NW Scheduler/Publisher - Updates, Support, and Suggestions

[IliasBosman]

Any news about the exciting project they working on ? 😁

[jayrtom]

I don't know if this has been asked before but is there any way to change the color of the territory map frontier?

[Indapipe]

On 12/26/2024 at 4:45 PM, Indapipe said:

Thx for the reply. I may not have expressed myself adequately. They are already assigned and appear in NWS schedules. The goal is to find the way for them to receive notifications of their assignment, either via a delegate or their own NWP app on their own device. But not being on the App Users list, I don't see a Person PIN for them to be able to install the app.

Hi bros, still hoping someone can give me some guidance on this one. To clarify, 3 young fellas are already scheduled to handle the iPad before and after the meeting. They appear in the schedules in both NWS and NWP. I'm trying to find how to send them notifications of their assignments, either to a delegated parent, or ideally to their own installed NWP on their own tablet. But because they are not yet publishers they are not on the list of App Persons. How can I set a parent as a delegate? How can I get them into the list of App Persons in NWS?

Edited December 30, 2024 by Indapipe

[Indapipe]

40 minutes ago, jayrtom said:

I don't know if this has been asked before but is there any way to change the color of the territory map frontier?

For clarity, I think João is referring to the territory borders.

[molnarj]

57 minutes ago, Indapipe said:

Hi bros, still hoping someone can give me some guidance on this one. To clarify, 3 young fellas are already scheduled to handle the iPad before and after the meeting. They appear in the schedules in both NWS and NWP. I'm trying to find how to send them notifications of their assignments, either to a delegated parent, or ideally to their own installed NWP on their own tablet. But because they are not yet publishers they are not on the list of App Persons. How can I set a parent as a delegate? How can I get them into the list of App Persons in NWS?

 

Here's a workaround that might work:

Go to the Persons information > Assign. See if he is a Life and Ministry Meeting Student. If not tick the box. A Personal Pin is created and he can now connect to the congregation with NW Publisher. To the right you can create an Task: Ipad. Tick it. That asignment appears in the Schedule > Duties section. You can select him for a duty and send App Data. He now should receive a notification.

Let us know if that worked.

[Indapipe]

2 minutes ago, molnarj said:

 

Here's a workaround that might work:

Go to the Persons information > Assign. See if he is a Life and Ministry Meeting Student. If not tick the box. A Personal Pin is created and he can now connect to the congregation with NW Publisher. To the right you can create an Task: Ipad. Tick it. That assignment appears in the Schedule > Duties section. You can select him for a duty and send App Data. He now should receive a notification.

Let us know if that worked.

That absolutely worked!! I had actually tried that shortly before I saw your post. Like I said earlier, the task had already been created and them assigned to it several days ago, and their names already appeared in all the schedules in both NWP and NWS. The challenge was to notify them of the assignment. And this is a great workaround.

 

For 2 of the boys, they don't have devices so I assigned a parent as a delegate and confirmed the parent can see the task! 👏 The other boy has his own tablet so he'll be able to install NWP and see his own assignments! 👏 Thx.

[foghorn]

3 hours ago, jayrtom said:

is there any way to change the color of the territory map frontier?

Yes - it is very easy. (See Pic) 1) To right of Terr Selection Dropdown, click the pencil   2) Select the territory type  3. Click the color block to open color selector.

[Floyd]

On 12/23/2024 at 6:45 AM, Floyd said:

Hopefully the new update will address this problem I just discovered. When a shared person has view only access to the person information he cannot actually view the emergency contact information. Normally clicking on the names displays the information on the right but it does not when in view only mode.

 

 

By the way this did get fixed with the recent update.

 

 

[BigMAC]

I have a tough question to ask. How do we know that there are witnesses behind this software? If we should recognize them by their fruit they are most likely not. Their answers are rude and as i said earlier. If my answers to a paying customer would be anything like their answers, my boss would fire me on the spot.
There is no relevant contact information or info about the company. No named persons either. When contacting them they want my e-mail to be nice. They write: “Let your words always be gracious, seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:6) and “Thoughtless speech is like the stabs of a sword, But the tongue of the wise is a healing.” (Proverbs 12:18).
If you are unable or unwilling to write a kind and loving message, please kindly do not contact us. Seek the help of elders in your congregation.

