Planbook for Windows: Elegant Lesson Planning for Educators
Planbook has hundreds of features to help you get more organized, save time, and share your lesson plans
Choose Your Schedule
Planbook can accommodate schedules where you teach the same thing each day, your classes change each day but repeat weekly and rotating schedules (up to a 14 day rotation).
Write your Lesson Plans
Planbook gives you 6 customizable fields to hold your lesson plans. You can show and hide the fields you want to use, and name them whatever you want.
Attach Files and Links
Planbook lets you attach any file on your computer directly to a lesson plan. You can also attach web links. Stop searching through folders or file cabinets and have the files you need right where you want them.
Print/Email your Plans
Planbook makes it easy to share your plans with your administrator, other teachers or students via print (or PDF, if you install a free PDF generator such as CutePDF. You can choose a weeks' lesson plans, specify a range of dates, a unit or all your lessons that have been tagged with a keyword. You control what gets printed.
Adjust your Schedule
When the weather gets rough (or any of the 100s of things happen that can affect your best laid plans), Planbook lets you quickly bump or pull back lessons to adjust your plans. Planbook also lets you make non school days to reflect holidays, in-services, weather days - whatever comes your way.
Reuse your Plans
Next term, or next year, don't recreate all your hard work. You can export courses (or units) from your Planbook file and import them into a new one. If your classes stay the same, simply migrate the entire file to a new start date and have all your plans shift to the new term.
Share Plans on the Web
All Planbook licenses come with the free use of PlanbookConnect, a service I've created that syncs the plans you've entered and builds web pages for your students, parents or colleagues. Planbook can also publish HTML pages to a local folder or FTP server.
Convert Days
Even those in schools with the strictest schedules will sometimes need to adjust their schedule to accommodate changes. Planbook lets you convert one type of day to another (an A day to a B day) or even create (and reuse) custom schedules (such as an assembly schedule or half-day schedule).
Top-Notch Tech Support
Hellmansoft offers several ways to get help with Planbook, usually responding within a day of receiving a message (and often much, much faster). Updates to Planbook are regularly released and are free for licensed users.
Track Standards
Planbook lets you define (or import) your curriculum standards into your data file. You can then easily track which lessons covered which standard using a simple checkbox.
Companion iPad and Mac Apps
Documents that you create with Planbook for Windows can easily be opened using the companion iPad application (requires Dropbox for wireless document transfer). The iPad app lets you glance at your lesson plans during class, make edits and adjust your schedule. Planbook for Windows files can also be opened using Planbook 4.1 on your Mac. Now you can do some of your lesson planning on your Windows computer at school, transfer the document to your Mac at home and keep planning away.
And Much, Much More!
Planbook has dozens of other features to help you plan. Use the lesson library to reuse common lesson plans. Use a lesson as a template for all your other lessons. Choose the colors you like for your classes. Copy and paste lessons. Organize lessons into units. Use convenient keyboard shortcuts to plan more quickly. And more. Give the trial version a try to see if Planbook will work for you.
A trial version of Planbook for Windows is available. The trial is fully featured but limits you to entering 15 lesson plans into the program. If you decide to purchase after using the trial, your data will be safely transferred into the licensed version
Planbook 4 for Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8
Planbook 4 runs and has been tested on the modern versions of Windows (XP through Windows 8). Once you download the linked .zip file, please run the included installer. Planbook 4 requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 or later.
Legacy Software:
Planbook 2.5 for Windows XP through 7
Planbook 2.5 is still available if you require access to the old version of Planbook. Upgrading to Planbook 4, if possible, is recommended. Planbook 4.0 can open files created in earlier versions of Planbook (such as 2.5). Download Planbook 2.5
Direct Purchase - Planbook for Windows is available for purchase using a secure web store powered by eSellerate, an industry leading eCommerce tool.
Single User Licenses and Family Packs
If you're currently using the trial version of Planbook, you can also purchase Planbook directly from the app itself (using the License menu item).
Department/Building Licenses
Department/Building licenses can be purchased at a significant discount either via the secure web store or by Purchase Order. Please get in touch if you'd like to purchase via PO
Frequently Asked Questions
- I purchased Planbook. How do I install it onto my computer?
Upon making a purchase, you will be provided with your license and serial number (in both an on-screen receipt and via email). Once you receive this serial number, you simply download and install Planbook. Once installed, you can enter the serial number into the License menu after launching the program. Entering your serial number converts the trial version into the full version.
You can also avoid this process by first downloading the trial version (before purchasing) and making your purchase using the License menu. This method will automatically enter your serial number and uses the same secure servers as a web-based purchase - Can I use Planbook on more than one computer?
Of course. Your Planbook license allows you to use Planbook on any computer you use. A second license should be purchased only if another teacher plans on using the software. All Planbook licenses cover the use of the software on the school and home computers of the licensee. - Can I use see and edit the same Planbook data on multiple computers?
Yes. Planbook, like many other programs, stores the data with your schedule and plans in a document. That document can be opened and edited on any computer with Planbook installed. You can transfer documents between computers in the same manner as any other document- by emailing copies, using a USB thumb drive, or (my recommendation) an automatic synchronization tool like Dropbox or Google Drive. - Do I need to purchase the Mac version separately?
No. Your Planbook for Windows license covers use of the Mac version, too. You can download the trial version of Planbook for Mac and use the same serial number you received when you purchased your copy of the program for Windows. - What about the iPad version? You do need to purchase the iPad version separately as the App Store doesn't include any way for me to bundle the iPad version with either the Mac or Windows versions of the software.
- I have a question that's not answered here
Please get in touch. We'll be happy to help in any way we can.
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