The header categories dialogue allows you to select which, if any, of the six available categories of information (Objectives, Key Questions, Deliverables, Success Metrics, Budget, Comments) get displayed at the top of each Activity Group.

This allows you to display only the categories which are relevant for your project or specific circumstances (e.g. you may choose to display different information for a progress review with senior management vs for a working session with a project team). If you do not want to display any categories, simply de-select them all.

You can also choose whether to show “progress balls” for each bullet point on each page. These status balls allow you to communicate status / progress against each bullet point in these header sections. To change how "complete" each status ball is just click on it, and it will move from an empty circle to ¼, then ½, then ¾, then fully filled in).

The timescale rows dialogue allows you to select the format for the date rows that are displayed at the top of the timeline section of the Activity Group Detail view.

Click on the "change" buttons for each row to view and select a date format.

Note: Swiftlight chooses which two timescale rows to display based on the time length of each Activity Group.

The working week dialogue allows you choose:

• Which days are workdays;
• Which day the week starts on;
• Whether you want the non-working days (typically the weekend) to appear shaded on the Activity Group Detail timeline section;
• The colour of the shading / line which will mark "today" on the Timeline. Note: if you don’t want shading / a line to appear at today on the Timeline, then change its display colour to white.

Note: Changes to Working week days and Week start day will apply across all views

The Gridlines tab allows you choose the style of both horizontal and vertical gridlines on the Activity Group Detail timeline section.

The horizontal lines appear at the top and bottom of the timeline section of the whilst the vertical lines mark the end of time periods on the timeline (e.g., weeks, months, quarters etc.)

The Display Mode tab contains the most important controls over the Activity Group Detail timeline section allowing you to choose what to display and how it gets displayed.

In the view options section of the dialogue, you can use the radio buttons to choose whether to display meetings (only), milestones (only), or both meetings and milestones.

In the next section of the dialogue, you can select the maximum number of rows of meetings and the maximum number of rows of milestones you want to display, up to a total of 5 rows for each, and 6 rows for both together (i.e. you can have 5+1, 4+2, 3+3 etc but not 5+5). using the sliders or the numbers to change the desired number of rows.

If the Activity Group has more meetings or milestones to display than can be shown in the selected number of rows, a small circle or triangle will appear at the bottom of the relevant section to highlight that additional meetings or milestones cannot be displayed on the screen.

You can set the width of a meeting or milestone in the Activity Group Detail as a percent of the page width, using the slider or the arrows buttons to increase / decrease the number. The wider they are, the more text you can get underneath the meeting or milestone icon; but the trade-off is that as width increases, the more likely you are to get potential overlaps between meetings or between milestones. A potential overlap will cause the meetings or milestones to be displayed in separate rows.

The height of a Meeting or Milestone row in the can be set as a percent of the page height, using the slider or the arrows buttons to increase / decrease the number. Again the higher they are, the more rows of text you can get underneath the meeting or milestone icon. However, the more room the rows will take up on the page, the available space for other content (e.g. for meetings, milestones and actions in the list section) is reduced.

You can choose whether to show the meeting or milestone dates along with the meeting or milestone icons.

The Timeline Fonts tab controls the size of the text for Meetings, Milestones and Activity Groups on the Activity Group Detail timeline section.

You can select the minimum and a maximum font size for the text in Activity Group arrows, and underneath Meetings and Milestones. The actual font size used is set by the Dynamic Formatting Algorithm. This is done by using the largest possible font that will display all the text, within the minimum and maximum constraints. If there is too much text to display at the minimum font size, then the text is truncated.

If you want the font size for the text in all the Activity Groups, Meetings or Milestones to be the same as each other, then you can set the minimum and maximum text sizes to be the same number.

The Columns tab allows you to select the columns that you would like to display in the Activity Group Detail table section.