But why are their answers never salted and their words are stabbing!

They also claim, "Our team are all currently in full-time service, and all brothers are elders" I have hard to believe that, how do they have time if all are in full-time service. How do we know all brothers are elders? This feels more like a lie to be honest.

All these together makes me doubt that that the people behind this software are brothers, atleast their fruit proves otherwise.

So basicly, I am asking how do we know that NW is safe and secure when their responses are not what atleast I except from a brother or sister? We are considering to leave NW since this does not feel right. I have talked to other congs and they are also skeptical. We all just want to be sure that this is the best solution. It would be embarrasing if we all use software that are not what they say...

[AndyCase]

2 hours ago, BigMAC said:

I have a tough question to ask. How do we know that there are witnesses behind this software? If we should recognize them by their fruit they are most likely not. Their answers are rude and as i said earlier. If my answers to a paying customer would be anything like their answers, my boss would fire me on the spot.
There is no relevant contact information or info about the company. No named persons either. When contacting them they want my e-mail to be nice. They write: “Let your words always be gracious, seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:6) and “Thoughtless speech is like the stabs of a sword, But the tongue of the wise is a healing.” (Proverbs 12:18).
If you are unable or unwilling to write a kind and loving message, please kindly do not contact us. Seek the help of elders in your congregation.

But why are their answers never salted and their words are stabbing!

They also claim, "Our team are all currently in full-time service, and all brothers are elders" I have hard to believe that, how do they have time if all are in full-time service. How do we know all brothers are elders? This feels more like a lie to be honest.

All these together makes me doubt that that the people behind this software are brothers, atleast their fruit proves otherwise.

So basicly, I am asking how do we know that NW is safe and secure when their responses are not what atleast I except from a brother or sister? We are considering to leave NW since this does not feel right. I have talked to other congs and they are also skeptical. We all just want to be sure that this is the best solution. It would be embarrasing if we all use software that are not what they say...

 

As a body of elders, we prayed for Jehovah's holy spirit, discussed all the pros and cons, and then decided. 

We trust Jehovah to guide our decisions and that he wouldn't let us make such massive mistakes that would place our brothers and sisters at risk.

 

We also believe that the Branch, with Jehovah's direction, would issue advice if they believed using NWS was a problem. They are not naive and know that congregations around the world are using it.

 

We have done the best research we can do, with God's blessing. Hopefully Jehovah's organisation will make their own software in the future, which would solve all of these issues. But until then, we've done our best and will continue with NWS.

 

I suggest if you have such massive concerns, as a body you pray and pray again, and then stop using it. It's only a piece of software, it's not worth getting all stressed over. Give your time and efforts to shepherding and teaching.

 

We've found that by using NWS, the result has been that we have lots more time to spend on the more important things rather than the administration of practical matters.

[foghorn]

2 hours ago, BigMAC said:

All these together makes me doubt that that the people behind this software are brothers, atleast their fruit proves otherwise.

Have you considered their real fruit: an incredibly powerful tool to assist congregations around the world to more easily manage almost every aspect of congregation activity? Don't overlook how it is even more useful in locations where distances are great, infrastructure is limited, and travel is slow. Isn't that their REAL fruit?

 

To elaborate on your illustration: Picture a tree with many ripe fruits on it. Your friends tell you how delicious and nourishing the fruit is, and urge you to try it. So you select just one to taste, and you find it sour. Would you now declare the entire tree to be inedible, and view your friends with suspicion?

[AH173]

I have personally heard from the jw hub /stream meetings that 1) Belize Kriol, 2) Hawaii Pidgin and 3 USA English -  Minnewaska cong have made reference to the JW Publisher app to their respective congregations. 

[audio4tv]

Question: Is there a way that you can put a name into a student talk for a temporary person that may be in your congregation, such as a CG group member or the CO's wife, who would give a student talk or even a meeting part, but aren't part of your congregation, without adding them to your list of publishers? Has anybody done this or know of a work around? 

[BigMAC]

Don't take me wrong. I like and love the software. But it is suspicious that they reply as they do when you ask them questions politely and friendly. That really bothers me. Why do they do that? It's not too much to ask them to be be polite and friendly in their replies too.

