Pink Fairy Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I really wanted to like HST Online, especially because my current homeschool planning software (HER) is now obsolete and won't run on anything higher than Vista. But alas, the program is so clunky and so difficult to maneuver in that I finally had to accept defeat. HST Online is such a dog that I don't think I can face HST Plus. What are my other options for planning software, or are there even any good ones out there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaleidoscope Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I'm so sorry. That's so disappointing when it doesn't work. I do not have any suggestions, I love HST Online so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I really wanted to like HST Online, especially because my current homeschool planning software (HER) is now obsolete and won't run on anything higher than Vista. But alas, the program is so clunky and so difficult to maneuver in that I finally had to accept defeat. HST Online is such a dog that I don't think I can face HST Plus. What are my other options for planning software, or are there even any good ones out there? Sorry it's not working for you. I've been very pleased with it so far and am still finding some new tricks as I input plans. I've been using HST Plus for years and I'm pretty sure that if you don't like HST Online you probably will really not like HST Plus. I have found the online program much easier to use than the plus program. The only other one I've heard a lot about is the Well Planned Day but from what I'm seeing, the lesson planning part isn't even up and running yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Fairy Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 You guys like it, huh? I've heard other people say the same, which is why even after two days of trying I've been reluctant to give up. It's nothing complex at all, just creating a simple lesson plan for Teaching Textbooks. But it keeps doing weird stuff, and the last straw was when it randomly put the lessons in order like this: 1 10 2 20 3 30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moxie Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I think you need to change the sequence numbers to 1.0 1.1 1.2 2.0 2.1 2.2 Or something like that. One of the help videos talks about the sequence numbers. The learning curve is a bit...steep...with HST. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 scholaric.com is reasonably priced ($1 per child per month), and it is internet-based so it is forever updated, and the learning curve is the opposite of steep. Think "teacher planner book" online, with integrated grade book, report card and attendance/time tracking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaleidoscope Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 You guys like it, huh? I've heard other people say the same, which is why even after two days of trying I've been reluctant to give up. It's nothing complex at all, just creating a simple lesson plan for Teaching Textbooks. But it keeps doing weird stuff, and the last straw was when it randomly put the lessons in order like this: 1 10 2 20 3 30 Oh it too me a few days to figure it out and get comfortable with it. As far as the last issue you had, you just need to add leading zeros. There is an option to do that. If your highest number has 3 digits use 2 leading zeros. You have to keep the same number of digits all the way through. What threw me was realizing I had to schedule tests before lessons. Whatever you have the least of you schedule first so you can schedule everything else around those dates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firestar Academy Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 i use homeschool sked tracker. totally free. keeps tracks of courses, lessons, quizzes, tests, hobbies, reading lists and transcripts. ' robin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I think you need to change the sequence numbers to1.0 1.1 1.2 2.0 2.1 2.2 Or something like that. One of the help videos talks about the sequence numbers. The learning curve is a bit...steep...with HST. :grouphug: You shouldn't have to do this. The sequence numbers are called "Day Numbers" in the online version. Mine are all whole numbers. Are you working in the Lesson Plan Section? If so, I would create a lesson plan named "Teaching Textbooks Grade 3" or whatever is appropriate. Then click on the "Add" button and click "Multiple". On that screen you can select the subject/course, activity, and resource. I usually leave everything at the top blank at this point. Under Day Number Options I would say Start on 1 and Increment by 1. Under Page/Chapter/Lesson Options, I would pick Auto-Increment. Then for Teaching Textbooks it would probably "one-part". I would pick "Use Numbers" on the next line and then use the lead text "Lesson" (with a space after it unless you want the number right next to the label). Start with 1 and end with however many lessons are in your book, I'll just say 180. Increment by 1, leading zeros 0. Once you do that you should be able to click preview to make sure it looks the way you want it too. You *should* end up with something like Day 1 Lesson 1, Day 2, Lesson 2, etc. If it does you can accept those items and they should be there. I've been then going back and editing items to add directions or the topic if I want. Once you edit the first day you can use the "previous" and "next" buttons to navigate between lesson items. I've used TT but can't remember if the tests are numbered in as a lesson. If they aren't it makes this process a little stickier. You can put the tests in if they are at regular intervals first by changing the increment number and then use the little button that says "skip over numbers that are already in use" to get the lessons to file inbetween the tests or you can do it like I usually do and just do a section of lessons and then insert the test :) I think they have a video to show you how to do these