Publishers

Options Menu The Publishers Database is available from the Database menu.

Publishers Database Window

Note Icon Learn more about Publishers Database by looking through the rest of this help topic. Or, as an alternative, click on the option you are interested in on the screenshot above.

Overview

The Publishers Database is at the very heart of Meeting Schedule Assistant. It was introduced in version 17.0.9. Up until then, the personnel was managed from different locations within the application and in some instances, you had to duplicate names so that they would show in all the required drop lists. In addition, extra information (like notes, dates not available or default exclusions) were all stored in external data files.

All of these various aspects of the application have now been brought together so they can be managed in one place. The database itself is an XML data file and is held in the user application data folder.

Note Icon It is beyond the scope of this help topic to describe the syntax of the XML file. Do not manually alter the database unless you know what you are doing. Making such modifications outside of the application is done entirely at your own risk of data loss.

Importing Publishers

Database Menu - Import Publishers The Import Publishers menu item is only enabled if the Public Talks application is installed. This feature has been provided to assist you in populating the Publishers Database.

It reads the Public Talks Database and displays a list of all those who are not yet already in the Publisher Database:

Import Publishers Window

From this list you can then decide on who to import them by setting the check box against their name. In addition, you can set up some of the basic information, like:

Their gender
If they are a publisher or serving in some capacity
Or their availability

Notes Icon All other refinements (like assignments) would need to be made once they have been added to the publisher database.

Exporting Publishers

Database Menu - Export Publishers The Export Publishers menu item allows you to export a list of all the publishers' names into a simple XML document.

For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Names xmlns="http://www.publictalksoftware.co.uk/msa">
<Name>Publisher 1</Name>
<Name>Publisher 2</Name>
<Name>Publisher 3</Name>
<Name>Publisher 4</Name>
</Names>

Import from CLM Explorer

Daabase Menu - Import from CLM Explorer Displays the Importing Students from CLM Explorer window which allows you to automatically populate the database from the CLM Explorer software. Click the link to find out more.

Report Viewer

Displays the Report Viewer which lets you select one of several reports for printing or saving as PDF.

Notes Icon Several Custom templates were moved from the Meeting Editor to the Report Viewer in version 24.0.0. And a new template was added for displaying the Field Service Group information in a nice report. Click the link to find out more.

Managing the Publisher Database

Publisher List

Publisher List This displays a list of all of the publishers held in your database. There are three actions that you can take:

Select an existing publisher so that you can make any needed changes.
Press the Add button to add a new publisher to the database.
Press the Delete button to remove a publisher from the database.
Press the Lookup button to display a list of all the student assignments the publisher has given. Click on the link to learn more about this feature.

The Lookup button behaves like this:

If you simply click the button it will display the students congregation history information.
If you click the arrow you can choose to display the students history information for the congregation or the foreign language group.

Display Filter

Display Filter You can limit the names displayed in the list by using this filter.

There are three choices available:

Everyone
This option displays all publishers held in the database.
Congregation
This option only displays the publishers who have been assigned to the Congregation.
Foreign-Language Group
This option only displays the publishers who have been assigned to the Foreign-Language Group.

Filter by Group

Filter by Group Click the drop-down arrow on the right to display a drop-down group menu to fine tune which publishers are displayed.

You can filter by:

The empty option at the top will include everyone in the publishers database.
The Unassigned option at the bottom will include those who are not assigned to any field service group.
All other options will only include publishsers for the respective field service group.

Extra Publisher Filters

Extra publisher filters Click the drop-down arrow on the right to display a drop-down filter menu to fine tune which publishers are displayed.

You can filter by:

Serving As
Appointed as

Select any combination of options that you want to filter by and the list of publishers will be updated.

Filter by Name

Filter by name It is also possible to limit the displayed list of publishers by using this text filter.

All publishers that contain the text you have entered into the filter will be displayed. The text can appear anywhere in their names and the search is case insensitive.

Note Icon Please note that the publisher list and buttons etc. are disabled if you are in the middle of editing an existing publisher.

Publisher Details

Use the top part of the window to specify the publishers name. Then use the drop lists (these are self explanatory) to set their:

Gender (Brother / Sister)
Serving As (Unbaptised Publisher / Publisher / Regular Pioneer / Other)
Appointed As (Not Appointed / Ministerial Servant / Elder)

Assigned To

The publisher can be assigned to the Congregation and / or the Foreign-Language Group. The majority of Congregations do not sponsor a group. However, if you do, please remember to correctly assign each publisher.

Use the Notes area as you require.

Field Service Group

Click on the Manage button to use the Field Service Group Manager to add, edit, or delete groups and manage the assignment of publishers to specific groups.

Field service group You can also indicate if the publisher is the:

Group Overseer
Group Assistant

Notes Icon Only appointed brothers can be set as the Group Overseer.

Publisher Assignments

The left column presents a list of all possible assignments that are available in Meeting Schedule Assistant. This includes all the mandatory assignments and any custom assignments that you have added.

The right column is for setting up exclusion defaults. There may be instances where a brother can be available for some assignments and not others on the same meeting. As an example, the Watchtower Conductor would not be available as the Reader or for Microphones etc.

Note Icon Note that there are both Assistant and Student assignments (Bible Reading / Discussion / Talk)! Also, that default exclusions are only applied when creating new schedules. You need to also be aware that they are only applied to the active schedule type (for most users, this will be the default schedule type).

Custom Assignments

In the Publisher window, you can choose from a preset list of assignments and specify whether the publisher is available for all meetings or only for certain ones. The Custom Assignments feature allows you to include tasks not included in the default list. This feature accommodates any unique tasks within your congregation or any new assignments that may arise in the future. By using the Custom Assignments window, you can incorporate/remove/edit these assignments as needed.

Notes Icon Use the Options dialogue to specify which of these custom assignments you would like to include or exclude from each schedule.

Publisher Availability

Publisher Availability Unlike default exclusions, the publishers' availability takes affect no matter what the active schedule type is. These options determine which meetings that the selected brother will be available for. This will be applied across all assignments. These settings determine if his name will be available for a given meeting when creating a schedule.

Dates Not Available This displays the next twelve months worth of dates. Using this list you can uncheck any dates when the currently selected publisher might not be available.

Doing this will remove them from all assignments on the schedules you create that encompass the relevant dates. If appropriate, they will also be excluded from automatic assignments.

As with the availability check options described above, this set of dates are applied across all assignments.

There are times where you might want to adjust dates over several weeks at a time. To assist you with this there is the Date Range button. This opens a window which displays a calendar where you can select a range of dates from / to detailing when the volunteer is (or is not) unavailable.

Note Icon Please note that the dates displayed in the list will use the custom date format that is specified in the options dialogue (if set).

Publisher Availability - Order of Precedence

As you can see, there are several ways that you can indicate when a publisher is available. Each of them has their uses. However, they all come together to provide a composite overview of the publishers' availability for a given assignment. Thus, the application follows a strict order of precedence to decide if a publisher can be used:

It first checks the dates list to see if they are available for the meeting date (Dates Not Available)
Next, it checks their basic availability for the meeting type (Midweek Meeting / Weekend Meeting)
Finally, it looks at what their exclusion defaults are for the given assignment

Notes

The Notes field can be used to include any additional information about the publisher.

Notes Icon Did you know that you can filter on the publisher notes field when selecting students in the Meeting Editor?