Load the User Import Wizard.

Start the SchoolSuite User Import Wizard from the Windows Start menu, a window similar to the welcome message opposite should be displayed, giving you a general idea what the wizard will do.

Select the user account template required.

The first step is to select a user account template that will provide the bulk of the user account data (login name and password generation rules, user profile details, home folder location and trustee rights and user group membership).

Select user import CSV file.

Once the appropriate template has been selected you will need to supply the wizard with a CSV (comma separated values) file containing the first and second names of the users to be imported.

The CSV file is often created by exporting information from the school's administration database.

Click on the 'Import List' button to display the select import file dialogue window.

Load the CSV file containing the user names into the Wizard.

From here you can browse to the location of the CSV file containing the names of the users to import.

Once the file has been located double click on it or select it and press 'Open' to load the file into the Wizard.

Check the user import list summary.

The Wizard will read in all the names from the import list and attempt to create a login name for each user by following the rules set in the user template.

Login names have to be valid and unique and the wizard will sort most of this out for you, but if any of the new names will result in any duplication (the name is already in use) or ambiguity (two or more of the new login names are the same), the wizard will warn you.

If the CSV file had the columns in the wrong order you can swap the First Name and Second Name column data with the 'Swap Columns' button.

Examine the user name list.

All the user names will be displayed in the user list.

To assist with problems resolving login names that are too long, ambiguous or duplicated; duplicated names will be displayed using a bold red font, ambiguous names will use a bold blue font and login names that are over 20 characters in length will be displayed in a bold green font..

Problem names must be resolved before the import can continue.

Filter the user list to display only invalid login names.

You can either edit or remove a problem name and, to help you do this, the list contents can be filtered so that only duplicate, ambiguous or overly long names are displayed.

To remove a name either highlight it and press the delete key or click on it with the right mouse button and select 'Remove User' from the resulting menu.

To edit a name either double click on it or right click and select 'Edit Details' from the menu.

Edit the details of any invalid user login names.

Any of the user name details can be amended, but it is the login name that must be unique and limited to 20 characters.

You can adjust the login name however you see fit; the wizard will prevent you from entering a duplicate or ambiguous name by checking as you type and disabling the 'OK' when required.

If the name is too long the wizard will warn you when you press 'OK' and advise how many characters need to be removed.

Check the user list is ready to import.

Once the user list contains no problem names the 'Next' button will become available and you can continue to the next stage of the import process.

Review the import summary details.

Before beginning the account creation process the Wizard will confirm some of the template and user details that the import will use.

If any of the details are incorrect you can go back to the appropriate point and correct them.

Pressing 'Finish' will begin the account generation process.

Check the user import list summary.

For each user in the user name list the Wizard will create a user account, with a home folder and will share and set the trustee rights to the home folder.

The wizard will also update the user profile settings accordingly, set the user's initial password as well as adding the user account to the appropriate user groups.

This process can take a while if a lot of users are to be imported at the same time, so a progress bar will keep you updated as to how the Wizard is doing.

Save the new user account details to a file.

Once the import process has completed you will be asked if you want to save details of the accounts created in a file. The information saved is the user's full name. login name, home directory path and share name and it is saved in a CSV file format for ease of manipulation.

It can be useful to keep a copy of this information, particularly for staff needing to know the login names of 250 new users at the start of term!