Psion 3a Plan User Guide Copyright A. Clarkson 1994 INTRODUCTION Plan is a project planning application for the Psion 3a. Plan allows a project plan to be constructed from individual task components. Task and resource details are entered into the application along with dependencies between tasks. The application will then calculate the schedule for each task and the project as a whole. Each task has the following key values: - start date and time, - work, - resource work rate, - end date and time. Usually only two or three of the above values are entered, with the other values being calculated by Plan. For example: - A start date and time may be entered along with an amount of work and work rate, from which the end date and time are calculated. - Given a start and end date and time, and a rate, Plan will calculate the work. This could be used where a task has been completed, the start and end are known along with the average work rate but the exact amount of work needs to be calculated. - Given a start and end date and time and work, Plan will calculate the work rate. An example of a case where this could be used is where it is required to calculate the number of people who will need to work on a given task in order to complete it on a given date. A resource may be assigned to a task at a given work rate. The resources work hours, holiday information and work rate are then taken into consideration when calculating when the task will end or the work required for a task. Consider a task which is estimated to take two man days to complete. One man day being the time between the start and end of a normal working day (set to 8.0 hours in this particular case). A resource is assigned to the task where the resource has the following features: - A standard work day, starting at 9:00am, ending at 5:00pm - Works a standard week starting on Monday and ending on Friday. The task start day is set to a Monday at 9:00am and the work set to two days. Plan calculates the end of the task to be 5:00pm on Tuesday. Assume now that the resource is only available to work on the task at a rate of 50% rather than 100%. Plan would now indicate the end of the task to be Thursday at 5:00pm. Assume also that the resource takes one day holiday on Tuesday. Plan would calculate the end to be Friday at 5:00pm. Suppose that the task is completed and actually finished at 5:00pm on Wednesday rather than 5:00pm on Friday. Plan will allow the end time to be set to the actual end time and will then calculate the work given the start, end and resource details to be one man day rather than two. Dependencies may be set between tasks so that the start of one task depends upon the end of another. If the first task is delayed the second will also be delayed. Dependencies may be set for a number of reasons, such as: - If one task cannot logically start until another task finishes, for example in a software development project the development may be dependent upon the requirements phase. - Resource limitations may impose dependencies, for example if two tasks need to be carried out by one person and the person works on the tasks sequentially then a dependency can be used between the tasks. For a set of dependent tasks there will a number of the tasks which are critical to the end of the project. If any one of these tasks are late then the end of the project will be delayed. This set of tasks are described as being on the critical path. It is important to know the critical path for two reasons. Firstly it is useful in identifying the tasks which it may be worth adding extra resource to in order to bring the project in sooner. Secondly it is useful in highlighting those tasks which will need to be monitored carefully when the project is in progress in order for the end of the project not to be delayed. For these reasons Plan has an option which will calculate the critical path. INSTALLATION Copy the Plan application PLAN.OPA into a directory called \APP on any drive and install from the system screen using the psion-i key. Copy the PLAN1.OPO file into the same directory as the PLAN.OPA file. Create a new directory called \APP\PLAN on any drive. Copy any optional plan modules into this directory. The only currently available plan module is MPX.OPO, further modules may become available at a latter date. See the modules section for further details on Plan modules. A typical installation might be: M:\APP\PLAN.OPA M:\APP\PLAN1.OPO M:\APP\PLAN\MPX.OPO The plan and resource files used by Plan should be kept in a top level directory called \PLN on either the internal disk or an external ram disk. An example project plan called EXAMPLE.PLN along with a resource file called EXAMPLE.RES are provided which may optionally be installed into the \PLN directory. Plan requires either 45k or 58k of disk space for installation depending upon whether the optional MPX module is installed. 