[trottigy]

Just a few thoughts:

 

1. IT people are often not good with personal interactions. It is possible that these IT'ish brothers aren't either.

2. Written communication often seems harsh as it is difficult to add in the correct nuances we get from all the nonverbal cues we have when seeing a person speak.

3. We all have bad days – maybe you just communicated on an off day.

[carlos]

On 12/14/2024 at 3:00 AM, foghorn said:

The NWS website tells us that this app is used in 1,000's of congregations (with many languages). Suppose there are 1,500,000 users. Assume average congregation size of 75. That means about 20,000 congregations. With 2 administrators per cong, that means at least 40,000 administrators of NWS. If 0.1% of administrators submitted a help request, that would be 40 requests per day. It could easily take a help desk 15 minutes to research/respond to each help request. Suppose they could average 5/hr. That still means one person a full 8 hrs/day responding to issues. To devote one person/day to troubleshooting would likely be very expensive.

 

John, I understand your point and it's a fair one. But let us look at this from another viewpoint:

 

If there are really 20,000 congregations using NW Scheduler with a gold license, that means an income of $1,000,000 USD yearly. Even if the actual number is closer to half of that, it's still more than enough to pay a few people, including a couple support employees. Of course I have no idea of the real numbers, but my point is that this is not a work of love, it's commercial software. The more congregations, the more income. So there being many congregations and many support tickets is not an excuse not to provide good service.

 

 

[Angela]

New update on nw publisher isn't working on my oppo android, just going to black screen, tried deleting and reinstalling and rebooting my phone but nothing is working???

[quincy]

2 hours ago, Angela said:

New update on nw publisher isn't working on my oppo android, just going to black screen, tried deleting and reinstalling and rebooting my phone but nothing is working???

I have a few in our congregation that are having issue with android, their app is opening but not showing any of the Sunday schedule. Shows fine on apple and on the computer. 

[molnarj]

A sister in our congregation has exactly the same issue. She has an Oppo Reno 2z running Android 11. Her husband has an Oppo X5 with no problems. After tapping on her screen a few times she gets the option to write the required info but in the background the option to chose a language is visible. It shoudn't be there.

 

 

Edited January 1 by molnarj

[More4me2do]

Having made my living in the IT world let me address a few issues here.

1. This program/tool is used on different hardware platforms, different Operating Systems and by a different scope of individuals of varying degrees of knowledge of the technical world.

There is NO WAY that any company will offer support for the different scenarios that may arise because of all these variables. We as individuals have to make decisions to minimize error and malfunction. How can we do that?

1a. Get a hardware platform that is used by 50% of the users of the NW program. Use an operating system with the latest updates that is supported. Stay away from installing half backed programs. I have a Samsung S21 running Android 14 and if that combination has problems, I don't worry about it as hundreds of thousands others will complain and force the vendor to correct it.

1b. Find the tech savvy people in the congregation/circuit and that should be our 1st line of support. If they can't solve it then appoint someone who is tech savvy to contact the vendor's support line.

 

2. It is JUST a TOOL. We used to create our own fonts until the organization said Adobe's products will suffice, no more font digitizing department. Since we live in a world now where AI is used heavily by the organization and 90% of what we do is using virtual tools and it is in the cloud, the congregation also has to change. Just because someone is on the BofE does not mean he can do a credible job using the NW programs. In the early part of our computerization, you could not be the secretary unless you were enough tech savvy to do online reporting and communication. We have to learn and that takes time and is not always to our liking.

 

3. The FDS is charged with the distribution of spiritual food and the organization of congregations. If ANYONE interferes with that they will correct this. In the early days before there was JW Library brothers had created tools for tablets that made it easy for studying and conducting of Bible Studies. The developers of such tools were contacted and they ceased developing those tools because JW Library was rolled out. Likewise if the NW Developers do things that the FDS doesn't like we will know it. The FDS has been given the authority by Jesus to tell us what to do and they are not afraid to do so as it is to our benefit.

 

It is unfortunate that in all areas of life there are the haves and the have-nots in the material world, the talent world, the teaching world and now add to that the technical world. BUT as the scriptures tell us there is also an equalizing in those areas and that is what we the technical have-nots must strive to reach.

