by: Joel T. Patz
Microsoft's Project for Windows 95 is packed with exciting new features. Most exciting, perhaps, is a greatly improved communications capability that provides a new way to transfer information about project deadlines, task assignments and project status.
After you've determined a project's tasks, with a few mouse clicks you can select resources from your Microsoft Exchange or other MAPI e-mail address book and assign responsibilities. The Resource Information dialog box for each team member provides details such as project affiliation and hourly rates, and you can also forge a direct link to information stored in the address book. You can assign tasks in a flash by either highlighting the task and clicking on the resource name or by dragging a name to the task. Project's Gantt chart immediately reflects your choices.
Once the tasks and team members are matched up, you can use the Team Assign feature to send an e-mail message to each member to confirm assignments. The team members return their acceptances or rejections via e-mail. If the team players also use Microsoft Schedule+, they can save even more time: Accepting a project task adds it to the Schedule+ To Do list and lets the team member track its progress.
To update project status, you can incorporate information from the team members' Schedule+ files directly into Project. Team members can also change the estimated effort for a task if you give them access to do so. When you receive this type of e-mail response, a few button clicks update the master schedule.
The Gantt chart is the main graphical representation of your project. On the main planning screen, the left panel lists the project's tasks, and you can add other fields such as duration and start/end dates. The customizable Gantt chart is displayed on the right. A project's hierarchical format can be modified in three ways: using the indent or outdent commands, clicking on toolbar buttons, or dragging and dropping the task names. Task notes can be attached where needed. For regularly scheduled project meetings, you can use the recurring-task command.
Altering the look of your project plan can help convey its information effectively. You can differentiate task listings, for instance, by tweaking their formats, including fonts, font sizes and colors. You can also customize the bars of the Gantt chart with beginning and ending shapes, styles (solid, dashed or framed) and colors. And if the Gantt chart doesn't suit your needs, Project also offers a calendar view.
As a project gathers steam, moving tasks around on the schedule can become time-consuming, but Microsoft Project greases the wheels by letting you drag and drop these tasks to new locations along a timeline. When you do this, the software's Planning Wizard pops up to ask if the task you moved is linked to the one nearest it. Say yes, and dependency arrows appear on the chart. You can also link tasks by highlighting a pair of them and clicking on the link button in the toolbar, or by dragging from one task to another. After moving and adjusting tasks and timelines, you'll want to save the plan. Select Save from the File menu, and another wizard asks if you want to save the plan as a baseline to let you track changes over time, or save it without a baseline.
Project also lets you perform resource leveling across single or multiple projects. You can consolidate projects and share resources by bringing multiple files into a single window or a new file. Filtering and sort options affect the display of pertinent information. Reports—general and particular—are available for all the information you're likely to need.
Project's Help file is a good guide to the program's features, and the tutorial acclimates first-time users quickly and comfortably. The Answer Wizard is another welcome component; it uses IntelliSense technology to answer questions written in your own words.
Microsoft Project for Windows 95 is a powerful—and very usable—project management program.
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Microsoft Project for Windows 95
Price: $469; upgrade, $149 Win 95 Software
In Brief: Project's expanded workgroup functionality enhances communications between the project manager and team members.
Disk Space: Complete, 25MB; compact, 10MB
RAM: 6MB (12MB for NT)
Microsoft Corp.
800-426-9400, 206-882-8080
by: Hailey Lynne McKeefry
I got just about everything I needed to create complex schedules with Milestones Etc. 4.0, but version 4.5 of the scheduling program makes it even easier to keep track of time.
A beta version of Etc. revealed a number of interface and usability improvements. Etc. also has a little sibling now, too. Kidasa is introducing a pared-down version of Etc. called Milestones Simplicity 1.0. Simplicity provides the basic tools for users who want to create straightforward schedules without wading through a bunch of high-powered features.
Milestones 4.5 works with schedules in a spreadsheet-like environment and borrows some of the useful features of spreadsheet programs to make crafting schedules less of a chore. For example, you can now adjust the height and width of each column and row by clicking on it. Previously, row height was predefined and all the rows on a schedule had to be of uniform height. You are also able to set text attributes such as bold, underlining, color and so forth for each column individually.
The new version also provides a number of small, but nevertheless helpful changes to the interface. The floating toolpad allows for Etc. to display 32 symbols instead of the 16 in 4.0.
There are 17 new symbol types, a 3-D connector and several new vertical connectors. The Customize Toolbar command, an option on the View menu, let me create a toolbar that fit my scheduling requirement with 22 available icons to choose from.
Kidasa has also added a number of features that bring the program in line with standard Windows operating conventions. Tool tips have been added, with small yellow help boxes popping up as your mouse passes each button. Dialog boxes were rearranged into tabbed sections to make navigating Milestones a more intuitive process. This version also lets you do multiple-line cut and paste using Ctrl+V and Ctrl+C.
Milestones Etc. 4.5 let me designate certain schedule columns as SmartColumns. They can be designated as the Task Start Date/Time, Task End Date/Time, Duration, Task Number, Outline Level, Percent Complete or WBS Number. SmartColumns automatically fills in the appropriate information. For example, if you set a column to be a Start Date column, SmartColumns automatically fills in the earliest date on your schedule. For a Duration column, the program figures the difference between the start and end times and displays the result.
This version has a handful of features designed to make long and complex schedules more readable. The Outline Level SmartColumns let me assign indentation spacing so that the text was displayed hierarchically with appropriate indentations. The Find function, which lets you search through columnar, symbol and freeform text, also eases the manipulation of long charts. The program offers the option of adding different colored shading to Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, making the schedule easier to read.
Milestones Simplicity 1.0 offers a similar interface to Milestones Etc. with less sophisticated features. Kidasa stripped away some of Etc.'s complexity in the process and the product has a much lower price. With Simplicity, for example, you have no control over the grid lines of schedule rows. There's little room for customization; you cannot alter Simplicity's toolbox or toolbar. And while Etc. lets you export data to other programs, Simplicity puts the brakes on this function.
For big scheduling tasks, you need a big program with lots of options and plenty of power. Milestones Etc. 4.5 fills the bill, with new features that enhance its usability.
For more modest needs, you can spare yourself the headache of dealing with features you don't need--and save money--with Milestones Simplicity. Big or small, Kidasa offers two solid alternatives for taming time and keeping schedules on track.
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Milestones Etc. 4.5 and Milestones Simplicity 1.0
Price: Etc. $189.95; Simplicity $89.95
In Brief: Milestones Etc. solves big, complex scheduling problems. Milestones Simplicity is designed for smaller, simpler ones
Kidasa Software
800-765-0167, fax 512-328-0247