Difference between revisions of "Adding Conditional Formatting Rules for OnePager for Version 7.2"

Latest revision as of 22:49, 5 January 2024

Introduction

Illustrations used in this article are from OnePager Pro using data from Microsoft Project but the features, function, controls, and manual edits apply equally to other OnePager editions that import from data sources like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project for the Web, Smartsheet, Oracle Primavera P6, Planisware, Asana, and Wrike.

The focus of this article is on the Conditional Formatting Rules for Tasks & Milestones form. Accordingly, conditional formatting for tasks & milestones are used as example of how you can use conditional formatting. These same examples apply as well to conditional formatting for Text Columns & Rows and Swimlanes. The three (3) Conditional Formatting Rules forms are structured so that all three conditional formatting set of rules operate the same with only the various objects and their properties changing from form to form.

About the Conditional Formatting Rules Form

The next sub-section provides an overview of Conditional Formatting for Tasks & Milestones and what can be done when Conditional Formatting Rules are added to the form. However, first let's go over the general organization of the Conditional Formatting Rules form itself. The Conditional Formatting Rules form has columns with headings that can accommodate source plan field names and various values of differing lengths. When the form is first accessed, OnePager places an empty grid row into the form.

The form can be enlarged or shrunk as with most Windows forms by using your mouse to grab a corner of the form and expanding/shrinking the form with the left click as shown here:

A horizontal scroll bar is provided in the form so you can scroll right or left in order to place any of the form's column headings and columns into clear view as shown below with the horizontal scroll bar moved to the far right:

As mentioned above, the Conditional Formatting Rules form can accommodate source plan field names and grid values of differing sizes. If you need to widen a columns in the form, this can be done with your mouse by going to the desired column heading, moving the mouse over the column heading's vertical boundary edge until the mouse cursor becomes a double-arrow, and then left-clicking the mouse and dragging the mouse left or right to change the width of the selected column heading as shown below:

After the double-arrow mouse cursor is moved to the right to widen the column heading's width, the form looks like this:

When some data are added to the Conditional Formatting Rule grid row in the form, the grid row and the widened column looks like this:

After data are entered into Conditional Formatting Rule grid row cells OnePager adjusts the width of the column heading and row grid cells to the width of the largest value to assure that as many row grid cells and their column headings can be visible in the form. Changing the width of a column heading and their corresponding grid row cells can be done at any time when Conditional Formatting Rules are being added or edited.

Adding Conditional Formatting Rules

Conditional Formatting is a capability in OnePager that you can use to tailor various attributes of task bars/milestone symbols depending on the data imported from your source plan. You can define one or more conditional formatting rules that apply specified actions to appropriate task bars/milestone symbols when the specified conditions in your defined rules are true.

For example, you can define a rule that changes the color of a task bar depending on the value contained the Text1 field imported from a Microsoft Excel source plan. In this example, suppose the Category field is used to import Risk information in the form of High, Medium, and Low. You can add rules that tell OnePager, for instance, to set the color Red for task bars associated with a Text1 value of High, set the color yellow for task bars associated with a Text1 value of Medium, and set the color green for task bars associated with a Category value of Low.

A video illustrating this example is available at:

There are fourteen (14) task bar/milestone symbol attributes that can be altered to respond to condition statement established in your conditional formatting rule sets. This article provides the basic instructions to for adding conditional formatting rules for task bars & milestone symbol decorations to OnePager which can be done at the Template Properties or Chart Properties forms level. These conditional formatting rules can be edited at any time in terms of the contents of condition columns and action columns found in the Conditional Formatting Rules for Tasks & Milestones form discussed below. Use the following steps to add a conditional formatting rule or rules to the Conditional Formatting Rules form's grid:

From either the Task Bars or Milestones tab of the Chart Properties or Template Properties forms, click the Manage Rules... button:

You are now ready to add rules. OnePager automatically provides the first blank row in the grid shown above so you can enter the first rule. The line consists of three (3) major components:

• The rule select and enable/disable checkboxes.
• The rule condition columns.
• The rule action columns.

