The task analysis window gives you a place to see the information about tasks that you might be interested in.  What you see varies depending on the Scope of data currently selected (i.e. the project, all my tasks, tasks for PM in the portfolio) and the View being used (i.e. Overdue tasks, tasks starting next week, costs etc).

It is important to remember that this is not a place for adding, editing or updating tasks, this is done by working on the original source file in the document management area of the project.  Here you can analyse, print and export data about the tasks topic.

The presentation in the lower part of the form is in three tabs Gantt Chart, Calendar and Milestone Chart.

The defualt display usually consists of a gantt chart display in the upper part of the form and a task list below.  The following sections relate to interactiosn with the Gantt chart display, at the bottom of this article is information on the Calendar and Milestone displays.

Clicking on an item in either part of the form will highlight it in the other part, clicking on either will open the task details form.  The task details form as shown below provides all the details avialable for that task, if the task comes from a Planner file then the data set may be much more complete and include cost information.

Focussing now on the menus of the task form.  Firstly we look at the main menu.

  • File  - offers a close option for the form.
  • Pan - replicates the options in the date range ribbon below of pan left and right and to start or end of current task
  • Zoom in - zooms in
  • Zoom out - zooms out
  • View Task... - opens the currently selected task
  • Print - enables you to set up and then send to print the currently displayed data
  • Export - enabled you to extract the currently displayed data either as images or data to file or to clipboard.
  • Refresh - refreshes the data without changing any of the settings.


Next is the Date Range ribbon, this can be in auto modeor available for manual operation as shown in the two views below, the mode is set in the View but can be toggled on/off with he Auto button ( blue outline indicates it is on):

Auto mode

Manual mode

The buttons have the following capabilities, in turn:

  • Reset/maximise selected data to tmescale in available space
  • maximise the current task in the available space
  • Pan left
  • Pan right
  • Center display on start of currnt task
  • Center display on end of current task
  • Zoom in
  • Zoom out


Next is the Scope of data form which allows the avialable data for analysis to be changed.  When a scope which includes selecting specific users is selected an additional form to to this user selection can be accessed from the 'select users' link.  A combination of users can be picked from the list, or searched by name, project role etc.

The final menu is the view menu (shown here in two parts)

Here the user can select the View they wish to apply to the data and see the currently applying view.  further choices are as follows:

  • Edit view - this is a topic in its own right.
  • Filter on/off - Blue outline tells you a filter is being applied, to turn it off (but retain the other display aspects of the view) click it.
  • Edit Filter - to jump to the filter part of the edit view form, see more complete edit view topic.
  • Reset View - the currently displayed view may have been edited with flter changes, display and timscale changes etc.  this will return it to the original view settings.
  • Reset sort - as usual, clicking on column headers changes the sorting of data columns, this will return it to the specification in the view.
  • Reset Columns - drag and drop using headers can change column displays (useful if exporting for analysis) this will reset any manual changes to the view.
  • Reset Timescale - returns it to what was specified in the view,
  • Save as... - save the current configuration as a new view (Global, Project or User depending on your permissions) to be reused later or to take this configuration into use in a report.


Calendar and Milestone Displays.

Above refers to using the Gantt Cahrt display by switching tabs you can access the other two display types, firstly Calendar control as shown below:

The calendar display shows the tasks selected in the current view and data range on a calendar style layout.  This display defaults to monthly but can be switched to weekly instead using the picklist.  Tasks are shown using the colours set for them in the view with a heavy colour on the day they commence and a ligher trail beyond that.  When a day has too many tasks to display in the space a '+1...+n' indicator appears next to the date.

The today button and the month navigator allows you to move around the periods within the data.  If hover is switched on then you will get basic info about a task by hovering over it.  to see the full task details simply click on it.  The view controls the set up of this Calendar as seen below and adjustments can be saved into your views.

The size settings in pxs and inches ontrol the size of the calendar when it appears in reports.


The Milestone Chart displays all the milestones included in the current datarange and view on a project timeline, as shown below:

The milestones are displayed as diamonds with colours automatically generated based on the date the milestone is due and the current percentage complete of it.  Every month in the data set is included although empty months are compressed and todays date is shown as a green line.

Milestones can be clicked upon for full dtials or hovered over for basic info.  The view allows you to set the depth of the row (and therefore how many milestone detials will be included) also the location of the milestone name etc.