NW Scheduler/Publisher - Updates, Support, and Suggestions

[jayrtom]

Has a Service Overseer of my congregation I Schedule the Service meeting conductors each month

We have only service field meetings for eveybody in the congregation (the last sunday of the month we arrange the pairs by group but there is always on conductor for the entire congregation)

I see that NWS works with the assumption that all service field meetings have the same conductor and are done by group..

 

If there are any ones that have the same configuration as my congregation, how do you do it in NWS? 

I woud like the same approach as the shedule of the midweek meeting parts, where I can see when was the last time this particular brother conducted the meeting, etc...

 

Like it is aparently I have to keep scheduling on excel with may lists and pass the names to NWS after completing...

 

Thanks

[VERDE]

1 hour ago, jayrtom said:

Has a Service Overseer of my congregation I Schedule the Service meeting conductors each month

We have only service field meetings for eveybody in the congregation (the last sunday of the month we arrange the pairs by group but there is always on conductor for the entire congregation)

I see that NWS works with the assumption that all service field meetings have the same conductor and are done by group..

 

If there are any ones that have the same configuration as my congregation, how do you do it in NWS? 

I woud like the same approach as the shedule of the midweek meeting parts, where I can see when was the last time this particular brother conducted the meeting, etc...

 

Like it is aparently I have to keep scheduling on excel with may lists and pass the names to NWS after completing...

 

Thanks

HI João,

That seems the right approach. Don't let go your Excel. At least for now....

 

 

[carlos]

2 hours ago, jayrtom said:

If there are any ones that have the same configuration as my congregation, how do you do it in NWS? 

 

Joao, your whole congregation meets for all the meetings for service, and every day a different brother conducts the meeting, is that correct?

 

That is the same we do except on Sundays, when we meet by groups. Meetings for service are based on locations. If they are all at the KH, then it's the same location for all. Then you can assign a different brother to conduct every day. If the assignments are repeated every week or every month (for example the same brother always conducts the meeting on Fridays, or every second and fourth Wednesday of the month) you can schedule a week or a month and then save a template. Then you just load the template for the next period and make any adjustments if needed.

 

Now you are right that the software doesn't show who are the brothers who haven't conducted for longer. You could make a suggestion about that to the developers.

[molnarj]

You can assign different Brothers to conduct a Fieldservice meeting. But make sure that in the section Assign under Person, you tick the option Conduct Field Service Meetings:

 

 

If you go to Schedule > Field Service, you can select a conductor like this:

 

But there is no option to view the History of Fieldservice assigments.

 

If you want to assign a certain brother to conduct a meeting for fieldservice for a certain group, you have to schedule a meeting for each group. To do this you can select a specific group instead of All Groups. See above. 

 

Hope this helps.

 

Greetings from Holland. (Cold and wet as always) 

 

 

Edited May 20 by molnarj

[molnarj]

A new release seems to be near. The translation of a new app version is online: v350. So I expect it will be 7.5.

[molnarj]

7.5 has arrived!!

[luisenriquereyes]

2 hours ago, molnarj said:

7.5 has arrived!!

 

Welcome to NW Scheduler 7.5!

We have added many, many new features, updates and improvements, many of which are based on suggestions we've received. Please carefully read this Overview and all the Release Notes before updating, as this version has some big changes.

***IMPORTANT*** Congregation Sharing security has been enhanced, which requires all congregations to re-setup Congregation Sharing.

If you are not a Congregation Administrator, please wait for a Congregation Administrator to first update and re-setup Congregation Sharing. ***IMPORTANT*** 

ONE Congregation Administrator should do the following:

1. Before Updating: Click Congregation > Congregation Sharing > Backup Shared Persons button. Save the file somewhere.
2. Update NW Scheduler
3. After Updating: Click Congregation > Congregation Sharing > Enter a new Sharing Password. 
   1. Note: All passwords must now be 12 characters or greater. You may reuse your existing password provided it meets this requirement.
   2. Note: If you changed the Sharing Password, remember to tell all other Shared Persons!
4. Click Congregation > Congregation Sharing > Shared Persons > Restore Shared Persons button and select the Shared Persons backup file you created in Step 1.
5. Tell all other Shared Persons they can now update and connect.