Adding, editing, copying, and deleting conditional formatting rules is very similar to the process for doing the same with respect to Conditional Import Filter Rules described in the article at:

The sections that follow cover each of the major components of a conditional formatting rule.

Rule Selection and Enable/Disable Checkboxes

Rule Selection Columns

The left most column in the grid, shown below, has the following function:

The Rule Select checkbox is provided so you can select the rule for editing, copying, or deletion.

Enable/Disable or On Column

The checkbox to the right of the Rule Select cell with the column heading of On provides control over turning the rule ON and OFF. When the On checkbox in the column above is checked ON, the columns that include the rule conditions and actions are enabled. It may become useful to have sets of rules in the Conditional Formatting Rules form and by turning them ON or OFF as required you can achieve a variety of results.

Rule Condition Columns

There are three rule condition columns as shown below:

Field Column

In the Field column shown below is a dropdown that allows you to select the field from your source plan. The example is from Microsoft Project.

OnePager imports all the fields from your source plan so they are all available for use as a Field in a conditional formatting rule.

Operator Column

The Operator column shown below is a dropdown that allows you to pick from a list of operators depending on the data type of the Field selected as discussed above:

Since OnePager knows the field type imported from your source plan, the Operator column shows the appropriate operator selections when the dropdown menu above is accessed.

Text String Fields

For Text String field types there are ten (10) operators:

• equal
• not equal
• Contains
• Does not contain
• Begins with
• Ends with
• Is Null
• Is Not Null
• Has changed
• Has not changed

To complete the definition of the operators in the illustration above, the Is Null operator is TRUE when the field is either all BLANKs or is an empty string (""). The Is Not Null operator is TRUE when the field is non-BLANK or there is a text-string of non-blank characters.

Lastly, the Has changed and Has not changed operators are available for you to track changes between snapshots as documented in the link given below:

Numeric and Date Field Types

For Numeric and Date field types, the operators are shown here:

For Numeric and Date field types there are ten (10) operators:

• equal
• not equal
• less than
• less than or equal
• greater than
• greater than or equal
• Is Null
• Is Not Null
• Has changed
• Has not changed

The Has changed and Has not changed operators are available for you to track changes between snapshots as documented in the link given below:

Boolean Field Types

For Boolean fields types (i.e., Yes/No, True/False) the operators are shown below.

For Boolean field types there are four (4) operators that can be expressed in two different ways as shown below:

• Yes
• No
• Has changed
• Has not changed

The Value column is DISABLED since selecting the Operator satisfies the need for a value.

Lastly, the Has changed and Has not changed operators are available for you to track changes between snapshots as documented in the link given below:

Has Changed and Has Not Changed Operators

For a discussion on the use of the Has changed and Has not changed operators please see the article link provided below:

Value Column

The Value column is the grid cell that you fill-in that is the match desired against the Field Column given the contents of the Operator Column.

Boolean Field Types

The Value column is not used when the Field column is a Boolean type.

Text String Field Types

For Text String type fields, any text that might appear in a source plan text string field can be typed-in to the Value column's grid cell for a rule. Note that for string matches, it is permissible to have the Value column be a set of strings separated by commas. In this situation, the rule is matched when the column value is equal to any of the comma separated values. To make the comparison between text data specified in the Field column of the Conditional Formatting Rules for Tasks & Milestones form, OnePager trims leading and trailing white space such as blanks or control characters. However, OnePager does not trim excess white space within a valid character string.

Numeric Field Types

For Numeric type matches any integer or integer with a decimal fraction is permissible.

Date Field Types

For Date type matches the Value Column provides the standard OnePager calendar when you click in the Value Column and the Field Column is a date type field as shown below:

OnePager Calendar Form

Clicking a specific date in the Calendar form placed that date in the Value cell and closes the date picker form.

