Seating & Communion Planner – User Manual

1. What the app does

The Seating & Communion Planner draws the floor plan of your church, lets you decide which minister sits in which seat and who stands where to serve Holy Communion, and produces a one-page A4 PDF of the plan that you can send to the ministers on WhatsApp.

• It runs in the web browser on a phone, tablet or computer. Nothing needs to be installed.
• There is no login. Everything you enter is stored in your own browser on your own device.
• Gezina, Sinoville and Hercules are built in. Any other congregation can be added with its own layout.

2. Getting started

1. Open https://nac-seating-planner.vercel.app in your browser.
2. On a phone, add it to your home screen so it opens like an app:
   • iPhone (Safari): tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.
   • Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu, then Add to Home screen or Install app.
3. Choose your congregation from the Congregation dropdown at the top of the plan.
4. Go to the Roster tab and enter your ministers (see section 8).

3. The screen

Header

• Save keeps the plan you are working on (section 9). An Unsaved badge appears whenever the plan differs from what is saved.
• Share PDF (phones and tablets) builds the PDF and opens the share sheet so you can send it on WhatsApp.
• Save PDF downloads the PDF. Print prints the same sheet.
• Help opens this manual.

Plan area

• Congregation, Date and Service appear on the PDF heading.
• The − and + buttons zoom the plan. When zoomed in, drag sideways to scroll. Phones open zoomed in so the squares are easy to tap.
• The legend under the plan shows the colours of the serving sections.

How the seats are numbered

Every congregation follows the same standard, so a plan reads the same wherever it comes from:

• Seat 2 is the presiding minister, whoever is serving: the Apostle, District Apostle or Chief Apostle. Their seat is on the bench to the left of the altar, second from the congregation end.
• Seat 1 is beside them, in the position closest to the congregation.
• Along a bench the numbers count up from the congregation end towards the altar, so a bench of four reads 1, 2, 3, 4 from the back forwards.
• The benches themselves fill from the one nearest the altar and move backwards, so the bench closest to the altar carries the lowest numbers.

Tabs

There are five tabs: Seats, Communion, Roster, Plans and Layout. On a computer they sit beside the plan; on a phone they become a bar of icons along the bottom of the screen, within easy reach of your thumb. The tab you are on is highlighted. Each is described below.

What the squares mean

4. A service in five steps

1. Set the Date and Service (for example "Ap Service").
2. Tap each seat on the plan and pick the minister. Tap another seat to swap two ministers.
3. Tap each hatched station and pick the seat number of the minister who serves there.
4. In the Communion tab, fill in who serves whom and the cup pairs.
5. Tap Save, then Share PDF and choose WhatsApp.

5. Working on the plan

Assigning a seat

• Tap a seat. A panel opens (at the bottom of the screen on a phone) showing the seat number and who is in it.
• Tap a minister's name to seat them. Each name shows their colour; a small number after a name means they are already in that seat, and tapping them moves them.
• To seat someone who is not on the roster, type the name in Or type a name… and tap Assign.
• Clear seat empties the seat. The × closes the panel.

Swapping two seats

With one seat selected, tap a second seat. The two ministers change places, including their colours.

Serving stations

• Tap a hatched square. Tap the seat number of the minister who stands there. Each number shows the minister currently in that seat.
• Clear station leaves it blank.
• To change how many stations a group has, use the steppers in the Communion tab (section 7).

6. Seats tab

The same assignments as a table, with a dropdown per seat. Choose a name from the dropdown, or Other… to type one. The row takes the colour of the minister. This is the quickest way to fill many seats on a computer.

7. Communion tab

Serves

Rows for general duties, for example seat 1 "Serves 2-11" and seat 2 "Serves C & O Cup". Choose the seat, type the text. + Serves row adds a row; × removes one.

Takes cup / Takes inner

One row per pair: the seat that takes the main cup and the seat that takes the inner cup. + Cup pair adds a row.

Serving stations on the plan

One stepper per station group (for example Front of altar, Choir side, Members side, or Left, Right, Foyer). + adds a blank station, − removes the last one, up to six per group. Reset stations to usual puts back the usual positions and seat numbers for the layout.

Cups on the altar

Steppers for the number of communion cups left and right of the altar, up to eight each. They wrap into two rows when there are more than four.

