General Hints & Tips

The timetables are best viewed using Internet Explorer 5.0 or newer. To view the timetables without scroll bars whenever possible, your resolution should be set to 1024×768. Finally, the timetables do make use of Macromedia’s Flash technology, so you may be asked to install this software if your machine does not already support it.

Printing

Should users choose to print out portions of the timetable for use when they are away from an Internet-connected computer, please follow these suggestions for best results.

• Select Landscape print mode. Not all columns in the timetable will fit on one page in portrait mode.
• In Internet Explorer, users can choose to print background images and colors, but the default is not set up to do so. To change this, select Tools, then Internet Options, then Advanced, and check the box under Printing.
• To save paper and ink, use the search capabilities of these Web-based timetables to list only the areas or courses you are interested in, then print the results, rather than printing all 399 courses.
• Approximately 40 courses will print per page, except the first page, which will contain the search parameters.

Searching

The image below is an example of the many types of searches that can be performed to locate the courses you need.

In this particular example, the user has chosen not to use one of the Quick Links on the left, but rather to define the search parameters. Our test user has decided to search for all courses where the Section ID starts with “AC,” which then returns all seven courses being offered in the Fall 2002 semester in Accounting. The results line directly above the course listing confirms this and notes the date and time the search took place.

Timetable Guide/Course Abbreviations

Other options for defining or narrowing a search are available. For instance, the example above searches in the Section ID field. However, clicking on the top drop-down selector will show a list of all searchable fields, e.g., Instructor, Start Time, Days. Results obtained will be ordered by the choice made in this top drop-down selector and secondarily sorted by the choice made in the drop-down selector below the first. The default option for both drop-down selectors is Section ID.

For example, let’s say you need to search for a particular instructor, but you want the results secondarily sorted by the start time for the course. You would select “Instructor” in the top drow down and then “Starts” in the second drop down.

The next drop-down selector lets users define how they want their search performed. The default option is Starts With, which means the search will be performed by looking for matches at the beginning of the data in the chosen field.

The image above has Starts With chosen, and then “AC” was entered into the search field. This will perform a search for any Section ID values that begin with “AC.” The search is not case sensitive, so “ac” would have worked just as well.

Finally, notice that to the right of the “GO” button are explanations for each option of this drop-down selector. The instructions change to match the chosen selection.

Most of these options are fairly self-explanatory, but the Range option can be a bit tricky at first. This option allows users to search for results on any field based on a range they define. To define this range, certain steps must be taken. First, the low end of the range must be entered, followed immediately by a plus sign (+) then followed immediately by the high end of the range.

An example of how to do this can be seen by clicking on the Evening Courses Quick Link, which uses a range of time to bring back results. For this circumstance, our low-end range was 17:00 (time must be entered in 24-hour format and must use a colon between hours and minutes) followed by a plus sign (+) then followed by 23:00 as the high end of the range.

Follow these steps to create the entire search for Evening Courses:

1. Select “Starts” from the first drop-down selector because we want to search for courses that start within this time period.
2. Select “Range” from the second drop-down selector because we want to define a range of times within which courses could possibly start.
3. Enter “17:00+23:00” into the search field.
4. Click the “GO” button to retrieve the courses.

One final note on defining searches: Although the Quick Links are handy for both retrieving common courses and learning how to create searches, searches similar to the UC Gen ED Courses Quick Link cannot be performed by users at this time. We hope to include this functionality soon.