NW Scheduler/Publisher - Updates, Support, and Suggestions

[Cruzer]

1 minute ago, Gruder said:

OK, so this is happening again. Last time I did the update and it corrected itself. This time not so much, what am I missing? 

I've seen the same in the past & currently. Confirmed a new connection last night but NWS still does not show the connection today. I'm sure it'll eventually show the new app person as it has in the past, sometimes it takes a day or two for some reason.

[Gruder]

17 minutes ago, Gruder said:

OK, so this is happening again. Last time I did the update and it corrected itself. This time not so much, what am I missing? 

Here is an example 

[1MKnight]

On 11/11/2022 at 2:59 PM, Old said:

This question comes up from a neighboring congregation. During mid-week meeting an announcement NW Publisher was endorsed by the BOE and it was suggested that all congregation publishers should use the app. This sounds foreign to me. 

I am not putting down the app, but I find endorsing it from the platform to be wrong, Any thoughts.

Don't quote me on this, but I'm fairly certain we had an announcement for the NW Publisher app. We've definitely had email blasts and the group overseers were all instructed to help publishers to use the app. Not mandatory, but it is the primary source for schedules now. 

[More4me2do]

In the transition to using NWS I am trying to solve an information overload. I have conducted the meeting for Field Service on Thursdays for the past 10 years and really don't need a reminder. Is there anyway to turn off the flooding of assignments with the conducting the meeting for Field Service on Thursday?

 

Thanks for any help and I anticipate that there will be teething problems also in making the switch from KHS used for public talks to NWS and public talks. Is there any way to block out a weekend when the congregation goes on Saturday to the Assembly and then the Sunday would be blocked off. In KHS they appear in a red font telling you this weekend is taken care of.

[jwhess]

Notifications can be turned on and off.  Are you asking if one 'specific' notification can be turned off?

[More4me2do]

34 minutes ago, jwhess said:

Notifications can be turned on and off.  Are you asking if one 'specific' notification can be turned off?

Yes the assignment for conducting the meeting for Field Service on Thursdays. It has been my regular routine for 10+ years and I don't need to be reminded of this assignment just like I don't need to be reminded for the day of the MWM. The Field Service arrangement appears in the Schedule tab, In my assignments of the 17 listed ones there are 10 for taking the lead on the Thursday meeting for field service.

 

So if you could help me out on how to disable these 10 Field Service assignments that appear in my assignment tab I would really appreciate that.

Edited November 30, 2022 by More4me2do

[computerwiz]

11 hours ago, More4me2do said:

Yes the assignment for conducting the meeting for Field Service on Thursdays. It has been my regular routine for 10+ years and I don't need to be reminded of this assignment just like I don't need to be reminded for the day of the MWM. The Field Service arrangement appears in the Schedule tab, In my assignments of the 17 listed ones there are 10 for taking the lead on the Thursday meeting for field service.

 

So if you could help me out on how to disable these 10 Field Service assignments that appear in my assignment tab I would really appreciate that.

 

You can turn off notifications for ALL duties, but not selectively just field service ones...

 

16 hours ago, More4me2do said:

Is there any way to block out a weekend when the congregation goes on Saturday to the Assembly and then the Sunday would be blocked off

 

NWS does some things when you schedule a circuit/regional assembly, but I think it could do better.  It will label the week as being special, but you can still assign meeting parts to it.  I don't know if there's other areas where such things can happen and are normal, but I would like to think we are united worldwide in that when there's a circuit/regional convention, there's no meeting and no parts during the week.

 

The brothers/sisters behind NWS are very good at taking suggestions and making them happen.  I think this can be one to suggest improvement on.  

[More4me2do]

15 minutes ago, computerwiz said:

 

You can turn off notifications for ALL duties, but not selectively just field service ones...

 

Thank you for answering what I assumed would be the case. I believe that is another area of improvements. There are certain assignments and duties that are more important then others. Hate to see my assignments flooded with interesting but not important assignments, might need to turn this off this assignment for Thursdays in the scheduler. Don't see the need for Field Service to appear in two places Schedules and Assignments.

 

I am coming from KHS public talk scheduling and NWS is really needing to add some of the features that KHS public talk coordination has. The Circuit thingy is nice but really don't see an advantage in that especially since we can have a Zoom talk once a month from other parts of the globe. I had to clean up the Circuit labeling because some put the dash before the number and others put it after the number like AZ-1A or AZ1-A.

 

Like with every other software tweaking and fine tuning is needed. Do they have a separate forum where support and exchange of conversation can take place with the DEVs?

