Author: Ismet Kocaman

Ismet Kocaman, MCTS, PMP, is a Mechanical Engineer and has more than 15 years of project management experience in the manufacturing sector. He currently provides consultancy to small to mid-sized companies on project management, reorganizing, and streamlining the manufacturing operations. He also conducts training seminars for engineers on MS Project. Contact Ismet at ikocaman.pm@gmail.com.

Using Interactive Filters in the Assign Resources Dialog Box

For Project 2013 and Project 2010 (Screenshots from Project 2013) Assign Resources dialog box enables us to apply custom resource filters to the resource table while working on resource assignments. In this article, we will discuss how to build an interactive filter to apply to a resource list in the Assign Resources dialog box. Consider the simple schedule below, where the resource list is categorized by a kind of hierarchical breakdown structure and some other attribute; that is, area of expertise based on location and years of experience, respectively. As shown in the picture below, a custom resource outline code field, Outline Code1 and a custom resource number field, Number1 are used to store the values.   Note that the summary codes, “LocationA” and “LocationB” are grayed out in the pick list, so they cannot be selected; this is because the checkbox, Allow only codes that have no subordinate values is selected in the Data entry options section of the Edit Lookup Table dialog box (quick path to the dialog box: click the Outline Code1 field’s column heading and then apply the commands, Custom Fields † Custom Fields dialog box | Lookup). The picture below shows the details of the lookup table defined in the custom field Outline Code1: A short description for each summary code and subcode can be added to the Description column of the lookup table. Project displays the descriptions next to the name of each item in drop-down lists. We will now continue with creating an interactive custom resource filter; follow the steps below to define the filter: Switch to the Resource Sheet view in order to set Project’s focus on the resource data. On the VIEW tab, click the down arrow of the Filter box (the edit box with a funnel image, containing [No Filter] by default in the Data group) to display the drop-down menu and then select New Filter in the menu to open the Filter Definition dialog box. Enter the lines representing the filtering criteria into the Filter Definition dialog box as given in the table below and click Save: Note that the And operator combines two criteria in the filter; thus, the filter will display only the resources satisfying both criteria. The prompt texts in the Value(s) column are enclosed in double quotes and suffixed with the question marks. Using uppercase letters in the filter name helps us differentiate the custom filter from the built-in ones. Let us now test the custom resource filter defined by applying it to the resources listed the Assign Resources dialog box. Suppose that we need to assign an “Electrical” staff to a 1-day task, Task #1 in Location A and the resource should have 5 years of experience. Follow the steps below: Open a task view, e.g. the Gantt Chart view and then click Assign Resources on the RESOURCE ribbon to open the Assign Resources dialog box. In the dialog box, click the plus button (+) of the Resource list options section to display the options available; select the Filter by: checkbox and then select the RESOURCES MEETING THE MULTIPLE CRITERIA filter in thedrop-down list. In order to reapply the same filter that is already shown in the Filter by: box, click the arrow and reselect it. The custom resource filter will now display a dialog box and ask for the area of the expertise information based on the location. In the entry box, we can select an item (i.e. a code) from the drop-down list, enter a partial code with wildcard characters ( * or ? ) or a full code. Try entering these codes in the first dialog box displayed and see the results: In this example, let us select “Electrical” under “LocationA”  from the drop-down list and click OK as shown below:   Next, the custom resource filter asks for the minimum and maximum numbers representing the range for the years of experience information in the second dialog box; enter <5> into both boxes as shown below and click OK. The resource table will now show only Resource #4 as a result of filtering by the custom resource filter:   Note that the custom resource filter is applied only to the unassigned resources in the resource table. The resources already assigned to the tasks listed in the Task: section at the top of the dialog box will be displayed with a check mark on the left (in the row heading) along with the assignment data and they will not be affected by the filtering operation. We can now select Resource #4 in the resource table and click Assign to complete the assignment operation.   The Assign Resources dialog box is a modeless dialog box. This means that the dialog box can remain open while we are working in the project plan. Therefore, we can change the task(s) currently selected, or perform an undo action while the dialog box is open. We can even use the Assign Resources dialog box to filter the resource list and then make the assignments by using the details pane with the Task Form view. On the other hand, using the Assign Resources dialog box, for example, while adding or removing resources triggers the Smart Tag help (see the related settings in the section Show indicators and Option buttons for: of the Display tab in the Project Options dialog box) but using the Task Entry view for the same purpose does not. Using AutoFilter to filter the resource list   Suppose that we need to find out which resources meet multiple criteria, based on a task’s resource requirements; e.g. the resources in Location A and with years of experience between 10 and 15. We can use the custom AutoFilters for this purpose, in Resource Sheet view; and the steps are as follows: Click the down arrow on the Outline Code1 field’s column heading to display the drop-down menu and then apply: Filters | Contains… † Custom AutoFilter dialog box | enter <LocationA> | OK.   In the Resource Sheet view, Project will now display only the resources for which the outline code contains “LocationA” as soon as we click OK in the dialog box shown above. The down arrow on the column heading will be replaced with a filter symbol (funnel) indicating that there is an AutoFilter applied to the column. Next, apply the same steps as above, on the Number1 column, but this time, select the built-in custom AutoFilter, “Between…” in the Filters submenu, which opens the Custom AutoFilter dialog box with the test “is within” already selected. In the dialog box, enter <10, 15> into the second box as shown below and click OK.   The following picture shows the resulting auto-filtered resource list displayed in the Resource Sheet view: Note that applying an AutoFilter to a column does not clear the AutoFilters applied to the other columns. In order to clear any of the filters, click the funnel symbol on the column heading, then select Clear Filter in the drop-down menu opened. You can also use Clear Filter (or [No Filter]) in the drop-down menu of the Filter command in the VIEW ribbon to clear all the filters. Conclusion As it is clear from the examples above, the Assign Resources dialog box allows us to do both the resource selection by using filters and the resource assignment, without switching the views. As an alternative, we can use multiple windows of the same schedule to perform the resource selection and assignment operations (e.g. a window with the Task Entry view on the left for making assignments and another window with the Resource Sheet view on the right for resource selection by auto-filtering as explained above) but it would not be a practical approach, especially when we have a long list of resources categorized by various attributes.   The screenshots are from Project 2013 (standalone desktop version) but the steps would also apply to Project 2010.

