Getting to grips with the various views in Project

[andrewbettany]

Hi Team,

Please could you give me your guidance on how to get used to the multitude
of views (and more views!) in MSP?

I almost feel like forgetting about most of them, and picking the one most
appropriate and adding additional coloumns which I woudl liek to see rather
than switching all the time.

Regards



Andrew in Sheffield (UK)

 

[JulieS]

Hi Andrew,

I am sure you'll get quite a few opinions, but I'll be the first to weigh in
with mine. The views I use most frequently:

Gantt Chart with appropriate table (Entry, Tracking, Schedule, etc.) applied
to task sheet side (left).

Task Entry View: Gantt chart at top and Task Form at bottom. I use this
almost exclusively for assignment of resources as it allows me to manipulate
Work, Duration, Units, Effort-Driven, and Task Type easily and verify that I
am getting the desired calculation result.

Resource Usage view (or Resource Allocation view) for tracking down where
the resource is overallocated.

Resource Usage or Task Usage view with Actual work added to timescaled
portion to track actual work on tasks.

Many of the other views (Calendar, Network Diagram) I use very infrequently.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[Trevor Rabey]

The trouble is, each View is only "most appropriate" for one situation.
It is better to make very specific Views for specific situations.

What are the building blocks for a View?
A Sheet, a Table, a Group and a Filter.
Views also hold all of your page setup settings and the text and bar
formats.
If these change, and you often need different headers and footers for
example, it is much more economical to create a new view for each case than
to have to re-type the settings back and forth.

All of the stuff that comes with MSP from the Global Template, such as
Views, Tables, Filters, Groups, Reports, Calendars.... etc (everything that
appears in the Organiser), should be left alone, preserved as they were, and
if you change them they should be recovered from the Global template with
the Organiser.

If you just do what most everyone does, use the Gantt Chart and the Entry
Table, and make random changes such as inserting and hiding columns, or make
ad-hoc format changes, you end up with a pastiche, a mess, and the original
functionality is lost, and it is a lot more work because new situations
arise all the time so you end up scrapping good work already done.
This all comes under the heading of "housekeeping" and "discipline". Every
little bit helps. Attempts to save time or work by not doing it just end up
causing worse problems.

If you make changes to a built-in Table or a View, and you like those
changes and want to keep them, then, with "more views" or "more tables",
copy it, re-name it and then recover the original from the global template.
I always use "AAA ..." as the name so that I can see the ones I have made
separately, at the top of the list, from the originals.

This seems at first quite complicated but a little bit of practice soon
makes it second nature.
It makes you think ahead to what you want to see, what you don't want to see
and why you want to see it in different situations.

For example, suppose I like to have a View which displays just the Tasks
which have zero Total Slack, up to 5 Days of Total Slack and up to 10 Days
of Total Slack. I don't want to see any of the other Tasks which have lots
of Total Slack. Also, I might want to format the bars of the zero days, 5
days and 10 days TS Tasks differently, say red, amber, green. I need to use
three of the spare Flag fields, each one to be YES depending on which TS
range the Task fits into. The fields that I want to show will be the Task
Name, Early Start, Late Start, Early Finish, Late Finish, Total Slack and
Free Slack.
First, I need the 3 Flag fields with a slightly different formula in each.
These will be used to drive the Bar formats in thye Gantt Chart.
I need a filter which can exclude all Tasks with TS > 10 days. Call it "AAA
Critical and Almost Critical".
I need a table with the fields that I want to see. Call it "AAA Critical and
Almost Critical", too.
I don't need to Group.
I create a new View which uses the new Table and the new Filter. Call it
"AAA Critical and Almost Critical", too"
With that View active I format the Bar styles, adding two lines for
"Normal,Flag 1", "Normal,Flag 2" and "Normal,Flag 3".
I also make an appropriate header and footer and otherwise tweak the page
setup.
Voila, the View, Table and Filter are a matching set.
The table and filter are also then available to be used in a custom Report.

 

[Prj_Mngr]

I tend to use the Gantt, Tracking Gantt, and Resource Usage views the most. I
usually add many fields to the Gantt view and use that as my main
"workspace". Start with these and then try out some of the other views, I
know other PMs who always use the task entry view

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Andrew,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine, particularly #23 - Using Views, at this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the article before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen (near Swindon .)
MS Project MVP

 

[davegb]

The trouble is, each View is only "most appropriate" for one situation.
It is better to make very specific Views for specific situations.

What are the building blocks for a View?
A Sheet, a Table, a Group and a Filter.
Views also hold all of your page setup settings and the text and bar
formats.
If these change, and you often need different headers and footers for
example, it is much more economical to create a new view for each case than
to have to re-type the settings back and forth.

All of the stuff that comes with MSP from the Global Template, such as
Views, Tables, Filters, Groups, Reports, Calendars.... etc (everything that
appears in the Organiser), should be left alone, preserved as they were, and
if you change them they should be recovered from the Global template with
the Organiser.

If you just do what most everyone does, use the Gantt Chart and the Entry
Table, and make random changes such as inserting and hiding columns, or make
ad-hoc format changes, you end up with a pastiche, a mess, and the original
functionality is lost, and it is a lot more work because new situations
arise all the time so you end up scrapping good work already done.
This all comes under the heading of "housekeeping" and "discipline". Every
little bit helps. Attempts to save time or work by not doing it just end up
causing worse problems.

If you make changes to a built-in Table or a View, and you like those
changes and want to keep them, then, with "more views" or "more tables",
copy it, re-name it and then recover the original from the global template.
I always use "AAA ..." as the name so that I can see the ones I have made
separately, at the top of the list, from the originals.

This seems at first quite complicated but a little bit of practice soon
makes it second nature.
It makes you think ahead to what you want to see, what you don't want to see
and why you want to see it in different situations.

For example, suppose I like to have a View which displays just the Tasks
which have zero Total Slack, up to 5 Days of Total Slack and up to 10 Days
of Total Slack. I don't want to see any of the other Tasks which have lots
of Total Slack. Also, I might want to format the bars of the zero days, 5
days and 10 days TS Tasks differently, say red, amber, green. I need to use
three of the spare Flag fields, each one to be YES depending on which TS
range the Task fits into. The fields that I want to show will be the Task
Name, Early Start, Late Start, Early Finish, Late Finish, Total Slack and
Free Slack.
First, I need the 3 Flag fields with a slightly different formula in each.
These will be used to drive the Bar formats in thye Gantt Chart.
I need a filter which can exclude all Tasks with TS > 10 days. Call it "AAA
Critical and Almost Critical".
I need a table with the fields that I want to see. Call it "AAA Critical and
Almost Critical", too.
I don't need to Group.
I create a new View which uses the new Table and the new Filter. Call it
"AAA Critical and Almost Critical", too"
With that View active I format the Bar styles, adding two lines for
"Normal,Flag 1", "Normal,Flag 2" and "Normal,Flag 3".
I also make an appropriate header and footer and otherwise tweak the page
setup.
Voila, the View, Table and Filter are a matching set.
The table and filter are also then available to be used in a custom Report.

I don't know how it's possible to get the linking correct and achieve
schedule continuity without using the Network Diagram. While admittedly
confusing to use in it's native format, it's very useful if you remove
most of the default fields, leaving only the Task Name field, and maybe
one other if you prefer, and shrinking the boxes so you can see as many
as possible at the same time. You also have to switch the Link Type
from rectiliear to linear. Once done, this view gives you a unique
picture of exactly what the flow of work is throughout the project, who
is dependent on whom, and demonstrates how dependent everyone is on
everybody else. I find it to be a very effective Team Building tool for
this reason.
The other views I use as needed.