Mavericking Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Property Settings for Version 8.0

Introduction

What is “Mavericking”?

The subject of this article is “mavericking”. But, what is a maverick? In OnePager, the Glossary of Terms defines maverick task bars/milestone symbols, for example, as follows:

A task bar/milestone symbol is said to be turned into a Maverick if the task bar/milestone symbol has one or more of its default property settings manually changed (e.g. changing the “color” of a task bar to green, when the default or data OnePager assigned color is red).

Task bar/milestone symbol global property settings are initially established in OnePager Template Properties before a chart is created and these global property settings can be altered using the Chart Properties forms after the chart is created. That is, you always have the option to make global changes by altering task bar/milestone symbol property settings in the Chart Properties form.

Additionally, you can implement specific task bar/milestone symbol property setting changes through the use of conditional formatting for task and milestone rules whereby property settings are established as a result of applying rules based upon data imported from your source plan. Conditional formatting for task and milestone rules can be established before or after the chart is created.

Finally, you can maverick or manually change task bar/milestone symbol property settings in the chart using context menus and forms provided for these purposes.

What “Mavericking” Does Not Do!

You can maverick task bar/milestone symbol property settings in the chart but these mavericked property settings are NEVER incorporated into the current Chart Properties form and they CANNOT become incorporated into a Template Properties form! Therefore, you should not rely on mavericking for making more than a handful of minor changes in the chart. Significant use of mavericking is inefficient and can end up taking more time in the long run.

Mavericking, Conditional Formatting Rules, and Global Property Settings – The Hierarchy

When users apply formatting through a mixture of mavericking, conditional formatting, and global property settings, the following hierarchy applies:

1) Mavericking (takes precedence over all other formatting)

2) Conditional formatting (takes precedence over default formatting, but can be overridden by mavericking)

2) Global property settings (can be overridden by either conditional formatting or mavericking)

This hierarchy becomes important when the editing features are used in combination and when you desire to restore property settings back toward their default property setting values. So before proceeding into the details, let’s review the editing features you have available in OnePager.

OnePager Template Properties Forms

OnePager is shipped to customers with a set of Templates that can be used to produce different styles of OnePager charts. These Templates define the global default property settings for task bars/milestone symbols that initially appear in your chart. Settings from any Template can be reviewed in the Template Properties form prior to chart creation. The screenshot below depicts the Task Bars tab for the Single Project Gantt View – Detailed template:

You can certainly, before the chart is created, access one or more of the provided Templates, make changes to their property settings as determined by your needs, and save the altered Template for use later when creating OnePager charts. When saved in a Template, these changes become global from the perspective of any charts subsequently created from the Template.

OnePager Chart Properties Forms

You have the option to make global, chart level, changes to the default property settings after the chart is created. By accessing the Chart Properties form you can change default task bar property settings at the Task Bars tab or milestone symbol property settings at the Milestones tab. Changes made to any property settings in any tab of the Chart Properties form ONLY CHANGE THE CURRENT chart. The changes do not automatically change the Template that was originally used to create the chart.

Both Chart Properties form’s Task Bars and Milestones tabs are shown below:

Chart Properties Form’s Task Bars Tab

Chart Properties Form’s Milestones Tab

When a chart is created, the task bar/milestone symbol property settings are taken from the current Template Properties form and applied to the Chart Properties form. In the Chart Editor, the Chart Properties form is accessible at the OnePager Home ribbon tool bar task shown below:

If you are satisfied with the “out-of-the-box” chart, there is no need to access the Chart Properties form and make chart level global changes to any property settings. On the other hand, if you want to make chart level global changes, that is, you want to change one or more of the task bar/milestone symbol property settings, access the Chart Properties form at either the Task Bars or Milestones tab and use the controls to make the changes. When you are finished, click the OK button on the Chart Properties form and your chart level global changes are immediately applied to the chart.

Since the process described above has the potential to change several or all task bars/milestone symbols in the chart, these changes are NOT considered mavericks.

Manually Changing Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Property Settings

Manual changes made to one or more specific task bar/milestone symbol in the chart by changing specific property settings DOES reclassify the specific task bar/milestone symbol as a maverick. Examples are provided in sections that follow.

