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Introduction to the Deadlines Feature in OnePager

This article describes OnePager’s Deadlines feature. The article covers the Add-in and Standalone editions of OnePager Pro, OnePager Express, and OnePager 360. Illustrations used in this article are from OnePager Pro but the feature's function, controls, and manual edits apply equally to OnePager Express and OnePager 360.

About Editing Deadlines

OnePager translates Deadlines from your source plan into deadline shapes in the graph to indicate the deadline date for a task bar or milestone symbol. To illustrate with a simple example, consider the Microsoft Project source plan given below with three tasks containing Start and Finish dates, a deadline date, and the Microsoft Project Flag20 field set to Yes so that OnePager imports the data for all three task bars:

When a simple chart is created from the source plan above and Deadlines are turned ON, the example chart looks like this:

When deadlines are turned ON, they appear (by default) as red down-arrow shape in each task bar's row at the deadline date position with respect to the time axis. Above, deadline shapes that are not contained within their respective task bar are shown with back dash-dot connecting lines to illustrate the capability.

Editing All Deadline Properties

To display deadline dates in your charts you must first assure that the source plan has its Deadline field populated with valid dates. When deadline dates are present in the source plan they must first be turned ON as the default setting in most distributed Template Properties form is for deadlines to be turned OFF. To do this, click the Chart Properties button on the OnePager Home ribbon tool bar tab to access the Chart Properties form. Next, navigate to the Chart Properties Task Bars tab and to the Task Bars Decoration control group. Check the Deadline markers checkbox ON to enable the Deadline Properties... button to the immediate right of the checkbox as shown below:

By default, deadlines are mapped to the Deadline date field in Microsoft Project.

Set Deadline Properties Form

To edit the format of all deadlines, click the Deadline Properties... button, to access the Set deadline properties form shown below:

The form above provides all the editing controls for all deadline shapes that can be displayed in the chart.

Standard Basic Deadline Shape Controls

As stated previously, many of the controls in this group of the Set deadline properties form are standard.

The deadline shapes available are the same as Milestone symbols found in the Milestones tab of the Template Properties and Chart Properties forms. Likewise, the Fill patterns available are the same for task bars and milestone symbols also found on their respective tabs of the Template Properties and Chart Properties forms.

The Height percentage control represents the percentage of the total task bar/milestone symbol's height itself, is covered elsewhere and behaves in a standard way. The default Height percentage is 100% meaning that the deadline shape is the same height as the task bar/milestone symbol.

Similarly, the Transparency control for the deadline operates in the same way as transparency controls for other objects. The higher the value selected, the greater the transparency. Conversely, the low the value selected, the more solid the deadline shape appears.

The Field dropdown in the upper right of the form allows you to select another source plan date field instead of the default Deadline field typically used in Microsoft Project. Contents of the Field dropdown list is shown below:

The Position of the deadline has a unique meaning. Deadlines are always associated with a task bar/milestone symbol and can be to the left, within, or to the right of the task bar/milestone symbol itself depending on your source plan data for the task bar’s start, finish and deadline dates. The position in this context is about where within the task bar/milestone symbol’s row area vertically the deadline should be placed. There are three (3) available positions for the placement of the deadline shapes with respect to the task bar:

• Centered in the task bar/milestone symbol.
• Above the task bar/milestone symbol.
• Below the task bar/milestone symbol

The three available positions are shown here:

The Use custom color checkbox can be checked ON when it is desired to select a color for the deadline shape other than the color for its parent task bar/milestone symbol. When the Use custom color checkbox is checked ON, the standard Custom color dropdown is enabled. Clicking the dropdown button shows the standard Color Chooser form.

Showing Deadline Delays

The purpose of the display of Deadline Delays is to provide you with the capability to highlight deadlines that are missed as shown in the chart. When the Color-code delays checkbox is checked On, OnePager uses the selected Delay color (determined by the selection of the delay color from the standard Color Chooser form) to show all deadlines that are missed:

The deadline is set to the selected Delay color if, for any deadline shape:

• The Color-code delays checkbox is checked ON,
• The deadline date is earlier than the current snapshot date,
• And the percent (%) complete for the parent task bar/milestone symbols less than 100%.

If any of the conditions stated above are not met, the color of the deadline is set to the default color, unless a custom color is otherwise specified.

Example Deadline Date Delay

To illustrate the operation of the Color-code delay feature, let's set the stage by supposing that a project of three task bar is has the following initial conditions:

• Project Start Date – 10/1/2020
• Project Finish Date (Estimated) – 10/18/2020
• First Status Date – 9/11/2020
• Task A Deadline Date – 10/15/2020 (Task A Finish Date projected before Deadline Date)
• Task B Deadline Date – 10/10/2020 (Task B Finish Date beyond Deadline Date)
• Task C Deadline Date- 10/1/2020 (Task C Start Date beyond Deadline Date)

With these initial conditions, the Microsoft Project source plan looks like this:

If we take a snapshot using the above source plan as of 10/10/2019 the chart looks like this:

OnePager recognizes the snapshot date similar to the way Microsoft Project recognizes its Status date.

