How to Pick Up Waiting Calls from the Scheduler Map
While the To schedule column is open, the Scheduler's map also shows where the waiting calls are, so you can plan by place: see a cluster of waiting work, pick a call up straight from its marker, and book it into an engineer's free time. Open both the To schedule column and the map from the Scheduler's toolbar to use it.
How do I see the calls waiting to be scheduled on the Scheduler map?
Open both the To schedule column and the map on the Scheduler. The map then adds the customers of the calls in the column to the customers already booked on the board, still one marker per customer.
- Open Scheduler from the navigation menu.
- Select To schedule on the toolbar.
- Select the map button beside it, named Show the customers on a map.
The waiting calls are drawn in the marker language the map already uses:
- A hollow ring is a customer with calls waiting and nobody booked there in the board's window. The number inside is how many calls wait; a ring with no number has one.
- An engineer's marker with a small dot is a customer where somebody is already booked in the window and a call is still waiting.
The waiting calls on the map are exactly the ones the column is listing: the column's own Type, Status and Logged filters decide them, not the filter rail. The line under the map adds "to schedule" and a number, which normally matches the count beside the To schedule heading. A call with no customer on it is never in the column, just as it is never in the Calls list, so it cannot make the two counts differ.
Close the column and the rings and dots go at once; the map shows only the board's booked work again.
What happens when I click a ring on the Scheduler map?
Clicking a ring that holds one waiting call picks that call up straight away, with no list to read, exactly as selecting its card in the To schedule column does. The Scheduling bar appears over the board, the free time lights up, and the call's card is marked in the column. Click the same ring again to put the call back.
A ring with several calls, or an engineer's marker with the small dot, opens the customer's sheet instead, because there is a choice to make. If you had a call in hand, it is put back first, since the list is where you choose the next one.
An engineer's marker with no dot, meaning booked work and nothing waiting, opens the sheet as usual and keeps any call you have in hand, so you can look at who is going there without losing your place.
The Key under the map says the same thing while the column is open, with captions of its own: One call waiting to be scheduled — a click picks it up, Two calls waiting — a click lists them and Somebody is going, one call still waiting.
If the ring's call has been booked by somebody else since the map was drawn, the Scheduler says Nothing is waiting there now — the map will catch up on the next refresh. If the call cannot be fetched, it says That call could not be picked up from the map.
How do I choose one of several waiting calls at a customer?
Select the customer's marker on the Scheduler map to open its sheet, then select Select on the waiting call you want. The sheet closes, the call is in hand, and the Nearby panel takes its place over the map.
With the To schedule column open, the customer sheet has two lists:
- Waiting to be scheduled, with the number waiting. Each line shows the call number (select it to open the call), its type, its comment (hover over it to read all of it), how long it has waited (hover over it to see when it was logged), and Select.
- This window, with the number of the customer's booked calls in the board's window, listed as usual with their engineer and due date. It only appears when somebody is booked there.
If the customer has more waiting calls than the sheet shows, the list ends with "and (number) more — they are in the column". If the calls have been booked since the map was drawn, it says Nothing waiting here now. While it loads it says Loading the waiting calls…, and if it cannot be read it says The waiting calls could not be loaded.
A call chosen with Select can be put back with Back in the Nearby panel, which also opens this customer's list again.
If you change the column's Type, Status or Logged filters while a sheet is open, its waiting list is read again under the new filters.
How do I find the call in hand on the map and in the column?
The customer of the call you are scheduling pulses on the Scheduler map for as long as the call is in hand, and it is never folded into a numbered group, so you can always find it. Where the call was picked decides how the map moves:
- Picked from a card in the column: the map pans to put the customer in the middle of the part of the map that no panel covers. It never zooms.
- Picked on the map: the map moves as little as it can, so it does not jump under your pointer.
The To schedule column also marks the call's card, and scrolls it into view if it is not already showing. A card you clicked in the column is never scrolled. If the call is further down the column than has been loaded, the column loads down to it, up to 2,000 cards; a call further down than that stays in hand without its card being loaded.
A customer with no location has no marker, so a call picked for that customer is not shown on the map, and the Nearby panel says there is nothing to measure from.
Why did picking a call on the map close the sheet I had open?
Picking up a call makes that call's customer the one the map is about. If a sheet was open on a different customer, it is closed, so that the map keeps the new call's marker in view rather than the old sheet's. Choosing a call with Select also closes the sheet it was chosen from, because the Nearby panel for that call takes its place.
To get back to the list you chose from, select Back in the Nearby panel. To look at another customer, select its marker.