Difference between revisions of "Creating and Managing Comment Boxes for Version 7.0"

Latest revision as of 20:55, 13 January 2021

About Creating and Managing Comment Boxes

Comment boxes are a way to display text associated with task bar/milestone symbol name labels imported from your Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel source plan. They are a great way to call attention to critical information to support schedule conversations.

Default Comment Box Settings

The default settings for Comment box parameters are provided in the distributed OnePager Pro and Express Template Properties form's Comment Box tab as shown below for OnePager Pro:

When the Template Properties form is used to create a chart, these settings are established in the chart's Chart Properties form at its Comment Box tab where the settings and controls are the same.

Editing Comment Box Global Settings in the Chart

You can use the Chart Properties form's Comment Box tab to globally edit these settings that apply to all Comment boxes that are subsequently created in the chart.

For more information on globally editing Comment Box settings in the Chart Properties form, please see the article at: Comment Boxes Tab

Additionally, you can create, edit, and delete Comment boxes manually in the chart by:

1) Using the task bar/milestone right-click context menu associated with right-clicking on a task bar/milestone symbol.

2) Creating a Comment box on a selected task bar/milestone symbol by using the Comment Box button on the Insert tool bar on the OnePager ribbon.

Creating Comment Boxes Using the Task/Milestone Right-Click Context Menu

To create a Comment box for any selected task bar/milestone symbol, right-click the task/milestone and select the Comments… command from the task bar/milestone right-click context menu as shown below:

Create or Edit Comment Box Form's Controls

This action accesses the Create or edit comment box form shown here:

Use the form illustration above as reference for the following control functions.

• Comment. The text you enter that appears in the Comment box.

• Box Size. The size of the Comment box in inches or centimeters.

• Offset from Anchor. The displacement of the Comment box from the anchor position on the task bar/milestone symbol. Normally to move a Comment box drag the box to a new position, but you can also set the position with these controls.

• Anchor Position. A slider bar control that sets the horizontal location along the selected task bar/milestone symbol at which the Comment box is anchored. It is a percentage of the task bar/milestone symbol’s time duration.

• Font. The dropdown provides access to the Font properties form with its controls for changing the font type, color, and size of the text in the Comment box are accessed. Additionally, you have control over the text with respect to Bold, Italics, and Underline.

• Horizontal Align. These three buttons allow you to horizontally position the Comment box text string inside the Comment box. OnePager automatically assures that that the text string remains within the Comment box.

• Vertical Align. These three buttons allow you to vertically position the Comment box text string inside the Comment box. OnePager automatically assures that that the text string remains within the Comment box.

• Bkg Color (Background Color). This control uses the standard OnePager Color Chooser form to select the color for the background within the Comment box.

• Anchor Shapes. The control lets you select from anchor shapes available for the Comment box to the task bar/milestone symbol. The anchor shapes are the same shapes available for milestone shapes.

• None Checkbox. Checking the None checkbox On tells OnePager that there should be no anchor shape used at the junction of the Comment box connecting line and the task/milestone shape.

• Anchor Color. The control lets you select the color of the anchor shape on the task/milestone.

• Attach Comment to All Snapshots. If this checkbox checked On, the Comment box appears in all snapshots. Later on, you can delete the Comment box from any snapshot you choose.

• Restore Defaults. Checking this checkbox On restores the default properties of the Comment box to the settings in the Chart Properties form.

Applying Comment Box Editing Actions

After making your option selections in the Create or edit comment box form, click OK to apply your edits to the Comment box on the selected task bar/milestone symbol. When the OK button on the Create or edit comment box form is clicked, the edits are applied only to the Comment box or boxes associated with the selected task bar/milestone symbol. As a result of individually selecting and editing Comment boxes for individual task bars/milestone symbols, these Comment boxes are treated as mavericks since their properties likely differ from those properties set in the Chart Properties or Template forms. Recall that the Restore Defaults button in the Create or edit comment box form can be checked ON to revert the mavericked properties of any selected Comment box back to the default properties.