types of more complicated set-ups. If you have a plan that has "Weeks" and "Days" ie Week 1, Day 1, Week 1, Day 2 you would pick "two parts" under the auto-increment section and fill in the blanks. I hope this isn't too long and annoying. I just remember how frustrated I was when I was first using HST plus and how I wished I could sit down next to someone and see how to use it. It really is worth it to watch the videos in order to "see" some of the tricks. I just found a whole new section I wasn't aware of today by reading their discussion boards. Now I need to figure out how to use it :) Best wishes, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I really wanted to like HST Online, especially because my current homeschool planning software (HER) is now obsolete and won't run on anything higher than Vista. But alas, the program is so clunky and so difficult to maneuver in that I finally had to accept defeat. HST Online is such a dog that I don't think I can face HST Plus. What are my other options for planning software, or are there even any good ones out there? You might want to try plus. I greatly prefer plus over the online interface, but am sticking with the online one because my son needs to access it from his father's house as well as mine. And because which computer is working on any given day is questionable. But I think the drop down menus on the Plus version are more intuitive than the way the online version is set up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Oh it too me a few days to figure it out and get comfortable with it. As far as the last issue you had, you just need to add leading zeros. There is an option to do that. If your highest number has 3 digits use 2 leading zeros. You have to keep the same number of digits all the way through. What threw me was realizing I had to schedule tests before lessons. Whatever you have the least of you schedule first so you can schedule everything else around those dates. LOL, I've never used leading zeros, and never had a problem. I also haven't done tests before lessons, lol...but that makes sense. I tend to tell it to do the day numbers by twos, so that leaves gaps for me to go back and plug the tests or quizzes into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 I hope this isn't too long and annoying. I just remember how frustrated I was when I was first using HST plus and how I wished I could sit down next to someone and see how to use it. It really is worth it to watch the videos in order to "see" some of the tricks. I just found a whole new section I wasn't aware of today by reading their discussion boards. Now I need to figure out how to use it :) Best wishes, What section? Maybe I don't know about it either! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 What section? Maybe I don't know about it either! Oh, I'm sure everyone else knows about it - LOL. On the home menu where it has agenda, then lesson plans and then on the other side "Students". I had NEVER opened the students box. Didn't know I could schedule from there, didn't know it existed until today until I was reading an answer on the discussion board. I need to make it a habit to go over there and read questions that have never occurred to me to ask :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 LOL, I've never used leading zeros, and never had a problem. I also haven't done tests before lessons, lol...but that makes sense. I tend to tell it to do the day numbers by twos, so that leaves gaps for me to go back and plug the tests or quizzes into. I've never used leading zeros either . . . can someone explain why I should be using them? I've got lesson plans that have hundreds of days and have never a problem with having some as one-digit and others at three-digits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaleidoscope Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 LOL, I've never used leading zeros, and never had a problem. I also haven't done tests before lessons, lol...but that makes sense. I tend to tell it to do the day numbers by twos, so that leaves gaps for me to go back and plug the tests or quizzes into. I've never used leading zeros either . . . can someone explain why I should be using them? I've got lesson plans that have hundreds of days and have never a problem with having some as one-digit and others at three-digits. The leading zero issue will only matter if you ever needed to sort your lessons by Page/Lesson/Chapter. If you never click that it would probably always stay in the order in which it was first generated. The doing the day numbers by twos makes sense. I like that. Gives me the chance to fix issues along the way. I'm going to start doing that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Fairy Posted July 25, 2012 Author Share Posted July 25, 2012 You shouldn't have to do this. The sequence numbers are called "Day Numbers" in the online version. Mine are all whole numbers. Are you working in the Lesson Plan Section? If so, I would create a lesson plan named "Teaching Textbooks Grade 3" or whatever is appropriate. Then click on the "Add" button and click "Multiple". On that screen you can select the subject/course, activity, and resource. I usually leave everything at the top blank at this point. Under Day Number Options I would say Start on 1 and Increment by 1. Under Page/Chapter/Lesson Options, I would pick Auto-Increment. Then for Teaching Textbooks it would probably "one-part". I would pick "Use Numbers" on the next line and then use the lead text "Lesson" (with a space after it unless you want the number right next to the label). Start with 1 and end with however many lessons are in your book, I'll just say 180. Increment by 1, leading zeros 0. Once you do that you should be able to click preview to make sure it looks the way you want it too. You *should* end up with something like Day 1 Lesson 1, Day 2, Lesson 2, etc. If it does you can accept those items and they should be there. I've been then going back and editing items to add directions or the topic if I