Each report type at your school has a length limit, counted in characters including spaces. Your school admin sets it for each report type: a shortest length, a length to aim for, and a longest length.
How Lantern fits a report to the limit
Lantern writes each draft to your school's limit in one go. If the draft comes out too long, Lantern writes a fresh, shorter draft once. If it comes out too short, it writes a longer one once.
Lantern never cuts a report off part-way, pads it out, or squeezes it shorter by rewriting it. Doing that flattened teachers' voices. Instead, when your notes won't all fit, Lantern leaves some out.
Notes that were left out
Open the Notes & refine tab beside the report. Your notes are split into In report and Left out.
- Bring in adds a left-out note to the Refine box. Nothing changes until you select Apply.
- Swap in writes the whole report again with that note in place of another. Edits you've made to the report are replaced.
When a report is over the limit
A report that's still over the longest length shows Too long under Must do, and it can't be signed off until it's shorter. You can:
- Shorten myself: edit the report. The count updates as you type.
- Leave a note out…: choose a note to drop, and Lantern writes the report again from your other notes. Your edits are replaced.
Fixes for your school's rules never push a report past the limit.
Shorter reports
There's no minimum length at sign-off. If a report is shorter than you'd like, add more to your notes and write it again, or ask for more detail with Refine.
If the limit itself seems wrong for your school, talk to your school admin. They can change it under Report types in School admin.
Still stuck?
Email support@lanternreports.com.au and a real person will get back to you.