Post on 31-Aug-2020
February 2020
SWIMLANE TIMELINE USER’S GUIDE
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Swimlane Timeline™ User’s Guide v10 Visio 2013-2019 Quickly convert PROJECT, EXCEL, PROJECT SERVER, PROJECT ONLINE and SHAREPOINT TASK LIST data into standardized project, portfolio and roadmap reports that are easy to generate, customize refresh and share with others in WORD, PDF documents, and POWERPOINT Slides.
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SWIMLANE TIMELINE USER’S GUIDE
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Table of Contents
Swimlane Timeline Installation ........................................................................................................................................ 7
System Requirements .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Determining 32bit or 64bit Swimlane Timeline ................................................................................................................... 7
Installing the Swimlane Timeline ......................................................................................................................................... 7
Removing the Swimlane Timeline ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Registration & Activation ................................................................................................................................................. 8
Activate Over the Internet ................................................................................................................................................... 9
Activate Manually by Entering a Code ............................................................................................................................... 10
Installation Verification .................................................................................................................................................. 11
Project Demo Test.............................................................................................................................................................. 11
Excel Demo Test ................................................................................................................................................................. 14
Getting Started............................................................................................................................................................... 16
Methods of starting the Swimlane Timeline ...................................................................................................................... 16
International Languages .................................................................................................................................................... 17
Source Selection Dialogue ................................................................................................................................................. 18
Multiple Source Files .......................................................................................................................................................... 19
Master Projects .................................................................................................................................................................. 19
Swimlane Timeline Environment ....................................................................................................................................... 20
Quick Tour ...................................................................................................................................................................... 23
Task Filtering ...................................................................................................................................................................... 24
Displayed Text .................................................................................................................................................................... 26
Timeline Rows .................................................................................................................................................................... 27
Color Palette ...................................................................................................................................................................... 28
Font Settings ...................................................................................................................................................................... 29
Date Markers ..................................................................................................................................................................... 29
Swimlane Grouping ............................................................................................................................................................ 31
Outline Levels..................................................................................................................................................................... 32
Save & Refresh ................................................................................................................................................................... 33
Source Files .................................................................................................................................................................... 34
MS Project Source Fields .................................................................................................................................................... 34
Excel Source Fields ............................................................................................................................................................. 35
SharePoint Task List Fields ................................................................................................................................................. 36
Special Swimlane Timeline Fields ...................................................................................................................................... 36
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Menu - Swimlane Timeline ............................................................................................................................................. 37
Filter ................................................................................................................................................................................... 37
Group ................................................................................................................................................................................. 37
Sort ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 37
Levels ................................................................................................................................................................................. 38
Height ................................................................................................................................................................................. 38
Text Position & Alignment ................................................................................................................................................. 38
Task Selection .................................................................................................................................................................... 39
Swimlane Stack .................................................................................................................................................................. 39
Page Width ......................................................................................................................................................................... 40
Vertical Spacing .................................................................................................................................................................. 40
Single Page ......................................................................................................................................................................... 41
Timeline Rows .................................................................................................................................................................... 42
Date Markers ..................................................................................................................................................................... 44
Date Range ......................................................................................................................................................................... 46
Style ................................................................................................................................................................................... 47
Palette ................................................................................................................................................................................ 48
Font .................................................................................................................................................................................... 49
Text .................................................................................................................................................................................... 50
Overrides ............................................................................................................................................................................ 51
Format................................................................................................................................................................................ 52
xLegend .............................................................................................................................................................................. 52
Refresh ............................................................................................................................................................................... 53
Copy ................................................................................................................................................................................... 53
Paginate ............................................................................................................................................................................. 53
Export to PDF ..................................................................................................................................................................... 53
PowerPoint ........................................................................................................................................................................ 54
Menu - ST Add/Show ..................................................................................................................................................... 55
Date Line ............................................................................................................................................................................ 55
Highlight Window .............................................................................................................................................................. 56
New Page ........................................................................................................................................................................... 57
Task Dependencies ............................................................................................................................................................ 57
