Free Seating Chart App

How to use the seating chart app

1. Choose your starting room. Try Reception, Rows, Concert band or Dinner for 12. Use this layout removes the fictional names and their rules while keeping the room. Start blank gives you an empty room.
2. Add and seat your people. Paste names or import CSV or Excel. On a phone, tap a person and choose a table, or pick a seat on the floor plan. Smart arrange fills seats using your rules and locks.
3. Keep an editable backup. Use Save editable plan above the room to download the current project, including names, notes, seating and rules. My plans & files opens saved plans or a plan file on this device.
4. Print or move to another device. Export a Letter or A4 PDF for printing. To continue editing elsewhere, transfer the plan file yourself and open it through My plans & files in the other browser.

A seating chart maker app for your phone

The labelled reception example has 42 fictional guests, with 36 already seated and six waiting. You can try assigning one of those guests before replacing the sample list. Switch examples for a classroom, concert band or a dinner around one table. Each example is editable; none prescribes the size of your event.

On a small screen, People opens the roster. Tap a name to choose a table with space. For a particular chair, choose Pick a seat on the floor plan, then tap the chair. Search narrows a long list. The More menu offers List view, where table-by-table assignments work without navigating the drawing. A mouse and keyboard work on larger screens too.

Add a few names first and check your room before importing everyone. Extra tables, desks, rows and room items are under Add. Use Arrange for rules, Smart arrange or Shuffle; review capacity and rule warnings after arranging. Lock seats that must stay fixed. Undo and Redo let you compare changes.

Come back to the plan you were editing

Edits autosave to this browser on this device. The saving indicator changes to Saved after the current edits are stored. Open My plans & files above the room to find, rename or duplicate a saved plan. Give each plan a useful name, such as “Friday dinner — final”, so similar versions are easy to distinguish.

This page remembers its last open plan. On a first visit it can also reopen a saved plan from another example on this site; otherwise you see the reception example. A saved class or rehearsal stays that kind of plan when opened here. If storage fails, the editor shows a saving error. Keep the tab open and save a plan file while your current work is available.

Back up a plan or move it to another device

Save editable plan prepares a .seating.json file from the current project, including edits waiting for autosave. Check your browser’s downloads and keep the file somewhere you can find it. It holds the room, people, assignments, rules, locks and design settings. It also contains private notes; treat it like your original guest list.

To continue on another device, transfer that file using a method you choose. Open this page there, select My plans & files, then Open a plan file (.json). Import creates a separate editable copy; it does not merge two versions or synchronize later changes. Agree which copy is current before two people edit the same event.

Browser storage is convenient working storage. Clearing site data, changing browser profiles or ending a private session can remove it. Keep a backup before those changes and after important seating decisions. A PDF is useful on paper, but cannot restore the editable plan.

Print the chart, or share a snapshot

Open Export on a phone, or Print & export on a larger screen, for Letter and A4 PDFs with a floor plan, an alphabetical list and per-table lists. Use the list when names would be too small on a room diagram. CSV and Excel hold assignments; PNG and SVG suit documents and messages. Review the downloaded result before printing or sending it.

A read-only share link lets someone search for their seat. It captures the chart at that moment, so later edits need a new link. Links omit editable rules, notes and locks. Anyone with the link can read the included names; share only with intended recipients. For an example of the print layout, open the reception sample in Letter PDF or A4 PDF. Both retain the example’s six unseated people so they are visible for review.

Choose the right starting plan

A useful seating arrangement app should fit the actual room and make changes easy to recover. For round tables and households, try the wedding tool. Teachers can start with classroom rows, pairs or groups, or plan furniture before adding a roster with the classroom floor-plan maker. Directors can use the band section planner. The table planner creates tables from your guest count. These pages use the same editor and local saved plans.

Frequently asked questions