Working without internet

You don't need to do anything different when the connection drops. Carry on working. A note at the bottom of the screen says you're offline and how many changes are waiting. When the connection returns it says Syncing…, then Back online.

The Help button shows your connection too: an amber dot when it's slow, a red dot when it's very weak, and a crossed-out wifi mark when you're offline. Tap it to read what that means.

Every page tells you what it can do offline

Beside each page's title is a small label: Works offline, Partly offline or Online only. Tap it to see what works without a connection and what needs one. When you go offline, the same details appear at the top of the page. Tap the arrow to fold them to one line once you've read them.

Buttons that need a connection turn pale while you're offline. Pointing at one says Needs an internet connection, and tapping it says so too, so you never fill in a form only to be refused at Save. Buttons that look normal work offline.

What works offline

• Reading: any page you've opened before on this device, with its data as you last saw it. Lists say how fresh the data is, for example Offline · synced 10 minutes ago.
• Your downloads: choose in Settings → Offline what this device keeps (students, attendance registers, homework, exams, the gradebook and more), so those lists and records open offline even if you never opened them. See Offline downloads.
• The app's pages: every page in your menu is saved on the device by itself shortly after you sign in. Until then, a page you haven't opened on this device shows You're offline.
• Saving work, sent when you reconnect: marks in the Gradebook, the daily attendance register, adding a student, creating an exam, and Type From Paper. The message says saved on this device. Something you created offline shows above its list under Waiting to upload until it's sent.
• Students sitting a CBT exam: answers are kept on the device as they go, and a submission made offline is sent when the connection returns.

What needs a connection

Deleting things and changing a student's status; uploading photos and documents; importing a spreadsheet; recording a fee payment; gate check-in and check-out, and Pickup Alerts; homework changes; billing; Live Exams. These buttons tell you you're offline instead of failing silently.

Signing out

Work waiting to be sent is kept when you sign out. It is sent the next time you sign in on this device with a connection; nobody else can send it for you. If any is still waiting, the Log Out window says how many changes and suggests connecting first.

Saved copies of pages and lists, and your downloads, are cleared at sign-out, so the next person on a shared computer can't see your school's data. If you're only stepping away, use App Lock instead (Settings → Security).

Half-finished forms

If the page reloads, the browser closes or the power goes while you're adding or editing a student, an exam or a sheet of grades, what you typed comes back when you open that form again, on the same device and account, for up to 14 days. Discard draft throws it away. Nothing reaches the school until you press the form's own Save.

Keep your work safe

• Don't clear the browser's data, and don't use a private or incognito window for school work: either can throw away changes that haven't been sent yet.
• Installing Palmgrade on your device, like an app, helps it keep your data.