Using Conditional Formatting Rules to Change Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Property Settings

OnePager also has a feature that allows you to change the property settings of task bars/milestone symbols using logic based rules provided in the Conditional Formatting for Tasks & Milestones form. This form can be used prior to creating the chart by accessing it from the Template Properties form’s Task Bars or Milestones tab as shown in the Template Properties form illustration above in its Conditional Formatting control group. The Manage Rules… button accesses the Conditional Formatting for Tasks & Milestones form shown in the sample below:

The Conditional Formatting for Tasks & Milestones form is primarily accessible from the Chart Properties form’s Task Bars and Milestones tabs (as illustrated previously above) and can be accessed at any time after the chart is created. The relationship between the use of the Conditional Formatting for Tasks & Milestones form and manually mavericking of individual task bar/milestone symbol property settings has some complexities that are treated in this article.

The Conditional Formatting for Tasks & Milestones form is also accessible by using the Conditional Formatting button on the OnePager Home tool bar tab's Formatting control group as shown below:

For more information on this relationship, please see the associated article linked below:

Related Links

Overview

This article covers the subject of manually mavericking task bar/milestone symbol property settings in the chart in the following three sections:

1) Manually Mavericking Task Bar Settings

2) Manually Mavericking Milestone Symbol Settings

3) Manually Mavericking Task Bar/Milestone Properties Using Controls on the OnePager Home Ribbon Tool Bar Tab

In the fourth section, we provide a discussion of how the Conditional Formatting for Tasks & Milestones form is related to the manual mavericking of task bar/milestone symbol properties settings and what to expect if manual mavericking and Conditional Formatting for Task and Milestones interact.

These four sections are followed by a section discussing how to restore chart level global default task bar/milestone symbol properties settings from their mavericked settings.

For more information, please see the associated article linked below:

Related Links

Manually Mavericking Task Bar Settings

Suppose we create a chart as shown below:

This chart was created using the standard Single Project Gantt – Detailed Template calling for task colors to be based on resource assignments.

The OnePager Chart Editor provides controls for you to select a task bar with a right-click which accesses a context menu showing commands that allow you to specifically edit the task bar selected.

The details for using these features are included in articles that are referenced in the table shown below:

Related Links

For example, suppose the ADDONIS Subcontractor Selection task bar is right-clicked to access its context menu as shown below:

The context menu has eight (8) commands. These commands are explained in detail in other articles with links provided in the table below:

Related Links

For our example, the Format… command is of interest here because clicking the Format… command accesses the Change Task/Milestone Properties form at its Format tab as shown below:

The Change Task/Milestone Properties form’s Format tab shown above allows you to make individual task bar property setting changes available in the Format tab. Additionally, the Change Task/Milestone Properties form has seven (7) additional tabs that can be used to maverick property settings of other decorations associated with the selected task bar.

For this simple example, suppose we need to change the shape of the task bar to highlight it for emphasis in a planned schedule conversation with your team. To do that, click on the dropdown arrow of the Shape control which provides a list of the available shapes from which you can select the maverick shape desired as shown here in the following illustration:

In the above illustration, the double-arrow shape is selected as the maverick shape for the selected task bar. Clicking the double-arrow shape selects it and places the new maverick shape in the Shape control window as shown below:

Clicking the OK button applies the newly mavericked shape to the selected task bar. The chart now looks like this:

Manually Mavericking Milestone Symbol Settings

To show an example involving milestone symbols, we’ll use the same chart used in the previous example. That chart, modified to show all tasks represented as milestone symbols at their start dates, is shown below:

The above chart was created using a standard Single Project Gantt – Detailed Template calling for milestone symbol colors to be based on resource assignments

The OnePager Chart Editor provides controls for you to select a milestone symbol with a right-click which displays a context menu with commands that allow you to specifically edit the milestone symbol selected.

The details for using these features are included in articles that are referenced in the table shown below:

Related Links

For example, suppose the ADONIS Subcontractor Selection milestone symbol, shown above as a diamond shape at its start date, is right-clicked to access its context menu as shown below:

The context menu has eight (8) commands available. These commands are explained in detail in other articles with links provided in the table shown below:

Related Links

For this milestone symbol example, the Format… command is of interest here because clicking the Format… command accesses the Change Task/Milestone Properties form at its Format tab as shown below:

The Change Task/Milestone Properties form’s Format tab allows you to make individual milestone symbol property setting changes to the properties identified in the Format tab shown above. Additionally, the Change Task/Milestone Properties form has five (5) additional tabs that can be used to maverick property settings of decorations associated with the selected milestone symbol.

In this simple example, suppose we need to change the Shape of the milestone symbol to highlight it for emphasis. To do that, click on the dropdown arrow of the Shape control and pick a new symbol from the Shape Chooser form.

For more information on the Shape Chooser form and its use, please see the reference links in the table shown below:

Related Links

In the illustration show below, the “X” shape is planned to be used to replace the diamond shape milestone symbol that was selected in the chart.

