helpmaster | Homeschool Planet Help

This page lists the changes that have been made to Homeschool Planet so far. You can also check out the list of upcoming features to see what is coming next.

2018/7/7 – Version 1.17 update
New features and enhancements:

Color by Student! Many of you have asked for the ability to color your calendar according to your students, and it is now available. Each student has a color selection in her or his profile, and the “Theme & Colors” panel of the “Settings” now has a “Colors” tab where you can choose how to apply the subject and student colors to your calendar.
When using the Rescheduling Helper to reschedule assignments, if any of those assignments are marked as partially complete you will be given the option to continue to display the assignment on the old date, as well as moving it to the new date. That will make it easier to see which days the assignments was worked on.
The “Assignment display” option, at the bottom of the calendar, has a new choice, “Everything”. This not only shows the full text of assignments, but also shows all assignments and resources, even those from lesson plans that were previously only visible by clicking the “More…” link on the class.

2017/11/4 – Version 1.16 update
New features and enhancements:

School years can now be broken down into 2, 3, or 4 reporting periods. Grades and class hours will be broken down into grading periods for reporting.

2017/10/14 – Version 1.15 update
New features and enhancements:

Search! The long-awaited search feature is here. On the Calendar and Planner pages, there is a new search box above the calendar. Homeschool Planet will look through class/activity descriptions, assignments, and resource descriptions for any text you enter there. Classes and activities that match will be highlighted, and the left and right arrows in the search box will navigate to the next earlier/later date with a match.

You can also select Search from the view menu (i.e., the Calendar/Planner/Resources/etc. control above the top left of the calendar) to access the Advanced Search page (also accessible from a link at the bottom of the search box). There you can restrict the search to certain students and/or subjects, and view the full list of matches at once.

Fixes:

Changes to the “Visible to” field for notes were not being saved. They will now be saved as expected.

2017/9/17 – Version 1.14 update
New features and enhancements:

When editing a class, there is a new Options tab, with (currently) a single control, “Show this class only on those days for which there is an assignment”. If you check that option, the class will not be displayed on the calendar on a given day unless there is an assignment scheduled for that day.
By also setting the “When” schedule for the class to every day, you can flexibly schedule your class on the calendar just by adding assignments on the days you want the class to show up.
A new option for “hiding” completed assignments (they will still be recorded, but will not display on the calendar). You will be asked whether to turn this feature on the next time you mark an assignment complete.
The “General” tab of the “Settings” dialog has a new section, “My Choices”, where you can see and change some of the choices you may have made while using Homeschool Planet. In particular, options you have chosen when Homeschool Planet offered to “Always do this …” can be changed here.
The “More options…” feature of the “Show Calendars For” menu has been redesigned, to make it easier to select which classes and activities you want to display.
The Assignment Generator (the feature that creates multiple assignments for you when editing a class, accessible through the “More options…” link at the top of the class’s lesson plan area) accepts a new code, “##” (two hashmarks next to one another). It will replace that code in the generated assignments with the sequence number of the assignment it is generating. For example, in the tenth assignment it will generate, ## will be replaced by the number 10.

Fixes:

Previously, assignments which had resources only, and no description, were being ignored by the Rescheduling Helper. These are now handled correctly.

2017/4/10 – Version 1.13 update

A new “Delete” option was added to the Rescheduling Helper, allowing you to delete assignments you decided to skip.
The options in the Rescheduling Helper are now color-coded, to make it easier to mark long lists of assignments.
When deleting a single day of a class, you are now given the option of how to handle any assignments on that day.

2016/12/4 – Version 1.13

“Pin to…” feature

When editing Lesson Plans, on the Notes tab, there is a new “Pin to…” option in the “More…” menus. This option lets you choose between pinning the note to the specific day in the lesson plan (the previously existing behavior) and pinning it to the assignments that are also scheduled for the same day. With the new option (pin to assignments), after the lesson plan is applied to a class, the choice of which days that note will appear is managed entirely by Homeschool Planet: on any day that any of the pinned assignments appears, the note will be displayed just above them. That way the note follows the assignments around when they get rescheduled. This may result in the note appearing on multiple days (if there are many assignments pinned to it, and some of them get rescheduled). It also means that when editing the class, the options for moving that note around the schedule will be removed. You can see it and edit it, but not change the date that it is on.

