Installation/Getting Started
General Use Questions
Technical Questions
Installation/Getting Started
How do I print the Getting Started Guide?
- Insert the Ministry Scheduler CD into the CD drive.
- From the menu that appears click Getting Started Guide. The file is saved in PDF format and can only be opened in Adobe® Acrobat Reader®. If it is not already installed, click Install Acrobat Reader® 5.0.5. If you already have Acrobat Reader® click Getting Started Guide.
- You can also print from this most current Getting Started document.
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I entered my subscription number but I can’t click on the Register button because it’s not enabled. What’s wrong?
Sometimes people type a number where there should be a letter, or vice versa (zero for the letter O, for example). The license number sequence should be as follows (L = letter and # = number): MSLP1 #####L ####L#.
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What are Ministry Scheduler’s limitations when I am running in demo mode?
If you have not yet purchased your subscription number for Ministry Scheduler you will only be able to open the program 30 times within 30 days after installation (whichever comes first). Additionally, you will only be able to schedule 5 liturgies at a time.
When your demo period expires you will have the option of extending your demo for 7 more days. To extend your demo version call
320-363-2006.
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I installed a demo version of Ministry Scheduler. Do I need to re-enter all my information when I purchase the program?
No. When you purchase your subscription number it will unlock the demo version of the program, and you can continue using it with all the information you had entered.
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My demo version of Ministry Scheduler expired before I finished testing it. Is there a way to extend the trial period?
Yes. When your demo version expires, a window like this appears:
Call Liturgical Press at 320-363-2006. You will be asked to click the Extend Demo version button and provide the code that appears; we will provide you with an unlock code to extend the demo. Each time you click Extend Demo version a different code will be generated. To receive the correct code you must be speaking with a Lit Press representative when you click the button.
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What’s the price of Ministry Scheduler?
There is a one-time purchase price of $199, and an on-going subscription fee of $8.25 per user per month ($99 annually per user). If more than one person will be using Ministry Scheduler you only need to purchase one CD, and then set up a user subscription for each person using the program. The subscription fee is the same whether the program is installed to multiple single computers or on a network/clients.
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Do I have to pay the ongoing Ministry Scheduler license fee?
Yes, the ongoing license fee is required to continue using the program. This fee covers your technical support, training, and provides you with all product updates. The fee is charged per user of the program. For example, if you have installed the program to one computer but two people are using it, you will be charged for two user fees. If you have installed the program to two computers but only one person is using it, you will be charged one user fee.
The number of users can be updated at any time by contacting Liturgical Press at labora@osb.org.
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How can I tell which version of Ministry Scheduler I’m running?
Open Ministry Scheduler. Across the bottom of the window is the Version number. If it is not at least 3.2.2.3 contact Liturgical Press (techsupport@litpress.org).
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General Use Questions
How can I sort my ministers?
To arrange minister contacts in your preferred order, click the heading of the field by which they should be sorted. For example, to arrange them in alphabetical order by last name, click the Last Name column heading. Ministers will be sorted in ascending alpha order; click Last Name again to reverse the order.
To sort them by a second category—for example, if you want them arranged in alpha order by last name, and then arranged by first name within that list, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and select the second column heading (in this case, First Name).
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My minister has two first names (e.g., Anne Marie), but only one of the names is appearing in the contact list and printing in the schedules. How can I adjust this?
- Open the minister’s Contact.
- Click the Fullname button in front of the name field.
- Put the entire first name in the appropriate field, and remove the second name from the middle name field.
- Click OK.
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I have a limited number of ministers for one liturgy. Many of these same ministers are also available to serve at another liturgy. How can I ensure that they are first placed in the Mass for which I don’t have a lot of ministers before being scheduled at a liturgy when more ministers are available?
When you click the Auto-schedule button, select the time period, allow the program to schedule all ministry functions, but specify the liturgy name for which you have a limited number of ministers so that ministers are first scheduled at that liturgy. After ministers have been scheduled at the difficult-to-fill liturgy click, Auto-schedule again, select the time period, allow the program to schedule all ministry functions, and this time specify all the remaining liturgies to be scheduled.