[jwhess]

The notifications are for "reminder" purposes and not for "knowing" purposes.  Many people in life need a little jog of the memory to organize correctly.  The brother conducting todays meeting for service called last night to ask if I could handle it for him.  He hurt his back and in the confusion forgot the assignment.  He remembered when he was notified.

 

So it may be an irritation to you but maybe a kind reminder to others.  Sorry you can't just turn off one feature.  Just consider it a nudge, like when your mom used to nag you about putting your stuff away...🙂

[More4me2do]

1 hour ago, jwhess said:

So it may be an irritation to you but maybe a kind reminder to others.  Sorry you can't just turn off one feature.  Just consider it a nudge, like when your mom used to nag you about putting your stuff away...🙂

 

I understand the nudge part, but I have 16 assignments and 10 of them are for conducting Field Service on Thursdays, that is flooding and burying what is of importance plus in the schedule tab again it is listed with a person icon next to it.

 

After +10 years I know what is happening at 10am on Thursday morning for the rest of this year and the next as it has been for 10+ years in the past. Just like I know that every Tuesday it is MWM except when the CO visits the congregations that share the hall or when there are other theocratic events which then show up on the home page under Congregation Events. I don't need reminders for that and this should be true of anyone else who starts the morning with a prayer and meditating on what he will do to advance Kingdom Interests for the rest of the day.

 

In addition I don't think I will be conducting the Thursday F.S. during the CO's visit. These are all just observations to let the DEVs know what is happening in their program when persons that are actually making use of it either find abnormalities, inconsistencies or suggestions for improvements.

 

As with every other software product there are those who develop and design it and then there are those who daily use it and that may not necessarily be true of the developers. Sometimes an idea that the DEVs think is excellent can result in information overload plus may only be used sparingly by others.

 

Please, again if any one knows the answer to these two questions please help and assist.

1. Is there an official forum for support where the Devs are visiting? This site is more like a community help forum but I don't consider it as a forum where the Devs will interact with users as I am used to with other products.

 

2. What are the required permissions in NWS for the Talk Coordinator? I am asking this because it would be beneficial to have a profile that assigns the required permissions for the different user roles, Service Overseer, Secretary, Talk Coordinator and CLM overseer.

 

I am using a personal media organization software where for example I have Conventions going back to 2016 as well as modifying the original songs for Karaoke. If I have a problem with the software, then besides the website for downloading the product, there is a forum for posting questions and getting answers from those who have the key to the code.

Edited November 30, 2022 by More4me2do

[molnarj]

9 hours ago, More4me2do said:

2. What are the required permissions in NWS for the Talk Coordinator? I am asking this because it would be beneficial to have a profile that assigns the required permissions for the different user roles, Service Overseer, Secretary, Talk Coordinator and CLM overseer.

 

You can assign roles for everyone who is connected to the Program by Congregation Sharing > User Access. You can choose a specific role or adjust individual responsabilities. There is an Edit, View or None option.

 

[More4me2do]

Thank you very much for this helpful explanation and screenshot. Once the permissions for the Location and Circuits was set plus the Person Assign permission it worked and I could finish the import of Public Talk data from KHS plus correcting any errors that showed up in the log from the importing process.

 

Again thank you very much for your help.

[Cruzer]

On 11/29/2022 at 3:41 PM, More4me2do said:

In the transition to using NWS I am trying to solve an information overload. I have conducted the meeting for Field Service on Thursdays for the past 10 years and really don't need a reminder. Is there anyway to turn off the flooding of assignments with the conducting the meeting for Field Service on Thursday?

 

Thanks for any help and I anticipate that there will be teething problems also in making the switch from KHS used for public talks to NWS and public talks. Is there any way to block out a weekend when the congregation goes on Saturday to the Assembly and then the Sunday would be blocked off. In KHS they appear in a red font telling you this weekend is taken care of.

 

Hello my brother. As a possible work around to your question, have the brothers handling NWS create a new publisher profile of you. Instead of placing your name that's already in the program, have them use a variation of your name or abbreviation of it. For example, a new publisher profile for Tim Taylor could be something like, T Taylor or Timothy Taylor or Tim Taylor Jr. Have them check the box "Conduct Field Service Meetings" for this new profile. If this publisher profile is scheduled instead of your actual profile, then you will no longer see this as a notification or have "Field Service Conductor" listed in your "Assignments" tab of NWP.