Creating A Comment Box Using the Comment Box Button

As an alternative way of adding a Comment box for a task bar/milestone symbol, select the desired task bar/milestone symbol and then click the Comment Box button in the Insert tab of the OnePager Home ribbon tool bar tab as shown below:

Clicking the Comment Box button accesses the Create or edit comment box form where you can make your setting selections as discussed above in the previous section. When all settings are made, click OK and the Comment box is displayed with the selected task bar/milestone symbol. Shown below is an illustration of a Comment box created using the Comment Box button on the OnePager Insert tab:

The sample Comment box shown above consists of a rectangle, inserted text string, and a connecting line to an anchor point on the selected task bar. These components of a Comment box can be edited as discussed in the following sections.

Creating A Comment Box From a Task/Milestone Text Label

With some charts there are conditions where a task bar/milestone symbol's text labels may overlap with other text labels or other task bar/milestone symbols in the chart. You can manually place a task bar/milestone symbol's name text label into a Comment box and subsequently move and/or resize the Comment box to avoid these situations.

Example

Using the portion of a OnePager chart below there are a couple of task bar/milestone symbol name text labels that are difficult to read:

One approach to resolving this conflict is to place the the task bar's name name text label of Engineering Team 1 Development into a Comment box. To do this, left-click the task bar's name text label itself which selects the name text label as shown below:

The action of selecting the task bar's name text label also enables the Label Position dropdown list on the OnePager ribbon's Home tab as shown here:

After selecting the In comment box command from the dropdown list, the result looks like this:

Alternative Method

Placing a task bar's name text label into a Comment box can also be accomplished by right-clicking the task bar/milestone symbol to access its task bar right-click context menu, then clicking the Format... command in the dropdown, and finally accessing the Task Label tab of the accessed Change Task/Milestone Properties form shown below:

Upon completion of these steps, the selected task bar's name text label is placed in a Comment box and the chart is modified to look like this:

As described below, once the Comment boxes are created you have the capability to move them in the chart, resize the boxes, and edit the text string within the Comment boxes.

For more general information on the management of task bar name text labels, please see the series of articles at: Manual Editing Task/Milestone Shapes and Text Labels (Portal)

Editing Comment Boxes

Moving Comment Boxes

After creating a comment box, you can moved it to another position in the document area by using your mouse to left-click on the Comment box and while holding down the left-click button, drag the Comment box to a new position as is shown below:

When the mouse left-click button is released, the Comment box remains in the new position with the Comment box selected as shown here:

Resizing Comment Boxes

To resize a Comment box, the box must first be selected with a left-click. Selecting a comment box, results in the comment box being highlighted and surrounded by eight grab boxes as shown below:

To resize a Comment box, place the mouse cursor on one of the grab boxes as shown below:

In the chart above the lower right grab box is selected as indicated by the double-arrow cursor shape. When the mouse is moved with the left-click button depressed, a rectangle shows the proposed Comment box's new size as the cursor is dragged. This intermediate step is shown below:

When the left mouse button is released, the Comment box is resized and redrawn as shown below:

If you make the selected Comment box smaller in size, OnePager adjusts the Font size in an attempt to keep the text string within the Comment box.

Using the Comment Box's Context Menu

Right-clicking on a Comment box or boxes accesses the Comment box right-click context menu shown below:

There are five (5) commands shown in the Comment box right-click context menu above that are covered in this article at the links shown below:

Using the OnePager Home Ribbon Tool Bar Tab's Font, Format, and Alignment Control Groups

As an alternative, you can use several of the controls on the OnePager Home ribbon tool bar tab shown below to change the properties of text within Comment boxes.

Editing Comment Box Text Fonts

There are eight (8) controls in the Font control group shown above which are standard in most applications involving text editing. These controls include:

1) The Font Style, implemented on the ribbon as a dropdown list, includes the font styles installed on your computer.

2) The Font Size control is a dropdown list of possible sizes from 1 to 48. You can also click in this window and type in a desired font size integer value.

3) The Bold button is a toggle that sets the selected text string as Bold text.

4) The Italics button, also a toggle, sets the selected text string as Italic text.

5) The Underline button operates as a toggle that sets the selected text string as Underline.

6) The Increase font size button steps the selected text string's font size up one with every click.

7) The Decrease font size button steps the selected text string's font size down one with every click.

8) Clicking the Text Color button accesses the standard Color Chooser form.

