Creating and Managing Free Boxes for Version 5.3

About Free Boxes

Free boxes are similar to comment boxes, except that they are not attached to a task or milestone. Free boxes are similar to text boxes in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Adding a Free Box

To add a free box to the project view, go to the Insert tab on the ribbon and selecting the Free Box button as shown below:

1) Next, move the mouse cursor to the location on the graph where you want to place an free floating box and click once to place it on the screen:

2) To create a larger box size when adding it to the graph, click the Free Box command on the ribbon as before, then move the mouse cursor to the where you want the upper-left corner of the free box to be. Finally hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse cursor to define the free box you want:

3) Finally, release the left mouse button to complete the definition of the box:

Editing Free Boxes

To edit free box, follow the steps below:

Once a free floating box is on the screen, you can move it around, delete it, or edit its properties, just as you do for a comment box. To access these functions, select the box with the mouse and right-click to bring up the context menu shown below:

Deleting a Free Box

You can delete the box from the current snapshot or from all snapshots or from just the current snapshot you are working in as shown with the two options below:

Ordering a Free Box on the Screen

You can bring the box to the front of the project view or send it to back of the project view by using the Order command.

Copying a Free Box

You can make a copy of an existing box. Select the free box and right-click to bring up the context menu and then click on the Make a copy sub-command and OnePager will duplicate the selected free box as shown below:

You can make sure that the free box appears at all snapshots by clicking the Put at all snapshots sub-command in the context menu described above. For more details on the Put at all snasphots sub-command consult the articles on Creating and Managing Comment Boxes and The Project View Legend (Portal).

Changing the Properties of a Free Box

1) To change all other properties of the box, click the Properties … button in the context menu which brings up the following form:

2) On this form, you can type as much text as you want and place it on as many lines as you want. You can change the box’s font properties, its text alignment, its dimensions, its fill color and its line color as shown below:

3) The No Fill option on the Free Box’s background color is also available. To access this feature bring up the Shape Properties form and do the following:

a) Go to the Fill color control and click the dropdown button to reveal the Color Chooser form as shown below:

b) Check the No Fill checkbox which will cause the Color Chooser form to close.

c) Then, click OK and the selected Free Box will look like this:

Notes

1) You may eliminate the border for a “Free Box” by checking the No Fill checkbox in the Color Chooser dropdown selected from the Line Color window shown above in the Shape Properties form shown above. When this is done, the Free Box will look like this:

2) Unchecking the No Fill checkbox is a three step process described above in the Changing Individual Task/Milestone Properties (Color, Shapes, etc.) article.

Moving and Resizing Free Boxes

Free floating boxes can be easily moved to different positions, once created, and may be resized.

1) To move an existing free floating box select it and drag it to the desired position as shown below:

2) Release the left-click mouse button and the free floating box will be repositioned as shown below:

3) To resize a free floating box, left-click to select it and position the cursor on one of the eight (8) grab boxes or circles shown above. Drag the mouse so that the free floating box is resized to the desired dimensions as shown below:

4) When the desired dimensions are achieved, release the mouse button and the free floating box will be resized as shown below:

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