We also retroactively applied this feature to the lesson plans from the Lesson Plan Marketplace. If you have been using one of those plans which has notes (such as Wordly Wise), you may have noticed that some of the labels for the week or lesson got out of sync with the assignments after you did some rescheduling. You will now find that those labels are correctly positioned.

At the moment, this option can be chosen only for notes in Lesson Plans (on the “Lesson Plans” page in Homeschool Planet). It is not yet available when editing the notes in class on your calendar directly. We are working on the changes necessary to allow that access as well, and will update the site again when it is available.

2016/11/7 – Version 1.12

A new “Share…” link on the Lesson Plans page lets you share the lesson plans you create with your friends:

2016/7/2 – Version 1.11

Lesson Plans can now be applied to existing classes, in addition to creating a new class from the lesson plan. Clicking “Apply this lesson plan” will ask you which option you want.
You can now choose whether to apply the entire lesson plan, or to select only part of it to apply at a time. Applying a lesson plan to a class for the second (third, etc.) time will remember where you left off, making it easy to apply blocks of assignments to your classes.
You can create a Lesson Plan from an existing class. In the Calendar view, click on the class and select “Create a lesson plan based on this class” from the dialog that appears.

2016/5/30 – Version 1.10

A new “Lesson Plans” page for creating stand-alone lesson plans. The control for switching between Calendar/Planner/Resources has a new entry for Lesson Plans. You can create lesson plans much like you create classes, but without adding them to your calendar or assigning students. You can then create classes from them for particular dates and students, and make changes to those classes as your year progresses without those changes affecting the lesson plan. That way, next year (or later) you can use the same, original lesson plan for a new student.
Support for Vimeo videos in Resources
Option to play uploaded audio files with play/pause and volume controls

2016/5/15 – Version 1.9

Another internal update, again with a useful new feature:

When editing a class, you can re-order the resources for an assignment or for the entire class using drag and drop.

2016/5/7 – Version 1.8

Another internal update to prepare for a more significant summer update, again with a couple of useful feature changes:

Notes (on the Notes tab when editing classes) can now be directed at either the Students only, or the Teacher only, or both (or neither, if you’d like).
Resources, both per-assignment and class level, can also be directed in the same way.
The “Open behavior” for resources like Web Sites that can open new windows now defaults to your most recent choices, to make input easier.
You can give a different title (i.e., the text that appears on the calendar) for a resource each time you use it (in a different assignment or class). Just Edit the resource after you add it, and change the value on the “For This Assignment” tab.
When you assign an uploaded PDF file to an assignment or class, you have the option of opening it to a specific page.

2016/3/26 – Version 1.6

Although this was also a mostly internal update, there were a couple of useful feature changes:

Addition of the “Link to Audio File” resource type, allowing you to link to audio clips on the internet.
Addition of launch options for links and uploaded files, allowing you to choose between opening a new tab (the previous behavior), opening a pop-up window, or (in the case of audio links and files) playing the file directly in the browser.
A change to the layout of the calendar, allowing classes and appointments to be displayed at 5-minute intervals without overlapping.

2016/2/13 – Version 1.5

This update was an internal update, preparing the software for the updates we are developing for release in the next few months. There were no significant feature changes.

2015/9/5 – Version 1.4

This update was in response to the system outage we experienced on Monday, 8/31. From now on, should the central database for Homeschool Server become unavailable for any reason, you will still be able to view your schedule and widgets. Making changes to your data will need to wait until the central database is back online, but you will at least have access to your day’s plans. We also improved our recovery process, so that we will be able to restore service much more quickly.