Editing Comment Box Text Formats

In the Format control group shown above only the Text Color button (shown as a paint bucket) is enabled when a Comment box is selected. The Format... button shown above as a color palette icon is disabled as Comment boxes are not supported by the Change Task/Milestone Properties form.

Editing Comment Box Text Alignments

There are two (2) sets of three alignment buttons in the Alignment control group shown above related to the text strings in Comment boxes. The top three (3) alignment buttons align the selected text string in a Comment box vertically within the space enclosed by the Comment box. The bottom three (3) alignment buttons align the selected text string in a Comment box horizontally within the space enclosed by the Comment box. When the size of the Comment box changes either in a horizontal or vertical direction, the vertical and horizontal text string alignments are maintained. OnePager automatically increases or decreases the number of lines of the text string within the Comment box to prevent the text string from overlapping a Comment box boundary.

Managing Other Comment Box Properties

The Create or edit comment box form's controls are described above in section of this article at: Create or Edit Comment Box Form's Controls

The descriptions above are self-explanatory, however, some explanation of several controls need expansion.

Background Color Management

There are options regarding the background color for a Comment box. When a Comment box is created for an individual task bar/milestone symbol's name text string, the Create or edit comment box form can be accessed, and the Bkg Color window in this form allows you to edit the background color for that individual Comment box:

As shown above, you can edit the Comment box’s background color by right-clicking on the Comment box to access the comment box right-click context menu and then select the Properties… command to access the Create or edit comment box form. When you next, click the Bkg Color control the standard Color Chooser form is accessed. Any background color can be selected from the Color Chooser form, however, keep in mind the color selected for the Comment box's text string in order to avoid hiding the text string within the selected color.

Using the No fill Feature

You can turn ON the No fill feature by selecting the No fill checkbox after clicking the Bkg Color control shown below:

Clicking the OK button updates the Bkg Color of the Comment box in the chart. To demonstrate the effect of No fill for the Comment box in the illustration above, moving the Comment box to another position in the chart where there is a chart swimlane background color, the Comment box appears like this:

Transparency Controls

The Transparent checkbox in the Create or edit comment box form allows you to change the appearance of the entire Comment box into a free standing text string without a border and with or without the Comment box's connecting line. To show an example of this, the illustration below has a typical Comment box with a background color and a connecting line:

If we access the Create or edit comment box form as before and check the Transparent checkbox ON two things happen. First, the other Color controls in the form are disabled. Second, the adjoining Show connecting line when transparent checkbox is enabled. The Create or edit comment box form looks like this:

Checking the Transparent checkbox ON and then clicking the OK button at the bottom of the form alters the selected Comment box to look like this:

If you check the Show connecting line when transparent checkbox ON, the results are shown below:

Although the Comment box shown above is Transparent it can still be selected, moved, and resized as necessary. Additionally, its text string is fully editable. If the Show connecting line when transparent checkbox is ON the connecting line responds to any Comment box move or resizing action.

Box Size Controls for Comment Boxes

You can manually set the width and height of an established Comment box by changing the values in the Width or Height dial windows of the Create or edit comment box form as shown below:

The initial values shown in the dial windows above represent the Width and Height of the selected Comment box. The Width and Height dial windows operate independently so you can establish different widths or height settings as needed. The units used for the Width and the Height values are in either inches or centimeters depending on the Template form used to create the chart.

Offset From Anchors Controls for Comment Boxes

In addition to manually moving Comment boxes in the chart, you can establish a fixed offset of the Comment boxes position relative to the anchor point on the task bar/milestone symbol with the X and Y offset dial windows shown here:

The initial values shown in the dial windows above represent the X and Y offsets of the selected Comment box. The values of the X and Y offsets can be positive or negative and the units of measure are either in inches or centimeters depending on the Template Properties form being used to create the chart. A negative X offset value places the Comment box to the left of the anchor point while a positive X offset value places the Comment box to the right of the anchor point. A negative Y offset value places the Comment box below the anchor point while a positive X offset value places the Comment box above the anchor point.