Edited January 1 by More4me2do

[Floyd]

On 12/31/2024 at 4:19 PM, BigMAC said:

Don't take me wrong. I like and love the software. But it is suspicious that they reply as they do when you ask them questions politely and friendly. That really bothers me. Why do they do that? It's not too much to ask them to be be polite and friendly in their replies too.

 

They have always been polite to me. As I said before many of us are from different countries and backgrounds so some may be a little more sensitive that others. One example is I once addressed someone as "Dude" and he was offended. I had to explain that where I am from "Dude" is an expression of endearment that you would use with a friend. As much as we would like it is not really possible to be all things to all people.

 

And even if they are not Witnesses its still like any commercial software we use. I don't question any software just because Witnesses didn't create it. We use lots of software in our spiritual work. Whether we trust it or not is a personal decision.

[foghorn]

Encountered an unusual situation - wonder if anyone else has seen it. Two publishers in cong have identical phones (Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra). NW Publisher works fine on one, but not on the other. 

 

Yesterday, they both encountered a strange error message. (Pic 1). This prevented any access to congregation info. I updated NWS this morning. Also today we went through process to delete app, clear memory, re-boot phone, reinstall app. Then I refreshed devices, refreshed person.

 

Now - the error message no longer appears, but his phone works fine; hers doesn't. NW Pub opens, but there is no data at all. No meeting schedule, no assignments, no duties - nothing. When I refreshed the person, notifications were triggered, but no data appeared. 

 

Looking for ideas on how to proceed next. I'm hoping to find a solution BEFORE I contact the help desk! 😉

[jayrtom]

On 11/25/2024 at 5:17 PM, Aja said:

I had an observation about the Territory function in the program: we really love the Territory function. It has simplified things and allowed us to be much more efficient about how we're covering our territory. We are running into one challenge though. By allowing friends to mark off houses as they're completed, we typically get a much better idea of territory being worked in the moment. But, if the friends or the brother taking the group out isn't careful, it can lead to some. Pretty confusing results. I was out working with my group this past weekend and found several streets worked with 80% of the houses marked as either "at home"  or "not at home". Sadly though, there are several houses and or apartments that are left unworked in the middle of these streets. Enough to create confusion as to whether or not they were worked. I would love it if, even if it was visible just for the appointed Brothers, there was a little more information given about when and who worked the houses in the app. This would allow you to notice who worked a certain street and go back verify with them what was worked and what wasn't if there are issues. Has anyone else run into this issue or know of any solutions?

 

To be clear, the territory functionality is a win for us and overall a huge net benefit. We would continue to use it even if they couldn't fix this problem. This is just a relatively minor annoyance, but one I think they could fix relatively easy.

We in Europe don't worry about that because we are not allowed to mark the howses as worked or not at home or do any sort of annotations about our work due to the RGPD regulations

 

 

On 12/30/2024 at 9:03 PM, foghorn said:

Yes - it is very easy. (See Pic) 1) To right of Terr Selection Dropdown, click the pencil   2) Select the territory type  3. Click the color block to open color selector.

 

Thanks for your answer but it appears to work only on PC. On the NW mobile app it still shows every boundary as black

 

On 12/31/2024 at 9:30 PM, trottigy said:

Just a few thoughts:

 

1. IT people are often not good with personal interactions. It is possible that these IT'ish brothers aren't either.

They couldn't give that excuse if not using Col 4:6 in they're speech

 

 

[Sooner Guy 89]

On 12/31/2024 at 12:21 PM, audio4tv said:

Question: Is there a way that you can put a name into a student talk for a temporary person that may be in your congregation, such as a CG group member or the CO's wife, who would give a student talk or even a meeting part, but aren't part of your congregation, without adding them to your list of publishers? Has anybody done this or know of a work around? 

We have the same situation with part time winter visitors in Arizona. Once we correspond with their home congregation CSC, we add them to a FSG for shepherding and midweek student parts. Once they go back home, we just show them as "Moved" until next time back. If you check this box it alleviates the issues with FS reports.

 

[Floyd]

Not receiving any field service reports. The app shows the report has been submitted and NWS shows nothing. I even checked another device with the same user. The app on the other device shows the report has been submitted even though it was not used to submit the report. So the data is in the cloud waiting for NWS to retrieve it but its not retrieving it.