The Button Bar

Under the main menu bar, is the "Button" bar. It allows you to perform most of the same items available under the main menu, quickly and easily through the click of a single button.

The buttons available, from left to right (shown above) are as follows:

• New: Create a new project plan.
• Open: Open an existing project plan.
• Save: Whenever you wish, you can click the Save button to save your most recent changes.
• Restore: As you make changes in the Task panel, the changes you make will not be saved until you click on the Save button. At any time, you can revert back to your saved version (ignoring all of the unsaved changes you have made), by clicking on the restore button.
• Print: Print your project plan. You can do a single or multi-page print.
• Indent: If you have two tasks and you want one task to appear indented underneath the other one, then select the task that is lower down on the list and click the Indent button.
• Outdent: This button performs the opposite function of an Indent. It aligns the selected task to the left.
• Resources: This will allow you to create a new resource, or assign an existing resource to the selected task.
• Add: This will add a brand new task to your plan.
• Cut: The "Cut" button allows you to cut and paste a task into another location. You will need to select a task first, by clicking anywhere on the task row, before you click the Cut button. And when you do, the task will be removed from the list. Then proceed immediately to the target location in your task list and perform a Paste, as described below.
• Copy: Like the Cut button, the "Copy" button allows you to move a task from one location to another. However, the difference is that the Cut button will immediately remove the task from the list, whereas the copy button will simply take a copy of it and leave it as it was.
• Paste: After you have performed either a Cut or Copy operation, you will be able to perform a Paste. You can either select an empty task to paste the content into, or select an existing task and paste the cut or copied task into the row immediately below it.
• Delete: To delete a task, simply click on the task and click the delete button. All links with this task will also be deleted.
• Rename: To rename a task, click on the Rename button. You will be able to enter a different name for your task and then click another task, or click enter on your keyboard to make the changes take effect.
• Link: To add links (otherwise known as "dependencies") between tasks, use the Link button. You will be able to select the tasks that you want to link to this task, from a list provided.
• Unlink: If you select a task that has links from or to other tasks, then you can click "Unlink" to remove all of these links immediately.
• Color: Allows you to change the color of the selected tasks.
• Add Note: You can click on any task and add a note to it. When you have added a note, the note icon will appear in the Information column (marked with a blue circular "i"). Your entire team can then see the notes you have added.
• Lock: When you select a task and click to Lock it, you will notice that in the Task Information area below that the Planned start and end dates are no longer editable. This means that if you lock a task, you can no longer move the task to another date. You can unlock the task using the same button, at any time.
• Import: This allows you to import project plans which are currently in Microsoft Project (.mpp or .xml) format. In future versions, you will be able to import Excel data as well.
• Export: This enables you to export your current plan into Microsoft Project (.xml) format. You can then open Microsoft Project and open your .xml file quickly and easily.
• Baseline: When you click to set the baseline, it stores a snapshot of your project at that point in time. You can then use the View menu to view the current planned and actual progress, against the baseline you have set.
• Show / Hide Planned: As you create new tasks, the Gantt chart shows you the "planned" view of these tasks. When you start entering "actuals" or you set a "baseline", then you can turn off this planned view and instead show the Actual or Baseline view in the Gantt chart area. You can only turn off the Planned view when the Actual and Baseline views are available.
• Show / Hide Actual: When you complete the "Actual" Start and Finish dates for each task (in the Task Information panel at the bottom of the Task panel), then you will be able to see the "Actual" progress of the project. You can click "Show Actual" to see the actual progress against the Planned or Baseline views, in the Gantt area below.
• Show / Hide Baseline: If you have clicked on the Baseline button previously, to set a new baseline for the project, then the "Show Baseline" button will become available. This allows you to show the Baseline view of the project in the Gantt area, against the Actual and Planned progress to date.
• Show / Hide Columns: If you only want to see the Gantt area and you want to hide the Columns area of the Task panel, then click on the "Hide Columns" button. You can click on "Show Columns" any time after that to restore the Column view on the screen.
• Show / Hide Gantt: If you only want to see the Columns area and you want to hide the Gantt area of the Task panel, then click on the "Hide Gantt" button. You can click on "Show Gantt" any time after that to restore the Gantt view on the screen.
• Show / Hide Task Info: If you want to show or hide the Task Information panel at the bottom of the Task panel, then use this button. You will not lose any information. You will simply hide and show the features provided.