School timetable generator: try before you buy
Building secondary or vocational timetables in spreadsheets often takes weeks and hides conflicts. A dedicated generator keeps teachers, modules and rules in one place, and a free 24 hour trial lets you validate results on real data before purchasing.
What a professional solution should include
- Rules by teacher, module and time slot.
- Support for simultaneous and consecutive blocks.
- Visual editing for fast adjustments.
- Export for leadership and department coordination.
Why spreadsheets often fail in secondary schools
Timetables look similar year to year, but the number of valid combinations grows fast: teacher availability, shared rooms, consecutive modules, simultaneous groups and non teaching slots such as breaks or yards.
Spreadsheets store data well yet rarely check whether moving one cell breaks a rule. Teams often publish a grid that looks complete and then face calls, last minute swaps and rework for leadership.
Common mistakes when building school timetables
- Assigning hours without checking each teacher blocked windows (meetings, tutorials, partial availability).
- Missing required simultaneous or consecutive blocks in workshop or lab modules.
- Forgetting breaks or yard slots and then rebuilding entire rows of the grid.
Recommended 4 step method
- Data audit: teachers, modules, assignments and rules agreed with staff.
- Pilot on one course or cycle to confirm critical rules are respected.
- Fine tuning with manual edits on the generated result without breaking simultaneous blocks.
- Roll out to the whole centre and export to Excel or PDF for internal publication.
What a professional generator should include
Dedicaciones combines automatic generation with human control: speed profiles (fast, medium, normal), prompts when a rule may be relaxed with consent, and export so leadership and heads of department review the same file.
- Per teacher constraints and optional weekly windows.
- Per module rules: weekly hours, consecutive lessons and simultaneous groups.
- Breaks or yards as non assignable slots.
- Export for coordination and archival.
Frequently asked questions about the free trial
Is the 24 h trial really free?
Yes. You receive a temporary account by email with no credit card. It expires 24 hours after activation and helps you validate fit before purchasing a licence.
Can I use real school data?
Yes, and that is recommended. You can test teacher constraints, vocational or secondary modules and export with your own structure.
How is this different from a fully free tool with no support?
Dedicaciones targets centres that need advanced rules, coherent editing and commercial support. The trial measures value on your real case, not an empty demo.
Recommended next step
Request the free 24 h trial with your centre data: you receive login details by email and can generate and export timetables for one full day.