Improving an Options Pattern

Improving the look of a Pattern

If you wish to improve a Pattern offered to you by Options, then there are several things you can do to create different patterns, and see if any better suit the constraints / staff of your school:

-- 1) Customize: When you run Auto-create, if you click on "Customize" you will see that there are several options there that will affect the pattern(s) suggested to you ... including asking for Auto-create to create 4 patterns for you, so you can choose the best for your school.

-- 2) Seed: If you know/suspect that you would get a more even pattern with a certain subject/group in a certain block, you can suggest this as a starting-point for Auto-create by using the "Seed" feature.  For details, click on "Design a Pattern" and then on the blue "?" in the box labelled "Methods for creating an Options Pattern".  This describes a few possible methods for creating a Pattern, including how to "seed" a pattern.
In other words, if you have an idea in advance of some of the subjects that you definitely want to run in certain blocks, then "Seed" is a good way to achieve this.

-- 3) Improve: In addition, if you get a solution that is close to what you want, but not perfect, you can use the "Improve" feature to work specifically on improving that pattern.   This is again described if you click on the blue "?" on the "Design a Pattern" screen.

-- 4) Rules: You can create "Rules" which your pattern must obey.  However, don't add more rules than are strictly necessary, as each rule will reduce the number (and maybe the quality) of possible solutions.

See also pages 35-38 of the printed manual, which describes these ideas in detail.

And see our e-Booklet on "Improving your school's options".