The table section of the Activity Group Detail displays the “to do list” for each Activity Group. Some or all of the following types of information can be displayed:

• Type (icons for meeting, milestone, action);
• Description (“what”);
• Responsible (“who”);
• Involved (who else is involved);
• Due date (“when”);
• Status (e.g. Not Started, In Progress, Complete);
• Performance (Traffic light icons);
• Priority;
• Budget;
• Comments

The columns dialogue allows you to select which of the above categories of information are displayed. Simply click the tick box to select or de-select each category of information.

Notes: The type and description columns have to be displayed. The order in which the columns get displayed can be changed by clicking on the column header in the view and dragging it left or right. When you do this, you will see that the order of the columns in the dialogue changes. You cannot change the order of columns from the dialogue.

The Description Font dialogue allows you to set the font, font style and font size for the description column of

NEW

Meetings, Milestones and Actions (as a default setting).

The font of the description column of

existing

Meetings, Milestones and Actions is not affected. If you want to change the description font of existing items, you need to select the row (or multiple rows) and use the Format Text dialogue or the toolbars to change the font. This allows you to set the font, style (e.g. colour) and size of the description text for Meetings, Milestones and Actions on an individual basis, so that, for example, more important / urgent items can be highlighted, or items can be grouped by colour.
Note: the description font for a Meeting, Milestone or Action will be the same in the Activity Group Detail and the Action List.

The fonts for the other columns can be set using the Column Fonts tab in this same dialogue.

The Column Font tab allows you to set the font, font style and font size for the all of the columns in the Activity Group Detail table section except for the Description column. For information about changing the font of the Description see the Description Font tab above.

Any changes will affect all rows and all pages of the Activity Group Detail table section.

The date format tab allows you to set a format for the date in the due date column of the Activity Group Detail table section. e.g. you could choose to display Sunday 20th January as "Sun 20 Jan" or "20/01" or etc.

You can also select your locale so that you can get USA or UK date format options.

The header section allows you to detail what you are trying to achieve within the Activity Group and any specific challenges that you might meet whilst tackling these objectives.

You can add text in any, all, or none of the following sections:

• Objectives;
• Key Questions;
• Deliverables;
• Success Metrics;
• Budget;
• Comments

Budget and Comments are not on by default – they can be selected using the Page Body format dialogue

The height of the header section can be adjusted by dragging the dividing line between the header section and the rest of the page up and down.

Add Bullets

To add text just click in the required section and hit return to add a new bullet

Re-order Bullets

Bullets can be moved up and down using the sorting toolbar arrows or from the Page Layout menu (Shortcuts are also available)

Format Bullets

Each of the bullets can be formatted using the formatting toolbar or the Format Bullet Text dialogue to change:

• Font type
• Font style (bold, italics, underline)
• Font colour
• Indent level of the bullet

Progress Balls

Progress against each of the bullets can be indicated by switching on the Progress Balls and clicking on each ball to cycle through the 5 states from empty to full. Progress balls are not on by default – they can be selected using the Page Body format dialogue

The Activity Group Detail timeline section allows you to see, in a highly visual way, the Meetings and Milestones within an Activity Group.

Changing the Length of the Activity Group

The length of the Activity Group can be change by either:

• Changing the start and end dates using the dropdown either side of the timeline OR
• Using the "Change Dates …" dialogue accessed by right-clicking on the arrow

Only Meetings and Milestones that fall within the start and end dates of the Activity Group will be displayed -others that fall outside these boundaries are indicated in text to the left and right of the Meetings and Milestones

Adding Meetings and Milestones

Meetings and Milestones can be added by dragging and dropping the respective icons from the Toolbox section as you can in the Timeline view. Meetings and Milestones also appear in the Activity Group Event Table section below the timeline section

Changing the Date of Meeting and Milestones

Meetings and Milestones can be dragging and dropped to new dates on the timeline section. Alternatively a left-click on the date indicator to the right of the Meeting or Milestone icon will bring up a date selector. Other details of the Meetings and Milestones can be edited in the Activity Group Event Table section below the timeline section.

The event table section allows you to see and organise the full details of each Meeting, Milestone and Action within the Activity Group.

