Difference between revisions of "Milestones Tab for Version 7.0 (OnePager Express)"

Revision as of 17:47, 4 November 2019

About the Milestones Tab for OnePager Express

1) This tab page, shown below, lets you control the style and decoration of milestone symbols.

2) Additionally, within this tab are the controls for creating and managing conditional formatting rules.

Default Milestone Symbol Styles

Default Milestone Symbol Styles

3) Collected in this sub-control group are all the controls associated with defining or changing the properties of milestone properties.

4) These controls include:

Shape

5) The dropdown menu shows many milestone symbols available for use as shown here:

Fill

6) This dropdown menu shows the five (5) available milestone symbol fill patterns or texture options as shown below:

Milestone Height

7) These two radio buttons and their associated value windows allow you to set the milestone height as an absolute quantity (inches or centimeters) or as a percentage of the row height, which is shown in parentheses for reference as shown here:

8) The values shown in the illustration above are the default settings established in most OnePager distributed Template forms.

Border Controls

9) In the upper right corner of the form, there are three controls that allow you change (1) the color of milestone symbol border, (2) the width of the border and (3) the border’s style as shown below with the Border Color dropdown clicked to access the standard Color Chooser form:

10) Further, you have the capability to establish the border color to be the same as the milestone symbol fill color which effectively makes the milestone symbol border disappear.

11) Clicking the dropdown button on the Border Color control accesses the standard Color Chooser form as shown in the above illustration.

12) The Border Width control allows you to set the value window for the width of the milestone symbol's border in inches or centimeters depending on the Template form being used.

13) There are five (5) Border Styles to select from with the default style set at Solid as shown below:

Task Bar/Milestone Fill Color

14) The Task Bar/Milestone Fill Color sub-control group provides two options for assigning initial colors to milestone symbols and is shown below:

15) You can specify a single color for all milestone symbols via the standard Color Chooser form when the Use on color: radio button is is checked On.

16) More commonly, clicking the Color-code based on radio button allows you to select a field from your Microsoft Excel source plan to assign a data driven color to each milestone symbol.

17) The data driven color assignment is sometimes referred to as round-robin color.

a) OnePager goes in sequence through the color palette and assigns a new color when it finds a new distinct value in the data.

b) If it finds more distinct values than there are colors in the palette, it starts over at the beginning of the palette and uses each color for a second data value, and so on.

18) Also note that the Color-code based on selects a single data field that applies to both task bars and milestone symbols as shown here:

19) This is one of the few places where task bars and milestone symbols are constrained to have the same default behavior.

Mirror format settings between milestones and task bars

20) This single checkbox sub-control is used so that you have the option to simply apply any property edits you make to milestone symbols to task bars without having to go to the Task Bars tab of the Chart Properties form.

21) When this checkbox is checked On, OnePager automatically makes any changes to Task Bar properties that are made to Milestone properties for all settings where a blue dot appears to the right of the setting as in the illustration below where the checkbox is checked On:

Milestone Symbol Decorations Control Group

22) There are five (5) decorations for Milestone symbols.

23) Each can be turned On by checking the associated checkbox to the left of the control's label as shown here:

24) Each of these decoration’s controls can be accessed by clicking the adjacent button as shown in the illustration above.

25) When any of the five (5) decoration buttons are clicked, OnePager accesses a form with specific controls to manage the decorations for that decoration type.

26) What follows is a description of each of the specific control forms associated with each of the five (5) decoration types:

Milestone Label Properties...

27) Clicking this button accesses the Set Label Properties form shown below wherein the source plan field name for the milestone symbol, milestone symbol label font properties, label positions, and label text collision avoidance controls can be set as shown here:

Milestone Symbol Name Field Selection

28) The Set Label Properties form's Label field dropdown as shown below allows you to access the full list of source plan field names imported by OnePager and select from the dropdown the field name OnePager uses to provide a visible milestone symbol label into the chart for each visible task/milestone shape:

Milestone Symbol Label Font Properties

29) Clicking the Label font dropdown button accesses the standard Font properties form as shown below:

30) The standard Font properties form allows you to set the Label text's font type, color using the standard Color Chooser form, the font size in pixels, and the Bold - Italics - Underline settings.

Milestone Symbol Label Position

31) The default milestone symbol label position is Best fit all directions as shown in the illustration below along with the other nine (9) available standard positions :

32) The default setting of Best fit all directions gives OnePager the flexibility to establish Task/Milestone shape label positions that do not collide with other graphics in the chart.

33) One Pager's Text Label Collision Avoidance feature, discussed in brief next, provides you with a set of rules you can employ to tell OnePager how to position task/milestone text labels in the chart.

Smart Labeling Settings

34) As mentioned, OnePager has a Smart Labeling or Text Label Collision Avoidance feature that attempts to avoid cluttered text labels appearing in the graph or at least to minimize the occurrences.

