Difference between revisions of "Getting Started with OnePager Pro Version 7.0 Desktop"

Revision as of 18:38, 19 February 2019

Overview

1) As with the previous version of OnePager Pro, version 7.0 of OPP can now be launched from a desktop icon as well as from within Microsoft Project.

2) Please note that after selecting the Desktop launch option that you are not able to launch the OnePager Add-in application.

3) Only one of these applications (Add-in or Desktop) can be active at a time.

4) If you attempt to launch both, a warning message appears as shown below.

5) Further note that as mentioned in What's New with OnePager Release 7.0? 0.4-70, this new version has enhanced features such as Task Link Upgrades and Time Axis Upgrades to name a few.

6) This article covers the Getting Started process when you launch OPP from the Desktop.

7) The article which provides Getting Started guidance when launching OPP from Microsoft Project is at Getting Started with OnePager Pro Add-in. 3.0.1.1-70

Launching OnePager Pro for the First Time from the Desktop

1) OPP version 7.0 can be installed so that it can be launched either from Microsoft Project’s Add-in tab on its tool bar or from a Desktop icon or both. Additionally, you can also locate and double-click a .TAM to bring up the desktop OPP version 7.0.

2) The Desktop icon for launching OPP version 7.0 looks like this:

3) Before you launch OPP, it is a good idea to unhide the Microsoft Project flag field you intend to use. (Note that when you unhide a field in Microsoft Project, that field can now appear in some of Microsoft Project’s standard reports. Do not forget to hide the field again before generating such reports if you do not want the field to appear in those reports.) The selected flag field allows you to control which tasks get graphed and to store those choices in Microsoft Project for future use. For example, the flag field (e.g., Flag20) is shown below:

4) To control which tasks get graphed, specify the Microsoft Project flag field (e.g. Flag1, Flag2 … Flag20) that you wish to use. Number fields can also be used the same as the flag fields where a 1 in a Number field indicates Yes and a 0 in a Number field indicates No. Unhide that field in Microsoft Project by right-clicking in the field header area and selecting Insert Column:

5) Now put a Yes in this flag field for any task that you want to graph:

a) When making your first chart, we strongly recommend that you select 50 or fewer tasks with Yes.

b) Please note that OPP is shipped with a number of fully populated Templates that are based on the Microsoft Project source plan used in the tutorial also shipped with the product – BlueGrass Project 2J-303.

c) Starting in Microsoft Project 2010, there is a Manual Scheduling mode that allows you to leave dates blank in your schedule. However, behind the scenes, these dates are still being automatically assigned to the project Start Date, or to Today's Date if the project Start Date is not defined. Even though the dates appear to be undefined, they are defined behind the scenes, and are being passed to OPP. Because Today's Date often equals your Snapshot date, it is not surprising to see all of these dateless tasks appearing near the time cursor.

d) There are two solutions to this issue:

(1) Define the dates for your tasks and milestones in Microsoft Project. This overwrites any default dates that Microsoft Project is assigning, and makes your project schedule more consistent with your OPP timeline.

(2) Remove the dateless tasks from your OPP graph. You can leave them in project, but by removing them from the OPP graph, you won't have to explain why certain tasks/milestones are appearing in weird places when they really should not. As a rule of thumb, we recommend defining dates for all tasks and milestones, especially when it comes to graph generation.

6) Clicking the OPP icon on the Desktop displays a splash page and then take you to the Chart Editor.

7) The OnePager Pro Start form provides you with three options:

a) NEW Clicking the NEW buttons bring up the OnePager Pro choices (OPC) form.

b) UPDATE Clicking the UPDATE button allows you to BROWSE FILES for an existing chart file or select a recently-opened chart.

c) OPEN Clicking the OPEN button allows you to BROWSE FILES for an existing chart or select a recently-opened chart. Once selected and opened, the chart is available for editing.

