Using iPad to take attendance (mark a roll)

[twerppoet]

Yeah, I'm willing to bet that Numbers can't do it either.

Not completely sure if this is what you meant, but you can enter a number in one field, double tap, choose Fill from the pop up menu, and then drag it to create multiple fields. Each entry increments the number by one.

If you choose a text field it just duplicates the entry.

 

[chowdown]

That's interesting twerppoet.

1) Can you fill with a number without automatically incrementing?

2) Can you fill with numbers that increment by multiples other than 1, eg, 3, 6, 9 etc?

3) Can you fill with incrementing dates?

 

[twerppoet]

Yes to all three, though it took me a while to figure out and a slight interface quirk almost made me give up before I figured it out.

It will increment dates just fine.

To change the increment, enter the first two numbers of the desired increment in adjacent fields. Then with both fields selected do a fill.

To get the pop-up menu that lets you fill, you first select the field or fields you want. Then you tap and hold until the menu shows up. The quirk, if you don't hold for at least a second after the menu shows it goes to entry mode. Or sliding your finger off the field before releasing seems to work too.

Also, when you select a date field and accidentally go into entry mode, it resets the field to blank and you have to reinter the date. Very annoying, until you learn to just hold the tap a little longer.

 

[twerppoet]

A little more playing around in Numbers shows that it can freeze both row and column headers. While not as versatile as freezing entire panes, it should be very useful.

Just select the header row or column you want by tapping opposite of it on the gray bar. Tap on the info icon, circle with an i in it, and choose the Headers tab. Here you can set the number of header rows and/or columns as well as freeze them. I'm not sure if selecting the header first is necessary, but because you can have multiple spread sheets on the same Number's page you need to at least make sure the sheet you want is selected.

And you can set a Footer Row here as well, though I'm not exactly sure what that will do. Haven't experimented with it yet.

Edit: Removed link to iWorks tutorials. They were for the full OS X versions. I'll look to see if I can find the iPad equivalent.

 

[twerppoet]

Noticed there is actually an attendance templet in iPad Numbers. It brings up another advantage. While freezing headers is nice, wouldn't be even nicer to be able to just go do a quick form, add the date, and then scroll though a check list?

Yep, you can do this. Numbers is the only spreadsheet I know on the iPad that gives you a form entry option.

Unfortunately the export to excel format converts the checkboxes to True False or at least that's what I see when I re-import it to Numbers on the iMac. I don't have Excel to play with. I'm downloading OpenOffice as I type this, to check how it works there.

Ok, I've put some pictures and the exported spreadsheet on iDisk. Here is the public link.

https://public.me.com/mikelpotts

BTW, the export looks terrible in OpenOffice.

 

[Bobniborg]

Teacher pal for attendance is awesome. Pics and arrange the seats. May not do anything else u need though

 

[avspatti]

Have you tried engrade? Free gradebook and attendance functions plus others. It is on the web so can be accessed from any computer.

 

[chowdown]

Have you tried engrade?

I don't see it on iTunes.

 

[Hasty]

It's a web app used through safari Engrade - Free Online Gradebook

 

[jroggenkamp]

Best Attendance

Give Best Attendance a try (bestattendance.com). It is a web based application that works great in the iPad's full screen browser.

In addition to taking attendance, you can share event calendars and update membership rosters.