Anchor Position Controls

You can control the position of the Comment box anchor on it task shape using the slider bar accessed in the Create or edit comment box form as shown below:

Sliding the Anchor Position slider bar left or right changes the anchor position and the position of the Comment box and connecting line as illustrated here with a change of Anchor Position to near the 75% position:

Anchor Shapes

You have the option to select from a variety of shapes for the Comment box's anchor position shape. These optional shapes are the same as those shapes available for milestone symbols in the chart. Accessing the Create or edit comment box form using the available methods, the selection of Anchor Shapes is at the bottom of the form in the window list as well as the option to select the color of the Anchor Shape shown here:

After making your Anchor Shape selection and color choice, click OK at the bottom of the form to complete the action. The results are shown here:

Snapshot Management of Comment Boxes

The checkbox called Attach to All Snapshots in the Create or edit comment box form is available in the form only during the creation of the comment box as shown here at the bottom of the form:

It is at the Comment box creation action that the option exists to configure the chart so that the Comment box created is shown in all snapshots. The Attach to All Snapshots checkbox is absent from the form when the form is accessed to edit an existing comment box as shown here:

For further details on the management of Comment boxes in snapshots, please see the section in this article at: Putting Selected Comment Boxes in All Snapshots

Comment Box Right-Click Context Menu Options

Right-clicking on a displayed Comment box accesses its dropdown menu as shown below:

The Comment box context menu has five (5) commands of which the Delete command has two (2) sub-commands and the Order command has four sub-commands. These commands are covered in the subsections below.

Deleting Comment Boxes

To Delete a Comment box, right-click on the selected Comment box and choose Delete from the Comment box right-click context menu shown in the illustration above. You have two (2) option to consider to Delete the Comment box as shown below:

From This Snapshot

The From this snapshot sub-command causes the selected Comment box to be deleted from the current snapshot only. The same Comment box appearing in other snapshots are not deleted and remain available when the snapshot is displayed in the Chart Editor. These remaining Comment boxes can be individually edited and all edits are applied to the identical Comment box appearing in other snapshots. Additionally, global edits are applied to all remaining Comment boxes across all snapshots. A Comment box once deleted from one or more snapshots can be restored to appear in all snapshots by selecting the Comment box in a snapshot in which it appears, accessing the comment box's right-click context menu and clicking the Put in all snapshots command.

From All Snapshots

The From all snapshots sub-command causes the selected Comment box to be deleted from all snapshots associated with the chart. When a Comment box is deleted from all snapshots it can no longer be accessed in any snapshot.

To restore a Comment box deleted all snapshots to visibility, please see the discussion in this article at: Caution

Generally, it is more common to delete a Comment box from all snapshots, unless you want it to reappear in a different snapshot later on.

Ordering Comment Boxes

Comment boxes, when created, are automatically displayed in front of all other graphics as shown here:

Send to Back Example

If you want to avoid covering up task bars/milestone symbols or name text labels, for example, you can use the Order command to adjust the display of Comment boxes on the Z-Axis as described below:

1) Right-click on the selected Comment box and then click on the Order command as shown in the illustration above.

2) Mouse over the Order command to access the four sub-commands as shown above.

As shown above, the Comment box appears to be hiding the baseline element of the task. If you want the baseline element to appear on top of the Comment box, click the Send to back sub-command and the chart looks like this:

The Comment box in the illustration above is using a white Background color to better illustrate the Send to back sub-command.

Bring to Front

In a similar way, the Bring to Front sub-command results in the selected Comment box to appear over the baseline element in this illustration:

Bring Forward and Send Backward

The Bring forward sub-command is treated as a stepping feature since the Z-Axis in the Chart Editor display on your screen consists of several layers. You can step-wise bring the Comment box forward one step at a time by successively using the Bring forward sub-command. You can do this until the display of the selected Comment box is at a desired Z-Axis layer. Similarly, the Send backward sub-command is also treated as a stepping feature like the Bring forward sub-command discussed above. You can step-wise send the Comment box backward one step at a time by successively using the Send backward sub-command. You can do this until the display of the selected Comment box is at a desired Z-Axis layer.

Adding Another ... Comment Box

You can have more than one Comment box attached to a selected task bar/milestone symbol. To accomplish this, use the Add another … command accessed by selecting the existing Comment box attached to the task bar/milestone symbol and then clicking the Add another ... command. These actions access the Create or edit comment box form where you can specify the new comment box’s name text label and other properties as simply illustrated here:

When you click the OK button on the form, the added Comment box is displayed with the selected task bar/milestone symbol as shown here as an example:

This added Comment box possesses all the attributes of any Comment box created in the chart. From this Comment box even additional Comment boxes can be created. Added Comment boxes can be edited, moved, resized, replicated in all snapshots, and deleted as any other Comment box in the chart.

