My suggestions

Hey guys, you have a fantastic app. I've just started my PGCE in the UK and have elected to attempt to use iDoceo as my main gradebook, as I think it is probably the best option available for use on the iPad. I have a number of suggestions though which I think would mean I would never swap to another app:

• Classes are not always in the same room - there needs to be multiple seating plans per class. Perhaps new seating plans could somehow be associated with a 'room' selection on the schedule.
• The ability to select a column when you are on the seating plan view and then record information to the columns via this view would, for me, be an absolutely killer feature.
• When you hold down on the blank column space, the menu that currently allows you to 'add quick attendance check' or 'add extra quick attendance check' should also allow you to copy the previous column on today's date. Or even a button for this would be nice...
• An ability to define a key for icons, in case you forget what the ones you have used mean
• More sophisticated diary - the ability to add multiple custom fields to each day for example so we could create our own lesson planning 'pro forma' would be fantastic. And related to that, more space in each diary day. This last one is low priority for me though.
• It would be good if there was some visual element highlighting 'groups' within classes other than just reordering of the list. Perhaps a border or something
• Ability to import custom icons into iDoceo
• Ability to group multiple columns under a larger heading. For example to group together units of work/weeks/terms etc...

Hi Ben,
Thanks for your comments! Here ours...

multiple seating plans per class

Yes, we'll have them, I like the idea of associating them to the schedule , but this may be a difficult concept to grasp for newcomers... we thought of something more easy to understand such as a 1 ,2 ,3 (similar to the schedule) but with configurable background floor images, probably different kind of woods...

edit a column when you are on the seating plan

I guess you've seen you can actually view a column here! What's missing is the editing part, it is on the works. We had no time left for 2.0 but it is planned.

About new columns

We'll add a 'default settings' option for new columns (you'll be able to select 'Today' automatically for all new ones and probably copying will be updated too.

An ability to define a key for icons

This I like a lot, and has not been suggested. Noted

More sophisticated diary

Yes... but this is top priority for many! We're working on really nice improvements here, more space to write, and several templates. It will take some time but will be worth the wait

highlighting 'groups'

I like this too but from what we've seen, users tend to paint each student row (tap&hold on a student , then color) in their own way and adding something else wouldn't mix very weil. We'll think about this one though.

import custom icons

This one is kind of difficult to implement properly and we're avoiding it for technical reasons. On the other hand we'll be adding a lot of new icons that you can pre-select/filter so that only the ones you need will be shown.
If you are missing some specific icon let us know, we're still building that list!

I missed your last one by a minute!
Yes, you'll be able to group columns too ,and place them vertically so that more text fits in the headers without having extra large columns below

Hi Bert. I have to say I'm really gratified at your prompt and thorough response. I've drifted away from many different software apps in the past that I thought were promising because devs haven't really bothered to respond to customer suggestions, or have taken three months to do so and have given really frustrating responses.

bert wrote: Yes, we'll have them, I like the idea of associating them to the schedule , but this may be a difficult concept to grasp for newcomers... we thought of something more easy to understand such as a 1 ,2 ,3 (similar to the schedule) but with configurable background floor images, probably different kind of woods...

Surely if there is multiple seating plans in a '1, 2, 3' fashion as you suggest, these could easily be associated with the schedule by way of a dropdown box on the edit screen, so that when you click through to the datasheets and then forward to the seating plan, it defaults to the correct one.

I'd also hope that you don't limit the number of seating plans (or if you do, you make it relatively high - more than three ) because even as a first placement PGCE student, my timetable has me in five different rooms and I imagine this would only increase for real grown up teachers

Also you mention 'configurable background floor images', I would very much like it if you could import your own image for this - this would allow a user to quickly mock up furniture like tables that would make the plan easier to read at a glance - I have in the past (when I was a TA) worked in science classrooms with octagonal tables, and this would be quite hard to represent using your current seating plan system.

An alternative I'd like to suggest (and perhaps this would be a long term idea, because I imagine it might mean some quite significant changes) is actually allowing users to draw furniture items on? Even simple geometric shapes added to the seating plan might make the plans more readable at a glance...

Sorry to bombard you with posts. Take it as a measure of my enthusiasm for your app!

I have just read this post and realized that I would quite like this feature as well. The only problem with the your icon counting feature as it stands, is that I am recording multiple icons in each column and I'd like to have a separate count column for the different types of icons. So for example if a student gets a warning but participates well, I will be (at least the way I have my gradebook setup atm) recording an icon for both of those in one cell but would still like to be able to have separate count columns for each. At present this is not possible.

Hi Ben,
Just a quick late night reply... we've had the furniture idea (as drag&drop) in mind for quite a long time and it seemed really fun and useful to implement but our design skills are limited ,at least in the 'school furniture' department!

PS: I'll think we'll stay then with five seating plans max.. having more will require a more elaborated selection method and we always fall on the KISS side of things for user interaction.

Octagonal tables.... argh ... count on importing your own background images then