35) The controls available to you are shown below:

36) The Enable smart labeling for task/milestone labeling checkbox enables the Smart Labeling controls when the checkbox is checked On and disables the controls when the checkbox is checked Off.

37) There are four (4) algorithm types available for you to enable/disable, set a specific parameter, and establish an algorithm priority among the set of four as described below:

a) The Wrap text up to (value) lines algorithm tells OnePager, depending on the priority established, to take the text label string and wrap it into a maximum of lines up to the value set in the parameter.

b) The Stair steps up to (value) levels algorithm tells OnePager, again depending on the priority establishes, to create a Comment box like structure that connects to the task/milestone shape that holds the text label string.

c) The Truncate text to (value) characters algorithm tells OnePager to chop off an excessively long text label string up to and including the value number of characters and replace the truncated text label charters with the ... character so the modified text label string fits in the selected position.

d) The Shrink font by up to (value) percent algorithm tell OnePager to reduce the text label string's font size up to the percentage specified in the value window until the reduced font size text label string fits in the selected position.

38) For more information on the Smart Labeling/Text Label Collision Avoidance feature, please see the article at: Resolving Task/Milestone Text Label Collisions (Portal) 9.7.1-70 NEW TBD

39) For general information on text labeling, please see the article at: Labeling Task/Milestone Shapes for OnePager Express 10.16.1.-70

%Complete Properties

40)Clicking this button displays the Set percent-complete properties form shown below which controls the display characteristics of the %Complete representation.

41) The Set percent-complete properties form allows you to set the source of the percent complete field from the source plan, the option to show the Milestone symbol filled if the %Complete value is 100%, and several other properties.

42) Unlike task bars, milestone symbols, by convention, are either incomplete or totally complete so OnePager provides the option to show the Milestone symbol without color if it is incomplete and fully filled in with color if the Milestone symbol is 100% complete per the imported data from your source plan.

43) For more information on the settings in the Set percent-complete properties form, please see the article at: Percent complete for OnePager Express 10.4.1-70

Critical Path Properties

44) OnePager Pro does not support displaying critical path properties for Milestone symbols.

45) Only OnePager Pro supports the representation of critical path in the chart for task bars only; OnePager Express does not.

Baseline Properties

46) Clicking the Baseline Properties button displays the Set baseline properties form shown below which controls the shape, fill, and color of baseline bars, the connecting line properties, and how the baseline dates are displayed.

47) Complete information on the function and use of the controls in the Set baseline properties form can be found at this article link: Baselines for OnePager Express 10.6.1-70

Date Label Properties...

48) Clicking the Date Label Properties... button displays the Set date label properties form shown below which allows you to control the properties of the date label.

49) You can control the date label’s font properties, the position and display of the milestone symbol date, the format of the date label, and how to separate the date from the milestone symbol's label text.

50) For more detailed information on the use of the controls in the Set date label properties form, please see the article at: Labeling Task/Milestone Dates for OnePager Pro 10.2.1-70

Deadline Properties...

51) Clicking Deadline Properties button displays the Set deadline properties form shown below which controls for the shape, fill, and position of the deadline controls.

52) It also lets you set a special color to denote deadlines that have not been met.

53) Additionally, as with the Baseline Properties form described above, the Set deadline properties form controls connecting lines for deadlines and the properties of deadline date display.

54) For more detailed information on the use of the controls in the Set deadline properties form, please see the article at: Deadlines for OnePager Express 10.10.1-70

Endpoint Properties...

55) Endpoints are not supported in OnePager Express for Milestones.

Conditional Formatting

56) The Conditional Formatting control group on the Milestones tab has one button, the Manage Rules… button as shown below:

57) Clicking this button displays the Conditional Formatting Rules form shown below which permits you to define, change, delete, and copy rules governing the display of milestone symbols based on data imported from your Microsoft Excel source plan.

58) There are two ways to get to the same Conditional Formatting Rules form:

a) Using the Chart Properties form's Task Bar tab as shown above.

b) Using the Chart Properties form's Milestones tab where the Manage Rules... button is at the bottom of the form.

59) Complete details on how to use Conditional Formatting feature and the Conditional Formatting Rules form can be found at Conditional Formatting (Portal). 11.0.1-70

Related Links

Resolving Task/Milestone Text Label Collisions (Portal) 9.7.1-70 NEW TBD

Labeling Task/Milestone Dates for OnePager Express 10.2.1-70

Percent complete for OnePager Express 10.4.1-70

Baselines for OnePager Express 10.6.1-70

Deadlines for OnePager Express 10.10.1-70

Endpoints for OnePager Express 10.12.1-70

Order of Tasks/Milestones Decorations 10.13.1-70

Conditional Formatting (Portal). 11.0.1-70

(21.6.1-70)