Warm Christian Love, New World Scheduler Team

 

NW Scheduler 7.5 Release Notes

NEW FEATURES

• Congregation Overview. Congregation view now includes a quick overview of your congregation, including Persons, Demographics and Recent Activity. This helps elders keep up-to-date with what is happening in the Congregation.
• Congregation Calendar. Congregation view now includes a Congregation Calendar. This optionally displays Congregation Events and/or Away Periods for elders, ministerial servants, pioneers or publishers.
• Managing and Scheduling Local Needs. Create and maintain a list of Local Needs subjects and speakers decided by the body of elders (sfl 20:15). These can then be allocated to upcoming Local Needs parts on the CLM Schedule, and easily adjusted if needed (e.g. Governing Body updates). See Schedule - Local Needs.
• Master Territory Map. You can now draw, or import from JW.org, your Master Territory Map Border. Afterwards, you can adjust how the map displays and save to file for physical printing (See km 8/00 p. 2). Labels can be added, e.g. displaying your Congregation name or neighboring congregations. Optionally display the Kingdom Hall location.
• Territories Dashboard. Territories view shows an overview of your congregation's territories, including Next to Assign, Recently Completed and Overdue. Graphs are shown for Completed per month and overall Completed, Currently being work and Not worked.
• Territory Campaign Management. Can now create specific campaigns, including the Name, Start Date, End Date and if the campaign is currently active. Track how many Territories have been assigned to the campaign, and how many are completed.
• Persons Date Last Visited. Added a new field and report for recording when a person was last visited. This can be used to ensure Disfellowshipped and Inactive ones are visited as per the directions. It can also be used to track when a publisher last received a shepherding visit.
• Custom Automatic Tasks. Can now create your own reoccurring Automatic Tasks that can be scheduled according to your needs. Can also disable System Automatic Tasks.

 

NEW TEMPLATES

• Public Witnessing Location Utilization. Shows how your Public Witnessing Locations are being utilized, and whether there is a need for more or less locations (sfl 23:12).
• Public Witnessing Publisher Reservations. Shows how many reservations each publisher is making over a period of time.
• Public Witnessing Schedule - Landscape.
• Address Notes. Shows all Address Notes from Publishes that have not yet been handled.
• Literature Requests Reoccurring.
• Added new Life and Ministry Meeting template called 1-per page Shaded.
• Added new Life and Ministry Meeting template called S-140.
  • Note: This template closely follows the official S-140.
• Local Needs report.
• Persons - Last Visited report.
• Territory Campaigns report.

 

UPDATES

CONGREGATION

• Congregation view now displays the Congregation Overview and Congregation Calendar.
• Congregation Information has been moved to its own menu item on the left.

CONGREGATION SHARING 

• Congregation Sharing security has been enhanced to use 256-bit encryption keys, key generation of over 100,000 derivations, improved algorithms, improved data expiry policies, and enforcing passwords of over 12 characters.
• Congregation Sharing data transfer has been greatly improved with data compression for faster synchronization. The algorithm has also been enhanced for greater reliability and to minimize sharing issues.
• Congregation Sharing view has been split into 4 different views: Overview, Shared Persons, Sharing Logs and Sharing Problems. The design has been greatly improved and simplified.
• Shared Persons will now automatically expire and be removed after 4 months of inactivity.
• Congregations can now optionally disable sharing of Publisher Reports.

BACKUP and RESTORE

• Elders and Ministerial Servants can no longer Restore data which they do not have access to.

CONGREGATION EVENTS

• Meeting Day Change event can now also change the Meeting Time. Simply set the Start Time.

MEETING ATTENDANCE

• Can now optionally disable recording “Online Meeting Attendance”.

INFORMATION BOARD

• Ordering of Congregation Announcements, Documents and Letters has been improved.
• Changing the order will no longer trigger an “updated” star on NW Publisher app, nor send a Notification.

