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

Latest revision as of 15:22, 20 January 2021

About the Task Bars Tab for OnePager Express

This tab page, shown below, lets you control the style and decoration of task bars. Additionally, within this tab are the controls for creating and managing conditional formatting rules.

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

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

Default Task Bar Styles Control Group

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

Shape

The dropdown menu shows a lengthy variety of task bar shapes available for use as shown here:

Fill

This dropdown menu shows the five (5) available task bar shape fill patterns or texture options as shown below:

Task Bar Height

These two (2) radio buttons and their associated values allow you to set the task bar 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 task bar's 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:

Further, you have the capability to establish the border color to be the same as the task bar shape fill color which effectively makes the task bar 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 task bar'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

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

You can specify a single color for all task bars via the standard 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 Microsoft Excel source plan to assign a data driven color to each task.

The data driven 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 milestones as shown here:

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 task bars and milestones

This single checkbox sub-control is used so that you have the option to simply apply any property edits you make to task bars to milestone symbols without having to go to the Milestones 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 Milestone properties that are made to Task Bar 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:

Task Bar Decorations Control Group

There are six (6) decorations for task bars. 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 six (6) decoration buttons are clicked, OnePager Express 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 six (6) decoration types:

Task Bar Label Properties... and The Set Label Properties Form

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

Task Bar 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 task label into the chart for each visible task bar/milestone symbol:

Task Bar 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.

Task Bar Label Position

The default task bar 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 bar/milestone symbol 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 steps 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 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: Labeling Task/Milestone Shapes for OnePager Express

%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 source of the percent complete field from the source plan, the color of the percent complete bar in the task bar, and several other properties.

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

For information on the use of the Honor non-working times checkbox, please see this section in this article at: Managing Working Hours and Non-Working Hours for OnePager Express-The Honor Non-Working Time Feature

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.

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 Express

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 start and finish date, the format of the date label, and how to separate the date from the task bar’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 Express

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.

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

Endpoint Properties...

Clicking Endpoint Properties button displays the Set endpoint properties form shown below which controls all properties for up to four (4) endpoints.

Each endpoint can display the date imported from any field you designate for this purpose from Microsoft Excel. These properties are controlled essentially the same way as described above for Deadline Properties form, above.

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

Conditional Formatting Control Group

The Conditional Formatting control group on the Task Bar tab has one button control, 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 task bar shapes based on data imported from your Microsoft Excel 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 Express

Percent complete for OnePager Express

Baselines for OnePager Express

Deadlines for OnePager Express

Endpoints for OnePager Express

Order of Tasks/Milestones Decorations

Conditional Formatting (Portal)

Managing Working Hours and Non-Working Hours for OnePager Express-The Honor Non-Working Hours

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