Keeping attendance is optional. When a new grade book is created you will be prompted with the attendance key dialog. If you cancel you can still activate attendance recording by selecting the 'Attendance Key' option from the 'Edit' menu.
When you first activate the attendance recording you must supply the date of the first day of the school term and the days of the school week. Once the dates are defined they cannot be changed later.
Attendance is recorded using a single character. By default (the cell is empty) the student is present. Up to 8 attendence characters may be defined. Some characters may represent absence while others may represent whatever you want. At least one character must represent absence. To indicate a character represents absence, click the check-box next to the character.