2015/8/28 – Version 1.3 – update 4

When editing family profiles, if you choose to delete a student (using the red X that appears when you hover over their photo), you are now given an option to “archive” instead of delete. That will remove the student from menus for future planning, but leave all the student’s existing classes, grades, and other records in place.
Update 3 introduced a problem that caused a crash in the class editor if you dragged an assignment that you had just edited before you clicked anywhere else. That problem was fixed in this update. Our apologies to anyone that was affected.
The “Co-op News” widget will show each news update for just three days, and then hide itself until there is another update.

2015/8/25 – Version 1.3 – update 3

In the “General” panel of the “Settings”, on the “Display” tab, there is now an option to control whether the timed events on your calendar appear above or below the all-day/no-particular-time events when using the Planner, the Month view of the Calendar, or the Condensed View of the Day or Week views of the Calendar.

2015/8/21 – Version 1.3 – update 2

Added “Use Desktop Version” menu item, which lets you access the desktop interface from a mobile device. This will provide access to more of the editing features of Homeschool Planet on phones and tablets. WARNING: some features of the desktop version may be difficult or impossible to use on a mobile device. We strongly recommend accessing Homeschool Planet from an actual desktop or laptop for most editing tasks.
In the “General” panel of the “Settings”, on the “Display” tab, there is now an option to let you edit the “My Family” text that appears above the photos of your family members.
The “Abbreviate assignments” checkbox, at the bottom of the calendar, has been replaced with a drop-down menu for “Assignment display” with three options, “Full”, “Abbreviated”, and “None”. Now you can completely hide the assignments from the display, for an easier view of what your day looks like.

2015/8/10 – Version 1.3 – update 1

Added a “Change Categories…” option to the bulk “Edit” choices in the Lesson Plan for classes that have grading enabled. This button lets you change the categories for a large number of selected assignments more easily.

2015/8/1 – Version 1.3

The Rescheduling Helper will now offer to move assignments to the current day, even if that day is not part of the regular class schedule.

For example: if you have a M/W/F class, and Monday’s work is not completed, when you use the Rescheduling Helper on Tuesday morning, the Helper will ask if you want to move the assignment(s) to Tuesday or to Wednesday.
The “Change schedule” feature (when editing a class or activity) has been improved. Among other changes, you can now choose “Add or remove individual dates”, allowing you now to add extra days to your regular schedule.

For example: if you have a M/W/F class, but this week want to add an extra class on Thursday, you can simply choose the “Add or remove individual dates” option, then click on Thursday to add it.
There is a new scheduling option for classes and activities in the “When” menu called “Selected dates”. This allows you to have a repeating class or activity that does not follow a regular schedule. You simply select the dates you want the class to appear on the calendar.

2015/7/18 – Version 1.2.9 – update 1

Each School Year (on the School Years & Vacations tab in the Settings) now has a Print button for printing that year.
The single Print button for Attendance (on the Attendance tab in each family member’s profile) has been replaced with an individual Print button for each school year.
Added new Resource types: Audio Book, Game, and Manipulative.

2015/6/21 – Version 1.2.9

Added the ability to upload files (PDF, Word documents, etc.) as Resources, which you can attach to classes and assignments. When you add a resource, look for the “File from my computer” Resource Type.
Changed from left/right arrows to a pull-down select box for choosing layouts in Reports.

2015/6/6 – Version 1.2.8 – update 2

When you complete an assignment ahead of time, you are given the choice to leave it where it is or reschedule it to today.

Fixes:

Some holidays for 2016 were missing. They have been added. You will need to remove any holidays from your school year and add them again to get the update.

2015/3/7 – Version 1.2.8 – update 1

Several folks remarked that the new Resources feature made adding web links to classes more cumbersome than before, so we made some enhancements. We restored the “Add a web site” option to the “More…” menu, and it immediately opens a window to add the link. We also added the ability to “Archive” resources, so that they remain in your planner but don’t clutter up your list of resources, and by default all new links will be immediately archived. This combination will make working with web sites using the new Resources feature much like it was before, but leave you the ability to add some web sites as un-Archived resources that you might use again and again.

