You may want to pre-select students in certain activities prior to signups opening. This is particularly useful if, for example, you are running a sports squad and you want to be able to select your squad prior to signups opening, thus preventing your squad booking onto other activities that run at the same day & timeslot.
There are certain options you may have when using this function.
Option 1: Pre-select the activity so that the Parent or Student cannot choose an alternative
Option 2: Pre-select the activity but allow the Parent or Student to override that choice if they choose to
Once this choice has been made there is then the option of whether to complete the group, so no one else can join, (again useful for a sports squad) or to leave the group open so that once you have made your choices Parents or Students can then choose the activity if they wish.
Option 1: Pre-selecting an activity so that the Parent or Student cannot choose an alternative:
When creating the Group in your Preference Based signup ensure that you tick the box Users can view but not select
This will ensure that a Parent or Student cannot override the selection. When the Group is created click the Allocate button on the right-hand side of the Group.
The allocation screen will be displayed and you will need to click the Pre-select button shown below
A Student selection will open showing all Students available for the selected Group. You can type in the search bar at the top to narrow your search, filter by Group or alternatively, scroll down and choose by page. Once you have identified the Students you require, simply click the green 
icon to the right of their name to select them or click the add all button. To remove a selection click the trashcan icon to the right of the selected Student or click the remove all button
Once selections have been made then click the green Save button.
You now have the option to Save the group or put the group On Hold. If you allocate students by clicking on Allocate All or individual students, you can then Complete the group. Completing the Group is useful if you do not want anyone else to be able to join the Group once you have made your selections. If you are happy for others to join then click save.
Please note that a manually allocated 'completed' group is skipped when the auto-allocation process is run.
When a Parent or Student now logs in to make their selections they will already be selected for the above Group. They will not be able to amend this choice.
Option 2: Pre-selecting an activity allowing the Parent or Student to override the selection:
If teachers would like to make recommendations to some students to participate in an activity, but not force the student to participate they can make pre-selections for parents / students to see before opening the sign up, but leave them free to change the options .
When creating the Group in your Preference Based signup ensure that you tick the box Users can view but not select
This will ensure that a Parent or Student cannot override the selection for now. This will be changed later. When the Group is created click the 'Allocate' button on the right-hand side of the Group.
The allocation screen will be displayed and you will need to click the Pre-select button shown below:
A Student selection will open showing all Students available for the selected Group. You can type in the search bar at the top to narrow your search, filter by Group or alternatively scroll down and choose by page. Once you have identified the Students you require, simply click the green icon to the right of their name to select them or click the add all button. To remove a selection click the trashcan icon to the right of the selected Student or click the remove all button
Once selections have been made then click the green Save button. You now have the option to save, complete the Group or put the Group on hold. Do not complete the Group if you are planning on letting Parents/Students override your selection. If you are happy for others to join then click save.
You will now need to click Edit on the Group.
You can now remove the tick on the Users can view but not select selection - If you plan to complete the Group then leave this option ticked.
Parents/Students can now log in and have the option to choose their own selection if required
If you need to know how to manually add Student selections then see the following support article here.