Graphical View 

Use

Along with the table view and the detail view, a graphical view is available in the form of a Gantt chart for you to use when editing projects. By moving, lengthening, or shortening the bar you can change the fixed start and finish dates, as well as the duration of a project element. You can obtain information about the project element by positioning your mouse on the bar.

Furthermore, you can create relationships between two tasks.

You cannot make any changes if you opened a snapshot.

Prerequisites

You opened a project, template, task, or checklist item for editing.

Features

General Functions

●      You can choose which view of the calendar you want the system to display in the graphic from the View dropdown box. If you selected the Overview view, the system automatically uses the calendar view that best suits the duration of the process. The view does not contain the dates from the object links.

●      When you select a project element in the structure, the system automatically positions the calendar in such a way that the start of the project element appears at the left edge.

●      The Navigate button allows you to specify the section of the project you want the graphic to display.

●      You use the Print button to print the current project. The Print Preview button allows you to set print parameters and display the current appearance of the graphic for printing. In the standard system, the entire duration of the project and all displayed rows are printed. If you want to create a title for the printout, you can change the header of the graphical view.

Display

●      If you use object links and have specified a date type in the user settings, the linked SAP objects are displayed as separate bars.

●      Tasks you flagged as milestones are indicated by the icon .

●      Tasks whose buffer is less than or equal to 0 are part of a critical path. These are displayed in red unless they have already been flagged as milestones.

●      You can determine the percentage complete of a task by looking at the degree to which the corresponding bar in the graphic is filled.

●      Checklists do not appear in the graphic. Checklist items are indicated by the  icon.

Editing Project Elements

●      You can change the duration by clicking the date bar to select it and lengthening or shortening the end of the date bar while holding down the mouse button. If constraints have been set for the start and finish dates, you cannot adjust the duration by changing the constraint dates.

●      You can move a project element without changing the duration by placing the mouse pointer on the bar and moving the bar to the left or right while holding down the mouse button.

When you move a project element, the system automatically sets the constraint type Must start on if the constraint type Must finish on has not already been set.

The system uses the start date and finish date to calculate the duration of the project element. You can change the duration by modifying the constraint types.

If the constraint type Must finish on is set, the system updates the finish date of the project element when it moves it.

If the constraint type Must start on is set, the system updates the start date of the project element when it moves it.

If both constraint types are set, the system updates the start date and the finish date of the project element when it moves it.

●      You can also change the dates by selecting a project element in the structure and choosing Specify Dates or by setting the constraint types and dates in the table part of the graphical view.

●      You can create a finish-start relationship. To do this, choose one of the following options:

○       Choose Node → Add Edge in the context menu of the bar that is to be the predecessor in the relationship and pull the joining line to the start of the successor with the mouse button held down.

○       Hold the Alt key down and pull a joining line from the predecessor to the successor.

All other relationship types can only be created in the detail view (see Editing the Relationship Between Tasks).

●      You can change the properties of a joining line by choosing Edge → Edge Properties in the context menu of a line.

Activities

To open the graphical view, choose the Graphic button.