Toolbar and Menu Commands for Microsoft Project 2007

This useful 2007 guide was contributed by a member, Ismet Kocaman for use by the community. He created the document to help Project users with locating the toolbar commands and menu commands in Project 2007 user interface. The guide contains snapshots of the pull-down menus in the menu bar and tooltips for all toolbar buttons. Submenu commands and Dialog Boxes are not included. We’ve published in PDF for easy download.

5 Tips for Formatting Text on a Gantt Chart

Microsoft Project 2007 offers many features to customize the components of a Gantt chart. If you’re presenting your schedule using a Gantt chart, you can use Project 2007’s advanced formatting features to visually emphasize the crucial project data displayed on the chart. I’ll demonstrate five techniques herewith by using the short sample schedule shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Our sample schedule. Note:Always do formatting on a copy of your original project plan file and use that copy for the presentation. Tip 1. How to Change the Date Display Format on the Gantt Chart Project displays milestone dates by default on a Gantt chart. Date display format applies to all the dates displayed on the chart, and it can be easily changed in the Layout dialog box as follows: Right click at any point in the blank chart area to open the shortcut menu and then select Layout on the menu. In the Layout dialog box, select a date format in the Date format box and click OK. Figure 2. The shortcut menu and Layout dialog box. Note that if you select Default on the list, the Date format selection on the View tab of the Options dialog box in the Tools menu determines the date display format for all the Gantt chart dates. Tip 2. How to Change the Position of the Date Displayed on a Milestone As Figure 1 shows, there’s a deadline arrow just on the top of the date displayed on the right of the milestone. It’s possible to place the milestone date to another position — to the left, up, down or inside the milestone diamond. The left of the milestone diamond seems the best position to place the date. To change the position, double-click the diamond to open the Format Bar dialog box and then click the Bar Text tab. Delete Finish field in the Right box and then enter or select Finish in the Left box as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3. The Format Bar dialog box. Click OK button to close the dialog box and apply the changes that you’ve made. The date will now be displayed on the left of the diamond as shown in Figure 4. Figure 4. The milestone date on the left. Note that the new setting will apply only to the Finish – Ph A milestone. The Bar Styles dialog box is used to change the position of the date displayed for all the existing milestones and the new ones to be created. There are several ways to open the Bar Styles dialog box as listed below: Right click at any point in the blank chart area to open the shortcut menu and then select Bar Styles command on the menu.Or double-click at any point in the blank chart area.Or use the Bar Styles menu command on the Format menu. In the Bar Styles dialog box, click the Milestone line on the Name column and then make the necessary changes in the Text tab in exactly the same way as you did in the Format Bar dialog box. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply changes to all the milestone dates on the chart. Tip 3. How to Change Text Formatting of the Milestone Date We can change the format of the milestone text displayed by using the Text Styles dialog box. To open the dialog box, select the Text Styles menu command on the Format menu. Then select Bar Text – Left on the Item to Change drop-down list. Figure 5. The Text Styles dialog box. You can select underlining and change the font, font style, size, and color of the text displayed by using the Text Styles dialog box. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply any changes that you’ve made. Note that the Background Color and Background Pattern boxes for the “Bar Text” in Text Styles dialog box are grayed out. Tip 4. How to Display More than One Field in the Same Position It’s possible to display more than one field at any position of the Gantt chart bars, including the milestones. As an example, we can display both the milestone name and the date on the left of the milestone diamond (or bar). To do this, it’s necessary to combine both values in a custom text field by using a simple expression and then select the custom field name in the Left box of the Bar Text tab (see Figure 3). Project will display the value returned by the expression on the left of the milestone diamond. Steps are as follows: 1. To open the Custom Fields dialog box, apply the following command sequence: Tools menu | Customize menu command| Fields… submenu command. 