GROUPS and FAMILIES

• Added new field called Family Type, which helps track the demographics of your congregation.

CIRCUITS, CONGREGATIONS & PUBLIC SPEAKERS

• Can now import selected Congregations and Public Speakers from a neighbor congregation's KHS export file. For example, if other congregations in your circuit use KHS, they can now send you their updated Public Speakers.

PUBLIC SPEAKER SHARING

• Improved reliability of Public Speaker Sharing, and many old or incorrect Circuits have been removed.
• Guest congregations are now able to share Public Speakers and make/receive Public Speaker Requests with all other congregations in the Circuit. The only difference between a Guest Congregation and a Primary Congregation is the ability to Approve or Deny other congregations.
• Added an icon and the ability to select if you are a Primary Congregation or Guest Congregation for each circuit you join.
• Past Requests, Denied Requests and Canceled Requests are now automatically deleted after 2 months. They can also be manually deleted at any time.
• You will now receive a warning notification if one of your Public Speaker Requests was Denied or Canceled by another congregation.
• Refresh Congregations and Refresh Requests have been separated into 2 separate buttons.

PERSONS

• Added a Spiritual Notes field to Spiritual. This allows elders to separate “Information” notes from “Spiritual” notes and restrict access accordingly.
• Added an Emergency Notes field to Persons Emergency. This allows elders to track Emergency Notes which can be shown on Emergency Contacts reports.
• Added “Temporary Accommodations for Disaster Victims” checkbox to Emergency, to record who would open their homes to disaster victims.
• Added new Latitude and Longitude fields to more accurately record where a publisher lives. 
  • Note: The existing Coordinates field will be removed in a future update. Please copy any existing Coordinates to the Latitude and Longitude fields.
• Added new Geolocate button to automatically locate and determine the publishers' Latitude and Longitude based on their address.

SCHEDULE - LIFE AND MINISTRY MEETING

• User Interface improved to allow for Living Parts and Local Needs selection, and make Congregation Bible Study scheduling easier.
• Added a new “Draft” checkbox to indicate the CLM schedule is only a draft. Draft schedules and assignments will not be sent to the NW Publisher app.
• Added a new checkbox to indicate that a part will be handled online (e.g. Zoom).
• Added the timing back to the front of Bible Reading and school parts.
• Added a new Filter when scheduling Apply parts called “Recent Any Part”.
• Added a new optional setting to “Avoid scheduling Family on same day”.
• Circuit Overseer name can now be added to the Service Talk. For example, if a substitute or training CO is giving that talk.

SCHEDULE - LOCAL NEEDS

• New Schedule - Local Needs view
• Create and maintain a list of Local Need subjects and speakers decided by the body of elders (sfl 20:15). 
• Allocate Local Needs parts to the CLM Schedule, and easily adjust if needed (e.g. Governing Body updates).
• See a history of which local needs were given in the last 18 months, by whom, and when.

SCHEDULE - PUBLIC TALKS - LOCAL

• Enter Past History has been redesigned to enter past public talk history more easily.

SCHEDULE - PUBLIC TALKS - AWAY

• Added a new option in Settings for “Max Away Speakers per week”. This will then gray out weeks when the maximum is reached.
• New “Pending” option when scheduling Away Public Talks. This can be used in cases when you have swapped speakers with another congregation, but not yet decided specifically which speaker will visit.

SCHEDULE - FIELD SERVICE

• Can now add a Link to a Field Service Meeting to be displayed on the NW Publisher app.
• Selecting the Conductor or Custom Field Service persons now uses the standard “Person” selection window. You can also see when they were last scheduled (based on day of week).
• Field Service can now be scheduled 1 additional month into the future.

SCHEDULE - PUBLIC WITNESSING

• Public Witnessing can now be scheduled 1 additional month into the future.

SCHEDULE - DUTIES

• When assigning Duties, added a new Filter for Recent Any Duty. This filter can also be used for Auto-Assign.
• When selecting a person for a duty, the standard “Person” selection window is now used.
• Added new Setting called “Weeks between duties” to optionally prevent brothers from being assigned duties multiple weeks in a row.
• Can now Import and Export Duties to/from CSV file.
• Scheduling duties will now show a warning if the person has an Away Public Talk.