Clicking the “X” shape selects it, places the new maverick shape in the Shape control window, and closes the Shape Chooser form as shown below:

Clicking the OK button applies the newly mavericked shape to the selected milestone symbol in the chart, which looks like this:

Manually Mavericking Task Bar/Milestone Property Settings Using Controls on the OnePager Home Ribbon Tool Bar Tab

In addition to the methods described in the previous two sections for mavericking task bars/milestone symbols property settings, there are also controls on the OnePager Home ribbon tool bar tab that are provided for quick access for mavericking task bar/milestone symbol label property settings, accessing the selected task bar/milestone symbol’s Change Task/Milestone Properties form, and accessing the OnePager Color Chooser form to maverick the selected task bar/milestone symbol’s foreground color. These capabilities are illustrated in this section.

The OnePager Home Ribbon Tool Bar Tab

The OnePager Home ribbon tool bar tab has three (3) controls for making changes to selected task bars/milestone symbols are shown below:

Mavericking Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Labels – Font Control Group Example

The Font, Format, and Position control groups on the Home ribbon tool bar tab are enabled whenever a task bar/milestone symbol or their respective labels are selected with a click as shown in the above illustration. The Font and Position control groups are used to make changes specifically to the selected task bar/milestone symbol’s label. Making any changes to the label property settings of the task bar/milestone symbols mavericks the task bar/milestone symbol. For example, clicking the BOLD control in the Font control group makes the select task bar label shown below into a BOLD font:

In a similar manner, you can change the selected task bar/milestone symbol’s label font property to Italics or Underline. Other controls are available in the Font control group for increasing the size of the label’s font, decreasing the label’s font size, changing the font type, and change the label’s font color.

Mavericking Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Labels – Position Control Group Example

The selected task bar/milestone symbol’s label position can be changed by clicking on the Label Position dropdown arrow in the Position control group on the OnePager Home ribbon tool bar to access the various available label positions as shown below:

To illustrate, clicking the Left option in the dropdown list moves the selected task bar label to the Left of its task bar as shown below:

Mavericking Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Labels – Format Control Group Examples

There are two controls in the Format control group: (1) the Format… button using the artist’s pallet icon and (2) the Color button using the paint bucket icon. The Format… control is enabled whenever a task bar or milestone symbol’s shape or label is selected. The Color button is enabled whenever the task bar/milestone symbol shape is selected.

Mavericking a Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Label

Selecting a task bar/milestone symbol label and clicking the Format… button accesses the Change Task/Milestones Properties form at the Task Labels tab as shown here:

After accessing the Change Task/Milestone Properties form at the Task Labels tab, you have the option to turn the selected task bar label ON or OFF, change its position with respect to the task bar, or change any of the available Label Font property settings. The Change Task/Milestone Properties form at the Task Labels tab also provides the option to reset the selected task label back to default property settings by clicking the Use Label Defaults shown in the above illustration.

Mavericking a Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Shape Using the Format Button

Selecting a task bar/milestone symbol shape enables both the Format and Color buttons in the Format control group.

The Format button operates as described above except when a task bar/milestone symbol shape is selected. Then the Change Task/Milestone Properties form opens at the Format tab as shown here:

Once the Change Task/Milestone Properties form is accessed at the Format tab, any of the property setting controls at that tab can be used to maverick the selected task bar/milestone symbol’s property settings.

Mavericking a Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Shape Using the Color Button

The Color button and its dropdown arrow are enabled when a task bar/milestone symbol shape is selected. When clicked, the Color button access the Color Chooser form which you can use to change the foreground color of the selected task bar/milestone symbol as shown below:

The illustration above shows that the selected task bar shape had its foreground color changed to red thus mavericking the selected task bar.

Maverick Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Property Settings and the Conditional Formatting for Task Bars & Milestones Form

Conditional Formatting of task bar/milestone symbol property settings is a feature of OnePager that, gives you precise control over the look of the chart as driven by data imported from your source plan. This precise control overrides the global settings contained in the current Chart Properties form making your logic statement(s) entered into the Conditional Formatting for Tasks & Milestone form take precedent over any global task bar/milestone symbol property settings.

If there are manually mavericked task bar/milestone symbol property settings AND conditional formatting rules that involve these same mavericked task bar/milestone symbol property settings, the mavericked property settings take precedence over the conditional formatting rules for tasks and milestones.