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I have a limited number of Eucharistic Ministers (EM), but a lot of lectors. Many of my ministers can be scheduled as either a lector or a Eucharistic Minister. How can I ensure that the EM positions are filled before any of the same people are scheduled as lectors?
When you click the Auto-schedule button, select the time period, specify the liturgy function you would like to schedule first (in this case EM), and allow the program to schedule all liturgies. After the EMs have been scheduled, click Auto-schedule again, select the remaining ministry functions, and allow the program to schedule all liturgies.
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I ran a schedule for a 3-month period. The functions filled in completely on all but a few liturgies. How can I see if there are ministers available to be scheduled in the “open” slots at specific liturgies?
Although Ministry Scheduler is optimized to fill as many positions as possible on the first pass, sometimes it is necessary to rerun the auto-schedule to fill in missing ministers. Click Auto-schedule, select the date only for a liturgy that is not completely filled in. In the Auto-schedule box select the ministry function and/or name of the liturgy that is not complete. Click OK. If a minister meeting the requirements of that liturgy is available he or she will be scheduled in the open function.
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I ran a schedule for a 3-month period. The schedule doesn’t seem to be very balanced. Is there a way to create a better balance?
First, make sure that you have updated to
Ministry Scheduler version 3.2.2.3.
Next, to check the balance of your schedule we recommend previewing the Schedule Statistics report (from Schedule or Calendar click Print, select Schedule Statistics, click Preview). This shows how often ministers were scheduled, and if there are ministers who weren’t scheduled during the selected period.
If there’s a specific ministry function that doesn’t seem balanced, click Auto-schedule, re-run a schedule for the same time period, but this time select only the ministry function(s) that didn’t seem balanced. The program will reshuffle the ministers and spread them out more evenly.
If there are certain ministers you do NOT want rescheduled, click the Lock column in front of the ministers’ names. Any ministers locked in place will not be replaced when re-running the auto-schedule.
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Is it possible to set a limit to the maximum number of times a minister can serve per month?
No. The program is set to automatically rotate through the ministers. However, you can set specific weekends the minister is to serve. For example, you could set a minister to only be scheduled the first and third weekend of the month, which would mean the minister only has the potential for being scheduled twice a month.
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If I have a minister who is willing to serve more than one ministry function, do I need to enter the minister’s name twice in my database?
No, each minister should only be entered one time.
When you open the minister’s contact and go to the Serving Preferences tab, you can select more than one function for each minister. By default the program will never auto-schedule a minister for more than one function at one liturgy per weekend. When you select a function, the right side of the screen allows you to select the liturgies and/or weekends when the minister can be scheduled FOR THE SELECTED MINISTRY FUNCTION. For ministers who can serve more than one function, you can set the same or different preferences for when the person can be scheduled for the selected function.
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I have a minister who is willing to serve more than one ministry function. Do I need to worry that the program will auto-schedule that person for more than one function at a liturgy?
By default the program will never auto-schedule a minister for more than 1 function at a liturgy. If there are specific functions you DO allow to be double-scheduled you can override this by going to System Settings, Ministry functions tab. Select the function and put a checkmark in the box in front of "Allow this function to be double-scheduled."
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I have a minister who is willing to serve at any liturgy. Do I need to worry that the program will auto-schedule that person at more than one liturgy per weekend?
By default the program will never auto-schedule a minister at more than one liturgy per weekend (“weekend” being defined as any liturgy on the calendar after 4 pm on Saturday through Sunday). If you WANT a minister to serve at more than one liturgy on a given weekend you must manually schedule that person for the liturgies.
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Can I export my contact information from Ministry Scheduler?