40k of run-time memory is required in order to open a new plan and resource file. This software is provided as is, without any warranty of any kind. The author shall not be liable for any loss of data or damage arising from the use of this software. SHAREWARE REGISTRATION Plan is shareware, which means that if you continue to use it you should register with the author. The software may be freely distributed provided all files in the package are included. A maximum of 10 tasks may be entered until the program is registered by entering a special code via the register menu option. To register send a 10 UK pounds check to: A. Clarkson, 3 Ashmead Drive, Hardwick, Cambs. CB3 7XT. UK. State the version of the program, which is 2.1.2, and where you obtained the copy. This will ensure that everyone has access to the latest version. In return you will receive a password code which may be entered into plan. This will remove the 10 task limit from Plan enabling up to 99 task to be entered. You will also receive notification of new versions of the software and you may have a say in how the software is improved in the future. If you have an email address quote this in order to receive the registration code via email more quickly. KEY FEATURES Plan has the following key features: - A separate file for each project plan with either plan specific or a shared resource file. - Up to 99 tasks may be entered, each having the following details: Id, description, start date and time, end date and time, work, resource, rate of work, work done, costs, user floating point value and text. - Calculation of end date and time, work or work rate for each task. - Task tracking. The actual work done may be input. A task may be rescheduled taking into account the work already done and the work remaining. - The labour costs may be calculated for a task along with the total costs for the project. - A task may be dependent upon up to four other tasks, with specified lag times with each dependency. - Any number of resources may be input, (subject to available memory), each having the following details: name, a three year holiday calendar, times for the start and end of work for each week day, labour charge per hour. - A gantt chart view. - A pert chart view. - A resource allocation histogram view. - Auto layout of tasks in the pert chart. - Sort of tasks by start date. - Calculation of critical path. PROJECT AND RESOURCE FILES Plan uses two types of files: resource files, which contain resource information such as holidays and work hours; and plan files, which contain task details. Tasks in the plan file reference the resource information in the resource file. Plan files have a file extension of PLN, resource files a RES extension. Both of these files should be placed in a \PLN directory either on the internal drive or external ram drives. Placing these files onto flash cards is not recommended unless no changes will be made to the data. The reason for not using flash cards is that when updating a plan or resource file Plan will delete and recreate each file when it is saved. When opening a plan file Plan will look for a resource file with the same name in the same directory as the plan file but with a RES extension. If such a resource file exists this will be where Plan retrieves and stores resource information. If such a file does not exist then Plan will look for the resource file \PLN\PLAN.RES on the default disk. If this file does not exist it will be created, indicated by a "Building calendar" message when starting up Plan. This scheme allows plan specific resources to be maintained, or shared resources to be stored in the one common file. Plan is a type three application, which means that any number of plans may be opened at any one time. To do this use shift-enter to open additional plan files from the system screen. VIEWS A number of different views are available within Plan. Pressing the diamond key changes the current display to one of five views: - Task list - Gantt chart - Pert chart - Resource usage - Holidays The first three views show tasks using different display formats. The resource usage view shows resource working hours and a histogram of % usage. The holidays view shows resource holidays. A view may be selected either using the diamond key, from the diamond menu, or using the psion key shortcuts. When first starting Plan a task list view will be displayed. In the task list view each task is shown on a separate line of the display. One of the tasks on the screen will be highlighted and is referred to as the current task. Pressing the up and down cursor changes the current task. If there are more tasks than will fit onto the screen then when at the top or bottom of the screen pressing the cursor key will scroll the screen vertically to display the next task off the screen. Combining the up and down cursor keys with the psion key will have the affect of scrolling the display a screen-full at a time. In the first three task views many of the same keys have the same function, for example the up and down cursor keys change the current task and the enter key edits the current task. In each of these views the current task will be highlighted. TASKS To create a new task: position the highlighted area to the bottom of the task list and press enter, or use shift-enter to insert a new task above the current position. Pressing enter with a current task active allows the tasks details to be altered. This will display a dialog box for changing the following items: Id. Each task has a unique four letter identifier used to identify it in the pert chart and when setting up task dependencies. This should be something which is easily recognisable for each