Guest Posted July 27, 2016 Posted July 27, 2016 This tutorial will talk you through how to produce PDF files of a child's journal, for staff and parents to celebrate a child's time at your setting. You can then hand this out as an electronic copy or produce paper versions to give to relatives. There's a few things to note before we start: Only managers will be able to create the journal downloads If your observations have a lot of media or the children have been with you over several years, then this can create extremely large files; so we'd recommend that you break down the production of your journals over time. If you're not intending to export a PDF journal at the end of a child's time with you do let the relatives know - just in case they haven't got copies of the observations from previous terms/years. Depending on the time of year it can take a while for the journals to generate, so we suggest you set notification preferences so you are informed immediately when journals are ready for download. It's not possible to include videos in PDF files, so these will not be exported. These can be exported as part of a mass export of photos and videos though. This tutorial will talk you through how to do this. We'll start by looking at how you can export journals to PDF. To skip to the section on downloading them after they have been exported, click here. Exporting Journals Firstly, click on your name in the top right-hand corner (1) and do to the Control Panel (2). Once on this section you will need to select the 'Manage Children' option from the left-hand menu (3). You can download journals for all active, inactive and awaiting deletion children. Also, the download won't be deleted if you delete/inactivate a child before the relative gets a chance to download it. But if you just want to download for active children, click on the filter button across the top to access active children only. You can also use these buttons to quickly navigate to inactive and awaiting deletion children should you need to. If you only want to download a journal for one individual child, find the child's name in the list and then click on the cog button at the end of the row of their name (1) and select the 'Export journal to PDF' option (2). Alternatively, if you want to export several journals at once, you can put a tick in the boxes next to all of the children you want to export a PDF journal for (1). Or if you want to select all children from that page, change 'Select Items' amount to 'All' (2). Once you're happy with the selected children, choose 'Export journals as PDFs' from the pop-up options box (3) and press 'Go' (4). Note that the default is 20 children per page. So if you have more than 20 children you'd like to export the journal for, just change the amount to something more suitable (1), and then select all again (2). You can also use the filters to search for groups, e.g. Penguin Class, so you can export journals for specific groups of children. For that, you'll need to be on the 'All' children list (1) and then click on 'Filter & Sort Children' (2). You have many filters to choose from, including by group (3) and also status (4). Press submit (5) when you're done. Once you have selected the children and pressed 'Go' to 'Export journals as PDFs', you'll then be presented with a screen offering a set of options for the journal export. I'll walk you through all of the different options available here. Children First of all, you can make changes to the selected children by adding more (1) or removing any you don't want to download a journal for (2). Recipients You will need to decide whether this journal is for staff members or relatives (1) If you choose relatives on multiple children exports, it will export for all relatives. Or if it's an individual child export then you can choose which relatives you'd specifically like the download for. If you select relatives but have their permissions set to hide group media, these photos will not be displayed. Also, they will not be able to download the PDF journal unless this is selected (2). This will have no affect on which managers can see and download the export. You can also give relatives access after the journal has been created. You can help relatives download their child's journal by linking them to this tutorial which will explain the process to them. If you choose staff as the recipient then only managers will be able to see the export as it appears within the Control Panel - regular staff members will not see it. Please note that journals exported for 'staff' can't then be changed to 'relatives' If you need to export a journal for a relative, you will have to make sure that the recipient is set up as the relative. It is then up to you to grant them access immediately or at a later date. Date Range Using the 'From' and 'To' and sections, you can then set a date range for the observations that you would like to be included in the journal. For example, you might like to create a file once a term, or once a year, or for specific dates. The default range covers the period from the first observation for that child to the last. Observations This section will determine which observations, and what parts within an observation, will be exported. On the first part 'Filter Included Observations' you can choose what type of observations to include, such as group observations, in journal, those created by relatives. If you have set the recipient as 'staff' you will also see the option for to include observations 'Hidden from relatives'. If this is for relatives, rest assured that if you decide to include group observations relatives will only be able to see the name tag for their child! Under 'Assessment Options' you can choose to include assessments within the observations in the journal. There are two options (1) for you to choose from with this, these are: Include all selected observations, but only show the following assessments. This will include any observation regardless of whether the observation contains any assessment but will only display the selected assessment(s). Only include observations that have the following assessments. This option will only include observations that contain specifically selected assessments. Once you have chosen one of these options, you can then select which assessment framework/s you want to be included in the export by ticking the box (2). If a framework is broken down into different areas and aspects you can also filter the assessments by down by these (3). When exporting for relatives, you'll see an orange label (4) next to any frameworks that haven't been made visible to relatives. However, if you select it, it will be visible on the journal export so do bear this in mind if you prefer relatives not to see the assessments. 