2. In the Custom Fields dialog box, select Text1 field and click the Rename… button; then enter BAR_INFO in the Rename Field dialog box and click OK to return to the Custom Fields dialog box. Figure 6. The Custom Fields dialog box. 3. Click the Formula… button to open the Formula for “BAR_INFO” dialog box. We’re now going to build an expression to combine the field values in the Edit formula box below the BAR_INFO= label. Figure 7. The Edit Formula dialog box. A simple expression (or formula) would be as follows: [Name] & [Finish]. We can type the formula in or build it by using the buttons. Brackets around the field names are required by syntax. If you insert a field name to the formula by selecting from the list opened by clicking the Field button, Project will automatically put brackets around the field name. Ampersand (“&”), one of the operators available, is called a string concatenation operator. It combines two strings into a single string. You can select any operator from the Formula Toolbar to build an expression. 4. Now let’s make a couple of improvements in the formula. It’s possible to display the date in a format independent of the date display format setting in the Layout dialog box. For this purpose, we’ll use the ProjDateConv and Ucase function in the formula. Those functions can be found in the Conversion and Text submenu of the Function button list. Click the Help button to have more information on the functions and operators. Instead of the [Finish] expression we’re going to use the following one: Ucase( ProjDateConv( [Finish], pjDate_mmm_dd ) ) In the above expression ProjDateConv function gets the finish date from the first parameter and then formats and returns the date as specified by the second parameter pjDate_mmm_dd. The Ucase function converts any text in the returned value by the ProjDateConv function to uppercase. The finished expression will be as follows: [Name] & ” – ” & Ucase(ProjDateConv([Finish],pjDate_mmm_dd)) with a hyphen and spaces added in between the date and the task name for clarity. Cut, copy, and paste functions work in the formula box. 5. Enter the formula in the formula box and then click OK. A confirmation dialog box will pop up. Click OK again to close it. Click OK once again in Custom Fields dialog box to close it. Project will now automatically evaluate the formula and populate the BAR_INFO field on each task line with the returned string value. We don’t need to add BAR_INFO field to the table. 6. Next, we’ll display the BAR_INFO value only for the milestone Finish – Ph A. Double-click the diamond and replace Finish with BAR_INFO by selecting from the field list in the Bar Text tab of the Format Bar dialog box (To browse quickly to the fields starting with “T”, just press <T> on the keyboard.) Figure 8. The Format Bar dialog box. 7. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply the change. The Gantt chart will look like Fgure 9. Figure 9. The milestone name and date now display on the left. Tip 5. How to Change Background Formatting of Gantt Chart Text The Background Color and Background Pattern boxes for the “Bar Text” in the Text Styles dialog box are grayed out. We’re going to draw a colored rectangle and use it as a background to the text. 1. Display Drawing toolbar by selecting from the Toolbars submenu (View menu). 2. Draw a rectangle below the milestone text and make it big enough to cover all the text. 3. Right click on the rectangle to open the shortcut menu and select the Properties menu command. The Format Drawing dialog box will open. In the Line & Fill tab select none for line and yellow for custom fill color. In the Size & Position tab attach the rectangle to the left of the task ID # 4 (Finish – Ph A milestone) as shown in Figure 10. Figure 10. Attach the rectangle to the milestone. Now the rectangle will move together with the milestone on the schedule. 4. Next, reposition the yellow rectangle over the text displayed by using the mouse. Project will automatically adjust Horizontal and Vertical values in the Format Drawing dialog box. Resize the rectangle if necessary. Right click the rectangle and select Order in the shortcut menu and then select Send To Back in the submenu (Figure 11). Figure 11. Place the yellow rectangle as background to the text. The chart will look like Figure 12. Figure 12. Text with colored background 5. Save the file. If we now change the task durations, the text position and date value will be adjusted accordingly as seen in Figure 13. On the other hand, if we change the date display format, the milestone date display format won’t be affected. Figure 13. Text with a colored background with a new position and string value adjusted automatically. The date display format remains unchanged. Related Content Webinars (watch for free now!): Back to the Future – When Gantt has Style Articles: Storytelling with Your Gantt Chart

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