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Using Multiple Level Rows and Swimlanes

This article introduces you to OnePager’s version 7.0 multiple level rows and swimlane management features. Using rows and swimlanes is a common way to organize your chart so that task bars and milestone symbols in the rows can be grouped together in an organized fashion like a work breakdown structure.

Multiple Swimlane Level Feature

OnePager version 7.0 now supports three (3) swimlane levels versus the one (1) swimlane level supported in previous versions. An example of a chart with three swimlane levels is shown below:

P70-0 4-70-(20)-03102020.png

Supporting the new multiple swimlane level feature is a redesigned Template Properties and Chart Properties form's Rows/Swimlanes tab as shown below:

P70-4 0 1 5-70-(0)-04302020.png

Schedule Presentation Considerations

It is always important to give consideration to your schedule presentation's goals and objectives and select the chart organization that best meets these. If you are anticipating using one or more swimlane levels in a OnePager version 7.0 chart, the organization and structure of the selected swimlane levels and the information they are to present are key decisions. It may be that no swimlane levels are need in the chart at all or that just one or two meets your goal and objectives. Once the desired chart organization is determined, the steps below are provided as guidelines for creating the most beneficial chart. The steps follow the organization of the Template Properties form and the Chart Properties form's Rows/Swimlanes tab such that you can start establishing your settings in the top control group and work your way through them from top to bottom left to right.

Creating Charts Using Rows and Swimlanes

As the Rows/Swimlanes tab above illustrates, there is a step-wise approach to constructing an informative and useful OnePager Pro or Express chart. The general methodology is for you to create or modify the chart by making setting determinations based upon the goals and objectives you intend to meet with your schedule conversation:

1) Determine carefully how the chart is going to look - swimlane levels, text columns, the collection of task bars into chart rows, and the grouping of rows into the chart's swimlane levels.
2) Determine how source plan tasks are going to be collected and sorted into chart rows. This determination includes determining if only one task bar occupies a chart row or if multiple task bars occupy a single row.
3) Determine how chart's rows are going to be grouped into swimlane levels.
4) Determine how many text columns are needed to adequately provide information from the source plan for the audience without making the chart too busy.
5) Determine how row and swimlane borders are going to be formatted.

The five step process suggested above can be iterative as OnePager assists you in these steps because you can always go back to the Chart Properties form after a chart creation iteration, reassess your settings, and make changes so the chart communicates with respect to your goals and objectives. The discussion that follows is divided into five (5) sub-sections, one each for the steps listed above.

Step 1 - Determine Carefully How the Chart Should Look

In majority of schedule presentation situations when you anticipate using multiple swimlane levels, the organization of the swimlane levels and their associated source plan fields you are going to use are straight forward. When this is not the case, it is recommended that consideration be given to reviewing the goals and objectives of the schedule conversation where the chart is used and the information needs of audience members. Every schedule presentation situation is different so our suggestion is to spend some time in Step 1 to layout how you are going to address the remaining steps. Adding swimlane levels can make the chart look busy and distract from the intended theme. Too few swimlane levels can cloud the message you are trying to communicate. The same logic applies to the determination of how many text columns to include in the chart.

Since there are three (3) swimlane levels available, they appear in the chart from left to right as Left#1, Left#2, and Left#3 as shown in the Chart Properties form's Rows/Swimlanes tab above. The highest swimlane level in a chart is the left-most swimlane level and successively lower swimlane levels appear going to the right. This means that you are encouraged to place the highest organizational level of the chart in the left-most swimlane level and so on. It can be useful to think of the multiple swimlane levels in the context of your project's Work Breakdown Structure. Doing so avoids repeating swimlane level cells within a lower swimlane level cell which can make the chart confusing and distract from it communication value. It is also recommended that you use as few swimlane levels as possible consistent with your schedule conversation message and the makeup of the audience.

After making these decisions, OnePager keeps track and provides consistent charts whenever you update your source plan and create an additional or modified snapshot.

Step 2 – Collect Source Plan Tasks into OnePager Chart Rows

Collecting source plan tasks into rows in the chart is usually done by selecting the Gantt chart layout where each chart row contains one task bar. You have the option to use the Timeline layout where multiple task bars occupy one row in the chart.

