Creating and setting up a school

Who: anyone can create an account; they become the owner of the school they create. Setup (5 steps) is for the owner only. Instructors never see it: the owner invites them (see the Settings article).

Create an account

On the Martialnote home page, tap Get started (or Create my school at the bottom of the page), or, from the sign-in screen, tap Create an account (address /signup).
Fill in First name, Last name (1 to 60 characters each) and Email. The email is your sign-in: there is no password.
Check "I accept the terms of use and the privacy policy". The box is required: the acceptance date is kept with the account. Read the terms of use and Read the privacy policy open each text in a new tab. They are also at the bottom of every landing page (Terms, Privacy): martialnote.com/en/terms.html (French: /conditions.html) and martialnote.com/en/privacy.html (French: /confidentialite.html).
Pass the anti-robot check (Cloudflare Turnstile) shown on the page: it is invisible most of the time, but creation does not go through until it succeeds. If it does not show, reload the page, allow the site's scripts or try another browser.
Tap Create my account and continue. The button stays grey while a field is missing or the box is not checked.
Open the email you receive and tap the link: it works once and expires 15 minutes after it was sent. The app opens on setup.

Rules:

The anti-robot check is required when creating an account. Its failure shows "The anti-robot check failed. Reload the page and try again." (see the FAQ "The anti-robot check does not show when creating an account").
If Martialnote receives many school creations the same day, the new school may be being verified before it can send anything (less than 24 h): see the "The trial period" article.
An email that already has an account is refused ("This email already has an account…") with a Sign in with this email link. An account is never overwritten or created twice.
The email is written in the screen's language (French or English).
If the link expired, sign in from the sign-in screen with the same email (at most 5 links per hour): you land on setup, at the step reached.
One school per person (V1). The same account cannot create a second school.

The 5 steps

The top of the screen shows a note ("About 20 minutes in all."), then the five steps: School, Grades, Vocabulary, Curriculum, Ready, and "Step N of 5". Steps already done stay clickable; later ones are locked until the current step is done. At the bottom: Back (from step 2) on the left, then Save and quit and Continue on the right. Each Continue really saves what was chosen.

1. School

School name: 1 to 120 characters.
Styles taught: one or more among kung-fu, tai chi, karate, judo, aikido, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, jujutsu, capoeira, iaido, taekwondo and Other style (free name, 1 to 60 characters, one "other" only). Each style becomes a curriculum with its name (for example "Kung-fu"), with its own grading system.
Continue creates the school (the person's language, time zone America/Toronto, default vocabulary), the owner account and the curriculums. A double click or a second tab never creates two schools.
School already created (resuming or edit mode): the name can be changed; adding a style creates its curriculum; removing a style moves its curriculum to the trash, where it can be restored for 30 days, but only if it is empty: a curriculum with items, categories or a grading system can't be removed here ("Can't remove …"); empty it first in Progression, or keep the style. A curriculum created in Progression under another name shows as a separate chip, which you can keep or remove.

2. Grades

One tab per style, with a chip: "Grades: N" or "No system". For each style:

No grading system: students progress through the curriculum only. This is the default for tai chi and a free-named style. Nothing is created.
A grading system: choose a template (the style's own first; Show templates from other styles (N) shows the rest) or Start from scratch. The system is created right away.
As soon as the system exists, the step shows the full editor, the same as the Grading system screen in Progression: rename, series, grades (look, stripes, requirements), order (drag or Move up / Move down), ways to earn a grade, Change template (while no grade has been awarded) and Remove the system (trash, 30 days). Every change is saved at once. See the Grades article.

Continue moves to step 3 whatever the state: a school without grades is allowed.

3. Vocabulary

What do you call the people who teach?: Instructor, Teacher, Professor, Coach, or Other… (your word, 1 to 30 characters). In French: Instructeur, Enseignant, Professeur, Entraîneur.
What do you call your sequences?: Form, Kata, Tao, or Other… (1 to 30 characters).
Preview in the app shows an item and the sentence "{Teachers} can validate {forms} and add stripes." live.
Optional step: the defaults ("Instructor" and "form", or "Instructeur" and "forme" for a French school) are already saved.

Exact reach of the vocabulary — the chosen word only changes:

the help sentence "{Teachers} can validate {forms} and add stripes." in a student's progression and in the Progression view of the attendance sheet;
the names of items created afterwards with "Use the starter template" (for example "Kata 1 — Basic stances"). Items already created are never renamed.

Everything else keeps the standard labels: menus, buttons, the "Instructor" role in Roles and access, the "Instructor" field of a class. No title is ever placed in front of a person's name.

Automatic plural: in English, an "s" is added, and a consonant followed by "y" becomes "ies"; in French, an "s" is added, except for words ending in s, x or z ("cours" stays "cours"). If the plural doesn't fit, choose Other… and another word.

4. Curriculum

One block per style.

Empty curriculum: Use the starter template (the summary shows the template's name and its number of categories and items) or Start from a blank page. The template creates its categories and items in order; names use the word chosen in step 3; each item is linked to the matching grade of the main line of the style's grading system, if there is one (otherwise "Free").
Other style: no template, blank page only.
The template is offered only for an empty curriculum. After that, the block shows the full editor, the same as the curriculum screen in Progression: add an item or a category, rename, change the level (grade or "Free"), reorder, remove (trash, 30 days).
Continue moves to step 5 even if some curriculums are empty.

5. Ready

A summary of the four steps, each with Edit to go back to it.
Next, at your own pace: Import your students from a spreadsheet, Create your groups and schedule, Invite an instructor. Tapping one opens the school, then leads to that screen.
Open my school ends setup and leads to Today.
Setup leads straight into the app. About 5 seconds after arriving (app not installed yet, on any device), a centered window "Martialnote on your home screen" offers to install the app; Later closes it. Installing is optional and the window only appears once. See the article "Install the app on the home screen".

Quit and resume

Save and quit (at the bottom, left of Continue) saves the current step if it is valid, then shows "See you soon!" with Resume.
At the next sign-in, while the school is not open, the app brings you back to setup at the step reached. Nothing is lost: each step was already saved.
Until setup is finished, the app's other screens are not available.

Change things later (edit mode)

The owner reopens the steps from Settings › School: Styles taught, Grading systems, Vocabulary, Starting curriculum. The title becomes "My school · Settings", the bottom button becomes Save and returns to Settings, Cancel (to its left) returns without changing anything. Changes apply everywhere in the app. Instructors have no access to this mode.