YES, you can export to Excel two ways:
OPTION 1
- From the Contacts, Groups, or Families display the fields you wish to export. (You can choose which fields to display by going to the left end of the column headings and clicking on the small button that says “Click here to display visible columns.” Put a checkmark in front of any field heading to be displayed; remove the checkmark from fields you don’t want displayed.)
- Click File, Export, and choose Excel.
- Provide a name for the file.
- Open the file from within Excel.
OPTION 2
- From the Contacts, Groups, or Families display the fields you wish to export. (You can choose which fields to display by going to the left end of the column headings and clicking on the small button that says “Click here to display visible columns.” Put a checkmark in front of any field heading to be displayed; remove the checkmark from fields you don’t want displayed.)
- Select a single contact from the list.
- On your keyboard press CTRL + A to select all contacts.
- On your keyboard press CTRL + C to copy all contacts.
- Open a blank Excel file.
- Choose Edit, Paste.
NOTE: To export only selected contacts, hold down the CTRL key while clicking on the contact names. Then follow Steps 4–6 above.
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How can I backup my Ministry Scheduler information?
- Go to C:\Program Files\Duplo Data AS\Ministry Scheduler\Server.
- Double click the file MSSQLBackupAdmin.exe.
- Choose OK if you get a Warning window.
- Choose create new.
- Choose OK.
- Choose OK.
- Close Backup window.
- The backup file created is placed in the Backup folder and is named SQLBackup(date time).bak.
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How can I print a phone list for my lectors, Eucharistic ministers, etc.?
- Select Groups under the People heading in the left column.
- In the center column click the + sign in front of Ministry Groups.
- Select the Ministry Group to be printed.
- The right side of the window will display all ministers who can serve the selected function.
- From the list of ministers, display the fields to be printed. (You can choose which fields to display by going to the left end of the column headings and clicking on the small button that says “Click here to display visible columns.” Put a checkmark in front of any field heading to be displayed; remove the checkmark from fields you don’t want displayed.)
- When the information you want to print is displayed on the screen, click File, Screen report (or press CTRL + R on your keyboard) to view the information before printing.
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Is there a way to print ministry and preferences for all contacts?
Yes.
- In Contacts choose File, Print.
- Select All Ministers.
- Choose Minister Verification form.
- Click Preview.
- Each minister’s information will print on a new page—the form is intended to be something you can distribute to your ministers to verify that their information in the program is correct. However, from the Preview window if you click the drop-down arrow to the right of Export, you can export the information into a different format, so you can edit the info directly in Excel or Word, for example.
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Is there a way to set ministry functions for more than one minister at a time?
Yes.
- When Ministry Scheduler is open click Contacts in the left column.
- Select the ministers’ names. (To select multiple ministers, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard while you click on the ministers’ names.)
- Right-click on one of the selected ministers.
- Select Ministries? Add contact(s) to ministries.
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How can I rearrange the names of the liturgies in the Contacts’ Serving Preferences tab?
- In the Navigator bar on the left go to System settings (NOTE: System settings can only be changed by Ministry Scheduler users with Administrator status).
- Click the Liturgy names tab.
- Select a liturgy name from the list on the left, and use the up and down arrows in the center column to arrange the liturgies in the order you prefer.
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When I manually assign a minister, will the program indicate if that minister is not available for the day I have selected?
Yes. If a minister’s calendar indicates that they are unavailable to serve on a certain date, when you try to manually schedule the minister the following message will appear. Select Yes to assign the minister anyway, or No to return to the search menu and choose another minister.
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How can I remove all of my assigned ministers and re-run the auto-schedule?
- In the left column click Schedule.
- Select the liturgy (liturgies) from which to remove ministers.
- Click Edit, Remove assigned ministers.
- Click Yes to remove or No to cancel.
You don’t need to remove ministers before re-running the auto-schedule. Running a schedule over the same time period will reshuffle those who are scheduled, with the exception of any ministers locked in place.
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We use positions to indicate to our ministers where they will stand or what their duties are (for example, Lector 1 and Lector 2). Should I enter these as separate ministry functions, or can I assign positions in Ministry Scheduler?
