Project should let me hide non-working time on printing a Gantt Ch

[Robert Syms]

I would like to be more selective when printing a project plan (Gantt Chart).

In particular, in order to be able to display as much detail of the project
as possible I would like to have standard width gaps for project down-time
regardless of duration. At present, to produce a print-out showing just the
times of interest when activities are underway (discarding those when nothing
is happening) I have to print the plan piece by piece for the times of
interest and cut out (literally cut and paste) them together.

Affects all versions of Project up to & including MS Project 2003

 

[John]

I would like to be more selective when printing a project plan (Gantt Chart).

In particular, in order to be able to display as much detail of the project
as possible I would like to have standard width gaps for project down-time
regardless of duration. At present, to produce a print-out showing just the
times of interest when activities are underway (discarding those when nothing
is happening) I have to print the plan piece by piece for the times of
interest and cut out (literally cut and paste) them together.

Affects all versions of Project up to & including MS Project 2003

Robert,
Unfortunately Project doesn't have a lot of flexibility for displaying
(or printing) the Gantt Chart. Additional functionality may or may not
be added in future versions. Meanwhile, did you consider using a Pert
Chart (Logic diagram or network) presentation instead of Gantt Chart? In
my opinion, a Network diagram is much better at showing a graphical
representation of a Project plan.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Ever seen a clock that skips the hours between 6pm and 6am? Ever see wall
calendar that omits the days between May 16th and May 30th or simply skips
the month of July? The timeline in the Gantt chart is a clock/calendar
providing the time framework for your project's activities just like the old
fashioned ones hanging on your wall so no, there isn't a way to drop out
selected time periods from the overall chart. If your project has activity
in May and then stands-down until August, you could print the two date
ranges as separate Gantt charts and paste them together as you already know
but that's the best you can do.

 

[Robert Syms]

That is just the point! - I don't want an "old-fashioned" approach to
presentation and communication that is constrained by rigid thinking. Have
you never seen history timelines where periods of time are skipped because
nothing happened of relevance to the displayed topic?

"Hidden" columns are invaluable in MS Excel - and have been around in
spreadsheets for years. A similar paradyme for printing from MS Project is
all I seek.

I'm sure that on reflection you will appreciate that your comments did not
add anything and do not help. I trust they are not indicative of where MS
might take MS Project in the future.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Where MS might go in the future is moot. You asked if there was a way to do
it now and, perhaps unfortunately in your eyes, for the present the answer
is "no" other than what you're already doing.

I'm trying to visualize how a Gantt chart with date ranges suppressed might
look and frankly, IMHO it would be extremely easy to misread by accidently
overlooking that the dates on the time scale jump from, say, June 30 to Sept
01. If you need to focus on two date ranges that are separated in time,
what's the problem with printing and showing two charts, one for each date
range of interest? If I was doing a presentation using Excel data and
wanted to compare 2004 sales with 2000, even if the data was actually
contained in one worksheet I'd probably print two separate spreadsheet
reports, one for each date range, or put the two sheets side-by-side on a
PowerPoint slide rather than showing just 1 worksheet with the column and/or
row ranges for 2001, 2002, and 2003 hidden. Just seems to me two separate
blocks of data side-by-side are visually far clearer and cleaner.

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[davegb]

I agree with you, Robert, that this would be a nice feature. Just don't
show weekends, or periods of time in which a project is on hold. Just
not there. This is an often requested option in this NG.
MS decides what features to add in each released based, in part, on how
many requests they get from users. I suggest that you find a way to
send your request directly to them. I don't know if they monitor these
groups at all. Maybe the MVP's can help us here. But if you'll find a
way to request it, and post that here, I'll be happy to throw in my 2
bits worth on that and other things I'd like to see MS change.

 

[JulieD]

hi

i'm with steve on this one, however, you can email requests to MS at
(e-mail address removed)

i got this email from a post by the head of powerpoint development at MS who
pops frequently into the powerpoint newsgroups - his advice on using this
email address was along the times of:
1) put the program name in the subject line and nothing else
2) in the message body, outline a business case for why you need / want this
feature - ie how it will help with your use of the software etc

Cheers
JulieD

 

[Mike Glen]

Or you could start from the MS project web site here:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010857951033.aspx
and select Suggest new content.

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[raornelas]

I would like to hide weekends just to be able to fit more information on the printed report. I'm more concerned with printing the order of tasks rather than having the timescale accurate.