[molnarj]

5 hours ago, JoshD said:

Hello my brother. As a possible work around to your question, have the brothers handling NWS create a new publisher profile of you. Instead of placing your name that's already in the program, have them use a variation of your name or abbreviation of it. For example, a new publisher profile for Tim Taylor could be something like, T Taylor or Timothy Taylor or Tim Taylor Jr. Have them check the box "Conduct Field Service Meetings" for this new profile. If this publisher profile is scheduled instead of your actual profile, then you will no longer see this as a notification or have "Field Service Conductor" listed in your "Assignments" tab of NWP.

 

This can work. But It also creates a problem with the number of publisher in te Congregation. So the averages for fieldservice activity will be incorrect.

 

I understand we all want the program to work like we want it to work. But at the moment the program is used in 174 countries by tens of thousands of elders and the app is used by hundreds of thousands publishers. There is no way we can adjust the program to everybody's wishes. So we can ask for adjustments but we must also accept some inconveniences. Not everything is possible. But luckily there is enough left to really enjoy the program. I could not live without it.

[More4me2do]

2 hours ago, molnarj said:

I understand we all want the program to work like we want it to work. But at the moment the program is used in 174 countries by tens of thousands of elders and the app is used by hundreds of thousands publishers. There is no way we can adjust the program to everybody's wishes. So we can ask for adjustments but we must also accept some inconveniences. Not everything is possible. But luckily there is enough left to really enjoy the program. I could not live without it.

 

I understand that the program should work in a way that pleases a majority. However to lump ALL or NOTHING in assignments is not really productive. You have to separate important from nice and not so important assignments. For Field Service the brothers will look at the schedule and if there is a person icon next to the midweek FS then that is me, I don't have to have my assignments flooded with reminders when that can change and that is done by our Field Service Overseer.

 

This request for separating important assignments like platform ones and non platform ones should definitely go into the suggestion box and be evaluated.

[howudodat]

I agree that there are way too many notifications with NWS.  For a large congregation where you get one part every 6 months, it makes sense.  For a congregation with 40 publishers, it's way toooooo many.  I have muted all of NWS notifications.  I already know I will have something to do at every meeting, so I just look.   But even my calendar let's me mute individual events.  

 

Just because something is done one way and accepted by the users, doesn't make it the right way to do it, nor should it close the door to suggestions for improvement.  When it comes to software anything and everything is possible Gen 11:6b, just a matter of time and effort.

 

As for a dev forum, no such thing.  Neither is there a public roadmap, bug tracker or feature request list.  All of which would be nice to have.

 

You can submit the request via their website.  I have had a mixed bag of results in submitting bug reports, and feature requests.  Unfortunately I cant say more good than bad, but your results may vary,

[Cruzer]

1 hour ago, howudodat said:

I agree that there are way too many notifications with NWS.  For a large congregation where you get one part every 6 months, it makes sense.  For a congregation with 40 publishers, it's way toooooo many.  I have muted all of NWS notifications.  I already know I will have something to do at every meeting, so I just look.   But even my calendar let's me mute individual events.  

 

Just because something is done one way and accepted by the users, doesn't make it the right way to do it, nor should it close the door to suggestions for improvement.  When it comes to software anything and everything is possible Gen 11:6b, just a matter of time and effort.

I'll submit this as a suggestion through their website, but perhaps something like the following would work. Not sure about iPhones, but on Android in the apps settings, individual notification types can be toggled on and off. First attachment is how my Google notifications currently appear. Second attachment is how NWP notifications currently appear and the third is how it can possibly be setup.

[computerwiz]

57 minutes ago, howudodat said:

Unfortunately I cant say more good than bad, but your results may vary,

 

The program is still in its infancy.  Only 3 years old if I remember right.  They're really taking a BIG bite out of all the things we do as JWs.  Perhaps too big of a bite... 

 

But being a software developer myself, I am super thorough and paranoid about things.  As a recent example, I have found that importing emergency contact details that were sent in by the publisher can have wonky results.  The 1st contact can have details get switched with 3rd contact.  Or even duplicated.  I've reported it, and supposedly it's fixed now.  But I do worry about how many people blindly used the feature and NEVER KNEW that it screwed things up.

 

It's pays to be a little paranoid....  

The current issue I just reported & hope to be fixed soon is that creating new groups (like an "Elders & Ministerial Servants" group) and then creating a new congregation event that is assigned to that group does not work at this time.  The event won't show up in their NW Publisher app.  So something changed in a recent update that broke it.

 

All I can say is to be patient with this new software.  Be paranoid & double-check everything.  One day they'll run out of new things to add, and it will finally just be maintenance & minor tweaks.  And then it will be stable & we won't have as many major bugs...