To briefly summarize, the hierarchy of president is given in the list below where the highest level of president is at the top and the lowest level at the bottom:

1) Mavericking

2) Conditional Formatting for Task Bars and Milestone Symbols

3) Global Property Settings

Complex interaction situations can sometimes arise so an understanding of OnePager’s rules is important to get the results desired in your chart. Perhaps the best way to illustrate these interactions is with several examples which follow.

Example 1 – Unrelated Task Bar Properties

In this first example, assume that a task bar has its shape manually mavericked. In addition a Conditional Formatting rule changes the color of the same task. Because conditional formatting applies to color and mavericking applies to shape, both format changes can co-exist without conflict.

Step 1 – Maverick Task Bar Shape

The ADONIS Subcontractor Selection task bar shape was manually mavericked to take the double-arrow task bar shape.

Step 2 – Introduce Conditional Formatting for Task/Milestones Rule

The Conditional Formatting for Tasks & Milestones form shown above defines a rule that changes the foreground color of any task bar/milestone symbol in the chart that has a label containing the word “ADONIS” to the color Orange. When the conditional formatting rule is applied the results in the chart are shown below:

Results – Chart After Conditional Formatting Rule Is Applied

The chart shown above shows that all task bars with task bar labels containing the word “ADONIS” have their foreground color changed to Orange including the task bar previously having its task bar shape mavericked to the double arrow shape. Additionally, other task bars in the chart containing the word “ADONIS” in their task bar label have their foreground color changed to Orange. Finally, the Legend is updated to reflect both the manual maverick and conditional formatting for task and milestone rule actions.

The important takeaway here is that conditional formatting rules for task bars/milestone symbols that involve unrelated property settings that the mavericked property setting is retained and the conditional formatting rule logic does not override.

Example 2 – Related Task Bar Properties

What if the manually mavericked task bar property setting IS related to a conditional formatting rule for task bars/milestone symbols? In this case, the interactions are more complex as the following steps in the example show:

Step 1 – Maverick Task Bar Shape

As a second step, apply a conditional formatting rule which changes the shape property setting for all task bars that have task bar labels containing the word “ADONIS” to the rectangle-right-arrow shape as shown below:

Step 2 – Introduce Conditional Formatting for Task/Milestones Rule

When this conditional formatting rule for tasks and milestones rule is applied to the chart where the property setting acted upon was previously mavericked by a manual mavericking action as illustrated above, the manually mavericked task bar does NOT take on the property setting changed by the action of applying a conditional formatting rule for tasks and milestones.

This illustrates that mavericking a task bar/milestone symbol property setting takes precedence over attempting to change that property setting using a conditional formatting rule.

The two examples shown above are simple examples in that they either involve different task bar property settings or the same property settings where manual mavericking and conditional formatting for task and milestone rules are applied. Situations can become more complex when there are many manually mavericked task bar/milestone property settings and multiple conditional formatting rules for tasks and milestone being applied. In these more complex interaction situations careful considerations and planning is important because, for example, some property settings may be snapshot independent and others snapshot dependent.

Example 3 – Performing Manual Default Restoration on Unrelated Task Bar Properties

In Example 1 above, the task bar property setting mavericked was different from the property setting associated with the conditional formatting rule for task and milestone. Accordingly, in the final chart, the manually mavericked task bar retained its mavericked task bar shape AND acquired the foreground color from the action of the conditional formatting rule. It is important to understand the result in the chart of restoring the default property settings to the previously mavericked task bar shape. Example 3 shows these steps.

Results – Chart After Conditional Formatting Rule Is Applied

If we first select the ADONIS Subcontractor Selection task bar with a right-click to access the context menu and click the Format command we can access the Change Task/Milestone Properties form at the Format tab as shown below:

Chart After Accessing the Change Task/Milestone Properties Form

When the Use Format Defaults button is clicked, the chart is updated to look like this:

Results – Chart after Use Format Defaults Button Clicked

The chart above now reflects only the action applied by the active conditional formatting rule after the Use Format Defaults button is clicked in the Change Task/Milestone Properties form for the selected and previously mavericked task bar shape. Performing the Use Format Default action has the impact of “un-mavericks” only the shape property settings previously mavericked.

Looking briefly at the converse of this example, if the conditional formatting rule was turned OFF while the previous task bar shape mavericking action was still in effect, the chart would revert back to its original look as shown below:

Example 4 – Performing Manual Default Restoration on Related Task Bar Properties

In Example 2 above the task bar property setting mavericked was the same property setting (i.e., task bar shape) associated with the conditional formatting rule for tasks and milestones. Accordingly, in the final chart, the manually mavericked task bar retained its mavericked task bar shape AND other task bar shapes associated with the “ADONIS” task bar label also have their shapes changed but to a different shape (i.e., rectangle-right-arrow shape). It is important to understand the result in the chart of restoring the default property setting to the previously mavericked task bar shape.