The following details can be edited directly in each of the cells:

• Type (Meeting, Milestone or Action)
• Description
• Responsible
• Involved
• Due Date
• Status
• Priority (1-5)
• Performance (Green thumbs up , red thumbs down, amber thumbs level, or neutral)
• Comments
• Budget

Priority and Budget are not on by default – they can be selected using Page Body format dialogue

Adding Meetings, Milestones and Actions

There are a number of ways of adding new Meetings, Milestones and Actions into the Activity Group Event Table Section:

• Dragging and dropping the respective icons from the Toolbox section into the table
• Using Tab to move from the last row in the table
• The menu (Insert > Meeting OR Milestone OR Action)
• Clicking in the white space below the table

Ordering the Activity Group Event Table Section

The order of the Meetings, Milestones and Actions in the Activity Group Event Table Section can be arranged in a number of ways:

• Sorted by a particular column (either A-Z or Z-A)
• Arranged in a custom (user-defined) order

To sort by a particular order either click on the header of the column you wish to sort by or use the Sort dialogue (from menu: Page Layout > Sort > Sort Dialogue). When the table has been sorted in this way, adjacent rows with the same value in the sorted column are all coloured the same (white or grey) and the text is merged across those table cells.

To arrange in your own custom order, individual rows can be moved up and down using:

• The toolbar buttons;

The menu (Page Layout > Move > …) OR

• Keyboard shortcuts:
  • Ctrl+J for Move Up;
  • Ctrl+K for Move Down;
  • Ctrl+SHIFT+J for Move To Top OR
  • Ctrl+SHIFT+K for Move To Bottom

Note: you can also select multiple rows and move them together.

Once you have arranged the rows in the order you would like this order can be saved using the Save Order button at the top of the table.The Restore Order button will allow you to recover the last saved order.

The rows in the Activity Group Detail table section can also be ordered in the same way as in the Action List view using the Import Order button.

The Activity Group Summary view displays a summary table of information about all the Activity Groups. The Columns tab allows you to select the information that gets displayed. Up to twelve* categories of information about each Activity Group can be selected for display in the table:

• Objectives;
• Key Questions (i.e. questions or issues the project needs to address);
• Deliverables;
• Success Metrics;
• Budget;
• Comments;
• Responsibility;
• Status (e.g. Not Started, In Progress, Completed);
• Percentage Complete;
• Performance (traffic light icons);
• Activity Group Start Date;
• Activity Group End Date
  (* while all 12 categories can be displayed, the table may get crowded and it is generally better to select a smaller set of categories to suit the needs you have at the time)

The check box at the bottom of the dialogue allows you to choose whether the colours in the left hand Activity Group column should match the Activity Group colours on the timeline or all display as dark blue.

Notes: The Name column has to be displayed. The order in which the columns get displayed can be changed by clicking on the column header in the view and dragging it left or right. When you do this, you will see that the order of the columns in the dialogue changes. You cannot change the order of columns from within the dialogue.

The Column Font tab allows you to set the font, font style and font size for the all of the columns in the Activity Group Summary view.

The Timeline is a “one page wide” window on your plan, displaying all of it, or just a section of it depending on the date range that you select. For example, if you have set up a two year project in Swiftlight, you could choose to look at the full two years, or to zoom in on a three month period by selecting that period using the dialogue.

The date range dialogue allows you to set the date range for display in three ways:

• Selecting the start and end dates using the calendars;
• Moving the current start and end dates by specific amounts;
• Auto-fitting the timeline to display all the content in the file from the earliest to the latest date

Notes:

1. The Timeline only displays a whole number of weeks from the start to the end of the working week;
2. The Timeline can only display a maximum of 18 years.

The timescale rows dialogue allows you to select which date rows to display at the top of the timeline, and how you want the dates to be formatted.

You can either let Swiftlight choose which rows to display or select the rows yourself using the check boxes. You can select up to 3 rows can be displayed at any one time. The format of the selected dates can be edited by clicking on the “change” buttons for each row. The font size for the selected dates can be controlled using arrow buttons, within a range of 7pts to 10pts.