2015/3/7 – Version 1.2.8

New features and enhancements:

Resource Tracking feature. Keep track of the Books, Videos, and Web sites you use, and assign them to classes or individual assignments.
Ending date selector for Grading Helper, to make it easier to catch up on data entry.

2014/10/25 – Version 1.2.7

New features and enhancements:

New Assignment Generator. When you choose “More options…” in the “Every day, add this” section when editing a class, you will have more options. You can split a reading over a period of days (like read pages 1-10, 11-20, etc); you can distribute a number of assignments over a range of days (like when you have 40 assignments that need to be done by November 30); and you can make a repeating pattern of assignments (like a Math-U-See sequence of “Lesson 1-A, Lesson 1-B, Lesson 1-C, Lesson 1-D, Test” repeated week to week).
Color Printing has been entirely revamped. With apologies to anyone who preferred the old method, we chose to replace it because it was not working properly for too many members. The new version is more like the Economy print, but includes the colors of the activities (and not the background colors of the page).
You can now control the font size used in the calendar. Visit the General Settings, on the Display tab to change it.
We added more control over student permissions when they log in. You can now let them edit their classes without the ability to record their own grades, and you can let them view but not update their grades. Also, all the reports are now available to students (if they have permission to view them, like the grade report).

Fixes:

Fixed a problem where changing the grading category of a shared assignment for one student but not the others was not being recorded correctly.

2014/10/11 – Version 1.2.6

New features and enhancements:

The ability to track class hours. Some states require that you track the number of hours you spend on certain subjects, and now you can track and report on that information in Homeschool Planet. Use the “Track Class Hours” option from the “Settings” menu to get started. You can track hours for each class either day-by-day, where you enter just one time for the class per day (the Class Method), or assignment-by-assignment, where you enter the times for each assignment and Homeschool Planet totals them (the Assignment Method).
Shared assignments in a class are now displayed only once on the calendar or planner, saving space. You can also mark completion for all students sharing the assignment with one click (and if Track Class Hours is enabled, set the time for the assignment for all students with one step, too). If necessary, you can click the new “Show All” link (or “Show Both” if there are only two students) to access individual completion and time controls.
Internet calendars that you Share In can now be set to show the events as “Busy” only, without the details of the event. That way you can share your or your spouse’s work calendar with other family members without displaying any confidential information.
The Attendance printout (from the Attendance tab of a student’s profile) now prints the full calendar of attendance, along with the summary

Fixes:

The “Show calendars for” control is no longer being reset whenever you add or edit a class.
Removing a class from a grading group resets the name used to display it in Grade Reports and Transcripts.
When multiple classes occur at the same time of day, they are now sorted according the order of the students in them.

2014/8/31 – Version 1.2.5 update
We added some new themes, including a few that kids might find more interesting. Even more themes are on their way soon.

Note – some browsers will cache the list of themes, so if you don’t see the new ones, reload the Homeschool Planet page and look again.

2014/8/31 – Version 1.2.5
This update was to the internals of Homeschool Planet, to prepare for the increasing number of users and for the new features being delivered in the upcoming months.

2014/6/21 – Version 1.2.4 update 2

New features and enhancements:

In the “Show calendars for” menu, we replaced the “All activities/Non-recurring activities” choice with a new “More options…” link. That opens a window in which you can choose the particular classes or activities you want to see for each student. It also lets you turn on or off the display of each of your Shared-In calendars.

Fixes:

Shared-In calendars will now print along with your other activities (if they are being displayed – see the enhancement above).
Planner views are no longer being printed with a jumble of text on them whenever a Shared-In calendar is present.

2014/6/21 – Version 1.2.4 update

New features and enhancements:

Enhancement to Copy Class feature that lets you choose to limit the assignments that get copied by copying only the uncompleted assignments, or by copying only the assignments on or after a selected date.

2014/5/31 – Version 1.2.4

New features and enhancements:

The ability to copy a class is here, just in time for planning next year’s schedule. You can copy a class and its assignments to a new class, for new students, to make it easier to reuse a plan for another student.
Assignment List reports now list the classes in the same order they appear on the calendar, and the times for classes are displayed with the names.
The color gradient for some activities made it hard to read the text, so we eliminated it. Activities from “Share In” calendars now have a faint stripe to their background, to make them easier to distinguish from Homeschool Planet events.