Task Color ........................................................................................................................................................................... 58
Milestone Type .................................................................................................................................................................. 58
Critical Tasks ...................................................................................................................................................................... 59
Active Tasks Only ............................................................................................................................................................... 59
Endpoint Arrows ................................................................................................................................................................ 59
Today Line .......................................................................................................................................................................... 59
Subheadings ....................................................................................................................................................................... 59
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Footer................................................................................................................................................................................. 60
Date Marker Legend .......................................................................................................................................................... 60
Title .................................................................................................................................................................................... 60
Format Legend ................................................................................................................................................................... 60
Shading .............................................................................................................................................................................. 60
Show Baseline .................................................................................................................................................................... 61
Summary Fields .................................................................................................................................................................. 61
Resource View ................................................................................................................................................................... 62
Layout ................................................................................................................................................................................ 62
Menu - ST Manage ......................................................................................................................................................... 64
Custom Styles ..................................................................................................................................................................... 64
Custom Filters .................................................................................................................................................................... 66
Custom Group By ............................................................................................................................................................... 69
Custom Palette................................................................................................................................................................... 70
Custom Font ....................................................................................................................................................................... 71
Custom Text ....................................................................................................................................................................... 72
Custom Overrides .............................................................................................................................................................. 73
Custom Conditional Format ............................................................................................................................................... 74
Custom xLegends ............................................................................................................................................................... 76
Custom Milestones ............................................................................................................................................................ 78
Drawing Mode ................................................................................................................................................................... 80
Run Batch ........................................................................................................................................................................... 80
Regenerate Drawing .......................................................................................................................................................... 80
Shared Folder ..................................................................................................................................................................... 81
Drawing Logo ..................................................................................................................................................................... 81
Map Fields .......................................................................................................................................................................... 82
Export Unlocked ................................................................................................................................................................. 82
What’s New ........................................................................................................................................................................ 83
Quick Start ......................................................................................................................................................................... 83
User’s Guide ....................................................................................................................................................................... 83
About ................................................................................................................................................................................. 84
Right Click – Timeline Rows ............................................................................................................................................ 85
Hide/Show Date Line ......................................................................................................................................................... 85
Show Selected Date Range ................................................................................................................................................ 85
Show Full Date Range of All Visible Tasks .......................................................................................................................... 85
Remove Calendar Row ....................................................................................................................................................... 85
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Right Click – Swimlane Name ......................................................................................................................................... 86
Delete Swim Lane .............................................................................................................................................................. 86
Drill-in ................................................................................................................................................................................ 86
Create New Page ................................................................................................................................................................ 86
Apply Text Settings to All Swimlanes ................................................................................................................................. 87
Show Dependencies ........................................................................................................................................................... 87
Select Shapes in Swim Lane ............................................................................................................................................... 87
Re-layout Swimlanes .......................................................................................................................................................... 87
Expand/Compress/Relational/Grouped Swimlanes .......................................................................................................... 88
Project Task Hyperlink ....................................................................................................................................................... 89
Right Click – Task ............................................................................................................................................................ 90
Drill-in ................................................................................................................................................................................ 90
Overlap Tasks ..................................................................................................................................................................... 90
Remove from Overlap ........................................................................................................................................................ 91
Text Position – Above/Within/Below/Left of Task/Right of Task ...................................................................................... 91
Text Alignment – Left/Center/Right................................................................................................................................... 91
Single Line of Text .............................................................................................................................................................. 91
Text Hidden ........................................................................................................................................................................ 91
Apply Text Settings to All Tasks, All Intervals, or All Milestones ........................................................................................ 91
Create Dependency ........................................................................................................................................................... 91
Show Date Markers ............................................................................................................................................................ 92
Change Milestone Type ..................................................................................................................................................... 92
Change Milestone Height ................................................................................................................................................... 92