In the example of Lector 1 and Lector 2, if all lectors can be scheduled as either 1 or 2, only enter a ministry function for Lector, and use the position to differentiate between 1 and 2. To set positions:
- Double-click on the calendar date/time to add a liturgy to the calendar.
- In the Create a new Liturgy window select the Liturgy name and Ministry template.
- When the list of ministry functions is displayed, enter desired information in the Position column.
- To save a series of liturgies click the Recurrence button and select the time period for which the liturgies should be added to the calendar. Click OK.
In the Create a new Liturgy window click Save and Close. When ministers are scheduled they will be linked to both a function and a position.
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How can I remove my Ministry Scheduler logon password?
- Open Ministry Scheduler and logon as normal.
- Click System settings in the left column.
- Click Users tab.
- Select the username for which to remove the password, then click the Change Password button. (NOTE: If you can’t see the Change Password button it is probably being covered by the SmartHelp window. In the SmartHelp window click the pushpin graphic so it appears to be on its side, then move your cursor off the SmartHelp window and it will disappear.)
In the Change Password window delete everything in the two boxes and click OK.
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Technical Questions
I’m having problems with Ministry Scheduler. What should I do?
- Make sure you are running Ministry Scheduler version 3.2.2.3.
- If you are running the current version and the same error or a bug report appears, close and restart Ministry Scheduler.
- Repeat what you were doing when the error occurred.
- If you can duplicate the error, close Ministry Scheduler, shut down and restart Windows. Repeat what you were doing when the error occurred.
- If you can duplicate the error, note the steps you were following when the error occurred.
- Read through the FAQs and the Getting Started Guide to see if a similar problem/solution is covered. If you cannot find a solution to the error do the following:
- If an error message appears please run the support tool in this location Start/All Programs/LabOra/LabOra Support Tool.
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When opening Ministry Scheduler the following message appears (Manually connect to server). What should I do?
- If Ministry Scheduler is installed only on the computer on which you are currently working, click OK. Ministry Scheduler should open. If not, shutdown and restart Windows. Open Ministry Scheduler again. If the same message appears proceed to step 2.
- Click Cancel.
- If Ministry Scheduler is installed to a computer with Windows® XP Service Pack 2, LDS.exe must be set as a firewall exception (if installed to several networked computers, LDS.exe must be set as an exception on each computer to which it is installed).
- Click Start, Control Panel, Windows Firewall.
- Click the Exceptions tab.
- Click Add program. In the Path line click the Browse button and double-click the file C:\Program Files\Duplo Data AS\Ministry Scheduler\Server\LDS.exe.
- Click OK.
- Click OK.
- Close the Control Panel and open Ministry Scheduler.
- If Ministry Scheduler doesn’t open, restart your computer.
- If you are still unable to start Ministry Scheduler please run the LabOra Support Tool found under the Tech Support tab on the Ministry Scheduler page.
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When opening Ministry Scheduler the following message appears (Unable to connect to server). What should I do?
- Go to this location: C:\Program Files\Duplo Data AS\Ministry Scheduler open the application MSConfig.exe.
- Select Workstation if this is a single computer installation and leave the Preferred Server line blank, select Save.
- If this is a Client installation on a networked computer select Client and enter the Preferred Server IP Address from the server computer, select Save.
- Go to the task bar in the lower right corner near the time, right click on the icon for LabOra Data Service, choose to Shutdown Server.
- Then go to C:\Program Files\Duplo Data AS\Ministry Scheduler\Server restart the LDS.exe by double clicking on it.
- Open Ministry Scheduler from the desk-top icon.
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I installed Ministry Scheduler to a single computer. I would like to install it to a server and several workstations where the information can be shared. How can I do this?
On the computer to which the program is currently installed:
- Go to C:\Program Files\Duplo Data AS\Ministry Scheduler\Server.
- Double click the file MSSQLBackupAdmin.exe.
- Choose OK if you get a Warning window.
