Formatting the Network Diagram View


In traditional project management, the Network Diagram is a standard way of representing project activities and their relationships. Tasks are represented as boxes, or nodes, and the relationships between tasks are drawn as lines connecting the nodes. Unlike a Gantt chart, which is a timescaled view, a Network Diagram enables you to view project activities in a manner more closely resembling a flowchart format. This is useful if you’d like to place more focus on the relationships between activities rather than on their durations.

Project provides substantial formatting options for the Network Diagram. In this section, you will use only a few of these formatting options. If you’re a heavy-duty Network Diagram user, you’ll want to explore the formatting options in greater detail on your own.

In this exercise, you format items in the Network Diagram view.

1. On the View menu, click Network Diagram.

The Network Diagram view appears. In this view, each task is represented by a box or node, and each node contains several pieces of information (or fields) about the task.

image from book

Tip 

Nodes with an X drawn through them represent completed tasks.

Next, you’ll replace the task ID values with the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) codes.

2. On the Format menu, click Box Styles.

Note that commands on the Format menu may change depending on the type of active view.

The Box Styles dialog box appears.

image from book

On the Style Settings For list, you can see all of the node box styles available in Project. The Preview box shows you the specific labels and fields displayed in each box style.

3. Click More Templates.

The Data Templates dialog box appears. Templates determine what fields appear in boxes (nodes) as well as their layout.

4. On the Templates in “Network Diagram” list, make sure that Standard is selected, and then click Copy.

The Data Template Definition dialog box appears. You want to add the WBS code value to the upper right corner of the node.

5. In the Template name box, type Standard+WBS.

6. Below Choose cell(s), click ID. This is the field you will replace.

7. Click WBS on the drop-down list of fields, and then press the image from book key.

Pressing the image from book key causes Project to update the preview in the dialog box.

image from book

8. Click OK to close the Data Template Definition dialog box.

9. Click Close to close the Data Templates dialog box.

10. In the Box Styles dialog box, under Style settings for, select Critical, and while holding the image from book key, click Noncritical Milestone.

The four types of subtasks are selected.

11. In the Data template box, select Standard+WBS from the drop-down list.

image from book

12. Click OK to close the Box Styles dialog box.

Project applies the revised box style to nodes in the Network Diagram.

image from book

Now for these box styles, the WBS value appears in the upper right corner of each box rather than the Task ID.

Here are some additional things to consider when working in the Network Diagram view:

  • In the Network Diagram view, you can format all boxes with the Box Styles command on the Format menu, or you can format just the active box with the Box command. This is similar to the Bar Styles and Bar commands available on the Format menu when you have a Gantt Chart view displayed.

  • If you have Visio 2007 or later, you can generate a Visio visual report that is similar to a network diagram view. Visio visual reports are PivotDiagrams that you can customize. For more information about visual reports, see Chapter 12, “Sharing Project Information with Other Programs.”




Microsoft Office Project 2007 Step by Step
MicrosoftВ® Office Project 2007 Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft))
ISBN: 0735623058
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 247

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