A few years ago, my dad, an elementary school band teacher, asked me if I could create a tool that would make it easier to create seating charts. I though it sounded like a fun little exercise, so I did.

Much to my surprise, it's become quite popular among those who I can only assume are teachers of the musical persuasion, getting on average 1,000 visits per week from dozens of different countries. And I think that's pretty cool!

- Brad Greco

FAQ / Advanced usage

Printing

When you print the page using the print link or your browser's Print command, everything on the page except for the chart will be hidden automatically. For best results, print in landscape mode.

Options for removing the extra information on the page (date, URL, page number) can be found in your browser's print settings.

Partial rows / hidden chairs

Chairs may be hidden or shown by clicking on them. Hidden chairs are indicated by a large grey square on the screen, but will be completely hidden when printing.

To create a partial row, first create a full row with more chairs than you need and then hide some of the chairs.

Music stands

Stands will be displayed when the show music stands checkbox is selected. The small gray boxes indicate where stands can be placed, click inside these boxes to turn the stands on or off. The boxes themselves will be hidden when printing.

To create a row with only music stands (for percussion, etc), first create a normal row and then hide all the chairs by clicking on each one.

Custom labels (names) on chairs

To create custom labels on chairs, click the edit labels link beside each row. Each line of text that you type in the text box will be displayed over the a chair in the selected row (left to right). To restore the default numeric labels to a row, click its edit labels link and delete all text from the text box.

Coloring chairs

To set colors for chairs, first click the edit chair colors link. Select a color from the palette, and click on the chairs one at a time to make them the selected color. Use the checkboxes above the palette to control whether to color the chair outlines, labels, or both.

If you want to change the color of the interior of the chairs, right-click on each chair after choosing a color. The checkboxes have no effect on the interior color.

Saving and sharing charts

If you want to save your chart settings to use later, click the save this chart link at the bottom. A file containing the chart data will be saved to your computer. Next time you want to return to your saved chart, click the load saved chart link and select the file that you saved.

To share a chart with a co-worker, click the send by email link at the bottom of the page.

Changelog

2019-03-24: Add ability to generate a link to the chart without composing an email.

2018-08-17: Add podium and podium music stand

2018-08-15: Add Notes box and ability to set chair fill colors

2018-03-01: Add ability to set chair colors

2018-02-26: Add ability to flip chart to be seen from the perspective of the band members

2018-02-24: Add ability to download charts as PDF

2018-02-19: Make charts less blurry when printed

2016-08-23: Add ability to set custom labels on chairs, save and load chart data to files, and send chart links by email

2015-05-23: Allow chairs to be hidden, add help document, add option to create straight rows

2014-09-22: Add seat scale option

2014-02-24: Add music stand options, add save/load functionality

2014-01-24: Add link to create additional rows (seriously, you guys needed more than 8?!?!)

2013-03-04: Add option to add letters to each row

2012-02-06: Fix for older browsers

2012-02-04: First release

When you are finished, you can print this page (landscape mode is recommended) or download a PDF of this chart.
You can also save this chart to edit later, copy a link to this chart, or send a link to this chart by email.

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