The Planet Guide to item, mailing and schedule screens

This guide is a set of hands-on instructions that contains screen shots and explanations of the various screen fields to help you carry out standard PPA tasks with items and mailings. You can use your browser to print out any of the sections of this guide. The guide will show you how to perform several key tasks:

• Set up items
• Set up item editions
• Further updating of item editions
• Create item use records
• Search for items
• Creating and using mailings
• Adding and updating items in a mailing
• Creating and using contents checklists
• The module inventory report
• Rolling forward mailings and copying mailings
• Managing admin items
• Using schedule screens (in progress)

Who uses the item, mailing and schedule screens?

• Production and Presentation Administrators (CAU): the main responsibility for maintaining item-related records on Planet belongs to PPAs who look after mailings, principally and, in most cases, create the item records as well.
• Curriculum Managers (CAU): Curriculum Managers are responsible for approving the mailing inventories and running and sending contents checklists downloaded from Planet. They cannot update mailings or schedules.
• The LTS Portfolio Planning and Control Office (LTS): staff in the PPC look after reprints and are responsible for entering schedules on Planet.
• Materials Procurement (LTS): staff enter some schedule and actual dates on Planet.
• Admin units (Student Services, the Library etc): staff set up and maintain 'admin items' (e.g. AL and Library items used by modules across CAUs)

Getting help

If you are having difficulty using Planet, the system provides three forms of online help. The blue button at the marked Help on the left side of the screen takes you to a separate screen help window that gives you information about the screen you're using. A shorter, quicker type of help is field help, which you can get by clicking on the bold field names on the screens.

If you have general questions about Planet or how the system fits together, explore the other sections of this site, which gives an overview of Planet and answers standard user questions. The different sections deal with different aspects of Planet. However, if you are still having difficulty, email the Planet Helpdesk.