SCHEDULE - CLEANING and GARDEN CARE

• Can now assign Cleaning and Garden care to the whole congregation. This will display on the NW Publisher app as a Duty for everyone in the congregation, including sending all persons Notifications and Reminders.

SCHEDULE - MAINTENANCE LDC

• Added a new Quick Step button to email everyone scheduled for a Maintenance Task, including showing details about the task and other people assigned.

SCHEDULE - CIRCUIT OVERSEER VISIT

• Can now add more partners for the CO and his wife, or anyone accompanying them. Use the + and - to add or remove additional partners. 

TERRITORIES

• Territories view has been split into 5 separate menus: Territories List, Territories List and Map, Master Territory Map, Campaigns and Territory Settings.
• Territories view now contains a Territories Dashboard showing an overview of your congregation territories, including Next to assign, Recently Completed and Overdue. Graphs are shown for Completed per month and overall Completed, Currently being work and Not worked.
• Territory Assignments have been updated and improved, to avoid discrepancies between the Territories List and what is seen in Territory Assignments.
• Added new “Not Completed in last 6/12 months Filter”.
• Added new “Currently Being Worked” filter.
• Territories assigned for the future (e.g. start of a campaign) will not show on the NW Publisher app until the day before.

TERRITORIES - Territories List and Map

• Added new Satellite and Dark map overlays. Adjust in Territory Settings.
• Can now select multiple addresses on the map, and then move them to another territory.
• Locate Addresses is now 3 times faster.
• Added a Delete all labels button.
• Added “Fine Zooming” when capturing the physical map. This only works with either OpenStreetMaps or Bing Maps.
• Do not calls will now show in red on the map.
• Can now add addresses outside of a territory boundary, e.g. for nearby car parking, etc.
• Added Convert to Phone Witnessing button, similar to Convert to Letter Writing button.
• Assigning a territory to a Field Service Group can now optionally be displayed for the whole congregation.
• Territories can now be assigned to Neighbor Congregations.
  • Note: This is for your reference only. Obviously, your data will not sync with other congregations.

TERRITORIES - Master Territory Map

• Draw the overall boundary of your territory.
• Download a KML file of your overall Territory Boundary from JW.org, then Import into NW Scheduler.
• Optionally display internal territory boundaries for selected categories.
• Adjust various settings for how the territory will display.
• Save to an image file for physical printing (See km 8/00 p. 2).
• Add Labels, e.g. displaying your Congregation name or neighboring congregations.
• Display an icon with the Kingdom Hall location.
• Display an icon for where all publishers live.
  • Note: Publishers must have Latitude and Longitude values entered for them to display on the map.

TERRITORIES - Campaigns

• Create specific territory campaigns, including the Name, Start Date, End Date and if the campaign is currently active.
• Track how many Territories have been assigned to the campaign, and how many are completed.

TERRITORIES - Territory Settings

• Added several more Address Display Formats and Apartment Display Formats. This affects printing and NW Publisher app display.

NW Publisher App (*version 3.5.0 and greater*)

• Elders are shown a warning to please write down or remember the Congregation PIN. As this is used to encrypt app data, forgetting the pin may result in all publishers having to reconnect to your congregation.
• Field Service Schedule will now show for 9 weeks into the future.
• Public Witnessing Schedule will now show for 9 weeks into the future, and reservations can be made during that time.
• Field Service and Public Witnessing Schedules will now only show days when something is scheduled.
• App Notifications have been greatly improved, and now show the date of any new assignments/duties/events.
• Added more options to “Publishers" view. Can now optionally enable Spiritual, Away Periods and Emergency Contacts. See App Features.
• Publishers - Spiritual will show basic spiritual information about the person, including date of baptism, privilege, pioneer status, Last Visited, App PIN, and any spiritual notes.
• Publishers - Away Periods will show when persons are currently away, or away within the next month.
• Publishers - Contact Information can now click an address to navigate to the address, and click an email address to send an email.
• Added a new option to automatically assign Hospitality if a hospitality request is made. See App Features.
• If an announcement is in the future, no notification will be sent.
• If an address has been marked as Do Not Call or Custom, but the buttons are disabled, will now show the Date of last visit and any notes.
• When adding new Addresses via the app, publishers can now include address coordinates. This can also be obtained from the publishers current location.
• Phone numbers can be clicked to automatically dial.
• Letter Writing maps can now also Copy address and Edit Notes.
• Changing the order of Information Board items will no longer send notifications or show a “new” star on the app.
• CLM Chairmain Notes will now show on the NW Publisher app for the CLM Chairman Assignment.
• Delegate parts and duties now highlight in orange on the app.
• Public Witnessing Reservations now show in Assignments on the app.
• If a territory is overdue, a red exclamation mark is shown on the app.
• Maintenance Duties will now show the Task Name as the duty title.