Clicking the Today... box at the bottom of the OnePager Calendar form places the current date provided by your computer into the Value cell. This date is fixed once entered into the Value cell.

Using the "TODAY" Feature

You have the option to enter the word TODAY into a date value cell. This feature assures that the Value cell always contains the current date as provided by your computer whenever the Conditional Formatting Rules form is used to conditionally format tasks in the chart. Placing the word TODAY into the date value cell requires a few steps:

a) First set up the Field and Operator cells to the desired values shown below as Steps 1 and 2.

b) Next (Step 3) click on the Value cell which accessed the OnePager Calendar form shown here:

c) Now click the X in the upper right corner of the OnePager Calendar form (Step 4) which closes the form. This action removes the OnePager Calendar form, and keeps the Value cell selected as illustrated below:

d) With the OnePager Calendar form closed and the Value cell remaining selected, type in the word TODAY (Step 5) to complete the process as shown here:

Please note that the TODAY value is not case sensitive so various configurations of the word are acceptable such as Today, today, or ToDaY.

After completing the above steps the TODAY feature automatically advances the value in the Value cell of the rule to the current date when the created chart is OPENED or UPDATED. When used this way, the Conditional Formatting Rule for Tasks & Milestones is dynamic and creates a chart configured to display the results of the dynamic rule without the need to daily update the rule in the Conditional Formatting Rules for Tasks & Milestones form.

This completes the process of defining the first Conditional Formatting for Tasks & Milestones rule at which time you can add another rule or modify the existing rule. If you are finished defining your Conditional Formatting Rules for Tasks & Milestones, click the OK button to close the form.

Applies to Column

OnePager performs the evaluation and then applies the formats specified in the rule to the task shapes, milestone shapes, or both as determined by the Applies to column as shown here:

To tell OnePager whether to apply a rule to task bars, to milestone symbols, or to both, there are three (3) options for the Applies to column as shown below:

• Both
• Tasks
• Milestones

Rule Action Columns

To the right of the columns in the Conditional Formatting Rules form's grid Condition columns are seventeen (17) Action columns. When a condition in the rule matches or is TRUE all valid actions specified in the Action columns are applied to the task bars/milestone symbols in the chart. If the rule's condition does not match or is FALSE, none of the actions specified in the Action columns are taken or applied to the task bars/milestone symbols in the chart. The Conditional Formatting Rules for Tasks & Milestones form's grid has a horizontal scroll bar allowing you to scroll to the left or right to being all of the nine Action columns into view within the grid as shown in the illustrations below:

In the three illustrations above, the thee Conditions columns of Field, Operator, and Value remain fixed in the grid and do not scroll left or right. It is important to note that whenever a rule's conditions result in a match or true result, all of the Action columns that are not blank are applied to the appropriate task bars/milestone symbols in the chart. Accordingly, while you may have more than one Action column associated with a specific condition, we recommend that minimizing the number of Action columns you intend to apply in one rule. As you have have capability to turn rules ON and OFF, you can define many rules in the grid and turn the desired rules ON when they meet your schedule conversation needs with the chart. In the following sub-sections are discussions of the attributes of each of the Action columns available.

Foreground Color Action Column

To add a color to the Foreground Color Action column, click on the grid cell for the specific rule to access the standard OnePager Color Chooser form as shown below:

For more information on using the standard Color Chooser form, please see this section in the articles at:

Taskbar and Milestone Shape Action Columns

Clicking the Taskbar Shape Action column grid cell accesses the standard Task Shape dropdown list as shown below:

In a similar way, clicking the Milestone Shape Action column grid cell accesses the standard Milestone Shape dropdown list as shown here:

For more information on the new Dynamic Shapes and Emojis for milestone symbols, please see the article at:

Fill Pattern

Clicking on the Fill Pattern window access the combination Gradients and Hash Fill Patterns dropdown as shown below:

You have the option of selecting Gradient Fill Patterns as shown above or from a list of Hash Fill Patterns shown below:

For more information on the gradient and hash fill patterns features and a complete list of gradient and hash fill patterns, please see the articles at:

Transparency Percentage

The Transparency % provides the capability to change the transparency of the task bar or milestone symbol in the chart. The higher the Transparency % value, the more transparent the task bar or milestone symbol. The Transparency % values are between 1 and 100.

