Difference between revisions of "Template Only Features for Version 7.0 (OnePager Express)"

Revision as of 15:58, 1 December 2020

About Template Properties Form Only Features

1) Because the Template Properties and Chart Properties forms are similar, this article only covers the areas of the Template Properties form that are different from the Chart Properties form.

2) For more information on Template Properties and Chart Properties forms, please see the articles at: Core Concepts (Portal) 4.0.1-70 and Templates versus Charts 4.3.1-70.

3) You should familiarize yourself with the Chart Properties form before reading this article.

4) For more information on the Chart Properties form, please see the article at: Editing with the Chart Properties form (Portal). 21.0.1-70

A Few Words On Template Properties Forms

Permanent Template Properties Forms

1) Chronicle Graphics, Inc. ships OnePager Express (OPX) with one pre-defined permanent Template Properties form that you cannot accidentally delete.

2) The permanent Template Properties formhas the word Permanent in its name.

3) The permanent Template Properties form cannot be modified hence all the control features on each tab are disabled.

Metric Versus Non-Metric

4) Within a Template Properties form there are settings which are distance measures that must be considered when building the chart.

5) These include the height of individual rows, the height of the percent-complete bar within a task bar, and the like.

6) OnePager supports two measurement conventions: (1) English (inches) and (2) Metric (centimeters).

7) For convenience, you can identify a Metric based Template form because the word (metric) is included in the title.

8) And these two sets of Template Propertiess forms are separated by default into English and a Metric sub-folder of the default Templates folder.

Template Propertis Form's Main Tab

1) The Main tab of the Template Properties form differs slightly from the Chart Properties form.

2) The Template Properties form does not have entry controls for the Start date, End date, Title, because dates are systematically produced by OnePager based on the earliest start date and latest finish dates in your source plan data.

3) The Title is something you designate as you create the new chart with the OnePager choices (OPC) form.

4) The Colors control group provides access to the Color Palette controls for creating and editing Color Palettes.

5) Additionally, the Colors control group contains all the controls for setting the Chart Background and access to the Set line properties form and its sub-tabs through the Borders, frames, and time-cursor properties button shown here:

6) The controls for Row Borders can be found in the Template Properties form's Rows/Swimlanes tab at each of the three sub-tabs in the Swimlanes control group.

7) For more information on Row Borders, please see the article at: Row and Swimlane Borders 12.04.1-70.

8) The Task Selection control group provides a convenient place in the Template Properties form for you to preset the method you want to use for importing task/milestone information from your Microsoft Excel source plan.

Template Properties Form's Time Axis Tab

1) The Time Axis tab provides additional Time Axis creation and editing capabilities and to centralize all time axis related controls at one Template Properties form tab.

2) The same intent is true for the Chart Properties form's Time Axis tab.

3) The Time Axis tab for the OnePager Express Template Properties form is shown below:.

4) The controls in the Time Axis tab are identical to those in the Chart Properties form's Time Axis tab.

5) For more information on the Time Axis tab, please see the article at Modifying the Time Axis (Portal). 22.0.1-70

Template Properties Form's Rows/Swimlanes Tab

1) 1) The Rows/Swimlanes tab provides additional Rows/Swimlanes creation and editing capabilities and centralizes all rows and swimlanes related controls at one Template Properties form tab.

2) The same intent is true for the Chart Properties form's Time Axis tab.

3) The Rows/Swimlanes tab for the OnePager Express Template Properties form is shown below:

4) For more information on the Rows/Swimlanes tab, please see the articles at: Creating and Editing Rows and Swimlanes (Portal) 12.0.1-70.

Template Properties Form's Task Links Tab

1) The Task Links tab is new in OnePager Express provides the capability to preset properties for Data-Driven and manual Task Links before a chart is created.

2) Of importance is the Show task links checkbox in the Default Task-Link Formatting control group shown above.

3) This checkbox acts as a Master Switch enabling the Task Links feature in OnePager Express.

4) The Import predecessors checkbox is unchecked or OFF in OnePager Express distributed Template Properties forms.

5) This avoids an initial cluttering of the chart if there are a large number of dependencies imported from the Microsoft Excel source plan.

6) This approach also gives you full control over the Task Link import process from the chart.

7) The controls in the Task Links tab are identical to those in the Chart Properties form's Task Links tab.

8) For more information on the Chart Properties form's Task Links tab, please see the article at: Editing Task Links with the Chart Properties Form for OnePager Express. 19.3.2-70

Template Properties Form's Advanced Template Tab

1) The Advanced tab is shown below.

2) Most of these parameters in the Template Properties form are identical to those appearing in the Chart Properties form.

Lock Background Checkbox Not Available

3) In the Template Properties Form’s Advanced tab there is no Lock background checkbox in the Display options group.

4) This is an option available after the chart is created.

Configuring Multi-Project Imports

5) One key difference between the Template Properties form and Chart Properties form is the ability to use the Template to configure a multi-project import.

6) For more information on the Merge tasks on snapshot replacement, please see this section in the article at: Merge Tasks On Snapshot Replacement 24.2.1-70

7) Additional information is available on creating Multi-Project charts at:

Merge Tasks On Snapshot Replacement

8) Checking this checkbox to ON puts any charts created with this Template Properties form into the Multi-File-Multi-Project Mode.