task. Description. A description of the task, up to 30 characters long. Task start. The start date and time for the task. For new tasks this defaults to the current date at 9am. If the task is a new task which will ultimately depend upon the end of another task the value entered within these fields is not important. For an existing task which depends upon other tasks the label will be shown within brackets indicating that the date and time are shown for reference only (they may not be altered). Task end. The end date and time for the task. This item may or may not appear according to the calculation method for the task. Three options are available for calculating the schedule for a task; either to calculate the end of the task, the work required or the rate. For new tasks the preference settings control which of the end, work and rate items appear, for existing tasks the task recalculation option controls the items (accessed using psion-r). Work. The work for the task is specified in days, hours, minutes and seconds where the length of one work day is given in the preference settings. This item may or may not appear according to the calculation method for the task. Resource. The resource allocated to the task. This should be chosen from a list of existing resources. Pressing tab will display the available resources. Note that if many resources have been created (more than around 28) then an edit box will be used rather than a choice list. In this case the name of the resource should be typed rather than using the tab key. Rate. The rate of work for the resource. This item may or may not appear according to the calculation method for the task. This is a percentage from 1% to 10000%. 100% would indicate, for example, one resource working on the task 100% of the time, 200% could indicate a resource consisting of two people each working 100% of the time on the task. To delete the current task press the delete key. This will copy the deleted tasks details into an internal buffer. Pressing the psion-i key will re-insert the task immediately above the current task. Note that any tasks which were dependent upon the deleted task will no-longer be dependent upon the task. DEPENDENCIES Making a task dependent upon another task implies the start of the task is associated with the end of the task which it depends upon. Using a lag time with the dependency allows the start of the task to be offset from the end of the task by a given duration. Pressing psion-d allows the current tasks dependencies settings to be altered. This will display a dialog allowing up to four task dependencies to be set. Each dependency implies that the current task should start after the end of the task which it depends upon. The latest of all the end dates will be used as the start date for the current task. With each task dependency there is an option to set the current task to start before or after the end of the task. In this case when pressing enter a second dialog box will allow the precise interval before or after the task to be set in terms of days, hours and minutes. The holidays and work hours of the resource assigned to the current task will be taken into consideration when calculating the time between the end of the previous task and the start of the current task. Once the current task is dependent upon other tasks the current tasks start will be tied to the end of the other task(s). It will only then be possible to manually change the start of the current task once work on the task actually starts. TASK LIST VIEW The task list view is the default view used when first starting Plan. On the left of the task list view two fields are displayed: Task The task id. Description The description of the task. If the task is on the critical path then this will be followed by an asterix (*). The right hand side of the task list view will show one of two sets of fields. To change which fields are displayed use the left and right arrow keys. An arrow will appear either at the end or middle of the top line to indicate whether the left or right arrow key should be used to shift the fields to the left or right. The first, default, set of fields which are displayed are: Wrk. The planned work for the task in man days. Rate The % of time the resource spends on the task. Resource The name of the resource assigned to the task. Start The start date and time for the task. End The end date and time for the task. Calc If the rate is calculated for the task a letter "R" will appear near the end of the line, if the work is calculated the letter "W" will appear, otherwise if no letter appears then the end date and time for the task will be calculated. If the task is underway a left arrow will appear at the end of the line, if the task is complete a cross appears, otherwise work on the task has not yet started. The other set of fields which are available in the task list view are: Done Shows the amount of work done so far on the task as a percentage of the work planned. Labour Labour costs calculated for the task using the rate for the resource multiplied by either the planned work or the actual work done, whichever is the greater. The labour costs may be ignored for a task, i.e. set to 0 if required (see costs and user data section). Fixed Fixed cost assigned to the task. Total Total of