Hyperlink to Project Task or Excel Row .............................................................................................................................. 92
Right Click – Page Border ............................................................................................................................................... 93
Show Timeline at Top ........................................................................................................................................................ 93
Show Timeline at Bottom .................................................................................................................................................. 93
Select Resources…. ............................................................................................................................................................ 93
Select All Intervals .............................................................................................................................................................. 94
Select All Milestones .......................................................................................................................................................... 94
Select All Tasks ................................................................................................................................................................... 94
Show Shape Data Window ................................................................................................................................................. 94
Show Color Definitions....................................................................................................................................................... 94
Hide Text Definitions.......................................................................................................................................................... 95
Show Task Mode Highlight................................................................................................................................................. 95
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Working with Tasks ........................................................................................................................................................ 96
Selecting Tasks ................................................................................................................................................................... 96
Task Right-Click Text Position Options ............................................................................................................................... 96
Page Level Task Text Formatting ....................................................................................................................................... 96
Project & Excel Task Hyperlink ........................................................................................................................................... 96
Working with Swimlanes ................................................................................................................................................ 97
Selecting Swimlanes ........................................................................................................................................................... 97
Changing Swimlane Titles .................................................................................................................................................. 97
Sort Swimlanes................................................................................................................................................................... 98
Drag & Drop Swimlanes ..................................................................................................................................................... 98
Swimlane Title Width ......................................................................................................................................................... 99
Multiple Page Reports .................................................................................................................................................. 100
Add New Page .................................................................................................................................................................. 100
Drill-in Swimlane .............................................................................................................................................................. 100
Create New Page .............................................................................................................................................................. 100
Auto Drill-in ...................................................................................................................................................................... 100
Sharing Reports ............................................................................................................................................................ 100
Print to Paper ................................................................................................................................................................... 100
Save As File Formats ........................................................................................................................................................ 102
Printing to PDF ................................................................................................................................................................. 102
Free Visio Viewer ............................................................................................................................................................. 102
Save as a Web Page ......................................................................................................................................................... 102
Visio Tips ...................................................................................................................................................................... 105
Dynamic Pan and Zoom ................................................................................................................................................... 105
Status Bar ......................................................................................................................................................................... 105
Shape Data Window ........................................................................................................................................................ 106
Appendix A – EXCEL Source Guidelines ........................................................................................................................ 108
Excel Special Field Names ................................................................................................................................................ 109
Excel Dummy Row ........................................................................................................................................................... 110
Swimlane Timeline Custom Setting File Locations ........................................................................................................ 111
Notes ........................................................................................................................................................................... 112
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Swimlane Timeline Installation
System Requirements
1) Microsoft Operating Systems: Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10 2) Microsoft Visio Standard or Professional version 2013-2019 3) Microsoft Office version 2013-2019 in any suite, including Office 365 4) To work with Microsoft Project (MPP) files requires Microsoft Project (2007-2019)
Project Online & Project Server requires matching Project Professional Edition
Running “Setup” will search for the following prerequisites and install them if not found:
Microsoft .NET Framework
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime
Determining 32bit or 64bit Swimlane Timeline
Determine if you need to install the 32bit or 64bit version of the Swimlane Timeline by opening a new Visio
blank drawing, and then navigating to “Visio/File/Account/About” or “Visio/File/Help/About” and the 32bit or
64bit designation is displayed at the end of the Visio version number located in the top line of the dialogue as
shown below:
If you see “32-bit” then install the 32bit Swimlane Timeline. If you see “64-bit”, then install the 64bit
Swimlane Timeline.
Installing the Swimlane Timeline
Installing the Swimlane Timeline is accomplished by double-clicking on the Visibility.biz Swimlane Timeline Setup.EXE file. Running “Setup.exe” will check for pre-requisites, and allow users to install them if needed. For silent install, users can run the MSI file from a command prompt with “/qn” option. Users may want to temporarily disable anti-virus software during the installation process since some protection software, like McAfee and Norton, can prevent important low level files from being installed.
Removing the Swimlane Timeline
Users can un-install the Swimlane Timeline through the Windows Control Panel. NOTE: Removing the Swimlane Timeline frees the Swimlane Timeline Serial Number for re-registration and activation on another machine or to upgrade to a newer software version.
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Registration & Activation TIP: Prior to registering, copy your Serial Number to the Windows Clipboard and it will auto-fill in the
Registration dialogue.
When you first run the Swimlane Timeline you are presented with a screen that looks like the dialogue below.
NOTE: If you don’t see this dialogue, then start the Swimlane Timeline using the alternate method from within
Visio via “Visio/File/New/Categories/Visibility.biz”.
Select “Register” and you will see this:
Enter your Name, Organization, Serial Number, and E-mail address, make sure that you have access to the
internet and select “Register”.
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Activate Over the Internet
After registering, you may see the following Activation dialogue:
Select “Activate over the Internet”, and wait a few seconds and you will get a message that the Activation was
successful.
NOTE: If you run into any corporate Proxy Server issues accessing the Swimlane Timeline License Server over
the internet, then try to login to your proxy server and include the Port address. For example: http://<proxy
server>:8080 if your proxy server uses port 8080. If that doesn’t work, then you can use the alternative
“Activate by Entering a Code” option.
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SWIMLANE TIMELINE USER’S GUIDE
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Activate Manually by Entering a Code
If your organization prevents internet access to our Licensing Server then choose the “Activate by Entering a
Code” option to activate offline.
STD-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXX-XXXX
XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Select the “Copy to Clipboard” option available on the left side of the dialogue, and paste the contents of the
Clipboard into an e-mail to customer.support@visibility.biz and we will email you back a Manual Activation
Code.
Now you are ready to start using the Swimlane Timeline!
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Installation Verification You’ve just installed the Swimlane Timeline. Let’s quickly verify that your installation of the Swimlane
Timeline is working properly by running a couple of tests using our known working demo source files.
