Category Archives: Help

Page Format Dialogue

Contact List Page Format Dialogue

The Contact List page format dialogue allows you to format and configure the Contact List view to display the content you want to show.

The controls are logically grouped together into various tabs.

Columns Tab

The Contacts List view displays a section of the contact information of each Contact in the file in a tabular form. The Columns tab allows you to select the information that gets displayed. Simply tick the check box to select (or de-select) columns that you would like to display in the Contact List view.

Note: the information in columns that are not displayed is still stored in Swiftlight and can be viewed by either by selecting the relevant column for display or by double clicking on a contact which opens up all the detail for that contact.

The Columns tab 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 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.

Column Font Tab

The Column Font tab allows you to set the font, font style and font size for the all of the columns in the Contact List.

Contact List

The Contacts List view allows you to keep all the contact details for every one involved with your project in one place.

Add new Contact

You can add Contacts to the list in one of the ways below:

Drag and drop the Contacts icon from the toolbox on to the table;
Insert > Contact from the menu structure;
Left-click in the white space below the last Contact;
Right-click > Add Contact;
Tab from last contact in table; OR
By typing a new name in the responsible column in another view

Import a Contact

You can import a contact into your file in two ways:

File > Import … From vCard
File > Import … From Windows Address book

More detail

More details for a Contact can be seen by double-clicking on a row in the table to bring up the Contact Details dialogue (see below) or changing the displayed columns using the Page Body format dialogue.

Edit detail

Details for a Contact can be changed by typing directly in the appropriate row in the table or editing the text in the Contact Detail dialogue.

Format table

The font type, font style and font size for the Contacts List table can be changed using the Page Body format dialogue.

Ordering the Contact List

The order of the Contacts in the Contact List can be arranged as you would like, by using the sorting functions (via the Page Layout Menu) or by moving individual rows using the Move Item functions (again see the Page Layout Menu for more details).

Deleting a Contact

Before a Contact can be deleted, the responsibilities for that Contact must be assigned to another person. Thus there must always be at least once Contact in the Contact List.

Page Format Dialogue

Action List over Time Page Format Dialogue

The Action List over Time page format dialogue allows you to format and configure the Action List over Time view to display the content you want to show.

The controls are logically grouped together into various tabs.

Date Range Tab

The Date Range tab controls the time period over which the Action List over Time shows therefore controlling the number of pages in the view.

The time period (or date width) of the Action List over Time is not the same as that of the Timeline. The view defaults to show the next 8 weeks with 4 weeks to a page, so it starts off two pages wide and as many pages deep as is needed to show the all the Actions, Meetings and Milestones in that time period. The maximum width of the Action List over Time is constrained to be:

With 4 weeks to a page, the maximum width is 13 pages (i.e. 52 weeks or a year)
With 1 week to page, the maximum width is 12 pages (i.e. approx 3 months)

The date range dialogue allows you to set the date range for display in the Action List over time in two ways:

Selecting the start and end dates using the calendars;
Importing the date range from the timeline by clicking on the "Import" button. Note: if the date range in the Timeline view is greater than the maximum width in the Action List over Time, then the full Timeline date range will not be displayed.

Timescale Rows Tab

The timescale rows tab allows you to select the format for the date rows that are displayed at the top of each of the Action List over Time view pages. Formats can be set separately for the dates in 4 week mode vs 5 or 7 day display mode:

The prefix section lets you pick a prefix for the date format. The available options are:

w/c (date); for week commencing followed by the date.
w.c. (date): for week commencing – followed by the date
Week (number): for “Week” followed by the number of the week in the year
W: for “W” followed by the number of the week in the year
w.e. (date): for week ending followed by the date
w/e. (date): for week ending followed by the date
(date): no prefix – just the date

Working Week Tab

The Working Week tab 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 Action List over Time

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

Display Mode Tab

The Display Mode tab contains the most important controls over the Action List over Time view allowing you to choose what to display and how it gets grouped and displayed.

The Display Mode section lets you choose the time period per page. There are three options:

4 weeks to a page – where each week is a column on the page;
5 days to a page – where each day is a column on the page, and the weekend is a very narrow column;
7 days to a page – where each day is a column on the page.

Note: you can also select these options from the Action List over Time view toolbar button

In the “Group Information by” section, you can choose:

Whether the Meetings, Milestones and Actions in the Action List over Time are grouped and displayed by Activity Group or by Contact (Responsibility)
When displaying the information by Activity Group, whether or not to show the Activity Group arrows, and whether the colour in the left hand column should match the arrows and their colour on the timeline, or remain dark blue.

The "Vertical Ordering" section allows you to choose the order in which the Activity Groups or Contacts get displayed. For Activity Groups there are four options:

As on the Timeline: this displays the Activity Groups in the order they appear on the timeline working left to right, and then down a row, and so on
By Activity Group start date
By Activity Group end date
Alphabetically (A-Z, or Z-A)

For Contacts (Responsibility) you can only select Alphabetical ordering (A-Z, or Z-A)

Description Font Tab

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

ALL

Meetings, Milestones and Actions in the Action List over Time.