ME View

• No longer shows a warning if Incarcerated publishers are missing contact information.

QUICK STEPS

• New Quick Step to email Publishers their Field Service Group and Field Service Group Overseer information.

TASKS

• User Tasks can now be assigned to multiple people, and the Status will be shared among all people.
  • Note: This updates how the Territory Request Task and Hospitality Request Task work. These tasks are now shared and synchronized across all Territory Servants / Public Talk Coordinators.

EMAIL

• Can now send Territory Cards, Territory Addresses, Phone Witnessing Territories and Letter Writing Territories individually to the publishers who have been Assigned that territory.
• Added new Email Special Filter called “Other Group Captains”. This can be used to email all captains at once.
• Added a Copy Preview button to the Preview view.
• New Email Tags: [FIELD_SERVICE_GROUP], [FIELD_SERVICE_GROUP_OVERSEER], [FIELD_SERVICE_GROUP_OVERSEER_PHONE], [FIELD_SERVICE_GROUP_OVERSEER_EMAIL]

PRINTING

• Printing view now has a new Dashboard, showing various Congregation Summary Graphs.
• Added new Name Format “Last name First name”

UPDATED TEMPLATES

• Upcoming Public Speakers report now includes Public Talk Coordinator information.
• Emergency Contact report now includes COBE information and Emergency Notes.
• Territory Addresses report now includes an option to include Name and Phone.
• Added new CLM Assignment Slip option for “Assistants only”.
• S-13 can now Filter by various territory options.
• Territory Coverage report updated and improved.
• Territories Assigned report now includes Area and Type. Design improved.
• S-21 Overview for Circuit Overseers now includes a Count.
• Printing Territories and Territory Cards can now be Filtered by those Assigned.
• CO Details about the Host and Meal Arrangements reports now includes Notes.
• Persons - Spiritual now includes the Spiritual Notes.

NEW LANGUAGES

• Guadeloupean Creole Kréyòl Gwadloup
• Hebrew עברית
• Italian Sign Language Lingua dei segni italiana
• Kinyarwanda Ikinyarwanda
• Martiniquan Creole Kréyol Matinik̦
• Tandroy
• Tsonga Xitsonga
• Valencian Valencià
• Danish Dansk (NW Publisher app)
• Slovenian Slovenščina (NW Publisher app)

BUG FIXES

• Bug fixes are usually released in Build Updates. If you have a problem or bug, please click Me > Updates > Check for Updates

 

[Floyd]

Has anybody applied the 7.5 update? Has anybody experienced any issues?

[Ysaias]

1 hour ago, luisenriquereyes said:

Welcome to NW Scheduler 7.5!

We have added many, many new features, updates and improvements, many of which are based on suggestions we've received.

 

Yes, many many many new features and improvements. Is an omnibus of changes.

 

 

 

[Sooner Guy 89]

35 minutes ago, Floyd said:

Has anybody applied the 7.5 update? Has anybody experienced any issues?

 

I just did the update as Admin/Secretary. Followed the instructions with zero issues. From the 'Shared Persons' no one has reconnected yet, but it seems to be working well. I checked all the 'User Access' settings and they imported perfectly.  As always, I create a backup before updating just in case.  😀

[Ysaias]

3 minutes ago, Sooner Guy 89 said:

I just did the update as Admin/Secretary. Followed the instructions with zero issues.