The working week dialogue allows you choose:

• Which days are workdays;
• Which day the week starts on;
• Whether you want the non-working days (typically the weekend) to appear shaded on the timeline;
• The colour of the shading / line which will mark "today" on the Timeline. Note: if you don’t want shading / a line to appear at today on the Timeline, then change its display colour to white.

The gridlines dialogue allows you choose the style of both horizontal and vertical gridlines on the timeline.

The horizontal lines separate one row of Activity Groups from another whilst the vertical lines mark the end of time periods on the timeline (e.g., weeks, months, quarters etc.)

In addition you can choose whether you want the vertical gridlines to extend to the bottom of the page on just the first page or on all timeline pages.

The display mode tab contains the most important controls over the Timeline view allowing you to switch between the different modes of the Timeline, and therefore show different content.

Using the radio button you can firstly select either Standard or Interlaced mode. If you select Interlaced mode, you can select which content you want to see (i.e. meetings, milestone, meetings and milestones, objectives, etc.)

In addition you can select whether you want the timeline to be in review mode showing the baseline dates for Activity Groups and Milestones. Both the standard and interlaced timeline have review modes. If you have not entered review mode before, you will be prompted to save the current timeline as the project baseline.

In review mode, you can also select whether you want the baseline Activity Group and Milestone icons to show the icon and text or just the icon. The option that makes most sense will depend on how much time separation there is between the baseline and the current Activity Group or Milestone.

This tab controls the display of Key Meetings and Key Milestones at the top of the main body of the Timeline page. These settings do not control the way that any Interlaced Meetings and Milestones appear, as this is controlled in the Interlaced Mode Format tab (described further down this page).

In the upper section of the dialogue you can:

• Use the tick box to indicate whether you want to display the key meeting sections in the timeline or not;
• Use the tick box to indicate whether you want to display the key milestone section in the timeline or not;
• Use the radio buttons to indicate, whether you want the key meetings and milestones to appear only on page one, or on all timeline pages (if there is more than one page)

Note: in certain rare circumstances when in timeline interlaced mode, it may not be possible to display the key meetings and milestones on all pages, even if you select it. This is a result of space constraints, and if Swiftlight detects this possibility you will get a suppressible warning message.

In the lower section of the dialogue, you can choose the maximum number of rows of key meetings and the maximum number of rows of key milestones you want to display, up to a total of 5 rows for each, and 6 rows for both together.

Use the sliders or the numbers to change the desired number of rows. If your project has more key meetings or milestones to display than can be shown in the selected number of rows, a small circle or triangle will appear at the bottom of the relevant section to highlight that additional meetings or milestones cannot be displayed on the screen.

Activity Group Rows are the rows in the lower section of the Timeline that are divided by horizontal gridlines and that are available for you to place Activity Groups into. This tab allows you to set the total number of Activity Group rows and have control over the height of each row (by setting a minimum height and selected a desired number of rows to fit on to the first page of the Timeline).

The first control is the total number of rows available for Activity Groups. This is the total number of rows across

ALL

pages. The application will ensure that this number is not less than the number of rows needed to display the Activity Groups you already have in the Timeline. If you subsequently add more or delete rows directly in the Timeline (using the right-click menu), this number will go up / down. The maximum number of rows is 100.

You can set the

DESIRED

number of Activity Group rows on page one of your Timeline. In a variety of situations, the actual number of Activity Group rows on page one may be less than your desired number due to sizing constraints. For example, if the page header is on and if you are displaying six row of key meetings and milestones there is only room to display a few Activity Group rows.

The minimum height for an Activity Group arrow allows you to control how thin the Activity Group arrows can become, and, indirectly, how many rows of Activity Groups you can get on each page. The thinner these rows are, the more rows you can get on an each page.

The final element is the size of the gap between each Activity Group rows. This is set as a percentage of the row height so that it maintains visual consistency as the rows resize.

If you have selected to display the Timeline in Interlaced mode, this tab allows you to control how your selected content is displayed. Note: although the controls on this tab are very similar to some others found on other tabs, they are different in that they apply solely whilst in Interlaced mode – you may well see changes to the way objects look between Standard and Interlaced mode.

