Difference between revisions of "Milestones Tab for Version 7.1"

Latest revision as of 15:28, 27 May 2022

About the Milestones Tab for OnePager

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

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

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

The Milestones tab in the Chart Properties form is the same as the Milestones tab in the Template Properties form. Additionally, it is possible to make edits in the Milestones tab and have these edits mirrored in the Task Bars tab of the Chart Properties form and vice versa.

Please check the links for more information on sub-forms accessible from the Milestones tab.

Default Milestone Symbol Styles Control Group

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

Shapes - New Milestone Symbol Shapes for Version 7.1

Dynamic Shapes

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

Also for Version 7.1, we’ve added numerous Emoji symbols in addition to the Dynamic shapes already available in OnePager that are used for milestone symbols, deadline symbols, endpoint symbols, and comment box anchor symbols. All these shapes are now managed in a single Shape Chooser form that is accessed from the Shape dropdown shown below in the example for the Chart Properties form’s Milestones tab:

In the above form, the Dynamic Shapes are divided into eight (8) categories where you can choose a category by clicking on one of the eight (8) category symbols representative of that category. Each category symbol has a tool tip naming the category when you place your mouse on the category symbol.

Dynamic Shapes can be accessed in various OnePager forms such as the Template Properties form, the Chart Properties form, the Change Task/Milestone Properties form at its Format tab, and in the Conditional Formatting Rules form.

Emoji Symbols

If you click the Emoji sub-tab in the Shape Chooser form, you can access all the Emoji symbols incorporated in OnePager that are divided into ten (10) categories where the second from the left category is illustrated in the example below:

In the above form, the Emoji Symbols are divided into ten (10) categories where you can choose a category by clicking on one of the ten (10) category symbols representative of that category. Each category symbol has a tool tip naming the category when you place your mouse on the category symbol.

Emoji symbols can be accessed in the same OnePager forms as Dynamic shapes including the Template Properties form, the Chart Properties form, the Change Task/Milestone Properties form at its Format tab, and in the Conditional Formatting Rules form. All Emoji symbols can be selected for use as milestone symbols, deadlines, endpoints, comment box anchors, and in Conditional Formatting Rules.

For a complete list of Dynamic shapes and Emoji symbols, please see the article at: Gallery of Dynamic Shapes and Emoji Symbols

Fill - Gradient and Hash Fill Patterns for Version 7.1

In addition to the gradient fill patterns currently available for differentiating task bars/milestone symbols, we added a set of twenty-six (26) hash fill patterns that can be used as described above. The gradient fill patterns are shown below as an example at the Chart Properties form’s Task Bars tab’s Fill dropdown in the Default Task Bar Styles sub-section:

When you click the Hash Patterns sub-tab shown above, the dropdown form containing all the available hash fill patterns as shown here:

For a complete list of gradient and hash fill patterns, please see the article at: Gallery of Gradient and Hash Fill Patterns

Sample Chart Using Dynamic Shapes, Emoji Symbols, Gradients, and Hash Fill Patterns

The OnePager Chart below is modified in the Chart Editor to include different gradient and hash fill patterns as well as some different dynamic shapes and emoji symbols:

Other Enhanced Features

Searching for Dynamic Shapes and Emoji Symbols

The Shape Chooser form contains a Search tab providing you with a quick way to find a particular Dynamic Shape or Emoji Symbol. All Dynamic Shapes and Emoji Symbols are named with a tool tip that appears when you mouse over the object. You can use the Search tab to quickly find what you are looking for with a one word search. For example, suppose you want to find an Emoji Symbol that represents a smiling face. To do this, click the Search tab in the Shape Chooser form, place the cursor in the search window and type the word smiling. When you click on the search button, OnePager places all Dynamic Shapes and Emoji Symbols whose tool tips contain the word smiling. Illustrated below is the two step process that accomplishes this search:

Importing Your Own Dynamic Shapes and Emoji Symbols

Using the Shape Chooser form you have the option to import your own Dynamic Shapes and Emoji Symbols using the Custom tab on the form as shown here:

OnePager imports .tas type files using the Custom tab's option so the Browse button shown above needs to access a .tas file as shown here:

After selecting and importing the desired .tas object, the Shape Chooser form looks like this:

Milestone Height

These two (2) radio buttons and their associated values 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:

Border Controls

In the upper right corner of the form, there are three (3) 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 OnePager Color Chooser form:

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. Clicking the dropdown button on the Border Color control accesses the standard Color Chooser form as shown in the above illustration. The Border Width control allows you to set the value for the width of the milestone symbol's border in inches or centimeters depending on the Template that was originally used to create the chart.

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

Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Fill Color

OnePager supports both foreground coloring, that is, the selected color option you choose to represent the milestone symbols and background coloring which can be used in conjunction with Hash fill patterns now available with OnePager version 7.1. Foreground color and Background color controls for task bars/milestone symbols are discussed below.

Foreground Color Controls Options for Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Fill Colors

The Task Bar/Milestone Fill Color sub-control group provides two (2) options for assigning initial foreground colors to milestone symbol shapes and is shown below:

You can specify a single foreground color for all milestone symbol shapes via the standard OnePager Color Chooser form when the Use on color: radio button is is checked ON. More commonly, clicking the Color-code based on radio button allows you to select a field from your source plan to assign a data driven foreground color to each task bar.