the labour and fixed costs for the task. Value A user specified floating point number. Text A user specified 20 character text field. COST AND USER DATA The second set of items displayed in the task list view may be edited by selecting the cost & data option from the task menu, or using the psion-b key shortcut. This will display a dialog allowing the following items to be set for the current task: Fixed cost Fixed cost assigned to the task. Include labour costs Either yes or no. If set to yes then the task and plan total costs will include any labour costs associated with the task. If set to no then the labour cost will be shown as 0, regardless of the amount of work or resource charge rate. In this case the task and plan total costs will exclude any labour costs for the task. Use no when a task has no labour cost impact, e.g. for a fixed price task where only the fixed cost field is used. User value A user specified floating point number. User text A user specified 20 character text field. Note the currency symbol used throughout Plan is controlled from the number formats menu option on the Control menu accessed from the Psion system screen. GANTT CHART The gantt chart shows the task id and description on the left of the display along with the critical path flag. 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 to indicate the duration of the task. The current date will be indicated by a vertical line through the gantt 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. Pressing the psion-z key and the psion-Z key will increase and decrease (zoom) the scale on the time axis. Depending upon the zoom factor the time axis may show the month and date for the start of each week or date for each day. There is a maximum and minimum limit by which the display can be zoomed in or out in this way. Pressing the left and right cursor keys will shift the time axis on the gantt chart on the right of the display by half a screen in the appropriate direction. Holding down the psion key whilst pressing the left and right cursor keys will shift the axis by a full screen in each direction. Holding the shift key whilst pressing the left and right cursor keys will shift the axis by a quarter of the screen at a time. Note that there are limits to the amount by which the screen may be shifted to the left or right according to the earliest and latest date in the project. PERT CHART Within the pert chart view each task is represented as a box with the id of the task inside. Dependencies between tasks are shown by lines between the tasks. Any lag time will appear half way along the dependency line. The critical path tasks are identified using thicker boxes (press psion-* to see the critical path). Various task attributes may be shown above and below each task box. The values which appear in these locations depend upon the preference settings. Typically the start date for the task will be shown above the task box and the end date below the box. When first entering tasks, perhaps using the task list view, each new task will not have an associated x and y coordinate position in the pert chart. This position must be set before the task will appear on the pert chart. There are various methods of accomplishing this: - The quickest option is to let Plan layout the pert chart automatically. - You can dynamically position the task using the cursor keys whilst in a dynamic move mode. - You can manually set the x, y coordinates for a task using a dialog. To automatically layout the pert chart use the psion-l key. This will display a dialog with two options: x mag and y shift. The x mag allows the tasks to be spread out more horizontally. The y shift enables the layout to be moved vertically up or down. When using this option for the first time it is simplest to leave the values set at 1 and 0 respectively and to press the enter key to layout the pert chart. This action will automatically set the x, y coordinates for each task in the pert chart. Generally each tasks x coordinate should be set according to its start time. Due to space limits and dependency settings this may not be possible for all tasks. In this case Plan will try to fit the tasks in as best as it can. Once the results of the layout option have been viewed the layout option may be used again with the x mag and y shift values set to more appropriate values to produce a better layout. If for example most of the tasks appear at the top of the display, setting the y shift to a positive value will generally move all the tasks towards the bottom of the display. The y shift may be set to a value between -7 and +7. The x mag value may be used to spread the tasks out more along the x axis. A value of 1 will force Plan to try to fit all tasks onto one screen, a value of 2 would force Plan to use 2 full screens and so on. The psion-y option switches Plan into a dynamic move mode where the cursor keys will dynamically move the current task in the appropriate direction. Combining the cursor keys with the psion key will move the task more rapidly. Pressing any key other than the cursor keys will take Plan out the dynamic move mode. The current tasks x and y coordinates may also be manually set using the psion-Y key. Pressing the left and right cursor keys whilst in the normal pert chart mode will shift