This allows you to shrink / expand the font size easily to show more / less on the page, and also gives the page a uniform look. It overrides in this view any specific font you may have selected for a Meeting, Milestone or Action in the Action List or Activity Group Detail (whilst leaving those selections unchanged in those views).

The fonts for the left hand column (in blue) can be set using the Group Fonts tab in this same dialogue – see below.

Group Fonts Tab

The Group Font tab allows you to set the font, font style and font size for the column in the Action List over Time containing either the Activity Group names or the Contact Names. This column is the blue column on the left hand side of each page in the Action List over Time.

For information about changing the font of the Description text of each of the Meetings, Milestones and Actions in the Action List over Time see the Description Font tab above.

Date Formats Tab

The date format tab allows you to set a format for the dates that appear within the text of the Meetings, Milestones and Actions in the Action List over Time. 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.

Action List Over Time

Action List over Time

The Action List over Time provides a view of all the actions, meetings and milestones in the project laid out either by week (4 weeks to a page, see example below), or by day (5 or 7 days to a page).

It is a great view for creating, reviewing or updating “what needs to get done in the next week or few weeks”, or for reviewing what should have happened, as it gives you a perspective across all the Activity Groups.

The colours in the left hand column default to dark blue for all Activity Groups, but can be made to match the Activity Group colours on the timeline through using the Display Mode tab of the Page Body format dialogue

Adding Meetings, Milestones and Actions

There are a number of ways of adding new Meetings, Milestones and Actions into the Action List over Time:

Dragging and dropping the respective icons from the Toolbox section into the table
The menu (Insert > Meeting OR Milestone OR Action)
Clicking in a blank cell in the table

Editing the Detail of Meetings, Milestones or Actions

Only the name of the Meeting, Milestone or Action can be directly edited in Action List over Time table.

All other details can be accessed and edited by double-clicking on the Meeting icon (red circle), Milestone icon (green triangle) or Action icon (blue square). This brings up a single row table with the same detail that would be found in the Action List. Changes can be made and then committed by clicking on the tick.

Changing between Modes of the Action List over Time

There are a number of ways to switch between the three modes of the Action List over Time (4 weeks to a page, 5 day mode or 7 day mode):

In 4 weeks to page mode, double-clicking at the top of the page in the Timescale row, in the week that you want to go to, moves you to 5 / 7 day mode
Using the Page Body format dialogue on the Display mode tab
Using the Views toolbar

Grouping the Data in the Action List over Time

In the Action List over Time, the Meetings, Milestones and Actions can be grouped either by Activity Group or by Contact. You can choose which option you want to display in two ways:

Clicking on the top left cell in the table (where is says Activity Group or Contacts) and selecting either option from the dropdown to group the Meetings, Milestones and Actions.
Using the Page Body format dialogue to effect a similar change in the grouping of Meetings, Milestones and Actions

After this initial grouping by either Activity Group or Contact, the ordering of Meetings, Milestones and Actions will be firstly by date (only relevant for the 4 week mode), then Meetings ahead of Milestones, ahead of Actions, finally within each type ordering is alphabetically.

Display settings

Individual Activity Groups, Contacts, Meetings, Milestones or Actions in the Action List over Time view can be hidden using the right-click menu (or from the toolbar) so that you can choose what to share with others.

Page Format Dialogue

Action List Page Format Dialogue

The Action list page format dialogue allows you to format and configure the Action List view to display the content you want to show.

The controls are logically grouped together into various tabs.

Columns Tab

The Columns tab allows you to select the columns that you would like to display in the Action List view.

The Action List displays the "to do list" for the entire project across all the Activity Groups. Some or all of the following types of information can be displayed:

The Activity Group that the items belongs to;
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 tab 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 Activity Group, 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.

Description Font Tab

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 Action List and the Activity Group Detail.

The fonts for the other columns can be set using the Column Fonts tab in this same dialogue – see below for more information.

Column Fonts Tab

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

Date Format Tab

The date format dialogue allows you to set a format for the date in the due date column of the Action List 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.

Action List

This view is the "to do list" for the whole project, listing all the Meetings, Milestones and Actions across all of the Activity Groups. The table allows you to see and organise the full details of each Meeting, Milestone and Action.

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

Activity Group
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 the Page Body format dialogue

Adding Meetings, Milestones and Actions

There are a number of ways of adding new Meetings, Milestones and Actions into the Action List:

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 Action List

The order of the Meetings, Milestones and Actions in the Action List 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.

In addition the Activity Groups can be sorted in the order that they appear in the Timeline (each row from top to bottom then from left to right) by clicking on the Activity Group column header until the "By Timeline" icon appears.

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

Display settings

Individual rows in the view can be hidden using the right-click menu (or from the toolbar) so that you can choose what to share with others.