PROJECT COMMANDER – PLANNING SOFTWARE
www.projectcommander.co.uk
Project Commander – updated features from version 6.2 to version 6.23
There have several major areas of improvements ….
· In cell editing
· A new Quick Start wizard – that allows users to format the chart quickly with most popular options
· Hourly wizard – to allow users to set up short term plans in hours
· Spell checker
· Improved calendar options
· Auto linking of consecutive rows
· File consolidation and separation
· Fit timescale to page for each page printed
· New Baseline columns
· Earned value analysis
· Final Cash forecast for completed project
· Improved progress marking on summary bars
· Save in PDF format
· Improved mpx export (for data transfer to Microsoft Project, PowerProject, Primavera)
· New Critical Path wizard
· New Resource Histogram and Table wizard
· New Cost Histogram and Table wizard
· New show Summary Tasks icon
· New show All Tasks icon
· New filter icon
· New options - default duration in hours & minutes
· New options - default work in hours & minutes
· Extra timesheet-style Excel templates
· Project Commander template files
· Free MPX/PC Viewer Professional that allows other users (and clients) to view Project Commander & mpx files in limited Views without the need to purchase Project Commander
In cell editing
In previous versions, there were 2 ways to change data in a cell ..
q click in the Edit box (top right hand corner of screen)
q
double click on the row number under the ID column (or right click on any cell in the row and select Properties)
Now there is a third way, you can click on the cell and press the F2 key and you can edit data inside the cell
· A new revised Quick Start wizard – that allows users to format the chart quickly with most popular options
Page 1
When information is transferred from any Excel spreadsheet, a Quick Start wizard appears to assist novice users to set up the chart. This wizard can also be invoked inside Project Commander by clicking on the wizard icon.
Page 1
TITLE / Insert 2 lines (centred at the top of the chart)TIMESCALE
- FROM & TO / The time range for the chart
- WEEK ONE DATE / If Project Weeks are included in timescale, this is the week numbered ONE
HEADINGS
- WEEK COMMENCING / Changes weeks at top of chart to week commencing dates using Monday dates
- PROJECT WEEKS / Changes weeks at top of chart to project week numbers using the Week One Date above
- DAY & DATE / Changes headings at top of chart to month, date & day of the week
- HIDE WEEKEND SHADINGS / Turn off shadings on chart for weekends only (not holidays)
- HOURLY CHART / See later
CHART FORMAT
- ID / Original line numbering
- LINE NUMBER / Replace original line numbering with consecutive row numbers (useful if report is filtered)
-NUMBER TASKS ONLY / Number lines that have task bars only
SUMMARY BARS
- SUB TASK COLOURS / This shows a summary bar made up of the colour of the sub bars below it
- SOLID / The summary bar appears as a white bar with a black start & end symbol
DATE FORMAT
- DD/MM/YY / Date only
- DD/MM/YY HH:MM / Date and time of day
ATTACH ROW NUMBER TO LEFT / The row number is printed at the start of each bar – not summary bars
PAGE FORMAT
LINES/PAGE / Number of task rows on the chart for each page
USE BORDER / Puts a default border/frame around the chart
SHOW TODAYS DATE / Puts the pc’s current date at the top right of page
SELECT PRINTER / Shows the current printer and allow you to change the printer, paper size or orientation
· Every time the QUICK START wizard is run, it will change the presentation of the chart.
· Hourly wizard – to allow users to set up short term plans in hour
This wizard is started up by clicking on the wizard icon and then HOURLY CHART.
This brings up the following window
TIMESCALE HEADINGS / There are 7 options for the time headings at the top of the chart
HOURS START FROM 00 / The first hour after midnight can be counted as 00 or 01. The default is to be ticked and counts the hours from 0-23. If the box is not ticked, the count starts from 1 to 24
NUMBER OF DAYS / Number of calendar days in chart
WORKING HOURS
DEFAULT / The working days and times is set to the default calendar. If not changed from installation, it will be based in 5 days per week & 8 hours/day (9am-5pm)
24/5 / This changes the calendar to allow 24 hour working – every Monday to Friday
24/7 / This changes the calendar to allow 24 hour working every day of the every week
OPTIONS - the following options may not be available depending on the option picked for the Working Hours above
HIDE NON WORKING / Only show hours that are working hours
SHADE NON WORKING / Show non working hours – but shade them
HIDE WEEKENDS / Exclude all Saturday and Sundays
HOURLY GRIDLINES / Draw a vertical line down each hourly interval
Every time the HOURLY CHART wizard is run, it will change the presentation of the chart.
If you use A4 landscape paper, then only pick a maximum of 2 calendar days if you want to show all hours ..
If you use A4 landscape paper, if you pick the DEFAULT CALENDAR then only pick a maximum of 5 calendar days if you choose to HIDE NON WORKING HOURS, but NOT HIDE WEEKENDS ..
If you use A4 landscape paper, if you pick the DEFAULT CALENDAR then only pick a maximum of 8 calendar days if you choose to HIDE NON WORKING HOURS & HIDE WEEKENDS ..
Important – to get a larger range of days, you must either pick a printer that handles A3 or higher (select the FILE menu & PRINT SETUP) or you can print the chart on more than one piece of paper horizontally (select the FORMAT menu & PAGE SETUP. Change the setting highlighted to a value of 2 or above)
In this example the chart will be printed out over 3 pages horizontally – as if they are continuous. You would need to tape the pages together after printing
· Spell checker
The SPELLCHECKER is activated by clicking on the icon in the toolbar.