Properties ... Command

Considering again the context menu accessed when a Comment box is right clicked, the Properties ... command accesses the Create or edit comment box form as discussed previously and again shown below:

After accessing the Create or edit comment box form, you can edit all the available properties for the selected Comment box as described in this article. Clicking the OK button at the bottom right of the form applies your edits to the selected Comment box in the current snapshot and in any other snapshot that the selected Comment box appears.

Putting Selected Comment Boxes in All Snapshots

Use the Put in all snapshots context menu command shown below to assure that the selected Comment box appears in all currently available and future snapshots in the chart.

As discussed above, once a Comment box is proliferated to other snapshots it can be edited, moved, resized, replicated in all snapshots, and deleted as any other Comment box in the chart. The default setting for created Comment boxes is to put the Comment box in all snapshots. Sometimes a Comment box is only appropriate for a selected snapshot and should not appear in all snapshots. If this is the desired result, when a Comment box is created you should check the Attach to All Snapshots checkbox OFF in the Create or edit comment box form as shown here:

The Comment box created in this manner has all its other properties set to the default values. Should you subsequently decide that this Comment box should be included in all snapshots, right-click on the Comment box and click the Put at all snapshots command in the context menu as shown below:

Additional Comment Box Content Options

OnePager supports the display a task bar's or milestone symbol's name text label, start and finish dates, and percent complete values (%Complete) in a Comment box. Whenever, either through the Template Properties or the Chart Properties form, you elect to display start date, finish date, and/or percent complete text for task bar/milestone symbols, you can cause this information to be displayed in a task bar/milestone symbol Comment box. As an example, below is a set of task bars displaying these text label components:

Each of the text label components shown in the illustration above can be individually placed in a Comment box by first selecting the individual label component, going to the OnePager Home ribbon's tool bar tab and clicking the Label Positions dropdown, and then clicking the In comment box option to place the text label component in a Comment box as shown in the first step here:

When the steps called out in the illustration are done, the chart looks like this:

Repeating the steps above, the start/finish dates and the percent complete values can also be positioned into the selected task bar's Comment box as shown below:

Alternative Method for Placing Task Bar Name Text Label Components In a Comment Box

An alternative method for incorporating these text label components into a Comment box, is to individually select each text label component with a right-click to access its Format... context menu command and access the Change Task/Milestone Properties form at the Task Labels, Dates and Percent Complete tabs to change the positions of the respective text label component to the In comment box position as shown in the series of illustrations below:

When this first iteration is completed, a new Comment box is created containing the task bar's name text label component as shown here:

Repeating the process above, we can access the Change Task/Milestone Properties form for the Dates tab and the Percent Complete tab and change the positions of the Dates and Percent Complete values as shown in the next two illustrations below:

At the completion of this alternative method, the second Comment box looks like this:

As with any Added Comment box you can be edited, moved, resized, replicated in all snapshots, and deleted the Comment box in the chart.

Caution

Some care should be exercised when task/milestone text label components are placed in Comment boxes. As mentioned above, deleting a Comment box from all snapshots basically makes the Comment box so deleted not a candidate for left-click selection nor can it be right-clicked to access the comment box right-click context menu. Under this circumstance, the Comment box disappears and with it goes its contents. To restore a deleted Comment box, select its task bar/milestone symbol with a right-click to access the comment box right-click context menu and click the Format... command. This action accesses the Change Task/Milestone Properties form at its Format tab. Navigate to the Task Labels tab and use the Label Position dropdown to change the position from In comment box to another available position such as Best fit all directions. After you click the OK button on the form, the previously deleted Comment box is restored. If other task bar/milestone symbol text label components need to be restored to visibility, repeat the above steps to access the Chang Task/Milestone Properties form and do the same at the Dates tab and Percent Complete tab.

Related Links

Manual Editing Task/Milestone Shapes and Text Labels (Portal)

Editing with the Chart Properties form (Portal)

Comment Boxes

Managing Templates (Portal)

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