CODES

If you wish to use the bar code for your attendance forms, click on the Bar-Coded Attendance item in the Setup menu, and select the bar code font as shown in this example screen. You must have previously loaded the True-Type Barcode3of9 font from your MarkBook directory into your Windows font folder. To install it, go to your Windows® Control Panel, select Fonts, and then select Install New Font. Find the Barcode3of9 font in your c:MkBk200X directory and click OK to install it. On this screen, click Select a Font and locate the bar code font. Click the Yes button near the top to make this your default monthly attendance form.

Attendance Bar Codes Setup

Once selected, the barcode font will enable you to print student numbers and other items as bar codes on your monthly attendance forms as in section 6-4. Bar coded attendance saves an enormous amount of time for your school, or entire school district. The most difficult part in setting up a bar-coded attendance system is producing the attendance form. It's relatively easy to design a receiving screen in your administration software. With MarkBook and the Barcode3of9 True Type font, you are 90% of the way there! For more information on the advantages of bar coding for attendance purposes, consult our Bar-coded Attendance page, section 6-6.

There are other bar code characters that you can print on your forms. These include characters like "A" for absent, "L" for late, "T" for tardy, "Tab" to move the entry screen cursor, and "Enter" to instruct the receiving computer to save or transmit data. MarkBook's attendance form has space for three optional characters and these appear at the top of the form. Which of these characters to use is highly dependent on the design of your attendance computer's input screen. MarkBook gives you the choice of which characters to put on your forms. Use the pop-down character menu as shown.

Your Full Code automatically prints on your bar coded attendance forms in the upper left corner. See the last screen shots in section 1-3 or the first image in section 2-2 to view and change your Full Code. Edit this full code as required to match the class code reference number in your school's attendance computer.

After you set any new parameter on this setup screen, click on Save to replace the previous settings with these new ones. Click on Cancel if you wish to delete these new settings and return to MarkBook's defaults or your previous ones.

Manual: Go to section 6-2 to see MarkBook's attendance grid and how to record attendance data.