You can choose the maximum number of rows of meetings and milestones that you want to have interlaced with the Activity Groups. There is a maximum of 5 rows for each, and 6 rows for both together (i.e. you can have 5+1, 4+2, 3+3 etc but not 5+5). The sliders or the numbers can be used to change the desired number of rows.

The height of the interlaced text boxes (which displays Activity Group Objectives, Key Questions, Deliverables, Success Metrics, Budgets and Comments) can be set as percentage of the page height. The height of this text box will affect how many bullets / rows of text can be seen. It may also affect how many Activity Groups and their text boxes can be displayed on one page. Note: the Dynamic Formatting Algorithm will ensure that an Activity Group and its associated meetings and milestones (or other content) are always displayed on the same page.

The final control allows you to set the minimum height for an interlaced Activity Group arrow, controlling how thin the Activity Group arrows can become.

You will find that the height of the Activity Group arrows in the interlaced timeline may change when you add or edit the content or adjust the display in some way. This is because the Dynamic Formatting Algorithm automatically tries to optimise the display of information, for example by keeping an Activity Group and its associated meetings or milestones on the same page. When a new timeline row is added or when an Activity Group moves from page 1 to page 2 (or vice versa) the height of the Activity Group arrows adjusts to compensate and ensure that the rest of the page is well utilised.

This tab controls the format of ALL Meetings and Milestones (the way they look) on the Timeline page whether they are in the Key Meetings / Key Milestones section or Interlaced Meetings / Milestones. These settings do not control which Meetings and Milestones appear (how much content) – this can be found in the “Display of Key Meetings and Key Milestones” and “Interlaced Mode Format” tabs (described above).

The width of a meeting or milestone can be set as a percent of the page width, using the slider or the arrows buttons to increase / decrease the number. The wider they are, the more text you can get underneath the meeting or milestone icon. However as the width increases, the more likely you are to get potential overlaps between meetings or between milestones. A potential overlap will cause the meetings or milestones to be displayed in separate rows.

The height of a meeting or milestone row can be set as a percent of the page height, using the slider or the arrows buttons to increase/decrease the number. Again the higher the row height, the more rows of text you can get underneath the meeting or milestone icon; but the trade-off is that the more room the rows will take up on the page, the available space for other content (e.g. for Activity Group rows) is reduced.

You can also choose whether to show the meeting or milestone dates along with the meeting or milestone icons. In a long timeline (e.g. 2 years), it may be less relevant to show the exact date of a meeting or milestone.

The Font dialogue controls the size of the text for Meetings, Milestones and Activity Groups on the Timeline view.

You can select the minimum and a maximum font size for the text in Activity Group arrows, and underneath Meetings and Milestones. The actual font size used is set by the Dynamic Formatting Algorithm. This is done by using the largest possible font that will display all the text, within the minimum and maximum constraints. If there is too much text to display at the minimum font size, then the text is truncated.

If you want the font size for the text in all the Activity Groups, Meetings or Milestones to be the same as each other, then you can set the minimum and maximum text sizes to be the same number.

The font size for any text displayed in text boxes in interlaced timeline mode (displaying the content relating to each Activity Group: objectives, key questions, deliverables, success metrics, budget, comments) is also set on this dialogue but it is set as an absolute number.

The Legend dialogue controls the appearance of the Legend on the Timeline view.

At the top of the dialogue is a tick box which allows you to choose whether or not the legend is shown at the bottom of the Timeline pages (the legend will appear on all (or none) of the pages in the Timeline).

Once the Legend is displayed you can choose which items get displayed within the legend, by selecting / de-selecting the “visible” tick box for each row. The text for each label or colour can be defined by clicking and typing in each text box. (Note: you can also edit this text directly in the Timeline). Finally the font style (regular, bold, italic or bold and italic) and the font size for the legend text labels displayed in the Timeline can be selected

Note: you can change the colours in the legend using the Colour Customisation tab in the Tools Options Dialogue.