[More4me2do]

It looks like that this community seems to be the place to interchange ideas, solutions to problems and suggestions for future features. If this works then hopefully it will accomplish what a product support forum would do.

 

Just to address a few thoughts mentioned so far plus also a solution that I implemented to avoid being flooded by assignments.

 

First of all we are an organization of preachers and teachers, not of programmers that is why we stopped PC production in Wallkill and used worldly sources and the same applied for fonts thus the elimination of the font digitizing department. So my hat off and my deepest appreciation to those brothers developing a software solution for congregation administration. Be assured the chunk of time that is ripped out of your schedule will let appointed men in other congregations allow them to increase their time in shepherding the congregation more effectively plus the pioneers can spent more time in advancing Kingdom Interests.

 

There are basically three categories of individuals that use cars, One that just knows how to drive is, knows what the buttons do and what the gauges tell him. Next there are individuals that can also do all that plus they have a basic knowledge of how a car operates and they know how to jump start and do very basic maintenance. Thirdly there are the mechanics that can do all what I previously mentioned plus know inside out the workings of the car and can analyze the problems or workings of a car.

 

Likewise with any software including NWS, there are those who just want the basic understanding on how to use it, then you have those with technical know how that can solve minor problems and adjust settings. Finally you have the creators of the software and they know the deepest bowels of the software where bugs and potential conflicts for features reside. As a developer I would give more attention to those that have some technical know how as they can educate the rest of the users in their congregation.

 

So all of us users appreciate the work that goes into this project. But as already mentioned it evolves as tips, problems solving, helpful suggestions and feature requests are surfacing and that hopefully will eventually produce an administrative program that will allow the many of us to devote more time to the more important tasks at hand.

 

In my previous message I suggested it would be beneficial that reminders and assignments be basically separated into what takes place in the ministry and what takes place in the Kingdom Hall. I still stand by that as Kingdom Hall assignments are far more important to tend to and hopefully that this will be added sometime in the future.

 

In the meantime I solved the problem of being flooded with Conducting Field Service reminders by just leaving the field for conductor blank and they are gone from my assignments but they still appear in the schedule tab. For the time being job done.

 

Finally a total abnormality that I can't explain. In the Persons segment where it lists every publisher in the congregation, there are some that have duplicate entries. One entry has all the details and data, and the 2nd one just has the name, email address, gender, family and some ticked boxes under other. The weird part the one that set up the congregation doesn't see the duplicates, however since I was added after the initial setup and imported the KHS Public talk data, I am seeing the duplicates. I DID follow EXPLICITLY the detailed information on how to import KHS data into an existing congregation.

 

Any idea of why this would be the case that one sees duplicate entries and another does not? Oh the joys of spending time troubleshooting.

[Aja]

20 minutes ago, More4me2do said:

It looks like that this community seems to be the place to interchange ideas, solutions to problems and suggestions for future features. If this works then hopefully it will accomplish what a product support forum would do.

 

Just to address a few thoughts mentioned so far plus also a solution that I implemented to avoid being flooded by assignments.

 

First of all we are an organization of preachers and teachers, not of programmers that is why we stopped PC production in Wallkill and used worldly sources and the same applied for fonts thus the elimination of the font digitizing department. So my hat off and my deepest appreciation to those brothers developing a software solution for congregation administration. Be assured the chunk of time that is ripped out of your schedule will let appointed men in other congregations allow them to increase their time in shepherding the congregation more effectively plus the pioneers can spent more time in advancing Kingdom Interests.

 

There are basically three categories of individuals that use cars, One that just knows how to drive is, knows what the buttons do and what the gauges tell him. Next there are individuals that can also do all that plus they have a basic knowledge of how a car operates and they know how to jump start and do very basic maintenance. Thirdly there are the mechanics that can do all what I previously mentioned plus know inside out the workings of the car and can analyze the problems or workings of a car.

 

Likewise with any software including NWS, there are those who just want the basic understanding on how to use it, then you have those with technical know how that can solve minor problems and adjust settings. Finally you have the creators of the software and they know the deepest bowels of the software where bugs and potential conflicts for features reside. As a developer I would give more attention to those that have some technical know how as they can educate the rest of the users in their congregation.

 

So all of us users appreciate the work that goes into this project. But as already mentioned it evolves as tips, problems solving, helpful suggestions and feature requests are surfacing and that hopefully will eventually produce an administrative program that will allow the many of us to devote more time to the more important tasks at hand.