- Choose create New.
- Choose OK.
- Choose OK.
- Close Backup window.
- The backup file created is placed in the Backup folder and is named SQLBackup(date time).bak.
- This file needs to be placed on the computer that will be your server computer. If this is to be the server computer, place the Backup folder containing the backup file on the computer’s desktop. If another computer is to be the server computer, place the file on a disk or attach it to an email message to get it to the other computer.
On the computer to which Ministry Scheduler server (shared files) will be installed:
- Insert the CD into the CD drive of the server computer. The program should auto-run and display an installation menu.
- Click Multiple Computer Installation, then select Install Server files.
- Read the license agreement. Click Yes to accept.
- Select the folder to which Ministry Scheduler will be installed. Click Next. Accepting the default folder suggestion is recommended.
- Click Next to start copying files.
- Click OK after reading the special note for Windows® XP users with Service Pack 2.
- Click Yes I want to restart my computer now. Remove disk from drive, click Finish.
- Final Setup, Step 1, click Next.
- Final Setup, Step 2, select Create a new database default location, click Start.
- Setup Finalizer, Setup finish, click OK.
- Put the backup file created on the first computer into the Backup folder on the this computer. If a Backup folder doesn’t exist, create one in C:\Program Files\Duplo Data AS\Ministry Scheduler\Server.
- Double click the file MSSQLBackupAdmin.exe.
- Choose OK if you get a Warning window.
- Choose your backup file in the window.
- Choose restore.
- Choose OK.
- Choose OK.
- Close Backup window.
- Find the MSSQLServer icon on the right, in your taskbar (by the time) and right click.
- If it says “MSSQLServer – Start,” choose that.
- If it says “MSSQLServer – Stop,” choose that, then choose “Yes.” Again, right click on the MSSQLServer icon. This time choose “MSSQLServer – Start”.
Before installing Ministry Scheduler to any other computer:
- Updates to the program are done automatically when the computer is restarted. Current version of the program is 3.2.2.3. To check the version of the program
go to C:\Program Files\Duplo Data AS\Ministry Scheduler\Server, right click on the LDS.exe, choose the properties tab and verify the version number.
- If the server computer is running Windows® XP Service Pack 2, go to Start, Control Panel, Windows Firewall.
- On the Exceptions tab, click Add Program.
- Click the Browse button at the end of the Path line and search for C:\Program Files\Duplo Data AS\Ministry Scheduler\Server\LDS.exe. Double-click this file. Click OK in the Add a Program window. LDS.exe should now appear as an exception in your firewall. Make sure there’s a checkmark in the box and click OK to close this window.
On the other computers to which Ministry Scheduler will be installed:
- Insert the CD into the CD drive of the server computer. The program should auto-run and display an installation menu.
- Click Multiple Computer Installation, then select Install Client files.
- Read the license agreement. Click Yes to accept.
- Select the folder to which Ministry Scheduler will be installed. Click Next. Accepting the default folder suggestion is recommended.
- Click Next to start copying files.
- Click OK after reading the special note for Windows® XP users with Service Pack 2.
- Click Yes I want to restart my computer now. Remove disk from drive, click Finish.
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When I open Ministry Scheduler, a window appears telling me that more than one server has been found on my network. How do I know which one to choose?
The server name is the IP address of the computer to which the server is installed. If you are trying to access shared files that are stored on a server computer, ask your network administrator for the IP address of the server computer, then select that server name.
If Ministry Scheduler is installed to other computers on your network, but you would still like to access only the Ministry Scheduler information on your computer, select your computer’s IP address.
If you don’t know your computer’s IP address you can find it by doing the following:
- Click Start, Run, and in the Open box type CMD; click OK.
- In the next window type IPCONFIG and press Enter.
- Among other information the IP Address should be listed. Make note of it and close the window.
- Open Ministry Scheduler and select the appropriate server when prompted.
- You can check the box "Use this server at next logon to bypass the window the next time you start Ministry Scheduler."
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