This verification process will only take a couple of minutes, and it will give you a chance to see some of the
power of the Swimlane Timeline.
You will perform these tests using a Project and an Excel Demo file that were installed with the Swimlane
Timeline. Again, the tests will only take a few minutes, and they are a valuable check before working with
your own source files.
Project Demo Test
NOTE: If you are using Project Professional, then please work with the Demo files unconnected to Project
Server or Project Online by opening the Demo files using your local “Computer” account.
Step 1) Start the Swimlane Timeline from the desktop shortcut, and when the source data dialogue pops up,
select “Add File(s)…”
Step 2) Browse to the Swimlane Timeline installation “Demos” folder. This may already be the default folder,
but if not then you can browse to the Demos folder that will normally be located in one of these
locations depending on your PC environment:
C:\Program Files(x86)\Visibility.Biz\Visibility.biz Swimlane Timeline 32bit VSTO (vx.xx)\Demos
C:\Program Files\Visibility.Biz\Visibility.biz Swimlane Timeline 64bit VSTO (vx.xx)\Demos
Step 3) Select the “Demo 9 – Strategic Roadmap” MPP demo file and click OK.
If the “MS Project/Visibility/Pre-Filter” checkbox is set, then when you are presented with the Pre-
Filter/Style dialogue. Select “No Filter” and “Default Style” as shown below:
This generate the default Swimlane Timeline report, and will look like this:
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The Title is driven by the project Summary Row 0 (Outline Level 0) Task Name field. The default swimlanes are driven by the project plan (Outline Level 1) Task Names, and default tasks within the swimlanes are the Task Names in the project plan at (Outline level 2). This is the default view. Now, let’s extend the Swimlane Timeline pick lists to add the custom demo color palettes, demo styles, demo conditional format views and legends, etc. that are residing in the Demos folder. Many companies uses this feature to share Swimlane Timeline corporate standard settings with all users.
Step 4) Use the “ST Manage/Shared Folder/Select Folder” option to select the “Demos” folder location. You
will find it in the “Folder Name” drop-down pick list as shown below:
Now to see some of the real time-saving power of the Swimlane Timeline, and also verify your installation works with Project Source files, let’s apply a custom demo Style that, with 1-click, will apply a number of predefined settings.
Step 5) Now that the custom pick list items from the Demos folder have been added to the respective Swimlane Timeline options, you can use the “Swimlane Timeline/Style” option and select the following drop-down pick list item, “Demo 9 - Strategic Roadmap (Fiscal Year July 1)”.
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With 1-click, this custom Style performs the following predefined actions:
Changes the Outline Levels visible from 2 to 3 levels
Changes the Page Width to 11 inches
Changes the Vertical Spacing to Autofit to Width for a US Letter (8.5in x 11in) page
Changes the Timeline Rows to show Fiscal Years, Months then Quarters on the bottom
Changes the Color Palette
Changes the Font Settings
Shows the Dependency Connectors
Applies a Conditional Format View with Legend
The resulting professional looking, information-rich, report is shown below:
If you see the above Swimlane Timeline report, then you have verified that your installation of the Swimlane Timeline works with Project source files, and you are all set to begin working with your own Project plans.
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Excel Demo Test
Step 1) Start the Swimlane Timeline from the desktop shortcut
Step 2) When the source data dialogue pops up, select “Add File(s)…” You may need to use the file type drop-
down to change the “File Type” setting from “Project Type (*.mpp)” to “Excel File (*.xls;*.xlsx;*.xlsm)”.
Step 3) Browse to the Swimlane Timeline installation “Demos” folder if you are not already there. The Demos
folder is located in one of these locations depending on your PC environment:
C:\Program Files(x86)\Visibility.Biz\Visibility.biz Swimlane Timeline 32bit VSTO (vx.xx)\Demos
C:\Program Files\Visibility.Biz\Visibility.biz Swimlane Timeline 32bit VSTO (vx.xx)\Demos
Step 4) Select the “Demo 8 – Portfolio Status” XLS demo file and click OK. This will bring up a dialogue that
allows you to specify how you would like the source data grouped and filtered, and it also allows you
to select a custom pre-defined Style. Select Group-by “Project Status”, “No Filter” and “Default Style”:
Step 5) If you haven’t done so already during the previous Project Demo Test, after the initial drawing is
generated, use the “ST Manage/Shared Folder/Select Folder” option to select the “Demos” folder
location. You will find it in the “Folder Name” drop-down pick list:
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Step 6) Use the “Swimlane Timeline/Style” option to select the “Demo 8 – Portfolio Status” demo style, and
give the Swimlane Timeline a few seconds to apply all of the Style settings that include:
o Group projects in the Excel source file by “Project Type”
o Sort projects within swimlanes by “Project Status”
o Change Display Text Settings to use “Interval - Name (Percent Complete)”
o Change Font Setting to “Trebuchet”
o Change Shading to be “None”
o Turn Date Markers Off
o Apply the Conditional Format View and Legend “Demo 8 – Project Status”
The resulting report created from the 1-click predefined demo Style will look like this:
If you see the above Swimlane Timeline report, then you have verified that your installation of the Swimlane Timeline works with Excel source files, and you can begin working with your own Excel source files. Please feel free to review the contents of the sample Demo 8 Excel source file to get an idea of how to set up your own Excel files. You may also want to review the “Appendix A – Excel Source Guidelines” in this User’s Guide for more detailed information on working with Excel files.