The data driven foreground color assignment is sometimes referred to as round-robin color. OnePager goes in sequence through the color palette and assigns a new color when it finds a new distinct value in the data. 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. 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:

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

Background Color Controls for Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Hash Fill Pattern Colors

When a Hash Fill Pattern is selected as the Fill Pattern for Milestone Symbols, the Background Color dropdown is enabled. The Background Color control allows you to select a different background color that shows behind the Hash Fill Pattern whose foreground color is determined by the radio button you selected for the Foreground Color discussed in the previous sub-section. The enabled Background Color dropdown window looks like this when a Hash Fill Pattern is selected:

When these setting are used to update the chart, it looks like this:

Mirror format settings between milestones and task bars

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.

It is recommended that you check the Mirror format settings between task bars and milestones checkbox ON before making any edits in the tab. That way, OnePager applies the edits to both task bars and milestones symbols from the start. Task Bar and Milestone fill colors are always mirrored regardless of the Mirror... checkbox being checked ON or OFF.

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

There are five (5) decorations for milestone symbols. Each can be turned ON by checking the associated checkbox to the left of the control's label as shown here:

Each of these decorations controls can be accessed by clicking the adjacent button as shown in the illustration above. 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. What follows is a description of each of the specific control forms associated with each of the five (5) decoration types:

Milestone Label Properties... Button and The Set Label Properties Form

Clicking the Milestone Label Properties... 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

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 bar/milestone symbol:

Milestone Symbol Label Font Properties

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

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

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 :

The default setting of Best fit all directions gives OnePager the flexibility to establish task bar/milestone symbol label positions that do not collide with other graphics in the chart.

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

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. The controls available to you are shown below:

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. 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.

Wrap text up to

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. The default is set to 2 lines

Stair step up to

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 bar/milestone symbol that holds the text label string. The number of levels value is typically set to 1 meaning that the Stair step is positioned in the row immediately above the row containing the subject task bar/milestone symbol. Higher number of level values increases the number of rows skipped in positioning the Stair step.

Truncate text to

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. The value number of characters setting is set to 20 characters including the ... character.

Shrink font by up to

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 until the reduced font size text label string fits in the selected position.

Additional Information Links

For more information on the Smart Labeling/Text Label Collision Avoidance feature, please see the article at: Resolving Task Bar Name Label Collisions (Portal)

For more information on text labeling, please see the article at: Task Bar Name Labels for OnePager

%Complete Properties

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

The Set percent-complete properties form allows you to set the name 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. 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.

OnePager Pro and OnePager Express support %Complete for Microsoft Project and Microsoft Excel, respectively. OnePager Bundle for Microsoft Project and Microsoft Excel also supports %Complete representations in the chart. OnePager Bundle supports %Complete for Oracle Primavera P6 and Smartsheet source plans.

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

Critical Path Properties

OnePager does not support displaying critical path properties for milestone symbols. OnePager only supports the representation of critical path in the chart for task bars only.

For more information on the use of the Set critical-path properties form, please see the article at: Critical path for OnePager

Baseline Properties

Clicking the Baseline Properties button accesses 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.

OnePager Pro and OnePager Express support Baseline representations for Microsoft Project and Microsoft Excel, respectively. OnePager Bundle for Microsoft Project and Microsoft Excel also supports Baseline representations in the chart. OnePager Bundle supports Baseline representations for Oracle Primavera P6 XML formatted files only as Oracle Primavera P6 XER formatted files do not export baseline data. OnePager Bundle supports Baseline representations for Smartsheet source plans.

For more information on the function and use of the controls in the Set baseline properties form, please see the article at: Baselines for OnePager

Date Label Properties...

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

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.

For more 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

Deadline Properties...

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

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

OnePager Pro and OnePager Express support Deadline representations for Microsoft Project and Microsoft Excel, respectively. OnePager Bundle for Microsoft Project and Microsoft Excel also supports Deadline representations in the chart. OnePager Bundle supports Deadline representations for Oracle Primavera P6 XML and XER formatted files if the column is defined in the source plan and these columns are exported. OnePager Bundle supports Deadline representations for Smartsheet source plans if the column is defined in the source plan and exported.

For more information on the use of the controls in the Set deadline properties form, please see the article at: Deadlines for OnePager

Endpoint Properties...

Endpoints are not supported for OnePager Milestone symbols since milestones are a form of endpoint in themselves.

For information on the use of endpoints in OnePager for Task Bar Shapes, please see the article at: Endpoints for OnePager

Conditional Formatting Control Group

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

Clicking this button accesses 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 Project source plan.

For more information on how to use Conditional Formatting feature and the Conditional Formatting Rules form, please see the article at: Conditional Formatting (Portal)

Related Links

Resolving Task Bar Name Label Collisions (Portal)

Labeling Task/Milestone Dates for OnePager

Label Text Element Ordering

Percent complete for OnePager

Baselines for OnePager

Critical path for OnePager

Deadlines for OnePager

Endpoints for OnePager

Order of Tasks/Milestones Decorations

Task Bar Name Labels for OnePager

Conditional Formatting (Portal)

Task Bars Tab

Task Links Tab

Gallery of Gradient and Hash Fill Patterns

Gallery of Dynamic Shapes and Emoji Symbols

Gallery of Standard Color Palettes

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