Task Layout Sub-Control Group

The controls for making these settings are found in the Template Properties form or Chart Properties form at the Rows/Swimlanes tab's Rows control group's Task Layout sub-control group shown below:

P70-4 0 1 5-70-(1)-04302020.png

For more information on Collecting Tasks into Rows, please see these articles at: [[Creating and Editing Rows and Swimlanes for Version 7.0 (Portal) | Creating and Editing Rows and Swimlanes (Portal)

Row borders can be set at this point. However, we recommend setting row and swimlane level borders in Step 5 discussed below. For more information on Row borders, please see the article at: [[Row and Swimlane Borders for Version 7.0 | Row and Swimlane Borders

Swimlane Level Sub-Tabs

Each sub-tab shown above as Left#1, Left#2, and Left#3 are identical in terms of their controls. Checking the Group by checkbox ON in the sub-tab enables the swimlane level and the other controls in the sub-tab. Use the window dropdown next to the Group by checkbox to implement your swimlane level decision with respect to how the chart's rows are grouped with respect to the source plan field to be used.

For more information on grouping chart rows into swimlane levels, please see the article at: Grouping Rows into Swimlanes

Swimlane Formatting...

You can now use the Swimlane Formatting... button to access the Swimlane Formatting - Left#n form to make settings pertaining to swimlane level heading cell labeling, swimlane level cell labeling, and swimlane level border settings as shown below:

P70-4 0 1 5-70-(3)-04302020.png

Note in the illustration above that the form's title includes the swimlane level number. The Column Heading control group in the above form contains all the controls for OnePager to set the swimlane level heading cell's label or for you to select the text content for this location in the chart. Additionally, all the text formatting controls are provided in this sub-group. The Swimlane Text control group shown above in the middle section of the form, contains all the controls for setting the swimlane level cell's labels within the swimlane level.

The Label by: checkbox must be checked ON for the swimlane level to be shown in the chart and for the other controls in this control group to be enabled. As with the Column Heading control group, the Swimlane Text control group contains all the text formatting controls for the text content of swimlane level cells for level n in the chart.

The Swimlane Borders control group in the bottom section of the this form has all the controls for managing the borders associated with the swimlane level selected. However, we recommend setting row and swimlane level borders in Step 5 discussed below.

For more information on formatting swimlane components, please see the article at: Creating, Formatting, and Sorting Swimlanes Levels

Swimlane Sorting Sub-Control Group

Swimlane sorting is done within swimlane levels involving all the rows found in the swimlane level. There are two swimlane level sorting options for OnePager Pro: (1) Sort swimlanes like Project or (2) Sort on field. For OnePager Express the swimlane level sorting options are: (1) Sort swimlanes like Excel or (2) Sort on field. Most OnePager Pro users select the option to Sort swimlanes like Project to maintain correspondence with their source plan organization. OnePager Express users select the option to Sort swimlanes like Excel for the same reason. Selecting the Sort on field: allows you to select a source plan field upon which to base the sorting of swimlane levels in the chart. The options for sorting swimlane levels is only available if the swimlane level is showing in the chart.

When one or more swimlane levels are present in the chart, rows are sorted within each swimlane level where sorting is to be performed by OnePager. Care should be exercised when sorting swimlane levels where there are multiple swimlane levels present in the chart.

For more information on sorting swimlane levels, please see the article at: Creating, Formatting, and Sorting Swimlanes Levels

Step 4 – Determine Text Column Needs

There are five (5) optional Text Columns that you can place to the right of any shown swimlane levels and to the left of the graph. Their purpose is to highlight information pertinent to rows in the graph and the task bars and/or milestone symbols in the chart's rows. A typical example for the content of two text columns is to show task bar start date and finish date as illustrated in the partial chart below:

P70-0 4 1-(7)-06112020.png

The controls for managing text columns are found in the Template Properties and Chart Properties form's Rows/Swimlanes tab at the Text Columns control group shown here:

P70-4 0 1 5-70-(6)-05012020.png

Text Columns Sub-Tabs

Each sub-tab shown above as Left#1, Left#2, Left#3, Left#4, and Left#5 are identical in terms of their controls. Checking the Display data from checkbox ON in the sub-tab enables the text column and the other controls in the sub-tab. Use the window dropdown next to the Display data from checkbox to implement your text column decisions with respect to the source plan data for the task bar or milestone symbol that are displayed.

