Using the Group Editor

There may be times when you would like to schedule a group of employees to work the same shift. An example of this would be a staff meeting, or a training session that involves several people. Instead of entering the same shift several times into the schedule and assigning each employee individually for the same shift, you can schedule a group of people for one shift using the Group Editor.

To access the group editor, click on a cell to the right of the shift you wish to fill, as you would normally do to assign staff to a shift. However instead of selecting an employee from the drop down menu, click on the "Options" button which appears.

You can now use the arrow buttons to add employees listed on the left hand side to the list of staff who are schedule for the shift on the right hand side.

The group editor can be a useful tool when trying to decide who to schedule for a particular shift. The checkboxes in the middle allow you to narrow your choice of staff to who is available to work a shift, who is not working another shift on the same day or who is trained for the shift. There is also a list of how many hours have been worked vs. how many hours each staff member is available for in both columns.

You can also add notes to a shift by clicking on the "Add a Note" button. Shifts with notes assigned to them will appear in bold in the schedule, which you can view with the group editor.

Note: If you save a schedule using Excel's read-only mode (Click on File >> Save As >> Tools >> General Options >> Password to Modify) all notes will only be visible when you open the schedule with the right password.