Example 4 shows these steps. The illustration below shows the application of the maverick task bar shape to the ADONIS Subcontractor Selection task bar to the double-arrow shape and the application of the conditional formatting rule to the other two task bars with labels containing the word “ADONIS”. Of note is that the conditional formatting rule did NOT alter the ADONIS Subcontractor Selection task bar’s shape from its mavericked task bar shape to the rectangle-right-arrow shape.

Introduce Conditional Formatting for Task/Milestones Rule

If we first select the ADONIS Subcontractor Selection task bar with a right-click to access the context menu and click the Format command we can access the Change Task/Milestone Properties form at the Format tab as shown below:

Chart After Accessing the Change Task/Milestone Properties Form

When the Use Format Defaults button is clicked, the chart is updated to look like this:

Results – Chart after Use Format Defaults Button Clicked

The chart above now reflects only the action applied by the active conditional formatting rule after the Use Format Defaults button is clicked in the Change Task/Milestone Properties form for the selected and previously mavericked task bar shape. The previously mavericked task bar now has the task bar shape specified by the currently operating conditional formatting rule as the maverick condition for the task bar shape was reversed.

Restoring Default Properties to Manually Mavericked Task Bars/Milestone Symbols

Although introduced briefly in the previous section’s last two examples, below is a complete explanation of how to restore mavericked task bar/milestone symbol property settings to their default values in the hierarchy.

Mavericked task bar/milestone symbol property settings can be restored to their default property settings on an individual maverick basis or by selecting multiple mavericked task bars/milestone symbols. The restoration of default properties setting is done in the Chart Task/Milestone Properties form.

To illustrate the use of the Change Task/Milestone Properties form to restore default task bar/milestone symbol property settings, we can use the task bar mavericking example near the beginning of this article. Recall that the example mavericked a task bar used in the example looks like this:

If we again right-click on the double-arrow task bar shape, this action accesses its context menu where the Format command is the first command in the list. Clicking the Format… command accesses the Change Task/Milestone Properties form where the Use Format Defaults button is highlighted in the illustration below:

In the illustration above, clicking the Use Format Defaults button restores all mavericked property settings of the selected task bar or task bars. When the Use Format Defaults button is clicked, the default rectangle shape, in this example, is restored to the Shape window in the form as shown below:

To complete the edit, click the OK button on the Change Task/Milestone Properties form and the selected mavericked task bar is restored to the default shape specified in the current Chart Properties form as shown below:

Summary

OnePager has a hierarchy established for managing changes to task bar/milestone symbol property settings with manual mavericking at the top of the hierarchy followed by conditional formatting for tasks and milestones, and global property setting at the bottom.

Mavericked property settings made to task bars/milestone symbols in the chart are NEVER incorporated into the current Chart Properties form and can only be saved in the chart (i.e., .TAM file). Likewise, mavericked properties settings are NEVER incorporated into Templates.

Additionally, controls are provided with which you can restore conditional formatting rules or chart level global default property settings to any task bar or milestone symbol that was previously mavericked.

Please refer to article in the Related Links section which follows for more detailed information on editing the properties of task bars/milestone symbols.

Selecting Task/Milestone Shapes and Text Labels	Changing Individual Task/Milestone Properties (Color, Shapes, Labels, etc.)
Hiding/Unhiding/Moving/Finding/Changing/Resizing Task/Milestone Shapes and Labels	Resolving Task Bar Name Label Collisions (Portal)
Managing Hidden Tasks and Milestones Using "Where's My Stuff?!"	Restoring Default Formatting
Undoing and Redoing Changes	Resolving Task Bar Name Label Collisions (Portal)
Resolving Task Bar Name Label Collisions for OnePager	Conditional Formatting (Portal)
Conditional Formatting Rules for Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Decorations	Editing with the Chart Properties form (Portal)
Task Bars Tab	Using Gradients and Hash Fill Patterns
Milestones Tab	Using the Dynamic Shapes and Emoji Symbols
Legend Tab	Managing Templates (Portal)
Managing the Current Template	Gallery of Task Bar Shapes
Gallery of Gradient and Hash Fill Patterns	Gallery of Dynamic Shapes and Emoji Symbols
Gallery of Standard Color Palettes	Gallery of Graphs and Pivot Options