Zoom In or Out WBS Area?

[REDesigner09]

Hi,

Is there a way to zoom in or the WBS area - Task columns, resources, etc.?

On certain screens or TVs, it's difficult to read & I don't see an option to zoom in or out on the WBS area.

Is there one & if so, what or where is the command?

Thanks

 

[ierland]

Not sure what you are talking about. In the table area yoy can hide or show columns, move the sequence. You could use a smaller size of the text. Standard 8 points is the minimum. You can lower that yourself manually just by first selecting the complete table [hit the empty rectangle top left] and then type e.g. 6 followed by {Enter}. I would make a separate view for that as on most standard monitors you may need very good eyes.
In the Gantt part you can use the buttons with the magnifying glasses to zoom in or out.
But perhaps you were looking for something else.

Why an easy solution if you can make it complicated?
Greetings from the Netherlands

 

[REDesigner09]

Hi ierland & Others,

With MS Office applications, such as within Excel, there’s a zoom option to make the cells more viewable. This can be accessed in a couple of areas, such as under the View Tab, the bottom-right corner, in which the user can hit the + / - symbol to enlarge or reduce the (cell) views.
I do not see these types of option within MS Project.
For meetings, we put the project up on a large screen TV. I’ve tried adjusting the settings on the TV, but that does not work. Even though it’s doable to hide or unhide columns, I do not want to do this.

Does MS project have zoom option for the table areas? If not, it definitely should!

Thanks

 

[ierland]

Never did I see software without desire from my side [or my clients] for additional options, possibilities, gadgets [mostly my desire to remove these] and so on.

The mistake many people, including sometimes myself, make is to believe that the products within the Office suite are behaving in a similar manner. The Lotus suite [with WordPro, etc.) did that. It never gained high popularity. So we are stuck with MS where each and every software tool behaves quite differently.

I fully agree that a zoom function for tables might be useful. Still, the best alternative in MS Project would be to make different Views. You can make as many as you like, each time with different fields [columns], just fast switching from one to the other view.

I even make quite a lot with different Filters and/or Grouping included in it, just to show relevant details from different angles. MS Project is a database and not a bunch of simple tables like Excel can offer. There is hardly anyone who can immediately absorb the information in let's say 8 columns or more. In addition there are the combined Views where in the bottom pane you could show for instance Predecessors and Successors. Different Gantt charts are possible in the lower pane as well.

You can easily amend the Gantt chart [Bar styles] as you like and add relevant information to that. I use a lot of Custom Fields in which I combine several other fields in order to incorporate these in the Gantt charts.

Next, make more use of Reports, often neglected. Try the standard ones or make your own. In a Custom report you can apply your own Tables, Filters and amount of additional details. This all together is often more than Excel would be able to offer.

Why an easy solution if you can make it complicated?
Greetings from the Netherlands

 

[REDesigner09]

Hi ierland,

Perhaps, that's what I need to do - Make customized or combined views. Now would be the question on how easily can this be done?

Can I take - Lets say all of Task 1 & its subtasks & make that only vieable? If so how?

I'm too far into my Project Plan to do any radical changes, so
hopefully, this is easliy doable.

Thanks

 

[ierland]

Do you have other Summary Tasks on level 1? You want to see these Summary Tasks as well [without Sub-tasks] or really only Summary Task 1 and all its Sub-tasks [perhaps covering several levels]?
For the first option most simple would be manually, i.e. Show Level 1 and then click on the Plus-sign before (Summary) Task 1.

Once there is something specific in the names of the first group of Tasks it will be easy to make a filter.

You could also make a filter for an ID range. Include that in a View and each time you would be asked which ID range you would like to show. See jpg.

Why an easy solution if you can make it complicated?
Greetings from the Netherlands

 

[REDesigner09]

Hi ierland,

Thanks for this great tip. I will explore its use shortly & see how well it works for me.

It appears that this Filter feature would require several rules to get several desirable views. Once set, is set permanently, unless I modify or remove the filter or do I need to create each time?

Thanks again....

 

[ierland]

A single View normally consist of the following elements:
Screen, Table, Group, Filter. The filter [if needed] can also be a Highlight Filter.
In your case you probably don't need a Group. If you include a Filter just by selecting the specific View [which can be added in the menu] would do the trick. However, the Filter could incorporate windows where certain values have to be entered, e.g. a data range, part of a task name and much more.
If no real possibility exist [or can not easily be constructed] for a simple Filter it might be useful to add a Flag Field to your Table and set the value to Yes for what you want to see. That field can be used in AutoFilter or in a very simple Custom Filter.

With the Organizer you could add the elements to other projects or [if needed often]to global.mpt or any other template.

Why an easy solution if you can make it complicated?
Greetings from the Netherlands

 

[ierland]

Any development or did you give up? Perhaps you can upload a (small) sample file or perhaps there is a possibility to send something to me privately. [Normally first Zip the MS Project file].
Please add an explanation what yoy want to see after applying the filter.

Why an easy solution if you can make it complicated?
Greetings from the Netherlands

 

[REDesigner09]

Hi Group,

From what I gather here is that MS Project does not have a "simple" option to zoom in or out on the WBS or Gantt Chart areas.

The more I use MS Project, the more I hate it!

Would someone happen to have a good Excel template that can help a PM manage the tasks & show planned vs. actual through a Gantt, timeline or any other charts out there?

Thanks

 

[ierland]

It is very human to compare a (new) piece of software with what one already knows and to insist that the same gadgets are available. Of course the learning curve may be too steep. However, there are so many options within MS Project to get what you want, also giving superior scheduling calculations, reports, warnings and the like that I would not even consider to use Excel as a drawing tool for Gantt charts. This is easily possible but all the power of real scheduling is lost. If you only need nice drawings (without real value) perhaps look on LinkedIn under the group Excel Blackbelts where there are some nice examples of drawing Gantt charts in Excel.

Why an easy solution if you can make it complicated?
Greetings from the Netherlands

 

[REDesigner09]

Hi ierland,

I'm not comparing prices of software but the functionalities of it. I would think that some functions would or could be basic, such as having a spell checker & zooming functions, which most MS Office applications has.

We know that MS Project has been around for quite a while & it does has spell checker & a zoom function for the Gantt chart area. What I don't see is a zoom function for the WBS area, which would be nice to have sometimes.

For example, on a standard desktop computer monitor, the views are clear. However, when putting the project on a large screen TV, it's either too small or too large! I've tried to adjust the TV settings, but then the image comes too blurred. Here a zoom function would be very useful for the WBS area.

With this & based on discussions with you & a few others, it still appears that MS Project does not have a "simple" zoom option like Word, Excel or Power Point has through its drop down view option or the - / + symbols found in the bottom-right of the application(s).

Thanks again...

 

[ierland]

Hi RedD,

I was not thinking of the price but mainly the functionality. Of course you can zoom in the Gantt chart if you want to see hours, days, weeks and so on. Your problem seems to be insufficient resolution of your beamer or TV. At least that is what I understand having read again your initial query. Personally I have never experienced that problem having both a laptop a a beamer with sufficient resolution. However, there are perhaps a few possibilities. You can increase the font size of the (left) table part. In addition for the Gantt chart look under Format, Time scale... There you can increase the size in %. Again, make a different view and the problem with a lower resolution screen would be (partially) resolved.
Does this help you? The disadvantage might be that you can enlarge the horizontal size of the bars but not the vertical one.

Why an easy solution if you can make it complicated?
Greetings from the Netherlands