 

In my previous message I suggested it would be beneficial that reminders and assignments be basically separated into what takes place in the ministry and what takes place in the Kingdom Hall. I still stand by that as Kingdom Hall assignments are far more important to tend to and hopefully that this will be added sometime in the future.

 

In the meantime I solved the problem of being flooded with Conducting Field Service reminders by just leaving the field for conductor blank and they are gone from my assignments but they still appear in the schedule tab. For the time being job done.

 

Finally a total abnormality that I can't explain. In the Persons segment where it lists every publisher in the congregation, there are some that have duplicate entries. One entry has all the details and data, and the 2nd one just has the name, email address, gender, family and some ticked boxes under other. The weird part the one that set up the congregation doesn't see the duplicates, however since I was added after the initial setup and imported the KHS Public talk data, I am seeing the duplicates. I DID follow EXPLICITLY the detailed information on how to import KHS data into an existing congregation.

 

Any idea of why this would be the case that one sees duplicate entries and another does not? Oh the joys of spending time troubleshooting.

Do you notice any commonality between the individuals that have a duplicate? Like, they are all elders, they are all pioneers, they are people that were recently added. That might help you problem solve the issue. That being said, there can sometimes be discrepancies that can be resolved with a refresh. Personally, I would probably just delete the mostly blank entries since they don't have any data attached to them anyway. 

[More4me2do]

39 minutes ago, Aja said:

Do you notice any commonality between the individuals that have a duplicate? Like, they are all elders, they are all pioneers, they are people that were recently added. That might help you problem solve the issue. That being said, there can sometimes be discrepancies that can be resolved with a refresh. Personally, I would probably just delete the mostly blank entries since they don't have any data attached to them anyway. 

 

Thank you for helping there are no commonalities between the duplicates except none of them are appointed men or pioneers just regular publishers of both genders. It looks like since the person who created the congregation does not see the duplicates and judging from the data of the fully populated publisher's details that these may have been imported as some of the details like addresses are no longer current.

 

Next step is to see if others besides me see the duplicates also, if not then it may have something to do with the Talk Coordinator profile of permissions.

 

Again thank you very much for your help.

[computerwiz]

3 minutes ago, More4me2do said:

 

Thank you for helping there are no commonalities between the duplicates except none of them are appointed men or pioneers just regular publishers of both genders. It looks like since the person who created the congregation does not see the duplicates and judging from the data of the fully populated publisher's details that these may have been imported as some of the details like addresses are no longer current.

 

Next step is to see if others besides me see the duplicates also, if not then it may have something to do with the Talk Coordinator profile of permissions.

 

Again thank you very much for your help.

 

Just be careful with deleting.  That's going to end up being your solution...deleting the ones you can see (but others can't).

 

However, make sure any schedule that uses those duplicates is pointed to the correct person first....then delete the dupes.  Otherwise you'll end up with blank assignments...

 

If you have any trouble distinguishing the dupes from the non when looking at assignments, just put a number in the dupes' names, then go correct the assignments.

[More4me2do]

Thanks for the tips, since we will roll this out to the congregation in January, we have yet to do any assignments except public talks, Readers & Chairman and CLM. Since most of that is done by appointed men we will proceed with caution.

 

Again thanks for your advise to make things easier and not create more work by doing silly things.

[computerwiz]

2 minutes ago, More4me2do said:

Thanks for the tips, since we will roll this out to the congregation in January, we have yet to do any assignments except public talks, Readers & Chairman and CLM. Since most of that is done by appointed men we will proceed with caution.

 

Again thanks for your advise to make things easier and not create more work by doing silly things.

 

No prob.  I have a lot of experience troubleshooting issues and fixing them.  Not to mention I've probably sent 50 emails to NWS (not exaggerating) regarding bugs and suggestions.  Probably got tired of seeing my name.    But we got everything fixed up thus far.

 

Here's was my to-do list + some oddities I had to deal with when migrating from KHS to NWS.  Not sure if the oddities are still issues, but perhaps this will help you as well:

 

[More4me2do]

Well my to do list is starting and getting added to by the day. Just got a request of what will happen to fractions of hours that are remaining at the end of the month will they carry over and NWS remembers them or are they dropped and the publisher will have to take care of it. Also found out that 4:15 converts the time to decimal 4.25.

 

I am glad to be on Android as it easily sends the report to Hourglass and NWS seems to recognize it and ticks the month with the report sent. In Ministry Assistant there is now a new share entry namely NW Publisher.