8. Roster tab and colours

• Each row is a minister: rank, surname, colour and a × to remove them. Ranks are free text; suggestions such as Ap, De, Pr. and Dn appear as you type.
• Add a minister with the rank and surname boxes at the bottom and Add.
• Renaming a minister updates the seat they are in.

Colours

The colour means the section a minister serves, for example Centre, Choir side and Members side at Gezina, or Left, Right and Foyer at Sinoville. Several ministers can share a colour. Tap a round swatch to set it; the first swatch (white) means no section. The small colour box at the end lets you pick any other colour.

The colour follows the minister to their seat, to the station that holds their seat number, to the Seats table and communion dropdowns, and to the PDF. The sections and their colours are defined per congregation in the Layout tab.

9. Plans tab, saving and loading

• The app opens with empty seats and stations, on the congregation you used last. If you closed it with unsaved changes, that work comes back instead and a message says so.
• Save in the header keeps the plan you are working on. If it was loaded from a saved plan, that plan is updated; otherwise a new saved plan is created.
• Save as new plan keeps a copy as a separate saved plan. Use it when you start from last week's plan.
• Saved plans lists what you have saved by date, service and congregation. Choose one to load it. If you have unsaved changes, the app asks before discarding them.
• Start blank plan clears the seats and stations for a new service.
• Delete saved plan removes the saved copy of the plan you have loaded. What is on screen stays open as unsaved.
• Note on the sheet is the line printed under the tables on the PDF, for example "All Rectors and Priests to be seated in the Sacristy with the Apostle."

Backup

Export backup downloads one file with your roster, layouts and saved plans. Import backup loads such a file and replaces what is in the browser. Use this to move to a new phone or to keep a copy somewhere safe.

10. Layout tab and other congregations

A layout is the drawing of one congregation's building, drawn in the app's standard style: numbered squares for seats, hatched squares for serving stations, coloured blocks for the seating sections, and the altar with its cups. A hand-drawn plan from Word can be rebuilt in this style with the editor below.

Choose the layout with the Congregation dropdown. Every plan remembers which layout it belongs to.

Adding a congregation

1. Choose the built-in layout that looks most like your building, then tap New layout (copy) and give it the congregation's name.
2. Tap Edit this layout. The plan becomes an editor. Drag any block, seat, marker, the altar or a station group (the dashed circle) into place.
3. Tap an item to change it in the form below: label (blocks may have several lines), fill colour, width, height, cut corner, text size, seat number, station direction and the usual seat numbers for a station group.
4. Use + Block, + Seat, + Marker and + Station group to add items, and Delete to remove the selected one.
5. Under Serving sections and colours, name the sections of your building and choose their colours. These become the colour choices in the Roster tab and the legend on the PDF.
6. Tap Finish editing.

Sharing a layout with another device or congregation

Everything you enter is stored in the browser on the device you used, so a layout you draw on one computer does not appear by itself on your phone or on someone else's device. There are two ways to hand it over:

• Share layout link makes a link that carries the whole layout. Send it on WhatsApp or by e-mail. Whoever opens it is asked whether to add that congregation, and it is then saved on their device. The tracing picture is not included, since it is only a guide while drawing.
• Export layout downloads the layout as a file, including its tracing picture. The other person uses Import layout or picture in the Layout tab.

Delete removes a layout you created; the built-in ones cannot be deleted.

11. PDF, WhatsApp and printing

The PDF is one A4 page: the heading with congregation, date and service, the plan with all seats, stations and cups, the section legend, the Seating Arrangements table, the Communion table, and the note.

• Phone or tablet: tap Share PDF. The share sheet opens; choose WhatsApp, then the group or person. The file is named after the congregation, date and service.
• Computer: tap Save PDF. The file downloads; attach it in WhatsApp Web or e-mail.
• Print sends the same sheet to the printer.

12. Where your data lives

• Everything is stored in the browser on the device you are using. Nothing is sent to a server, and nobody else can see your plans.
• Because of this, a plan made on your phone is not on your computer. Use Export backup and Import backup to move data between devices.
• Clearing the browser's site data, or using a private or incognito window, removes or does not keep the data. Keep an exported backup.
• Roster, colours and layouts are saved automatically. Plans are kept only when you save them (section 9).

13. Troubleshooting