Admin Tools - Set color coding for Timetable and Academic Year Planning

A guide on how to set color coding to make it easier to identify courses with certain characteristics in Timetable Planning and Academic Year Planning. You must be an IPT administrator to do this.

In this guide

Set color coding for Timetable Planning

  1. Select “Admin Tools” from the IPT navigation menu on the left. 

  2. On the Admin Tools landing page, select “Manage Group.”
    Admin Tools page with "Manage Group" link highlighted in red

  3. Scroll down to the fourth table on the page, “Colors used in Planning & Timetable Grid.”
    Manage Group page with Color Coding table shown, and first three rows highlighted in red

  4. There are three color coding options that can be set for Timetable Planning:

    1. Color highlighting related items

    2. Color highlighting items not in SIS

    3. Color highlighting items with scheduling notes

  5. To choose your highlight color for any of these options, select the line color button on the right. This will open a color picker dialog box where you can select your color using the eyedropper tool or enter an RGB color value.
    Color coding table with line color button highlighted in red
    Color Coding table with color picker tool dialog open

  6. To finalize your color selection, select the “Use Color” checkbox on the right (this only applies to items with scheduling notes — ignore if there is no checkbox). 
    Color Coding table with "Use Color" checkbox selected and "Update" button highlighted in red at bottom of table

  7. Select “Update” at the bottom of the table to save your color coding settings.

Note: If you select the “Use Color” checkbox but do not choose a highlight color, the default color is black. Dark highlight colors are not recommended because they will make it difficult to see the course information on the Timetable Planning page.

Related items

“Related items” refers to all class meeting instances of a particular course, or a lecture and its corresponding discussion and/or lab sections. When the “Highlight Related” checkbox is selected for a course in Timetable Planning, all related classes will be highlighted in the color you’ve selected.

Timetable Planning page with two related classes shown in grid, highlighted in yellow. Both classes are part of the same course

Courses not in SIS

“Items not in SIS” refers to any courses that do not exist in SIS yet have planning data entered for them in IPT. These courses can be viewed in Timetable Planning when either “Planning” or “Both” is selected under “Show in Grid.” When you set color coding for this, the course number will be highlighted in the color you’ve selected.

Timetable Planning page with a planning data-only course shown in grid. The course number is highlighted in light green to indicate it's not in SIS

Courses with scheduling notes

“Items with scheduling notes” refers to any courses that have notes in the Scheduling Preferences field in the Course page. These courses will have an asterisk (*) next to the course number in Timetable Planning, but it can be difficult to spot the asterisk. When you set color coding for this, the course time will be highlighted in the color you’ve selected.

Timetable Planning page with two courses shown that have scheduling notes. The course time for each is highlighted in light pink

Set color coding for Academic Year Planning

  1. Select “Admin Tools” from the IPT navigation menu on the left. 

  2. On the Admin Tools landing page, select “Manage Group.”
    Admin Tools page with "Manage Group" link highlighted in red

  3. Scroll down to the fourth table on the page, “Colors used in Planning & Timetable Grid.”
    Manage Group page with Color Coding table shown, and final row highlighted in red

  4. There is only one color coding option that can be set for Academic Year Planning in this table: 

    1. Color highlighting classes removed for this term

  5. To choose your highlight color, select the line color button on the right. This will open a color picker dialog box where you can select your color using the eyedropper tool or enter an RGB color value.
    Color coding table with line color button highlighted in red
    Color Coding table with color picker tool dialog open

  6. To finalize your color selection, select the “Use Color” checkbox on the right. Then, select “Update” at the bottom of the table.
    Color Coding table with "Use Color" checkbox selected and "Update" button highlighted in red at bottom of table

  7. Select “Update” at the bottom of the table to save your color coding settings.

Note: If you select the “Use Color” checkbox but do not choose a highlight color, the default color is black. Dark highlight colors are not recommended because they will make it difficult to see the course information on the Academic Year Planning page.

Courses removed for this term

In Academic Year Planning, any courses that are marked for removal will be listed with text that reads “Marked for removal.” However, this can be difficult to spot amid a long list of course numbers. When you set color coding for this, the entire course row will be highlighted in the color you’ve selected.

Academic Year Planning table with one course highlighted in orange to indicate it's been marked for removal

Other guides on color coding

In addition to the color coding options described above, color coding can also be set for tags in Academic Year Planning and for rooms in Timetable Planning. 

For help with color coding tags and rooms, refer to the following guides:

Need more help?

For more information on what you can do as an IPT administrator, refer to Admin Tools - Overview. 

For more information on Timetable Planning, refer to Timetable Planning - Overview.

For more information on Academic Year Planning, refer to Academic Year Planning - Overview.


Keywords:
ipt, instructional planning tool, admin tools, admin, administrator, department admin, color, color coding, timetable, timetable planning, highlight, color highlight, highlighting, color highlighting, color code 
Doc ID:
148108
Owned by:
Daniella P. in Instructional Planning Tool Reference
Created:
2025-02-05
Updated:
2025-02-10
Sites:
Instructional Planning Tool Reference