the display to the left or right by half a screen. The psion and shift key may be used in conjunction with the cursor keys to shift the display by a full screen or a quarter screen at a time. Allowing tasks to be placed off-screen enables pert charts to be constructed for plans with a large number of tasks. RESOURCES Plan allows any number of resources to be created subject to memory limitations. Each resource has a record of the work hours for each day of the week in the form of a start time and end time. Each resource also has a three year calendar which indicates specific days of the year which are marked as work or non-work days. By default when first using Plan only one resource will be available called "General". This will be constructed using the following rules: - The current year will be used as the start of the three year calendar period. - The work/non-work days for the three year calendar will be set according to the work days which have been set in the time application. - The start and end time for each work day will default to 9:00am and 5:00pm respectively. When creating additional resources the work hours and holiday settings are copied from the General resource. Consequently it will save time by setting common work hours and public holidays in the General resource before creating any additional resources. To create a new resource use the psion-m key. This will prompt for a resource name which must be unique. To delete a resource select the psion-k option. This will display a dialog prompting for the name of the resource to delete. Any existing tasks which use the resource will then be switched to use the General resource. There is a concept of a current resource in the same way that there is a current task. The current resource is the resource which is displayed in the resource holiday and resource usage views. To change the current resource use the psion-w option. WORK HOURS AND RESOURCE USAGE The resource usage view shows when the current resource starts and ends work for the seven days of the week along with a histogram indicating the allocation of the resource to tasks. The start and end times may be edited using the psion-U option. This will display a dialog allowing the start times for each day of the week to be edited. Select the appropriate times and press enter. A second dialog will appear allowing the end times to be changed. Note that for non-work days (usually Saturday and Sunday) it is best to set the start and end time to the start and end time of a normal working day. The resources holidays should be used to control non-working days rather than the start and end times. This then allows specific non-working days to be overridden in the resource holiday view if the resource works the occasional non-work day. The histogram on the right of the resource usage view indicates the total percentage the resource is occupied over a given time period. The display is similar to the gantt chart in that it shows a time axis at the top of the display. The left and right cursor keys and zoom keys affect the display in the same way. If a resource is assigned to two tasks 100% of the time for each task over a given time period then this would be shown on the histogram as a total of 200% over the given period. This enables over-allocated resources to be pin-pointed. There are various ways of resolving the problem of an over- allocated resource, for example: - Reschedule one of the tasks, usually by making it dependent upon the other. - Assign another unused resource to one of the tasks. - Change the rates on one or both tasks. If for example you have a task which takes 10 days at a rate of 100% and another short task has to carried out for one day in the middle of the task then either divide the long task into two separate tasks separated by the short task or set the rate for the first task to 90% which would extend it by the one extra day taken up by the short task. The disadvantage in this latter case is that the resource usage histogram would still indicate that the resource was over-allocated at 190% for the one day. The advantage is however that the long task would not need to be broken up. Pressing the up and down cursor keys will scale the y-axis in increments and can be used if the maximum percentage exceeds the top of the display. Note that if a resources work hours and/or holidays are changed then the Tab or psion-F key should be used to force a recalculation of all tasks. Plan will not automatically recalculate tasks if any changes are made to resource holidays or work hours even if automatic calculation is enabled in the preference settings. HOLIDAYS The resource holiday view will display a full year view indicating the holidays for the current resource. The view is similar to the year view in the agenda application. Holidays are indicated by a black filled square. The cursor keys may be used to move the cursor from one day to the next. Combining the left and right cursor keys with the psion key will move the cursor to the start and end of the month respectively. Combining the up and down cursor keys with the psion key will move to the previous or next year. Pressing the enter key will toggle the day on which the cursor is positioned from a holiday to a work day and vice versa. A three year calendar