 

Me too, so far so good.

 

As of now, I think this app is only surpassed by the JW Library apps. Don't you agree? May Jehovah continue blessing their hard work.

[luisenriquereyes]

44 minutes ago, Floyd said:

Has anybody applied the 7.5 update? Has anybody experienced any issues?

Just updated. No major issues so far.  I did notice that the new Congregation Calender some of the Congregation Events days in the calendar correctly. 

[luisenriquereyes]

34 minutes ago, luisenriquereyes said:

Just updated. No major issues so far.  I did notice that the new Congregation Calender some of the Congregation Events days in the calendar correctly. 

I meant they show in-correctly.  For example,  we have our convention as an Event of three days, but the calendar only shows it as two days. 

[carlos]

When I updated NW Scheduler, I received a warning saying there is only one congregation administrator, while it's recommended to have at least two. This is common sense.

 

However, I just made sure and we already had three elders with congregation administration permission set to write. Do I need to do something else?

[computerwiz]

12 minutes ago, carlos said:

When I updated NW Scheduler, I received a warning saying there is only one congregation administrator, while it's recommended to have at least two. This is common sense.

 

However, I just made sure and we already had three elders with congregation administration permission set to write. Do I need to do something else?

 

Not 100% sure, but if I saw such a message and thought my setting were right, I'd remove them as admin, save it, then add them back & save again.  Then I'd feel better...

[Cruzer]

 

In the "Demographics" section in the "Congregation Overview" tab, there's a graph that displays "single", "couple", "family", "single parent family" and "widow". How is a publisher set to fall under one of those categories?

[Tortuga]

30 minutes ago, Cruzer said:

 

In the "Demographics" section in the "Congregation Overview" tab, there's a graph that displays "single", "couple", "family", "single parent family" and "widow". How is a publisher set to fall under one of those categories?

It's in the Groups and Families>Families. If I am doing it right, you have to select the individual in the left column and then designate their status using the drawdown list in the middle column. It doesn't seem to be worth the time or effort...

[Tortuga]

SCHEDULE - CLEANING and GARDEN CARE

Can now assign Cleaning and Garden care to the whole congregation. This will display on the NW Publisher app as a Duty for everyone in the congregation, including sending all persons Notifications and Reminders. 

 

We had already created an Other Group of everyone in the congregation that we use for Major Hall Care. How is this new feature different?

[Floyd]

1 hour ago, carlos said:

When I updated NW Scheduler, I received a warning saying there is only one congregation administrator, while it's recommended to have at least two. This is common sense.

 

However, I just made sure and we already had three elders with congregation administration permission set to write. Do I need to do something else?

 

I saw that before I restored the shared persons and then after I restored the shared persons that message went away.

[carlos]

1 hour ago, computerwiz said:

Not 100% sure, but if I saw such a message and thought my setting were right, I'd remove them as admin, save it, then add them back & save again.  Then I'd feel better...

 

4 minutes ago, Floyd said:

I saw that before I restored the shared persons and then after I restored the shared persons that message went away.

 

Thanks!

[Floyd]

Deleted post.

Edited May 24 by Floyd

[Floyd]

Now it takes almost a full minute for NWS to open before even starting to sync. I see this image for 54 seconds.

 

[Tortuga]

I like being able to see the Away dates on the calendar, I wish there was a way to view it by Field Service Groups too

[Floyd]

Now all of the territories show up as Congregation territories instead of personal or group.

 

Update: They were all converted to Congregation. When I change one back to Group it disappears completely from the app. And, before anyone asks, I have also updated the app. Nothing shows for Group.

 

Changing it back to Personal seems to work.

Edited May 25 by Floyd

[audio4tv]

I have not been able "Verify" my computer since updating. Email should be valid. Not sure why I can't get passed this point. Have tried the Resend code and it doesn't seem to go through. Anyone else have this issue? Same email (Gmail), so not sure what is up.