'Items To Display' will allow you to select other items you may want to include, which can be done by ticking/unticking as preferred. There's also a brief summary of the child/ren you are creating the journal for, which notes how many observations will be included, and the name of the first and last observations within the chosen date range. Reports You can choose to include reports from within the previously selected date range (1). Any included reports will appear at the end of the exported journal, and will be categorised separately in the contents list. If the recipient is set to 'Staff' you'll also be able to include reports that haven't been published for relatives (2). Again, under 'Items To Display' you can decide which items within the report you'd like to include (3). And underneath you can see how many reports each child has for the selected period and the names of the first and last reports created for them (4). PDF Options Once you have chosen what to include and what to exclude, you will be able to play with how the journal looks, starting with changing the name of the PDF (1) and whether to include a cover page (2). If you include a cover page you can also change the text that appears above and below the child's profile picture (3). You also have the option of including a contents table and deciding how it displays (4). Here's an example cover page of a child's journal: In the 'Journal Layout' you will be able to customise details of the layout, such as choosing whether reports and observations are in one list or separate on the contents page (1). You can also choose how entries will be presented (2) with three different options: Start every journal entry on a new page. This will start each observation on it's own page regardless of length. Start long journal entries on a new page. Lengthier observations will begin on the next page rather than utilising empty space on an existing page. Split across pages. This will put as many observations on each page as possible, and continue them onto further pages if there is not enough space. To reduce the overall number of pages you may also want to change the format (3). Again there are three options: Default. This is intended more to be viewed on screen, and reflect the look of Tapestry itself. As such this will include larger photos and larger text compared to the following formats. Background colours will be maintained with this format. Compact. This option makes the images and text smaller in the observation, but still contains background colours. Printer Friendly. This option makes both the images smaller and removes background colours from observations. If you want to keep the PDF file and look at it on a computer, the default format may be the best option. But if you're going to print it, you'll save ink and paper by using the compact or printer friendly options. You can also choose whether you'd like to include photos or not (1). This might be handy if you are creating a journal to send to a setting that does not use Tapestry. If you do include photos you can also change how many photos appear in a line (2) (if you're trying to save paper you can choose the lowest option). Once you are happy with all of your choices, click on 'Submit' (3) to create the exports! Downloading Exported Journals The PDFs will then be queued for generation, and view the downloads and their progress (1) or head back to the Manage Children page (2). You can access the Downloads section at any point in your account through the Control Panel (3). If your relatives don't have a Tapestry account, or you prefer to distribute them in a different format, once you have downloaded the journals you can burn them onto CD/DVD (with sufficient memory) as required or save them to a USB stick. Please do remember to check that they have copied across properly before you send them out to parents though! In the 'Downloads' section you will see which PDFs are still generating, which ones are ready to download, and how long you have until each download will be deleted. This does not mean the child's actual account will be deleted, just that you will need to go through the export process again if you want the PDF. Once the export's ready you can download a copy (1). If you've selected the recipient as 'relatives' then you'll see a download for each relative (2) and can see if they have permission to download the file- in this case they have permission (3). You can also see whether the journal has been downloaded by that relative or any managers (4). If the journal has been exported for relatives, but they don't have permission to download it then you can allow the download by clicking on 'Change' (1). Or you can do this in bulk by ticking the box for each export (2) and selecting to 'Enable Relative Download' and then 'Go' (3). If you have exported the download for staff only, you won't see a relatives name. If you want to allow the relative's to download then you'll need to repeat the export process again and select the correct recipient. If you have a lot of downloads here and you want to narrow these down, you can use the filters at the top of the page. For example, you can filter by recipient (1) - this can be staff, relative, or an specific relative - or by download status (2). This will allow you to check which relatives have downloaded their children's journal at the end of the academic year. Please feel free to send in any support requests to customer.service@eyfs.info if you require any further assistance. Go back to Main Tutorials Page
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