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Getting Started
Methods of starting the Swimlane Timeline
Users can start the Swimlane Timeline in multiple ways:
From within Project
From within Visio
Desktop Shortcut
Windows Start Menu
From within Project
The Create Swimlane Timeline options can be found in MS Project in either the “Visibility” Ribbon as shown
below:
Create from Active Project o This option creates a report from just the current active project source data
Create from Open Projects o This option creates a portfolio report from all opened projects source data
From within Visio
In Visio, go to the “File/New/Categories/Visibility.biz” folder, and double-click on the Swimlane Timeline
Solution image that looks like the preview below.
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Desktop Shortcut
As part of the Swimlane Timeline installation, a new Swimlane Timeline shortcut is added to your desktop.
The new shortcut looks similar to this:
Windows Start Icon
In Windows 7, select “Start/Programs/Visibility.biz/Swimlane Timeline”. In Windows 8, you will start the
Swimlane Timeline application from the Metro interface.
International Languages
The Swimlane Timeline works with non-English versions of Visio, Office and Project if users ensure their MS
Project “Display Language” is set to English as shown below:
Go into MS Project and select “File/Options/Language”
Make sure the "Display" Language is set to English
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Source Selection Dialogue
If you choose to start the Swimlane Timeline from either the Desktop Shortcut or from the Start Menu, then
after Visio starts, you are presented with the Swimlane Timeline data source selection dialogue similar to this:
Add File(s)
Use the “Add File(s)” option if you want to add either a single or multiple MPP or Excel XLS/XLSX/XLSM files. A
complete list of Excel source file guidelines can be found in Appendix A. Using the “Add File(s)” option will
open source files in Read-Only mode.
Add Active Project(s)
Use the “Add Active Projects(s)” option if your schedules are already open in Microsoft Project. This is an
alternative method of generating a Swimlane Timeline of Project Server schedules in addition to using the
“Create Swimlane Timeline….” options within Project.
Add SharePoint Site…
This option only available if you have installed the Swimlane Timeline Professional Edition. When the “Add
SharePoint Site…” option is selected, users are presented with a dialogue to specify the site as shown below:
NOTE: If the SharePoint site is already open in a browser then the “User Name” and “Password” are not
required. All SharePoint Task List fields in the current view are read into the Swimlane Timeline.
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Referencing Source Files & Reports in Network Drives
Users can reference source MPP and Excel files that are located in a shared Network Drive or SharePoint
Document Library by using the Microsoft Windows “Mapped Network Drive” feature to map the folder to a
local drive letter (A through Z), and then navigating to that folder using the “Add File(s)…” option in the Source
Selection Dialogue.
To map a network drive to a drive letter you can go into the Windows File Explorer and click on “Computer”.
Select the “Tools/Map network drive…” option or the “Map network drive” option in the ribbon menu.
Multiple Source Files
Portfolio views can be generated on the fly by selecting multiple data sources. It is recommended that you
standardize task field names for custom fields used in each of the source files in order to best leverage the
Swimlane Timeline Filter, Group, and Sort capabilities within Swimlane Timeline reports.
Master Projects
The Swimlane Timeline can be used with master projects containing subprojects.
TIP: Before inserting Sub-projects into a Master Project, remember to create identical Sub-Project custom
task field names in the Master Project so Sub-project custom task field values are automatically brought into
the Master Project.
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Swimlane Timeline Environment
Logo
You can customize the default logo that appears in the top left of every Swimlane Timeline report by using the
“Drawing Logo” option in the “ST Manage” menu. The option supports either JPG or PNG images. You also
have the ability to toggle the Logo On/Off.
