Columns

Columns and templates

Columns are the core of your grade table. Here you will find which properties a column has, how to create one, and how templates automate assessments you use again and again.

What is a column?

A column is one assessment — an exam, a classwork grade, a homework — on a given date. Each column has its own grading system and its own settings. You can add as many columns as you like and combine different systems.

Grade table with several column types — One table can hold columns with grades 1–5, percent, a counter, and plus/minus at the same time.

Creating columns

There are two ways to add a column:

1. From a template

Open the subject and click the green + Column button. In an empty subject you can also pick Test, Classwork, or Homework. The button opens “Add custom column”.

2. Custom column

In that dialog you set the name, the grading system, the date, and the category. Presets live in Settings and fill the fields when the name matches.

Dialog for creating a custom column — The “Add custom column” dialog, with name, grading system, date, and further options.

Success column

In the “Custom column” dialog, next to the ordinary column, there are two special buttons: Create incidents column and Add success column.

The success column counts positive achievements, for example a vocabulary champion. Plus raises the counter by 1. Each success has a percentage you set and counts in a category such as classwork. With no success, nothing is counted. How it works in full, including whether a plus is 100% or 75%, is under Grading systems. The arithmetic is under Grade calculation.

Column properties

When you create or edit a column you can set these properties:

Property	Description	Required?
Name	Label of the column (for example “Test chapter 3”)	Yes
Date	When the assessment took place	No
Semester	Assigned to semester 1 or 2	No
Grading system	How it is graded (+/~/−, grades, points, …)	Yes
Max. points	Only for the points system: the maximum score	Yes (for points)
Category	Assigned to a column template	No
Color	Color mark in the header	No
Note	Internal comment on the column	No
Bold	The column name is shown in bold	No
Pinned	The column is fixed on the left (it does not scroll away)	No
Locked	The column cannot be edited	No
Excluded from the average	The column is ignored in grade calculation	No
Empty cells	Count as the neutral default, or ignore them. Default for new accounts: 55% (changeable in Settings).	Yes (for grade systems)

Actions per column

Click the pencil in the column header. That opens the menu: edit, pin, lock, or delete. Deleting moves the column to the recycle bin. It stays there until you delete it for good. There is no automatic deadline. Enter moves one cell to the right. Cell color follows the grade. The header color is set in the column dialog. There is no separate color for a single cell.

Column context menu with options — Column context menu: Edit, Move (left/right), Hide, Pin, Lock, Delete.

Tip: You can also drag a column by its header — that is usually faster than the menu.

Column templates (presets)

If you keep creating the same kinds of column, you can define templates and reuse them:

What is saved: name, grading system, and color
Quick access: When you create a new column, pick a template — every field is filled in
Management: You create and edit templates in Settings
Sharing: Templates can be shared with colleagues automatically when a class is shared

Manage templates in Settings

A practical example

Mr Schmidt teaches mathematics. He creates these templates:

Class test — grades 1–5, color: red
Test — grades 1–5, color: orange
Classwork — +/~/−, color: blue
Homework — Yes/No (does not count toward the average)

Each semester he then creates new columns from these templates — one click, and every setting is correct.