For more information on Transparency of Task Bars and Milestones Symbols, please see the article at the link below:

Background Color

The Background Color is useful in highlighting task bars, milestone symbols, and baseline shapes, when Gradients or Hash Fill Patterns are used. Clicking the Background Color dropdown accesses the standard OnePager Color Chooser form so you can select the Background Color desired.

It is advised to select a Background Color that is not already being used by other task bars/milestone symbols in the chart. The result from using the Background Color with a Hash Fill Pattern for example is that the hash pattern retains the color of the original task bar/milestone symbol, while the space behind the hash pattern is filled with the selected Background Color.

A completed discussion of the relationships between Foreground Color and Background Color can be found at:

Height % Column

You can manage the height of a task bar or milestone symbol as a percentage of the height of the row occupied by the task bars/milestone symbol. The default Height % for task bars/milestone symbols is 91% of the height of the row. As shown below, the Height % for the rule shown is set to 50% by typing in the number 50 as the value:

For more information about Task Bar Height Percentages, please see the article section at the link below:

Border Column

Using the Border Action column, you can automatically change the look of the task bar or milestone symbol's border if the rule results in a match or true result. To do this, clicking on the Border Action column's grid cell accesses the Border Style Rules form where the Use default checkbox is checked ON as shown below:

To edit any of the parameters of the task bar/milestone symbol's border uncheck the Use default checkbox and use the Color, Width, and Dash controls as appropriate.

For more information on task/milestone border management, please see the section in the articles at:

Task Labels Column

Using the Task Labels Action column, you can change the show/hide properties of the task bar/milestone symbol, task label position with respect to the task bar/milestone symbol, and it's font properties if the rule results in a match or true. Clicking the Task Labels Action column's grid cell accesses the Task/Milestone form as shown here:

Checking the Show task/milestone label checkbox to ON assures that the task bar/milestone meeting the conditions is shown and that the other controls in the form are enabled.

Clicking the Label Position dropdown accesses the label position options list as shown below:

Clicking the Label Font dropdown accesses the standard Font properties form as shown here:

Using the standard Font properties form has the controls for editing the important characteristics of the label text.

For more information on task bar/milestone symbol label/text management, please see this section in the articles at:

Dates Column

Using the Dates Action column, you can change the show/hide properties of the task bar/milestone symbol Start and Finish dates, date label position of Start and Finish dates with respect to the task bar/milestone symbol, and it's font properties of Start and Finish dates if the rule results in a match or true. Clicking the Dates Action column's grid cell accesses the Date Labels form as shown here:

Checking the Show Start Date and/or Show Finish Date checkboxes to ON assures that the task bar/milestone meeting the conditions is shown and that the other controls in the form are enabled.

Clicking the Start Date Position and/or Finish Date Position dropdowns access the date label position options list as shown below:

Clicking the Label Font dropdown accesses the standard Font properties form as shown here:

Using the standard Font properties form has the controls for editing the important characteristics of the label text.

For more information on task bar/milestone symbol label/text management, please see this section in the articles at:

Task Representation Column

Using the Task Representation Action column, you can change the task representation of the task bar/milestone symbol to one of four (4) available options:

(1) Gantt Bar

(2) Milestone at finish

(3) Milestone at start

(4) Use default

The Task Representation Action column dropdown list is shown here

For more information on task bar/milestone symbol task representation, please see this section in the articles at:

Percent Complete Column

You can use the Percent Complete Action column to alter the properties of the percent complete bar shown within task bars in the chart. You have the options to show/hide the percent complete bar, change the percent complete bar color, specify actions to be taken for incomplete milestone symbols, and the option to add a checkmark within a task bar/milestone symbol to identify that the task bar/milestone symbol is complete.