Title
The default Swimlane Timeline Title is taken from the source file summary task “0” Task Name for Project
Schedules, and is taken from the source file name for Excel files.
NOTE: Users can show and edit the project Summary Task row in Project schedules by using the “Project
Summary Task” checkbox in the Project 2010-2013 “Format” Ribbon Show/Hide Group, or the Project 2003-
2007 Tools/Options “Show project summary task” checkbox.
Subheading
By default the subheading is turned on and displays the Group-by, Filter-by, and Sort-by fields that have been
applied. The subheadings can be toggled on/off with the “ST Add/Show-Subheadings” option.
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Timeline Rows
By default, the Swimlane Timeline creates a timeline at the top that encompasses the entire date range of the
specified data sources. Users can override the default timeline by using the “Swimlane Timeline/Timeline
Rows” option. Selecting the option display the following dialogue:
If you choose “Custom”, then you can individually, or CTRL-select multiple, time intervals to display, and adjust
their display order using the “Move Up” and “Move Down” buttons. The lowest interval selected will have
dotted lines that run throughout all swimlanes. Users also have the option of turning off the weekend
highlight color that displays when the “1 Day” time interval is selected as the lowest timeline row.
Swimlanes
The Swimlanes are the containers for the tasks and activities that reside within them. When users Group-by a
selected field then swimlanes are created for each unique Group-by field value encountered in the data. The
default Group-by field indicated by “No Grouping” is the work breakdown structure Outline Number field.
Tasks
Items displayed within swimlanes are referred to as tasks or activities. If a task has a Start Date/Time that
differs from the Finish Date/Time, then we call it an “Interval”. If the Start Date/Time is the same as the Finish
Date/Time, then we call it a “Milestone”. Tasks are displayed using a relational layout that will place child
tasks under parent tasks. This default layout style can be changed using the Swimlane Timeline “Layout”
option.
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High Level Milestones Swimlane
The High Level Milestone swimlane is a special swimlane that includes all milestones at the same Outline Level
as the swimlanes themselves. If desired it can be moved by clicking on the swimlane name and dragging it to a
new position in the swimlane vertical stack.
Today’s Date Line
By default, the Today’s Date line is turned on and shown in red across all swimlanes. You can use the “ST
Add/Show” menu “Today Line” option to toggle the Today’s Date line On/Off. If today’s date is outside of the
Swimlane Timeline displayed Date Range, then it is not displayed.
Footer
The Footer contains the Swimlane Timeline report creation date, the Project modified date, and the Created
by name.
Creation Date
The Creation Date is the date and time stamp when the Swimlane Timeline was created. The date
format is taken directly from the Windows OS Region settings.
Project Modified Date
The Project Modified Date is the date that the project schedule was last modified. The date format is
taken directly from the Windows OS Region settings.
Created by
The “Created by” name comes from the Visio 2010 “File/Options/General” User name specified in the
“Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office” section as shown below:
Changes made to the “User name” field are applied the next time the Swimlane Timeline is started,
and the new user name specified will show in the Swimlane Timeline “Created by” field in the footer.
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Quick Tour To begin the tour, let’s open the “Demo 4 - Swimlane Timeline” MPP sample file in the installation Demos
folder; normally located in one of these two locations depending on your PC environment:
C:\Program Files(x86)\Visibility.Biz\Visibility.biz Swimlane Timeline 32bit VSTO (vx.xx)\Demos
C:\Program Files\Visibility.Biz\Visibility.biz Swimlane Timeline 32bit VSTO (vx.xx)\Demos
NOTE: If you are using Project Professional with Project Server, then please work with the Demo files unconnected
to Project Server by opening the Demo files using your local “Computer” account.
Click on the Swimlane Timeline “Visibility” tab at the top of the MS Project application, and select “Create
Swimlane Timeline from Active Project” that will fire up the Swimlane Timeline solution. If the Pre-Filter/Style
checkbox is set, then when you are presented with the Pre-Filter/Style dialogue. Select “No Filter” and
“Default Style” as shown below:
You should now be looking at the default Swimlane Timeline report that looks something similar to this:
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This is the default Swimlane Timeline view of this project plan. The Title is taken from the project Summary Row 0 Task Name field. The swimlanes are driven by the project plan (Outline Level 1) Task Names, and the tasks visible within the swimlanes are the (Outline Level 2) Task Names in the project plan. If the Swimlane Timeline default drawing was what you wanted to share with others, then at this point you
could select the “Swimlane Timeline/PowerPoint” option to send it to PowerPoint, or you could use the Visio
Save As option to save it to a PDF file, or you could use the “Swimlane Timeline/Copy” option to copy the
Swimlane Timeline report and paste it into a Word document.