9) This mode is specifically designed to support users who want to create Multi-Project charts from several independent Microsoft Excel source plans.

10) It allows OnePager to recognize data as coming from more than one unique file and combine that into your OnePager chart, hence the merge reference.

11) This is an advanced feature and when used, OnePager needs you to create a Task ID column with uniquely numbered task bars and milestone symbols that can be imported from the various Microsoft Excel source plans.

12) This is necessary so that OnePager uniquely recognize each row in each separate file.

13) A simple example shows how this checkbox works.

14) Suppose that the first Microsoft Excel source plan contains tasks A, B, and C and that the second source plan contains tasks D, E, and F.

15) After making a new chart from the first source plan, you open the second Microsoft Excel source plan and update the chart in Replace Snapshot mode.

16) If the checkbox is checked ON, the chart now contains task shapes A, B, C, D, E, and F.

17) If the checkbox is not checked, or OFF, the chart now contains only task shapes D, E, and F.

18) Once you adopted this scheme for the chart being created, it is not possible to update the chart in the future in the default Single-File-Single-Project Mode.

Template Properties Form's Field Mappings Tab

1)The new Field Mappings tab in the Template Properties form for OnePager Express looks like this:

Basic and Date Mappings

2) OnePager uses source fields for many purposes : (1) displaying task names, (2) displaying start dates, (3) assigning colors to tasks, and (4) grouping rows into swimlanes.

3) The use of a source field for a purpose is called a field mapping.

4) The eight (8) dropdown lists above are a set of important field mappings that are collected in the Field Mappings tab page.

5) The other field mappings are on the Rows/Swimlanes, Task Bars, and Milestones form tab pages.

6) Some field mappings (e.g. percent-complete) appear both here and on other Template Properties form tab pages.

7) This Field Mappings tab in the Template Properties form is also available in the Chart Properties form.

8) Each dropdown list contains the source fields that have the correct data type(s) for the purpose.

9) For example, in the Basic Mappings group, the Task label field dropdown contains only text fields from Microsoft Excel.

10) And the dropdown lists in the Date Mappings group contain only Microsoft Excel date fields.

11) These mappings are useful if your standard field usage differs and you want to avoid having to constantly make the changes on the second page of OnePager choices (OPC) form shown below:

12) For more detailed information on the Field Mappings feature, please see this section in the article at: Field Mappings Tab for OnePager Express - Basic Mappings. 21.16.1-70

Task Bar/Milestone Symbol Identity Mapping

13) The Task/Milestone Identity Mapping control group lets you select a Microsoft Excel field that can be used to uniquely identify each task shape.

14) Uniquely identifying each task bar or milestone symbol is always important when you plan to update your chart later on, but you normally do not need to change this field mapping because the default mapping works just fine.

15) OnePager uses the Unique Id field to identify each task in the source plan, enabling preservation of each task bar’s color, labeling, and vertical location as you import new or modified data in later updates of the chart.

16) For source plans that are Microsoft Excel files, the default mapping is to the Microsoft Excel Task ID field.

17) If you opt to change the Task ID mapping away from these reliable defaults, make sure that the new source field has a unique value for each task shape or milestone shape.

18) Keep in mind that once you create a chart with a Task ID mapping, it is nearly impossible to change your mind about how task bars are to be identified.

19) Change this mapping away from the default only if you have a good reason to do so and are sure that the field contains no duplicate values.

20) To map an alternate Task ID field, use the dropdown menu shown in the illustration below:

21) When changing to an alternate Task ID field, OnePager Express displays a warning message as follows:

22) For more information on the Task/Milestone Identity Mapping feature, please see this section in the article at: Field Mappings Tab for OnePager Express - Task/Milestone Identity Mapping. 21.16.1-70

Field Splitting Feature

23) The Field Splitting control group lets you split each task into a set of nearly-duplicate task shapes based upon a comma-separated list of values in some source field.

24) For example, you could split a task that had three Resources assigned to it into three almost-identical task shapes that differ only in their value of Resource.

25) Once you create a chart with field splitting turned On, it is impossible to change your mind and go back to unsplit task shapes for that chart or change to a different field for the splitting.

26) For more information on Field Splitting and Parsing Columns, pleas see the article at: Splitting and Parsing Columns-OnePager Express 24.5.1-70.

Related Links

Core Concepts (Portal) 4.0.1-70

Templates versus Charts 4.3.1-70

Basic Workflows (Portal) 7.0.1-70

Creating Various Multi-Charts with OnePager Pro and Express (Portal) 8.0.1-70

Creating and Editing Rows and Swimlanes (Portal) 12.0.1-70

Editing Task Links with the Chart Properties Form for OnePager Express 19.3.2-70

Editing with the Chart Properties form (Portal) 21.0.1-70

Field Mappings Tab for OnePager Express. 21.16.1-70

Modifying the Time Axis (Portal) 22.0.1-70

Template Only Features-OnePager Pro 24.1.1-70

Splitting and Parsing Fields-OnePager Pro 24.4.1-70

Splitting and Parsing Fields-OnePager Express 24.5.1-70

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