Download

Principal Planner, ready to install.

One file. Download it, open it, and it is ready in about a minute. Put it on a USB stick and it installs on a school computer just as happily.

Choose your computer

Download Principal Planner

Pick the version that matches the computer you are installing on.

Download for Mac About 130 MB

You do not need a licence key to start. The download is the free version: the calendar, your events and tasks, and three complete planning templates. A licence key, entered later in Settings, unlocks the rest in place without changing anything you have entered.

Installing

A minute on either kind of computer.

On a Mac

Double-click the .dmg file you downloaded. A window opens.
Drag the Principal Planner icon onto the Applications folder beside it.
Open Principal Planner from Applications or Launchpad. If macOS asks whether to open an app downloaded from the internet, click Open. It asks only once.

You should see no other warnings. Principal Planner is signed and notarised with Apple, so macOS recognises it. If you are told the app “cannot be opened” or is from an unidentified developer, the download was incomplete: delete it and download again.

On Windows

Double-click PrincipalPlanner-Windows-Setup.exe.
Windows shows a blue “Windows protected your PC” box. Click More info, then Run anyway.
Follow the installer. Principal Planner appears in your Start menu and on your desktop.

That blue box is expected, and it is not a virus warning. It appears because Principal Planner comes from a small publisher Windows has not yet seen many installs from. It says nothing about whether the file is safe.

On a school computer

Built to install without ringing IT.

Most principals will be installing this on a machine the school manages. That was designed for rather than hoped about.

No administrator password

On Windows, Principal Planner installs into your own user account, not the whole machine, so it never asks for an admin password. On a Mac, if you cannot write to Applications, drag it to the Applications folder inside your home folder instead and it works the same.

A USB stick is fine

Download the installer at home, copy it to a USB stick, and run it at school. Installing, running and entering a licence key all work with no internet at all.

Online only when you ask

The one time Principal Planner uses the network is when a Queensland state school presses Sync now, to download the Department’s public school calendar from education.qld.gov.au. If that is blocked, download the calendar file yourself and import it. Schools that enter their own term dates never go online.

If your school locks installs down

Some systems refuse any program that is not on an approved list. Send your IT team the one-page fact sheet (PDF): it explains what Principal Planner installs, its one optional connection, and that everything stays on the computer it is installed on.

The first time you open it

Ten minutes of setup, then a real event.

A short setup asks for your school, your leadership team and your support areas. Tick the support areas honestly: they decide which prompts you see.
Open Settings → School calendar and add your local show holiday, and anything else that is different at your school.
Go to Planning, plan one real event you have coming, and see what it tells you.

Back it up. Settings → Data → Export local backup gives you one file with everything in it. Keep it somewhere safe, and make a new one every few weeks.
Bought a licence? Settings → Licence, paste your key, and click Activate.

Before you install

What it needs

macOS: 13 Ventura or newer. Apple Silicon and Intel both supported, as separate downloads.
Windows: Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
Disk space: About 300 MB once installed.
Internet: Not to install, run or license. Only when you press Sync now.

Trouble installing? Email hello@designedlearningco.au and say which computer you are on. Replies come from the person who wrote it.