Revision as of 18:23, 12 February 2016

Using the “Data” Tab’s “Selected file(s)” Button for Version 5.3 (P53-7_17_1-12212015)

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to acquaint you with the features and usage of the “Data” Tab’s “Selected file(s)” button. The “Selected file(s)” button is used primarily to verify that the source file(s) associated with the open project view is/are correct. Once verified, the pull operation for snapshot replacement or snapshot addition can proceed as documented elsewhere. Additionally, when a problem is detected, the functionality under this button is useful for making fixes.

For convenience, the term we will use henceforth for the “set of source files” associated with a project view is Source Packet.

The “Data” tab is shown below. Please note that this article covers the use of this feature for both OnePager Pro and Express for Version 5.3 and applies equally well to the Add-in and Desktop applications of each.

What is a Pull Operation?

For an explanation of the pull operation please consult the articles listed in the Related Links section at the end of this article.

Validating Source Files (Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel)

To validate source files in a source packet follow the steps below. All examples in this article will use OnePager Pro desktop and Microsoft Project. The feature works the same for OnePager Express and Microsoft Excel.

1) Launch OnePager Pro from the desktop icon and use the “OnePager Pro Start” form to open a project view. For an example, when you are done with this step the Project View Editor will look like this with the “Data” tab active:

2) Click the “Selected file(s)” button shown above. This will launch the “Data source selection” form. You will notice that there is a file name in the window along with the file type and size. If you hover your mouse over the file name OnePager will display the file’s path name as shown below:

3) By examining the path name you can make sure that the file is the one you want to use for updating the project view. The name of the source file and the path name are stored in the .TAM file for all project views created with or updated by Version 5.3.

4) On occasion you might have moved a source file to another folder. If you do, the path name stored for the project view will not match where the file is actually stored. The “Selected file(s)” button, when clicked in this case will return a message notifying you that OnePager could not locate the file using the path stored in the .TAM file. In this situation, the form will look like this:

5) The instructions in the form are to double-click on the file name. This will bring up a “Change path…” form from which you can search, browse, or go directly to where the file is located. This is shown below:

6) After locating the desired file, just select it from the “Change path…” form and click “Open”. This will restore the correct path name into the .TAM file and the “Data source selection” form will look like this”

7) The green check mark shown in the “Data source selection” form above indicates that the file exists and its name and pate are stored in the .TAM.

Adding a Source File

8) There is an “Add” button on the “Data source selection” form as well. This may be used in two ways:

a) To create a multi-file project view

b) Or, as the first step in replacing a source file to be followed by the “Remove” button’s use to remove the unwanted file.

9) For instructions on creating multiple-project project views please consult the articles in this section: Creating Various Multi-Project Views with OnePager Pro and Express (Portal).

Changing a Source File – An Example

10) You may want to change a file name for many reasons pertaining to your update processes. The most common reason is because you are maintaining versions of your files as separate named sources but are continuing to use a single OnePager .TAM to represent the project through time.

11) Changing a file is a matter of adding the new source file and removing the old source file.

12) Suppose you have a Microsoft Project plan called BlueGrass Project 2J-303-Updated and created a project view named BlueGrass 2J-303-Working. That project view would have the Microsoft Project name and path name saved in the .TAM file.

13) Now suppose you want to create a second snapshot within the project view called BlueGrass 2J-303-Working with the data from a revision of the original Microsoft Project plan called BlueGrass Project 2J-303-Revised.

14) When first built, the project view’s source looks like this in the “Data source selection” form:

15) Later on, as our scenario suggests, we want to add a snapshot to the BlueGrass 2J-303-Working from another Microsoft Project plan called BlueGrass 2J-303-Revised. To do this we first add the BlueGrass Project 2J-303-Revised.mpp file to the second line in the form as shown here:

16) When you click the “Open” button on the “Open” form, the “Data source selection” form will be updated to look like this:

17) Before clicking the yellow “OK” button, select the top file named BlueGrass Project 2J-303-Updated.mpp and click the “Remove” button in the form. When that is done the form will look like this:

18) Now when you click the yellow “OK” button the “Data source selection” form will disappear and you are ready to add the new snapshot.

19) To do this, use the “Custom Update…” button to perform the pull operation to add the new snapshot. This allows you to confirm files and set a snapshot date. So, click on the “Custom Update…” button and examine the “OnePager choices” form that’s shown below in its initial form:

20) Now we really want to add a snapshot, so click the “NEW snapshot at date” radio button and set the snapshot date to 9/5/2015. Doing these two things changes the “OnePager choices” form to the following:

21) After making the above confirmations and changes, click the “Next>” button on the “OnePager choices” form and the “New” button on the next “OnePager choices” form and OnePager will generate the added snapshot which, with a couple of edits (move of the legend) looks like this:

22) Note that in this second snapshot that the timeline range has changed from 2013-2014 to 2013 to 2016, the Microsoft Project file is correct, and the snapshot date is correct.

23) Just to add a little finishing touches to the project view’s snapshot we’ve added a “Curtain” that shows the time period that was allocated for suspending the project and re-planning it. Using the two snapshots you can see how the project was re-planned from the 2013-2014 timeframe to the 2015-2016 timeframe.

24) The above example shows how the “Selected file(s)” feature can be used to. Since we are using the desktop application of OnePager for this example it was not necessary to launch Microsoft Project first. As long as you’ve properly prepared your Microsoft Project source file just launching OnePager Pro from the desktop icon is basically all that is necessary.

Related Links

Creating a NEW Project View via Pull Operation - OnePager Pro for Version 5.3 7.13.1-53

Creating a NEW Project View via Pull Operation - OnePager Express for Version 5.3 7.13.2-53

REPLACING a Snapshot via Pull Operation - OnePager Pro for Version 5.3 7.14.1-53

REPLACING a Snapshot via Pull Operation - OnePager Express for Version 5.3 7.14.2-53

ADDING a Snapshot via Pull Operation - OnePager Pro for Version 5.3 7.15.1-53

ADDING a Snapshot via Pull Operation - OnePager Express for Version 5.3 7.15.2-53

Custom REPLACING a Snapshot via Pull Operation - OnePager Pro for Version 5.3 7.16.1-53

Custom REPLACING a Snapshot via Pull Operation - OnePager Express for Version 5.3 7.16.2-53

Using the OnePager "Data" Tab's "Selected file(s)" Button 7.17.1-53

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