Let’s assume, however, that you want to further customize your report, and take a look at some of the other
powerful Swimlane Timeline features.
Task Filtering
Let’s return to the opened Demo 4 project plan for a minute. You should be seeing something like this:
Notice that there is a Custom Task Flag field named “Company Critical”. This flag is used as a way to identify
those tasks that management really care about, and that they want to see displayed in the report - as opposed
to what Project has designated as a “Critical” task.
The Swimlane Timeline can filter on flags, text, and even date fields. Let’s go back to Visio and the Swimlane
Timeline we generated, and filter the tasks so that we are only looking at “Company Critical” tasks by using the
“Swimlane Timeline/Filter” option and select to filter by the “Company Critical” field in the project schedule as
shown below:
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Notice that the administrative tasks are now removed from the report. The Swimlane Timeline also allows
users to create custom re-usable filter-by-value settings in the “ST Manage/Filter” option.
The Date Range goes through mid-May so some text is falling outside of the report. You can quickly resolve
this in one of two ways: 1) Extend the Date Range to include the full month of May, and 2) Change the Text
Positioning to “Align Right”. To easily extend the Date Range select the month of “Nov” and then shift-select
the month of “May”, and then right-click on the word “May” and select “Show Selected Date Range” as shown
below:
Now the report should look like this with the entire month of May visible in the timeline date range:
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Displayed Text
Let’s return to the open Demo 4 project plan.
Notice that there is a Custom Task Text field named “VisibilityShortName”. You can override the default
“Name” field displayed on tasks by using the custom “Swimlane Timeline/Text/Visibility Short Name” option.
When selected, notice that the task names in the report are now displaying the alternate VisibilityShortName
text. The Swimlane Timeline/Text option allows users to create custom re-usable named display text settings
to quickly change the text displayed.
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Timeline Rows
Let’s change the Timeline Rows displayed at the top to be “Year”, “Quarter” and “Month” by selecting the “Swimlane Timeline/Timeline Rows” option and using the “Custom” command as shown below:
Now, let’s make sure that we are seeing the entire date range of the project by right-clicking on any Timeline Row interval (like “Nov”), and select “Show Full Date Range of All Visible Tasks” as shown below:
You should now be looking at a report that looks like this:
If you would like to change the task text alignment for any tasks, shift-select multiple tasks and then use the Text alignment option icons in the Swimlane Timeline menu or right-click to modify the text positions.
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Color Palette
The Swimlane Timeline defaults to using the “Primary” color palette. Use the “Swimlane Timeline/Color
Palette” option to change the colors being used to be based on another Color Palette, like “Secondary”:
The Swimlane Timeline also allows users to create custom re-usable named Color Palette settings to quickly
change the colors displayed. Custom Palettes are created using the “Palette” option in the ST Manage menu.
You should now be looking at a report that looks like this:
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Font Settings
The Swimlane Timeline defaults to using “Calibri” fonts for all items, but you can change all of the font formats
by using the “Swimlane Timeline/Font Settings” option to change the fonts to be “Palatino” as shown below:
The Swimlane Timeline also allows users to create custom re-usable named Font Settings to quickly change
the font formats for all and individual pieces of the Swimlane Timeline. For example, you could change the
font format for Timeline Row text to be white and bold Times New Roman text size 10pt. Custom Font
Settings are created using the “Font” option in the ST Manage menu.
Date Markers
Let’s go back to Microsoft Project for a minute. Notice that there is a custom task Date Field called “Gate
Review”, and if you look down the schedule you will see that the “Phase 1 Development” summary task has a
Gate Review date value of “11/1/12” as shown below
Let’s go back to the Swimlane Timeline, and add a Date Marker for the Gate Review dates. There are 2 parts
of the “Swimlane Timeline/Date Marker” option icon. The top part toggles Date Markers On/Off, and the
bottom part allows you to “Manage Date Markers”. When you select the Manage Date Markers option you
will see this dialogue:
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We are going to add a new Date Marker to show the Gate Review dates. Select “Add”, and then use the
“Select Field” picklist to pick the “Gate Review (Date4)” item as shown below:
Then select the “Marker on Top” checkbox, and use a “Custom” date format of “MMMd”, and then select
“Format Marker…” and change the color of the Date Marker to be red. Click OK to accept for all dialogues that
are presented, and you will see the Gate Review Date Markers shown in the Swimlane Timeline as shown
below:
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Swimlane Grouping
There is only one more feature to demonstrate before we are done with this Quick Tour, and that is the
“Group-by” option. Let’s go back to Microsoft Project for a moment.