Creating a New Chart

1) Clicking the NEW button brings up the OPC form as shown below:

Options on the New OnePager Choices form

2) We’ve enhanced the OPC form to give you more options for selecting source plans. The illustration above shows that OPP was initiated from Microsoft Project with the source plan shown in the Selected File(s) group shown above. The Add/Remove button gives you the capability to add more source plans to the source packet or, for multiple file packets, to remove files.

a) Clicking the Select button displays a dropdown menu with a BROWSE FILES... option as well as a list of recently accessed Microsoft Project source plans as shown here:

b) If you select the BROWSE FILES... option, a Windows Open form appears from which you can select the desired Microsoft Project source plan for OPP to use as shown below:

c) When you select the Microsoft Project source plan and click the Open button on the Windows Open form, OPP loads the Microsoft Project source plan selected and expands the OPC form as shown below:

Adding a New Source Plan

3) You now have additional options to use the expanded OnePager choices form, specifically the Add/Remove button. The Add/Remove button gives you the capability to add more files to the source packet or, for multiple files to remove files if desired.

a) Clicking the Add/Remove button brings up the Data source selection form as shown below:

b) The Data source selection form displays the current source plan that was loaded with Microsoft Project data when you clicked the OPP button on the desktop and selected the first source plans as described above. This form lets you Add more Microsoft Project source plan to create a multi-project chart or Remove a file from a multi-file source packet. These options are detailed below.

c) Add a new source plan to the source packet When you click the Add button, OPP gives you the option to bring up a Windows Open form when you select the BROWSE FILES… option as shown here:

i) Clicking the BROWSE FILES… option displays a Window’s Open form from which you can select a Microsoft Project source plans to add to the source packet. A sample Open form is shown below:

ii) When you select a desired Microsoft Project source plan and click the Open button as shown above, OPP adds the file to the source packet and displays it in the Data source selection window as shown below:

iii) The selected file is added to the source packet as shown above. OPP shows the path name of the source plans in the window if you hover the mouse over the source plan name.

iv) If you select a recently used file from the dropdown menu displayed with the Add button is clicked in the Data source selection form, OPP adds that source plan to the source packet.

Removing a Source Plan

d) Remove source from source packet The Remove button allows you to remove a source file from a source packet if that source plan is not needed to create the new chart. To remove a source plan, first select the source plan in the Data source selection form’s window so that it is highlighted in blue then click the Remove button as shown in the sequence below:

Other Choices to Make

4) Moving on to the other sections of the OPC form, you are asked to confirm a few things before you build the chart. OPP makes good guesses for each of these choices, but you can change any of them:

a) Starting Template: The current Template determines which fields get imported from Microsoft Project and how the initial chart looks. OPP ships with many sample Templates, but you can also customize your own Templates.

i) To choose which Template to use in building your chart, click the Change… button in the top group of the OPC form.

ii) For now, just stick with the default Template entitled Single Project Gantt View – Detailed, but you can always use a different Template to get a different type of chart.

b) Title of the New Chart: This is the title of the graph and also the suggested save source plan name. You can change the source plan name when you save it. We recommend that you enter a title that helps you identify the view later on.

i) For each chart that you create, OnePager remembers colors, titles, legends, font sizes, and all other graph properties so that your work is saved.

ii) Later, you can update the chart with a snapshot of how the project looks on a different date. Then you can browse through the snapshots to see how the project is changing over time.

iii) OPP lso saves the path name associated with the file (.TAM). Path names are not available in .TAM produced with previous version of OPP.

c) Task Selection: This is how you tell OPP which tasks from your Microsoft Project plan to include.

i) Either click the Select all tasks radio button to graph everything or choose a flag field. You can make several charts from a single Microsoft Project source plan, each using a different flag or number field. In OPP if no flags are set to Yes, OPP provides the user with a warning message.

ii) Clicking the Select tasks by custom filter button enables the Edit filters... button. Clicking the Edit filters... button takes you to a form that controls the new Conditional Import Filters feature. Please see the article titled Conditional Import Filters (Portal) 7.18.1-70 for more detailed on the use of this new feature.

d) Snapshot Date: This is the date of the report and lets you keep track of how schedules change over time. Each chart can have several snapshots.