Connecting Lines

The Connecting Lines control group of the Set deadline properties form deals with connecting lines properties when you require that deadline shapes are tied to their parent task bar/milestone symbol. The controls available are shown below:

To enable deadline shape connection lines, check the Connect deadline markers to current markers checkbox ON as shown above. A default color, line style, and line width is established from your current Template Properties form. If you wish to specify a custom color, check the Use custom color checkbox ON and use the Custom color dropdown button to access the standard Color Chooser form.

You also have the option of selecting from a variety of line styles by clicking on the Line style dropdown button.

There are five (5) standard line styles to select from which are the same as used to connect Baselines to their parent task bar/milestone symbols as described in the section of the article at: Baselines for OnePager - Connect Baselines and Actual Task Bars/Milestone Symbols 10.5.1-71

The value dial to the right of the Line style dropdown provides the capability to edit the width of the deadline shape connection line. The form above shows the extent of control that you have over the connecting lines. These include the specification of a custom color, line width and line style.

Deadline Dates

The Deadline Dates control group in the Set deadline properties form provides the controls for turning ON and positioning the deadline date text labels as shown below:

The form above shows the extent of control that you have over the display of date labels for deadline shapes. These are the same controls as for other decoration date specifications and include controls for date format, the use of the fiscal year feature, the positioning of the date label/text, and the font properties for the date label text.

For more specific information about the controls in this control group, please reference the corresponding section for Baseline Decorations at: Baselines for OnePager - Showing Baseline Dates 10.5.1-71

Editing Individual Task Deadline Properties

Deadline shape displays are normally turned OFF in distributed Template Properties forms. In addition to the capabilities for editing all Deadline properties using the Template Properties and/or Chart Properties forms, you can select and individually edit Deadline properties showing in the chart. As a prerequisite for editing individual deadline properties it is the necessity for deadline data to be imported from the Microsoft Project source plan.

Selecting Individual Task Bar or Bars

Some individual task bar deadline properties can be edited by selecting the desired task bar or bars with a left-click operation, then right-clicking one of the selected task bars to access the task bar right-click context menu, and click the Format...button. This action accesses the Change Task/Milestone Properties form at the Format tab. Navigate to the Deadlines tab as shown below:

Before you can do so, you must confirm that the Deadline markers checkbox in either the Template Properties or Chart Properties form's Task Bars and/or Milestones tab is checked ON.

Accessing the Change Task/Milestone Properties Form

Select the Format… command which access the Change Task/Milestone Properties form. Next, navigate to the Deadlines tab, which displays the deadline control options shown below:

The Deadlines tab, shown above controls the display of deadline connectors and deadline text dates for the selected task bar/milestone symbol and the placement of the deadline date labels/text with respect to the deadline shape. The Show Deadline checkbox allows you to turn ON and OFF the display of deadline shape information. When the Show Deadline checkbox is checked ON, you have the option to specify the display of the connector and the display of deadline date for the selected task bar/milestone symbol. When the Show Deadline Date Label checkbox is checked ON, you have access to control over the Deadline Date Position selection dropdown and Deadline Date Font selection button as discussed above related to editing all task bar/milestone symbol deadline information. There are seven (7) standard deadline date label positions to select from as shown below:

Clicking the Deadline Date Font button accesses the standard Font properties form where edits of the deadline date text can be made.

Individually Edited Deadline Shape Example

Below is an example of a single task bar's deadline information using the chart previously shown in this article:

The controls at the Deadline tab of the Change Task/Milestone Properties form for the Show Deadline Date, that is, the Position and Font controls operate exactly as described for other start/finish date displays in OnePager.

For more information describing the use of these controls for the Percent Complete tab of this form, please see the section in the article at: Percent complete for OnePager - Example 10.3.1-71

There are no controls available in the Deadline tab of the Change Task/Milestone Properties form to edit the properties of the connector line for an individually selected task/milestone shape.

Related Links

Manual Editing Task/Milestone Shapes and Text Labels (Portal) 9.0.1-71

Changing Individual Task/Milestone Properties (Color, Shapes, Labels, etc.) 9.2.1-70

Labeling Task/Milestone Dates for OnePager 10.1.1-71

Percent complete for OnePager 10.3.1-71

Baselines for OnePager 10.5.1-71

Editing with the Chart Properties form (Portal) 121.0.1-71

Managing Templates (Portal) 124.0.1-71

(10.9.1-71)