Plan User Manual
cursor keys to scroll the display a page at a time. Use the left and right cursor keys to scroll the view left and right.
The task description will be indented to indicate the level of a task in the hierarchy of summary and
Use the zoom options on the View menu to control the font size of the task list, Gantt and resource views.
Gantt view
The Gantt view shows the same information on the left of the screen as the task list view. On the right of the display a Gantt chart is shown. This chart shows a time axis at the top of the screen with a bar for each task, indicating the duration of the task. The current date will be shown as a dotted vertical line through the chart.
The up and down cursor keys may be used, as in the task list view, to change the current task and to scroll the screen up or down. Use the Tab key to switch focus between the left and right sides of the display. With the left side in focus the left/right cursor keys and zoom menu option scroll the table left/right and effect the font size. With the right side in focus the cursor and zoom options effect the Gantt display.
Depending upon the zoom factor the time axis may show the years, months, weeks, days or hours. There is a maximum and minimum limit by which the display can be zoomed in or out in this way.
If the space key is pressed the zoom factor and display will be altered to best display the current task.
There are a number of preference settings controlling the appearance of the Gantt chart. One option controls whether one or two bars are displayed for each task (“Saved bars in Gantt” setting). If two bars are displayed then the lower bar indicates the start and end dates from the saved fields. The saved start and end fields should normally be set when the original project plan has been established and may be used to compare the original planned dates with the latest calculated dates.
Depending upon the preference setting “Gantt holiday shading” the holidays associated with each resource may or may not be shown on the Gantt chart at various scales. For fast shading ensure that the “Standard resource” setting rather than “Resource specific”.
Task fields (resources, start, end,...) may optionally be displayed to the left or right of each task bar in the Gantt chart. The field to be displayed is controlled from the “Gantt text…” options in the preferences dialog.
Resource view
The resource view shows the following fields for each resource:
•Initials. Abbreviated resource name (8 characters max.) which is used for display and selection in views and dialogs. This must be unique.
•Full name. Long resource name.
•Max units. Number of individuals the resource represents, use 1 to represent a single person, a value greater than one to represent a pool or group of resources.
•Email. Email address for the resource. This is used for reference purposes only.
•Group. Group resource belongs to. This is used for reference purposes only.
•Code. A code associated with the resource. This is used for reference purposes only.
•Charge/h. The cost of the resource per hour of work done. Used in calculating task costs.
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