5) The Show field mappings button near the bottom of the form can be checked to give you a chance to review and change the Microsoft Project field mappings to OPP before you make your first chart. To do this, click the Next> button. You now see the following form:

6) Notice in the form above that OPP has relied on the current Template to make some guesses on what Microsoft Project fields should be used in making the graph. You can easily change any of these field mappings by making selections from the dropdown menus. For example, we show below how to change the Finish Date :

Making the Graph

7) Once you are satisfied with the field mappings, click the Create new chart button to import your selected data and create a chart. After a second or two you see a screen that looks like this:

8) Note that each task or milestone was color coded based on the value in the Resource Names field.

a) The Legend contains an optional diagram near the bottom explaining that the bars inside the Gantt bars represent percent complete extracted from Microsoft Project.

b) Percent complete comes from a Microsoft Project field that you specified in the field mappings form

c) Note that the current Template, when you press the Create new chart button, is the Template for how things look in the new chart. The Template form’s Task Bars tab showing where the color control is located is shown below:

Opening a Chart

9) The right-most button on the OPC form is the OPEN button. Clicking the OPEN button displays a dropdown menu which happens to be the same for the NEW and UPDATE buttons. The options in the dropdown are discussed below:

a) Clicking the BROWSE FILES... option brings up a Windows Open form from which you can select a .TAM that you want to open. Selecting the desired .TAM causes OPP to display the selected chart. From this position, you can edit the chart, save it, or share it with others.

b) Clicking any of the RECENT charts items in the dropdown menu above causes OPP to load the associated .TAM into the Chart Editor where you can also edit the chart, save it, or share it with others.

Updating a Chart with Changes Made to the Microsoft Project Source Plan Data

10) Suppose after examining the chart you created before, you realize that it might be best to show more task bars. This, you think, would greatly improve the schedule discussion you are about to attend. Updating the chart at this point is a simple matter. Recall that OPP is active and the Chart Editor is displaying the current chart you want to update. Additionally, the Microsoft Project source plan and the application are active. The original chart looked like this:

a) Since Microsoft Project is still an active program and the Microsoft Project source plan you are using is still being displayed, go back to the Microsoft Project application and change the Flag20 field setting for the rows you want to now display from No to Yes. A section of the Microsoft Project source plan where this is done is shown below:

b) Once you’ve made the Flag20' changes lines 8 through 15 in the Microsoft Project the source plan looks like this:

c) With the Microsoft Project source plan updated, go back to OPP and navigate to the Data tab on the ribbon where you’ll see several buttons. To update your chart to show the additional rows from your Microsoft Project source plan. click the Replace Snapshot button as shown below:

d) When you click the Replace Snapshot button, OPP goes back to the associated Microsoft Project source plan that you just changed, brings in all the rows that changed, and update your chart.

e) At the conclusion of the operation, the updated chart looks like this:

11) The example above is just one of many uses of the Data tab’s Replace Snapshot button when you need to update a chart. And, you can do this as many times as necessary until the chart is the way you need it. In addition to adding and removing rows by changing the Flag20 field, you can need to change Start Dates, Finish Dates, or Percent Complete and display these data changes in the chart. Using the procedure above you can do this very efficiently.

12) You can now save the chart by giving it a name. When you save the chart in OPP, OnePager saves the .TAM and within saves the Microsoft Project source plan name and path information. This is useful when you want to further update the chart or when you want to add a snapshot later on. In the examples below we assume that the chart is saved as BlueGrass Project Report - Pro.

Adding a Snapshot to a Chart

13) The power of OPP is illustrated when, after a period of progress on the project, it is time to produce another chart, with the same look and feel. Assuming that the Microsoft Project source plan was updated with actual start and finish, percent complete, and other relevant data during the reporting interval, OPP can easily generate a new snapshot.

14) Suppose we have the following chart created on 7/1/2019 and we want to create another graph from the updated Microsoft Project source plan on 8/1/2019.

a) Before creating a new snapshot for 8/1/2019 as planned, we need to update the Microsoft Project source plan say by updating the Percent Complete for the ADONIS Subcontractor Selection task to 75%. When the source plan is updated with this revised information we can proceed.

b) Launch OPP either from Microsoft Project or from the Desktop icon and click the UPDATE button on the OnePager Pro Start form. Doing so accesses the following OnePager choices (OPC) form:

c) In the OPC form select the NEW snapshot at date: as shown above. You can want to select a current date for the snapshot so that this snapshot represents the project at the status date point in time. To see which snapshot dates already exist, just position your mouse over the NEW snapshot-date: window to see a list of the existing dates.