is available for each resource, within which holidays may be set. When calculating task end times or work a resources holidays will be taken into consideration. If a task falls outside a resources three year calendar the resources holidays will be assumed to match the rest days set in the time application. The start year for the three year calendar period for all resources will be the same. It may be changed for all resources using the psion-H option. This will prompt for a new start year. All the resource calendars will be reconstructed to start on the specified year. Existing holidays will be copied if the new three year calendar range overlaps the old calendar range. For years outside the old calendar range default holidays will be set according to the settings in the time application. If a large number of resources have been created this operation may take a few minutes. The start year for the calendars should not be changed unless all tasks in all plans which reference the resource file within the period of the calendar which is to be removed have been marked as complete. If this is not true then the given tasks may subsequently be incorrectly calculated if the resource had non-standard holidays in the given period. TASK RECALCULATION AND TRACKING For each task one of three values may be initially calculated: end, work or rate. To control which is calculated for the current task use the recalculation & tracking option on the task menu (psion-r). Set the calculate option at the top of the dialog to the required value. The calculation setting controls whether the work, rate or the end date and time are calculated for a task. If the work is to be calculated then the rate and end will need to be specified, and so on. Note that this setting only controls the initial calculation for the task, if the task depends upon other tasks which subsequently move then the task may shift along with the other tasks. So even if the end date is specified in order to calculate the rate initially this does not mean the end date is permanently tied to this value, if the task is dependent upon other tasks which change the end date may change. When new tasks are created the initial calculation setting is governed by the preferences setting. The recalculation & tracking option also allows the progress for the current task to be recorded and if necessary the schedule for the task to be recalculated taking into consideration the work done so far. On the recalculation and tracking dialog three options are available to record actual work done: Set work done (%)... Selecting this option and pressing enter will display a dialog which allows the work done to be set to a value indicating the actual work done as a percentage of work planned. Set work done (time)... Selecting this option and pressing enter will display a dialog which allows the work done to be set to a specific value in terms of days, hours, minutes and seconds. Add to work done (time)... Selecting this option and pressing enter will display a dialog which allows the work done to be set by adding a time in days, hours, minutes and seconds to the existing work done value. This is useful when periodically updating the work done, for example with the previous weeks work. When setting work done a date is shown which indicates when the date up to which work done was last recorded. So if work done includes all work done on the 1 Jan 94 then this date should be set to 2 Jan 94. If the work done is changed then before pressing enter set the value to the date which indicates the date up to which work done has been recorded. If the date is left unchanged the date will be set to the current date automatically. This date is important when calculating how much work is left to do. To assist with the setting of work done the dialogs will show the targeted work done. This indicates how much work should have been done to the current date and time if the task is to be completed on schedule. Setting the work done for a task to a value greater than 0 will fix the start of the task to its current value, regardless of how other tasks change which it is dependent upon. It also allows the start to be manually set to the actual start. A task is assumed to be complete if the work done is greater than or equal to the planned work. In the gantt chart view tasks which are complete are shown using a solid black bar. Tasks currently underway are shown with a grey bar indicating the percentage completed so far, whilst planned tasks are shown with a clear bar. If a task is underway and work done has been recorded then this may be used to assist with the recalculation of the tasks schedule. To do this select the final option on the recalculation & tracking dialog: recalculate using work done... This option allows the end, work or rate, as indicated by the calculate option to be recalculated. It is similar to using enter to change the current task details which also recalculates the tasks schedule. The difference is that the recalculate using work done allows the work done so far to be taken into consideration. The dialog which appears when selecting this option will show the work planned and done for comparison along with the date the work done was recorded up to. These values may not be changed here. It is important for