For more information on the settings in the Percent Complete properties, please see the article at:

Baselines Column

Clicking the Baselines cell in the Conditional Formatting for Task & Milestones form accesses the Configure Baseline Properties form. You have the option to set up conditional formatting rule actions for baselines associated with task bars and milestone symbols. Your options include: (1) Showing/Hiding task bar/milestone symbols, (2) changing task bar shapes, (3) changing milestone symbol dynamic shapes or emojis, and (4) changing task bar/milestone symbol colors.

Clicking the Taskbar Baseline's Shape dropdown arrow access the standard task bar shape list. Clicking the Milestone Baseline's Shape dropdown arrow accesses the standard Shape Chooser form. Clicking on either of the task bar/milestone symbol baseline's Color dropdown arrow accesses the standard Color Chooser form.

For more information on task bar/milestone symbol baseline management, please see the article at:

For a list of task bar shapes and milestone symbols, please see the two articles linked below:

Critical Segments Column

The Critical Segments column and cells can be used in your Conditional Formatting for Tasks & Milestones form to show or hide the Critical Segments bar or change its color in the chart.

Checking the Show critical-path segments checkbox ON causes the critical segment bar to be present in the task bar and enables the color control. Clicking the Critical-path color dropdown arrow access the standard Color Chooser form.

For more information on Critical Segments, please see the article linked in the table below:

Deadlines & Endpoints Column

The Deadlines & Endpoints Action column allows you to use Conditional Formatting Rules to configure both Deadlines and up to four (4) Endpoints for task bar in the chart. Endpoints in OnePager are not available for Milestone symbols. Clicking the Deadlines & Endpoints Action cell accesses the Configure Deadline and Endpoint Properties form. The form has the same control for the Deadline symbol and the four (4) Endpoint symbols. These controls include: (1) Showing/Hiding the Deadline and/or Endpoints, (2) Selecting their shapes, and (3) Selecting their color.

Checking the Show checkbox ON enables the Shape and Color controls and the Deadline and/or Endpoints appear in the chart if data are imported by OnePager. Clicking on the Shape dropdown arrow accesses the standard Shape Chooser form. Clickin on the Color dropdown arrow accesses the standard Color Chooser form.

For more information on task bar/milestone symbol deadline and endpoint management, please see the articles linked below:

For a list of deadline and endpoint shapes, please see the article linked below:

Legend Text Column

Using the Legend Text Action column, you can change the text appearing in the Legend for the task bar/milestone symbol to any desired text string if the rule results in a match or true. Clicking the Legend Text Action column's grid cell allows you to enter the desired text string as shown here:

It is recommended that the Color Action column also be set to a unique color when the Legend Text Action column grid cell is selected so that a color is shown in the chart for the task bars/milestone symbols involved as well as in the Legend item added. When a match or true condition is found for the rule, the Legend in the chart is updated to reflect the text string entered in the Legend text grid cell as shown here:

For more information on Legend management, please see the articles in the series at:

Priority Column

The Priority Action column is set and mostly managed by OnePager. That is, each time you add a new rule to the grid, OnePager increments the value in the Priority Action column's grid cell by one starting at zero (0) for the first rule in the grid. If several rules are in competition to set a particular formatting property (i.e., color, border, etc.) , the rule with the lowest Priority number has priority over all the others. You can change the values in the Priority column at any time after the rule is completely defined, and any positive numeric value is acceptable. In this way you can define several identical condition columns and use a single Action column with different values and control their priority manually to achieve a desired result as shown in the example below:

When the chart is updated, the third Conditional Formatting Rule for task bars/milestones is applied as shown below:

Related Links

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