• Create a schedule that matches how you teach- rotating, A/B days and traditional schedules are all supported
• Enter Lesson information using six customizable fields
• Add assignments with due dates
• Bump and Pull Back Lessons. Make Non School Days
• Much more

Planbook Touch is also file-compatible with the Mac version of Planbook. You can sync files using the built in Dropbox support or by utilizing Apple’s iTunes File Sharing. Planbook Touch does not interoperate with the Windows version of Planbook

I’m tremendously excited by the opportunity that the iPad’s touch interface offers for Planbook. 1.0 is only a beginning. Updates (free) are really going to exploit the intuitive nature of the iPad and help make your teaching day a little easier.

Updates will be coming reasonably quickly to add features (in fact, an update is already pending as of this post to allow editing your schedule after creating your file).

Besides a number of bug fixes, I have added lots of new features in Planbook 2.5

• Ability to add times to lessons.


• Ability to create custom days that don’t match the typical days in your schedule.


• Ability to create assignments with an assigned and due date rather than just free form homework


• Ability to sync your plans and attachments (for free) to PlanbookConnect for online access.


• Support for 15 classes per day, 25 classes total


• Ability to add and track standards. Standards can be entered manually or imported from a .csv file following these instructions.


• Ability to migrate your plans from one year to another


• Ability to change the names of the standard text fields


• Much More, including greatly improved performance with respect to saving files.

In order to test Planbook for iPad you (obviously) must have an iPad. While the app can be used without the accompanying desktop application, I’m hoping that at least some of the testers will use both versions of the program. So, if you have a Dropbox account as well as the desktop (Mac only) version of Planbook that would be a big help. The beta testing process for iPad applications is more involved than a regular application simply because of the requirement that your iPad be “provisioned” to run the program before it is available in the App Store. This doesn’t require “jailbreaking” or anything like that. If you are approved as a tester, I’ll send you a provisioning file. You’ll install that onto your iPad so that you are able to install the pre-release version of Planbook on your iPad.

I hope to have versions suitable for testing this weekend. Thanks for any help you can provide.

The beta release includes a number of new features, including:

• Sync to PlanbookConnect and make plans available online for your use as well as others (free account required).
• Track standards using the full screen editing mode
• Assign times to your lessons
• Create custom days
• Greatly improved saving
• Tagging lessons
• Lots of bug fixes

There are still a couple of features left to implement in 2.5 (including a standards report, the ability to quickly change the times for the lessons on a single day and some beautification), but for the most part, the 2.5 release is ready to go.

That said, Planbook 2.5 for Windows is currently Beta.  Please backup all data files appropriately.

Please send any and all feedback directly to jeff@hellmansoft.com

In Planbook 2.5, I’ve added a dedicated standards tracking mode which is accessible by double clicking any lesson. You can manage your available standards, and apply them to your lessons from one easy to use screen. You can, if you’d like, even discuss how the lesson met the standard you applied. Lessons can, of course, have as many standards as you’d like applied. Standards can be nested to create a smooth organizational system.

Planbook 2.5 also has a new report focused solely on standards. You choose a class and a standard (or folder of standards) and Planbook will show you a printable report with all the lessons with that standard applied.

That said, I think there’s still a reason to have a simpler tagging system to keep organized. Planbook 2.5 will also give you the ability to “tag” lessons with any word or phrase you like. Tags can be applied to any lesson and you can, of course, print out all the lessons with a tag in a few mouse clicks.

All in all, these two improvements (and many others) should really help Planbook for Windows become an even more effective planning tool.

Keep your eyes out for a beta later this month- if you’d like to be notified when the beta testing period opens, please join the Planbook for Windows Google Group

And, yes, as of writing this UPS seems to be displaying tracking information about dates in the future. I haven’t ever seen that before so I’d guess something’s a bit wonky (hence the shipping exception) with the iPad delivery system.

I'm not sure what you did for break, but Planbook 2.5 kept me busy.

You can grab the 2.5 update using your built in auto-updater or directly here.

There’s a whole laundry list of new features and bug fixes which you can check out in the release notes.

As always, your feedback is much appreciated and vital to Planbook’s continued improvement.

As proof, I include the screen shot seen to the right.  Please notice that assignments and tags are already functional.  Additionally, adding standards and applying them to lessons is functional.  I’m working hard to make PlanbookConnect.com syncing work.

While deadlines are hard to set in the software world, especially when trying to teach at the same time, I hope to release a beta version of 2.5 for Windows before spring break (March 20th).  Planbook 2.5 for Windows will be a free upgrade for current Planbook users.

As always, contact me with questions.

Just a brief note to say that I’ve released a new 2.5 beta (250001) that fixes an issue with the month view displaying incorrect dates for lessons.  I’ve also continued to improve the look of the month view.

You can grab the update here or using the auto-updater built in to previous versions of 2.5

As always, feel free to drop me an e-mail with any suggestions.