the calculation that the work done and date are accurate. The remaining options which may be updated on the recalculate using work done dialog depend upon what is being calculated: End The remaining work and work rate are displayed. The remaining work shows how much work is left to do to complete the task (equals work planned minus the work done). The remaining work rate shows the rate of work required to complete the given amount of remaining work in the remaining time left. Updating either the remaining work and/or rate will set the work equal to the work done plus the remaining work, will recalculate the end of the task and will set the rate for the task to be the average work rate taking into account the start, end and total planned work. Work The end date and time and remaining work rate are displayed. The remaining rate shows the rate of work required to complete the given amount of remaining work in the remaining time left. Updating either the end date and/or rate will set the work equal to the work done plus the remaining work and will set the rate to be the average work rate taking into account the start, end and newly calculated planned work. The remaining work is calculated by looking at the duration between the date indicated as being when the work done was recorded up to and the end date, taking into account the remaining work rate. Rate The remaining work and end date and time are displayed. The remaining work shows how much work is left to do to complete the task (equals work planned minus the work done). Updating either the remaining work and/or end will set the work equal to the work done plus the remaining work and will set the rate for the task to be the average work rate. PREFERENCES The following preferences may be set using the psion-q key or menu item: Plan Font Small or Large Pert top text None, Start, End, Work, Rate, Resource, Done, Labour, Fixed, Total, Value, Text Pert bottom text None, Start, End, Work, Rate, Resource, Done, Labour, Fixed, Total, Value, Text New Task Calculation End, Work or Rate Calculation Automatic or Manual Resource Average work day Time in hours and minutes If the font size is set to large then double height characters will be used in most of the views. The pert top text and bottom text options control which items are drawn above and below the task boxes in the pert chart. The new task calculation item controls whether for new tasks the end, work or rate of work for a new tasks is calculated. For existing tasks this may be controlled individually using the psion- r option. If the calculation option is set to automatic then if any task changes then any tasks which are dependent upon the task will also be recalculated. This implies that it should never be necessary to force a recalculation unless resource details change. When set to manual only the task which is edited will be recalculated, in this case the Tab or psion-F keys should be used to manually recalculate all tasks when required. Note that the critical path is not automatically updated even if the calculation option is set to automatic. The recalculate (Tab or psion-F) or the critical path (psion-*) option should be used to update the critical path. The average work day option defines the duration of one normal work day. This unit of work is used in the task list view. Typically this should be set to the length of an average working day, including any breaks. The preference settings are saved in the plan and resource file and so will be used the next time the files are opened by Plan. MODULES Plan allows additional plug in modules to be installed. These modules consist of OPO files which should be installed into a directory called \APP\PLAN on any drive. When these modules are installed and the plan application restarted an additional menu will appear at the end of the main menu labelled "Modules". Each additional plan module will appear as a separate item within the Modules menu. To access a module select the corresponding item in the menu. The only currently available module is MPX.OPO which allows projects to be transferred between the Psion Plan application and Microsoft Project. MPX module The MPX module allows task and resource data to be exchanged with Microsoft Project. To transfer a Plan project plan into a Microsoft Project plan: - Ensure that the MPX.OPO module is installed in a directory called \APP\PLAN on any drive. - Restart Plan if the option "MPX transfer" does not appear in the Module menu. - Ensure the plan to be transferred is open. - Select the "MPX transfer" option in Plan. - Select "Export". - Enter the name of the MPX export file which is to be created. - The file will now be created. Press any key when complete to continue in Plan. - Transfer the MPX file to the relevant host machine. - Start up Microsoft Project and select the open file option. Choose the MPX file type rather than Project file type. - If asked whether the file should be merged into the current project choose "No". It is not possible to merge a plan into an existing Microsoft Project plan. To transfer a Microsoft Project plan into Psion Plan: - Do a full recalculation in Microsoft Project. - Save the file as an MPX file and transfer it to the Psion. - Create a new Psion plan and resource file. The data may be merged into an