want. Once you edit the first day you can use the "previous" and "next" buttons to navigate between lesson items. I've used TT but can't remember if the tests are numbered in as a lesson. If they aren't it makes this process a little stickier. You can put the tests in if they are at regular intervals first by changing the increment number and then use the little button that says "skip over numbers that are already in use" to get the lessons to file inbetween the tests or you can do it like I usually do and just do a section of lessons and then insert the test :) I think they have a video to show you how to do these types of more complicated set-ups. If you have a plan that has "Weeks" and "Days" ie Week 1, Day 1, Week 1, Day 2 you would pick "two parts" under the auto-increment section and fill in the blanks. I hope this isn't too long and annoying. I just remember how frustrated I was when I was first using HST plus and how I wished I could sit down next to someone and see how to use it. It really is worth it to watch the videos in order to "see" some of the tricks. I just found a whole new section I wasn't aware of today by reading their discussion boards. Now I need to figure out how to use it :) Best wishes, See, that's exactly what happened. I tried to get fancy because it was tedious doing it the other way. They say in the help section: If your tests or other inserted items do not fall at regular intervals, you can still use this process. Set up the interval items first as above using the closest increment you can. Then manually adjust your sequence numbers so all your interval items are properly spaced in the Lesson Plan. After that you can enter the regular lessons around the existing items as noted above, remembering to check the `Skip' box. I was totally ready to manually sequence my numbers, but I can't figure out how. :confused: So I tried the reset day option, but that just screwed up everything that was actually looking good before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 See, that's exactly what happened. I tried to get fancy because it was tedious doing it the other way. They say in the help section: If your tests or other inserted items do not fall at regular intervals, you can still use this process. Set up the interval items first as above using the closest increment you can. Then manually adjust your sequence numbers so all your interval items are properly spaced in the Lesson Plan. After that you can enter the regular lessons around the existing items as noted above, remembering to check the `Skip' box. I was totally ready to manually sequence my numbers, but I can't figure out how. :confused: So I tried the reset day option, but that just screwed up everything that was actually looking good before. You can manually sequence the numbers by using the "edit" function. You can either select one record and do one at a time or you can select multiple records and reset a group at a time. Though to reset a group you'll need to be able to change the numbers by the same amount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 See, that's exactly what happened. I tried to get fancy because it was tedious doing it the other way. They say in the help section: If your tests or other inserted items do not fall at regular intervals, you can still use this process. Set up the interval items first as above using the closest increment you can. Then manually adjust your sequence numbers so all your interval items are properly spaced in the Lesson Plan. After that you can enter the regular lessons around the existing items as noted above, remembering to check the `Skip' box. I was totally ready to manually sequence my numbers, but I can't figure out how. :confused: So I tried the reset day option, but that just screwed up everything that was actually looking good before. Gotcha, that way sounds hard. Do it my way :) If you have everything entered but the tests then click on the box above the days, to select all of them. Reset them starting with the number 1, with intervals of 2. That way yours days will end up 1, 3, 5, etc. That leaves you space to manually put in the tests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenaj Posted July 25, 2012 Share Posted July 25, 2012 Gotcha, that way sounds hard. Do it my way :) If you have everything entered but the tests then click on the box above the days, to select all of them. Reset them starting with the number 1, with intervals of 2. That way yours days will end up 1, 3, 5, etc. That leaves you space to manually put in the tests. I love this idea. My sequential brain will probably fight against it just because I like everything to be completely in order (I used to be an accountant) but this is such a simple solution to the issue that I may have to try it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Fairy Posted July 26, 2012 Author Share Posted July 26, 2012 Okay, I gave myself a break to recover my sanity, and now I'm going back in to try your suggestions. Wish me luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shukriyya Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 OP, I tried HST online recently after years of using homeschoolskedtrak because I was tired of the ads on skedtrack (the reason it's free). However I found it extremely and unnecessarily complicated. I wanted to love it based on what everyone else said but it just didn't work for me. After reading a thread on non-planners I realized why. With skedtrack I can key in all my subjects, extras and the days and weeks, amount ot time they'll be happening etc so the year is ready to go *but* and this is the great part I can then use it as a way to log precisely what we've done. So if something doesn't get done on the day it's scheduled or something else gets done instead I can simply log what actually occurred with no issues. For me it works really well because I'm somewhere in the middle of being an uber-planner and non-planner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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