2014/4/5 – Version 1.2.3

This updates brings several often-requested new features and enhancements:

The new Share feature (under the Settings menu) lets you share your Homeschool Planet calendar on Google Calendar, Apple iCloud Calendar, and others. It also lets you display calendars from those other applications on your Homeschool Planet calendar.
Finer control over access to calendars for your students. You can now choose which calendars each student can view and/or edit. For example, you can let your older students edit their own calendars while giving your younger students a read-only view.
You can now control the display order of all the events in the all-day section of the calendar, not just the classes, and you can control it simply by dragging and dropping the events into the order you want. (This replaces the old system for class subjects, where you would sort them in the Subject drop-down menu).
More (and better) colors! The previous selection of 16 almost indistinguishable shades of green has been replaced by 12 higher-contrast colors, in three shades each, plus a selection of grays. Note: to get all the new colors, you need to re-select your theme from the Settings menu; until then the first 16 colors will still be the old colors.
“Everything Else” and “Birthday” events can now be assigned a Category making it easier to keep the colors of your events consistent.

In addition, there are a couple of smaller improvements:

The Assignment List report now displays the dates of the assignments
We added a Print button to the Attendance panel in the student profiles.

2014/2/15 – Version 1.2.2

More improvements to the mobile version, and some frequently requested features for the desktop.

New features and enhancements:

There is now the limited ability to create and edit classes and appointments. You still cannot edit your lesson plans, but you can record doctor’s appointments, delete days from a class’s schedule, and other such tasks. Full Lesson Plan editing will come in a future update.
New navigation control for selecting dates (mobile and desktop).
New “Abbreviate assignments” checkbox (at bottom of calendar) to control whether long assignments are displayed in full, or truncated with “…”
Dragging one day of a class onto another on the calendar now asks if you want to reschedule the assignments from the day you dragged.
When adding a second student to a class that already has assignments, you are asked whether or not to share the existing assignments with the new student.

Fixes:

Eliminated several intermittent problem with tapping and swiping on the mobile version.

2014/1/18 – Version 1.2.1

This release is mainly about the mobile version. If you visit Homeschool Planet from your phone or tablet, you will now be able to enter grades using the Grading Helper (or the “grades” link on a class on the calendar), and you will have access to the Rescheduling Helper to let you do every-day rescheduling. Use the menu button in the top right (which replaces the “Logout” button that used to be there) to get to the new Helpers.

2013/12/21 – Version 1.2.0

This release incorporates a number of internal improvements to make Homeschool Planet faster and more responsive, particularly for those of you with a large number of classes and assignments. You should find that editing classes, adding and removing assignments, and the undo/redo functions are faster, and that marking assignments as complete is much faster and more reliable.

We know that many of you with a large number of classes and assignments are also experiencing long delays when first logging into Homeschool Planet, or when refreshing the page. We are continuing to work on improving that performance as well.

2013/11/23 – Version 1.1.0

New features and enhancements:

New Reports:
- Assignment Lists.
- Class Notes.
- Grade Report.
“Customize” link on Rescheduling Helper to control which assignments are listed.
New “Ask me later” option for Rescheduling Helper.
Older portions of a class’s schedule are hidden in the editor by default.

2013/10/19 – Version 1.0.10

New features and enhancements:

Lesson Plan Search and Replace feature.
Delete multiple assignments at once.
Enhanced assignment auto-create:
- Select days of the week.
- Add links and reminders.
New “Every Day” assignment functionality (see below)

Fixes:

Eliminated intermittent problem with drag-and-drop that left two copies of a class visible.

Changes to the “Every Day” assignments

We have greatly improved the way that the “Every day” assignments work, but to do so we had to make some big changes in the way you use them. They have been combined with the previous “Auto-create” feature. Now, after you enter text for an every day assignment, you need to click the “Go” button to add the assignments to your calendar. Also, after you create the assignments, the original no longer appears in the Every Day section – that section is now for creating the assignments only, not for listing or editing them.

