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Introduction to the Endpoints Feature in OnePager

This article describes OnePager’s Endpoints 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 Endpoints

There are four (4) endpoints definable in OnePager for each task bar. By definition, milestone symbols in OnePager do not have multiple endpoints. Accordingly, endpoints for milestone symbols are not supported and there is no decoration controls for endpoints in the Template Properties or Chart Properties form's Milestones tab.

For all practical purposes, the four possible endpoints (Endpoint1, Endpoint2, Endpoint3, and Endpoint4) can be thought of as additional deadline dates for task bars that can be defined to communicate related dates associated with the task bar. As an additional thought, you can consider the four endpoints as task-oriented milestones as they occupy the same row as their parent task bar.

The control and the behavior of all four endpoints are identical to that discussed for deadlines.

For more information on Deadlines, please see the article at: Deadlines for OnePager 10.9.1-71

By convention and as a default, the initial association of Endpoints 1 through 4 are to Microsoft Project source plan fields is as follows:

• Endpoint 1: Start Date.
• Endpoint 2: Finish Date.
• Endpoint 3: Baseline Start Date.
• Endpoint 4: Baseline Finish Date.

These default settings are contained in all distributed OnePager Template Properties forms. Since controls are provided as described below whereby you can edit the endpoint association with source plan fields, it is recommended that you establish your endpoint relationships to specific source plan date fields before creating the first chart. This recommendation can be done by editing the Template Properties form you plan to use before launching OnePager or after launching OnePager by editing the Template Properties form using the access point in the OnePager choices (OPC) form described in the following section.

Displaying Endpoints

For OnePager to properly display your endpoints, you must first define the endpoint field in your source plan and map them to OnePager through the OnePager choices (OPC) form. A sample, Microsoft Project source plan is shown below with both deadline and endpoint definitions:

In the sample above, we see the typical task information with Flag20 used to signal OnePager which rows to import, the Microsoft Project Deadline field and four Date fields (Date1, Date2, Date3, and Date4) which are used to import information to OnePager representing Endpoints 1 through 4 respectively.

When the OnePager button is clicked on the Microsoft Project Add-ins tool bar tab and you click the NEW button on the OnePager Pro Start form, OnePager displays the first page of the OPC form as shown below:

Clicking the Next> button with the Show field mappings checkbox checked ON accesses the second page of the OPC form shown below:

Clicking the Edit current template… button takes you to the Template Properties form. Navigate to the Task Bars tab and the Endpoints checkbox in the Task Bar Decorations control group of the form as shown below:

Check the checkbox to ON and Click the Endpoint Properties..." button to access the Set endpoint properties form shown below where you can set and edit the properties of any one endpoint or all four.

Editing All Endpoint Properties

The Set endpoint properties form is a multi-endpoint form in that using this one form allows you to edit the properties of all four endpoint shapes available for display in the chart.

Set Endpoint Properties Form

Clicking the Endpoint Properties... button accesses the Set endpoint properties form where the Choose endpoint dropdown is shown below allowing you the option to select to edit one of the four available endpoints:

In the illustration above, Endpoint 1 is shown edited with all its available elements turned ON. The above form is almost identical to the Set deadline properties form. The difference is the Show this endpoint checkbox which refers to the dropdown menu shown above whereby you can select which endpoint to control. In effect, this form is four (4) forms in one allowing you to turn ON and OFF each individual endpoint and configure the properties of each endpoint separately. The illustration above covers up two important controls that need to be addressed. The Show this endpoint checkbox and the Field dropdown menu by which you tell OnePager which Microsoft Project source plan field is used for each particular endpoint. These controls are shown here:

As necessary, repeat the above editing steps for Endpoint 2 through 4 as required such that when the endpoint data are imported into OnePager the endpoint shapes and other properties are unique.

Saving the Current Template Properties Form

Now that the endpoints are defined with distinct properties for all task bars in our example, go back to the Template Properties form, click the Save and use button to get back to the second page of the OPC form. Then, click the Create new chart button and OnePager produces the following chart:

For the illustration above, Endpoints 1 through 4 are lined up from left to right in each row.

Editing Endpoint Properties

The above section's discussion covered the set up and initial display of endpoints. Recall that endpoint controls are exactly identical to the controls for deadlines.

For more information on Deadlines, please see the article at: Deadlines for OnePager 10.9.1-71

The exception is only for the necessity to turn ON and OFF the individual endpoints through their respective Show this endpoint checkbox and to enter the Microsoft Project source plan field you need to use for the respective endpoints in the Field dropdown menu of the Set endpoint properties form.

Editing Individual Task Endpoint Properties

Endpoint properties can be set or edited for individual task bars. In addition to the capabilities for editing all Endpoint properties using the Template Properties and/or Chart Properties forms, you can select and individually edit Endpoint properties showing in the chart. A prerequisite for editing individual endpoint properties is the necessity for endpoint data to be imported from the Microsoft Project source plan.

Selecting Individual Task Bar or Bars

Individual task bar endpoint properties can be edited by selecting the desired task bar or task bars with a right-click operation to access the task bar right-click context menu and then clicking on the Format... command in the context menu as shown below:

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

Accessing the Change Task/Milestone Properties Form

Selecting the Format… command accesses the Change Task/Milestone Properties form. Next, navigate to the Endpoints tab, which displays the endpoint control options shown below:

From the Endpoints tab of the form above, you are able to turn the selected endpoint ON or OFF, show the endpoint connector to the task bar, and show or hide the endpoint date label text. Recall that selecting a milestone symbol in the manner described above to access its Change Task/Milestone Properties form accesses the version of the form without either the Critical Path or the Endpoints tab as shown here:

Using Endpoints Example

For example, using the Deadlines-Endpoints Example previously illustrated above, suppose we want to make the following edits:

• Turn OFF the display of Endpoint 1 for Task B
• Hide the Endpoint connector for Endpoint 1 to Task C
• Hide the Date Label for Endpoint 4 for Task C under the task

For each task bar we select the task bar with a right-click to access the task bar right-click context menu, select the Format… command to get to the Change Task/Milestone Properties form, and finally accessed the Endpoints tab. These steps are performed for each of the task bars involved starting with Task B where one edit to Endpoint 1 was made and then to Task C where an edit was made to Endpoints 1 and 4. After making these edits the chart looks like this:

Related Links

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

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