existing plan and resource file provided the incoming task ID and resource initials are equivalent to any old ones. - Select the "MPX transfer" option in Plan. - Select "Import". - Enter the name of the MPX import file which is to be read. - The file will now be read. Look for any warning or error messages in the output. Press any key when complete to continue in Plan. - Make sure the length of an average work day is correct using the Psion Plan preferences setting otherwise the work values may appear at first sight to be incorrect. Note the following points when importing data into plan: - Avoid modifying the standard Export tables in Microsoft Project. Plan requires the following task fields: ID, Name, Predecessors, Scheduled start, Scheduled finish, % Complete, Work, Fixed Cost, Number 1, Text 1. Plan also requires the following resource fields: ID, Initials, Standard Rate. - Plan expects a date format of the form "31/12/92 5:32pm" or "31/12/92 17:32". The date order is not important, e.g. 92/12/31 may also be used. Ensure the date format is set correctly in Microsoft Project preferences before creating the MPX file. - Plan uses the resource initials field for the resource name, this should be set in Microsoft Project. - Plan ignores dependencies of the type Finish-Finish and Start- Finish. - Plan will convert multiple resource assignments for one task to use the General resource. - Plan assumes a holiday lasts all day so avoid holidays which are less than a full day in Microsoft Project. CHANGES Version Date Notes 1.0.1 May '94 Restricted alpha 1 release for evaluation purposes only. 1.1.1 July '94 Restricted alpha 2 release for evaluation purposes only. Minor bug fix to dependency dialog. 1.2.1 Sep '94 Restricted alpha 3 release for evaluation purposes only. Added critical path option. Enhanced pert task display to allow text above and below task boxes to be set independently. Also added resource, rate and status to list of options for PERT task texts. Adjusted positioning of tasks with auto pert layout and position of texts above task boxes. Increased maximum number of tasks from 74 to 99. Increased maximum x-shift on pert chart. 1.3.1 Sep '94 Bug fix to zoom option in gantt view when using new project. Changed duration to work. Made building of default calendar faster. Added optional modules menu. Created MPX transfer module. 2.0.2 Oct '94 First public release. Change in file formats. Added extra task fields for work done, costs and user data. Renamed some of the menus and rearranged some of the menu key activations. Added recalculation and tracking options. Amended MPX module to work with extra fields. Added border to all views. Changed print option to use system screen print setup. Added shareware registration. 2.1.2 Nov '94 Minor bug-fix, check for \PLN directory failed. COMMAND SUMMARY The following keys/menu options are available: Menu Name Key Purpose File New psion-n Create new plan file Open psion-o Open existing plan file Save as psion-a Save plan under a new name Save psion-s Save plan and resource file Revert psion-v Revert plan and resource files to latest saved versions Print psion-p Print task list to the serial or parallel port or a text file. Use the system screen printer control option to setup the print destination and parameters. Task Copy psion-c Copy current task into a buffer Insert psion-i Reinsert task from buffer Recalculate & track psion-r Change current task calculation to end, work or rate plus access to tracking options Dependencies psion-d Change current task dependencies Cost & data psion-b Change cost and user data Pert Move psion-y Move current task in pert chart dynamically using cursor keys, any key exits mode Pert X/Y psion-Y Set current tasks x, y pert position Resource Make psion-m Make a new resource Kill psion-k Delete a resource Rename psion-j Rename a resource Switch to psion-w Change current resource and display resource histogram display Set work hours psion-U Set work hours for current resource Pounds/hour psion-W Set labour costs for current resource Calendar start psion-H Set year for start of three holiday calendar for all resources View Zoom in psion-z Zoom in when within pert, gantt or resource histogram views Zoom out psion-Z Zoom out when within pert, gantt or resource histogram views Refresh psion-f Refresh screen Cursor off psion-C Turn cursor off until any key pressed (useful in combination with psion- control-shift-s which saves current screen to a file) Plan totals psion-T View plan totals for work, user value and costs Special Set preferences psion-q Set preferences Critical Path psion-* Recalculate critical path Recalculate all psion-F Force recalculation of tasks (see also tab) Sort psion-L Sort tasks by start date Layout pert psion-l Automatically layout tasks in pert chart Exit psion-x Exit plan Modules - - Optional modules (may vary) Diamond Task list psion-t Switch to task list view Gantt chart psion-g Switch to gantt chart view Pert chart psion-e Switch to pert chart view Resource usage psion-u Switch to resource usage view Holidays psion-h Switch to holiday view (Keys) Tab Force recalculation of all tasks Enter Edit current task details Shift-Enter Insert a new task above current task Delete Delete current task Help Help system Esc Abort recalculate all