This new functionality comes with some big benefits:

You can use the “More options…” link for greater control over the assignments:
- Choose starting and ending dates.
- Choose what days of the week the assignment appears on.
- Add sequential numbers, in one or two levels (i.e., 1, 2, 3 or 1.1,1.2,2.1,2.2, etc).
Every Day assignments will now be rescheduled by the Rescheduling Helper, just like the others.

We think you’ll find the new Every Day assignment features much more useful.

2013/08/25 – Version 1.0.8

New features and enhancements:

Small improvements to the mobile version.
- You can now mark items complete directly on the calendar, without opening the details view.
- More consistent tap and swipe behavior.
The Grading Helper now lists the subject along with the assignment description.
The Auto-create Assignment Generator has been simplified and improved.
You now choose whether the Rescheduling and Grading helpers automatically launch (in the Settings).
New “Sending…” indicator lets you know when Homeschool Planet is communicating with our web servers.

Fixes:

Smoother startup, with fewer layout updates.
Rescheduling and Grading helpers launch only once per day, not once per login/refresh.

2013/08/17 – Version 1.0.7

New features and enhancements:

Expanded “Auto-create” feature for lesson plans.
- Use two levels of numbering (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.).
- Preview list of assignments before adding them to lesson plan.

Fixes:

Eliminated problem of widgets floating to bottom of page.
Make “Add column” link for widgets display correctly in Firefox.

2013/08/14 – Version 1.0.6

New features and enhancements:

More control over logins for other family members.
- New Login tab on profile pages.
- Choose whether or not family member can see and edit widgets
- Choose whether or not family member can see and edit everyone’s calendar
Ability to specify whether a family member’s Digest email should include everyone’s classes and activities, or only that person’s.

Fixes:

Long days flow across pages better when printing Planner view.
“Edit Class” window no longer opens too high on laptops and netbooks.
GPA and credits for external courses now display correctly on transcripts.

2013/08/07 – Version 1.0.4

New features and enhancements:

After changing the grading setup (as part of creating or editing a class), you can change the “Not graded” assignments to new categories all at once.
Auto-create (a feature which automatically generates a list of assignment) allows you to choose a Grading Category for the assignments, if the class has been set up for grading.

Fixes:

Fixed date selection for assignment completion when alternate date format is used.
Protect against crashes from some Firefox and Chrome extensions.
Resolved a problem that caused Auto-create to fail after one cancelled the Grading Setup dialog.
Resolved a problem that sometimes prevented assignments from appearing in the Edit Class dialog after switching a multi-student class to have only a single student.
Correctly store the choice of “Send digests even on empty days” in the General Settings.

2013/08/04 – Version 1.0.3

Maintenance release, fixing a few problems discovered during launch:

Resolved a problem causing reload when trying to edit a class after deleting a student that was in that class from the Manage Family dialog.
Resolved a problem caused by certain sequences of switching between Calendar view and Planner view.
Changed http:// links to Adobe flash player to https:// links, to eliminate warning notices.
Resolved a problem causing reload after certain sequences of edits to assignments.

2013/08/01 – Version 1.0.2

New features and enhancements:

Use https:// for all site communication.
Allow student login using either student’s email address or parent’s email address.
Digests sent after noon will show next day’s events.

Fixes:

Resolved a problem that sometimes prevented the calendar display from updating after cancelling the edit of a class.
Resolved a problem with the display of weekend events when the “First day of week” setting is Saturday.
Resolved a problem that caused a reload when a single-day appointment with no tasks was dragged to a new day.

Homeschool Planet Help

Help Documents for Homeschool Planet

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How To: Share my Homeschool Planet Calendar with Apple Calendar

Adding your Homeschool Planet calendar to Apple Calendar

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Getting Started: First Steps

Learn About: Assignments

Change Log

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Changes to the “Every Day” assignments

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