For more information on text columns, please see the article at: Editing Text Columns or Swimlane Labels

Text Column Formatting...

You can now use the Text Column Formatting... button to access the Text Column Formatting - Left#n form to make settings pertaining to text column heading cell labeling and text column cell labeling settings as shown below:

P70-4 0 1 5-70-(7)-05012020.png

Note in the illustration above that the form's title includes the text column number. The Column Heading control group in the above form contains all the controls for OnePager to set the text column heading cell's label or for you to select the text content for this location in the chart. Additionally, all the text formatting controls are provided in this sub-group. The Column Text control group shown above in the bottom section of the form contains all the controls for setting the text columns cell's labels within the text column. As with the Column Heading control group, the Column Text control group contains all the text formatting controls for the text content of text column cells for level n in the chart.

There are no border controls in this form as text columns are considered part of a chart's row and the controls for row borders are contained in the Rows control group of the Chart Properties form's Rows/Swimlanes tab.

For more information on formatting text columns, please see these articles at:

Snapshot-Dependent Text Columns for OnePager Pro Snapshot-Dependent Text Columns for OnePager Express
Resizing the Width of Text Columns and Swimlanes

Text Type Formatting for Date and Numeric Formats

When a text column's designated source plan field is a date type field, the Text Columns sub-group in the main form has an additional sub-group added for you to edit the date field as it appears in the text column cells. This is shown in the illustration below:

P70-4 0 1 5-70-(6)-05012020.png

When a text column's designated source plan field is a numeric type field, the Text Columns sub-group in the main form has an additional sub-group added for you to edit the numeric field as it appears in the text column cells. This is shown in the illustration below:

P70-4 0 1 5-70-(8)-05012020.png

Step 5 – Formatting Row and Swimlane Level Borders

As the final step in preparing your schedule discussion presentation chart with rows and swimlane levels is to choose row and swimlane borders.

Formatting Row Borders

To format row borders click the Row Borders Formatting... button in the Rows control group of the Chart Properties form's Rows/Swimlanes tab to acccess the Row borders form again shown here:

P70-4 0 1 5-70-(9)-05012020.png

To show all row borders including the borders in text columns, check the Show Row Borders checkbox ON. This enables all the controls in the form. These controls include using the OnePager standard Color Chooser form to select the color for the row borders, the width control for the thickness of the row borders, and the Dash-type which has five (5) options. These controls apply to both the top and bottom row borders. Be aware that row borders may be shared with swimlane level borders whose controls are discussed shortly.

Formatting Swimlane Level Borders

Swimlane border controls are provided for each swimlane level showing in the chart up to three (3). This means that there are three (3) Swimlane Formatting... forms available, one for each possible swimlane level shown. When the Swimlane Formatting... button is clicked, the associated Swimlane Formatting... form is accessed as shown below:

P70-4 0 1 5-70-(10)-05012020.png

To show a swimlane level's borders, check the Show Borders checkbox ON. This enables all the controls in the form. These controls include using the OnePager standard Color Chooser form to select the color for the swimlane level borders, the width control for the thickness of the swimlane level borders, and the Dash-type which has five (5) options. These controls apply to both the top and bottom swimlane level borders. Caution: Be aware that swimlane level borders may be shared with other swimlane level borders and with row borders as mentioned above.

For more information on managing swimlane level borders, please see the article at: Row and Swimlane Borders

Other Borders in the Chart

The Inner Frame border and the Outer Frame border of the chart are managed by the controls in the Template Properties and Chart Properties form's Main tab's Borders, frames, and time cursor properties button which accesses the Set line properties form shown here:

P70-4 0 1 5-70-(11)-05012020.png

For more information on managing Inner and Outer chart borders, please see the article at: Main Tab

Related Links

Creating and Editing Rows and Swimlanes (Portal)

About OnePager's Rows and Swimlanes

Collecting Tasks/Milestones into Rows

Editing Text Columns or Swimlane Labels

Snapshot-Dependent Text Columns for OnePager Pro

Snapshot-Dependent Text Columns for OnePager Express

Row and Swimlane Sorting

Row and Swimlane Borders

Resizing the Width of Text Columns and Swimlanes

Grouping Rows into Swimlanes

Main Tab

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