By default it checks the spelling only for most of the important text fields. You can control which columns are checked by selecting the OPTIONS menu, PREFERENCES and SPELLCHECK tab
Important – Project Commander will choose the Microsoft Office dictionary. If that is not available, it will use it’s own and ghost out the other option.
· Auto linking of consecutive rows
You can link bars within a consecutive range of rows. To link several rows, click on the first row selected and drag down to the last ….
Click on the LINK icon on the toolbar
This will put a FINISH to START link on each successive task …
· Improved calendar options
To go straight to the calendar, you can click on the Calendar icon on the toolbar.
If you wish to change all the working hours in the calendar, there are several options on grey buttons
- COPY
Change the first column …
Then click on COPY and it will copy all the hours into each day that is ticked
- SET MICROSOFT PROJECT DEFAULTS
This changes the calendar to the installed default settings in MS Project.
- 24/5
This changes the calendar to this ..
. 24/7
This changes the calendar to this ..
· File consolidation and separation
To see the options for consolidation, select the FILE menu & CONSOLIDATION.
There are 3 options …
- INSERT – specify which files to include of list of files to consolidate
- UPDATE – updates the current consolidation file with a new list of files
- SAVE – options to save changes to original files
INSERT
First open a new file.
All the projects must be saved or copied into the same folder.
In this example, each project has a different calendar.
o Hold down the CONTROL key and click on each file you wish to select (to select a full range of files – use the SHIFT key and click on the first file and then the last file and all the files in the range will be selected automatically)
o Then click on OPEN …
o All the tasks will be listed one after each other. The order of projects is inverted from the list chosen – here PC2 if first followed by PC1.
Important - in the consolidated file the shading on the chart shows the project calendar. However, the task start and finish dates reflect the calendars used in the original files. The Duration are recalculated to reflect the equivalent duration in the current calendar.
o In the consolidation, each task is identified against a file. To see the file, select the VIEW menu, USER & HYPERLINK …
o The file names are in the Consolidated File column. In order to see the whole description, double click on the heading in the Consolidated File column and then BEST FIT ..
This column can now be inserted into any view.
o The file can be saved to a normal .pc file, by selecting the FILE menu, SAVE AS. Then when you open the file again, it will contain the consolidated project data – as it was last saved. To update the consolidation on-screen, see below..
UPDATE
If any of the original files are changed, they can be easily updated the next time the consolidation file is opened.
For example if PC1 is changed …
o When you open the consolidated file, it will reflect the data at the last save. Select the FILE menu, CONSOLIDATION & UPDATE.
o Click on each file or in this example click on SELECT ALL
o Click on OK
SAVE
It is possible to edit and move tasks in the Consolidated chart. You then save the changes back to the original files, by clicking on SELECT ALL and SAVE.
· Fit timescale to page for each page printed
Normally Project Commander acts as if it is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) meaning that it prints the page as it appears on the screen.
If there is only a one page chart, the timescale can be fitted by clicking on the middle icon below and then WHOLE PROJECT from the drop down list ….
However, where you have more than one page with bars that cover different periods, it is possible to print the pages so the timescale fits to bars only that appear on that particular page.
Here page 1 has bars January to June and page 2 July to December …
In order that page 1 only prints from January to June and page 2 July to December, select the FILE menu, PRINTER and then click the FIT TIMESCALE TO PAGE box at the bottom of the print window before clicking on OK….
Important - You must reverse the setting to return to normal printing.
· New Baseline Views & columns
There are 3 new Views under the VIEW menu, TRACKING VIEWS
ACTUAL vs PLANNED BASELINE DURATION
Where as part of tracking, you may want have a Baseline (blue line below) and a current bar (yellow bar).
You may then want to report how progress on the revised current bar and the Baseline bar is doing against the current date. Select the VIEW menu, TRACKING VIEWS, ACTUAL vs PLANNED BASELINE DURATION
o DURATION is the length of the current bar
o ACTUAL % is the figure of actual progress input
o BASELINE % is calculated automatically as the % progress that should have been made up to the current date
o DURATION COMPLETE is calculated automatically as the equivalent number of days (of duration) achieved to date of the current bar .. it is calculated by Duration x Actual %
o BASELINE SCHEDULED DURATION is calculated automatically as the equivalent number of days (of duration) achieved to date of the Baseline bar.. it is calculated by Baseline Duration x Baseline %
o VARIANCE SCHEDULED DURATION is calculated automatically as the difference between DURATION COMPLETE and BASELINE SCHEDULED DURATION; Any negative figures will show how much the actual progress is behind the target baseline.
ACTUAL vs PLANNED BASELINE HOURS
You may then want to report how progress on the current man hours effort for a task bar and the Baseline bar is doing against the current date. Select the VIEW menu, TRACKING VIEWS, ACTUAL vs PLANNED BASELINE HOURS
o WORK COMPLETE is calculated automatically as the equivalent number of hours (of work) achieved to date of the current bar .. it is calculated by Scheduled Effort (hours) x Actual %
o BASELINE SCHEDULED HOURS is calculated automatically as the equivalent number of hours (of work) achieved to date of the Baseline bar.. it is calculated by Baseline Work x Baseline %
o VARIANCE SCHEDULED HOURS is calculated automatically as the difference between WORK COMPLETE and BASELINE SCHEDULED HOURS; Any negative figures will show how much the actual progress is behind the target baseline.
ACTUAL vs PLANNED BASELINE COST
You may then want to report how progress on the current man cost for a task bar and the Baseline bar is doing against the current date. Select the VIEW menu, TRACKING VIEWS, ACTUAL vs PLANNED BASELINE COST