d) You can use the built in calendar dropdown or type in the new snapshot’s month, day, and year in the window provided as shown below:

e) Uncheck the Show field mappings checkbox if you want to use the same field mappings as you used before. The bottom of the screen now looks like this:

f) Pressing the large New button creates a new snapshot for the chart. The chart opens at the new snapshot. The color, fonts, title, and swimlane assignments are consistent between the two snapshots:

g) You can go back and forth between the two snapshots by using the snapshot forward/backward buttons on the View tab as shown below:

Editing the Chart

1) You can always edit the font sizes and text positions on task shapes to optimize readability. To do this, hold down the left mouse button and drag a selection box (lasso) that encloses many tasks/milestones at once:

a) When you release the mouse, the enclosed tasks/milestones are all be selected:

b) Click the Increase Font Size button on the tool bar shown below:

c) The chart now looks something like this:

d) Repeating this operation for the remaining tasks/milestones (we could have done Select All and done it all at once!), we obtain a chart with larger fonts on all the tasks/milestones:

2) Another common editing action is to move the task names from their current positions to a positions elsewhere around or on the task bar.

a) To do this, select a set of tasks/milestones as before, but this time click one of the text-positioning buttons on the tool bar:

b) In case you change your mind about the last editing action you took, you can UNDO the last editing action by clicking the UNDO button above the OnePager tool bar. Successive clicking the UNDO button undoes editing actions in the reverse order that they were applied.

3) Save the edited chart by pressing the Save button above the tool bar next to the UNDO button. All of the font size changes, text-position edits, and the new Legend position are now saved in case you need to update this chart with new data at a later time.

Copying the Chart to PowerPoint

4) Finally, copy the current chart snapshot to the clipboard by pressing the Copy button on the Home tab of the ribbon. Then paste the graph into a PowerPoint slide, as shown below:

5) That’s it! You’ve now created a professional 1-page schedule summary from a complex Microsoft Project schedule and have copied it into a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

a) You can also print the graph by selecting the Print button on the File tab.

b) OnePager has other features that let you move tasks vertically to different rows and swimlanes, change the number of swimlanes, add swimlane titles, show dependencies among tasks, change task colors, hide tasks, add floating comment boxes, and standardize on graph styles across organizations.

c) To learn more about these features, read about the specific workflows in this Wiki at Basic Workflows (Portal) 7.0.1-70 and Manual versus Data-Driven Editing (Portal). 9.0.1-70

Displaying Data-Driven Task Links

6) OnePager Pro 7.0 is enhanced to assist you with displaying Microsoft Project dependency fields in your chart. Typically, this feature is turned OFF in all Templates distributed with OnePager. However, the feature can be turned ON either before or after the creation of a chart.

a) To turn the Data-Driven Task Link feature ON prior to creating a chart, go to the Template form you plan to uses and click on the Task Links tab and then click the Import predecessors checkbox in the Data-Driven Task Links control group as shown below:

b) With the Import predecessors checkbox checked in the Template form, the chart first created looks like this:

c) To turn the Data-Driven Task Link feature ON after the chart is created, go to the Chart Properties form's Task Links tab and then click the Import predecessors checkbox in the Data-Driven Task Links control group as shown below:

d) Once imported, Data-Driven Task Links can be shown or hidden and can be edited globally using the Template/Chart Properties forms as shown above or individually using a selection right-click context menu.

e) OnePager Pro 7.0 continues to support manual Task Links which in previous OnePager Pro versions were called Event Links.

7) The OnePager version 7.0 Data-Driven Task Links feature is flexible and powerful. More details are provided in the series of articles at: Linking Task and Milestone Using Manual and Data-Driven Task Links (Portal). 19.0.1-70

Related Links

What's New with OnePager Release 7.0? 0.4-70

Getting Started with OnePager Pro Add-in 3.1.1-70

Conditional Import Filters (Portal) 7.18.1-70

Basic Workflows (Portal) 7.0.1-70

Manual versus Data-Driven Editing (Portal) 9.0.1-70

Linking Task and Milestone Using Manual and Data-Driven Task Links (Portal) 19.0.1-70

(3.0.1.2-70)