Notice that there is a custom task text field named “Functional Area”. As you scan down the project schedule
you will see that there are various functional areas values assigned to some of the tasks. What we are going
to cover now is how the Swimlane Timeline allows you to re-group swimlanes by field values. Let’s switch
back to Visio.
From the Group option in the Swimlane Timeline Ribbon select “Functional Area (Text4)”from the pick list as
shown below:
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You should now be looking at a report that looks like this:
We are seeing a swimlane titled “<no value>” because there are tasks beneath those summary tasks that have
“Company Critical” set to “True” but we can’t see them yet because are only showing 2 Outline Levels deep.
Outline Levels
For the scenario thus far, we have been working with the Swimlane Timeline only showing tasks going “2
Levels” deep in our project schedule. Since we have the “Company Critical” filter applied and I want to see all
Company Critical tasks throughout the entire schedule, let’s change from looking at “2 Levels” deep to looking
at “All Levels” deep. From the Swimlane Timeline Ribbon select the “Levels” option pick list, and then select
“All Levels” as shown below:
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You should now be looking at a report that looks like this:
Save & Refresh
Now that we are done with the report we can use the Swimlane Timeline Ribbon “Export” Group options to
send the report to “PowerPoint”, Export to PDF or “Copy” it to the clipboard in order to either Paste-Special
in a WORD document as a bitmap or enhanced metafile.
Finally, we can save this Swimlane Timeline report in native Visio file format, and then at some later date,
after the source schedule has changed, simply re-open the report, and use the “Swimlane Timeline/Refresh”
option to automatically update and refresh the report with the latest source data.
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Source Files
MS Project Source Fields
The Create Swimlane Timeline options can be found in MS Project in either the “Visibility” Ribbon as shown
below:
Create from Active Project o This option creates a report from just the current active project source data
Create from Open Projects o This option creates a portfolio report from all opened projects source data
Show Pre-Filter/Style o If checked, this option allows you to pre-apply just a Filter, or pre-apply a whole Style
Enterprise Projects: Enforce Checked-In o MS Project can cause Project Server and Project Online internal database syncronization
issues when creating Swimlane Timeline reports with checked-out enterprise projects. Users can avoid these issues with the Enterprise Projects: Enforce Checked-In option to ensure all Project Server and Project Online schedules are checked-in, and all internal databases remain in sync, when creating Swimlane Timeline reports.
MS Project Custom Task Fields
The Swimlane Timeline reads in all Microsoft Project custom task text, flag, number, cost and date fields, both
local, and enterprise task entity fields, as well as a number of key Project fields like Task Name, Start, Finish, %
Complete, etc.
TIP: It is recommended that you “Rename” the custom task fields from their generic names (Text1, Text2,
Flag3, etc.) to more descriptive names so the Swimlane Timeline pick list options display those names:
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NOTE: Using the column right-click “Field Settings” option to change the column title will not send that title
name to the Swimlane Timeline.
Use the “Custom Fields” option, and “Rename” the custom field, for the custom field name to be available
within the Swimlane Timeline. Otherwise, you will only see the Project generic custom task field name.
Excel Source Fields
The Swimlane Timeline will read in all fields in an Excel spreadsheet. If multiple worksheets are detected in
the source Excel file, then the user is solicited for the worksheet to use.
If there is no “Outline_Number” field in the Excel worksheet selected, then the user is solicited for the
“Group”, “Filter” and Style selections as shown below:
There are a couple required fields for working with Excel source files, as well as a number of optional fields
with special significance, and they are all outlined in detail in the Appendix A – Excel Formatting Requirements
section.
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SharePoint Task List Fields
The Swimlane Timeline Professional Edition can read SharePoint Task List source data. When selected, the
user is presented with the following dialogue:
If the SharePoint site is already open in a browser, then the “User Name” and “Password” fields are not
required. Once the site is specified, then the user needs to select the “Refresh List” to see the list of
SharePoint Task Lists available from the “List Name” drop down pick list.
All SharePoint Task List fields and their values in the current List view are read into the Swimlane Timeline.
Special Swimlane Timeline Fields
There are three special reserved Swimlane Timeline custom fields that you can add to your Project, Excel or
SharePoint Task List source data that allow you to quickly apply predefined formatting. The three special
Swimlane Timeline fields are: VisibilityShortName, VisibilityColor, and VisibilityType.
VisibilityShortName
The “VisibilityShortName” field can be any custom task text field. It is a container for the nick name that you
would like shown in the Swimlane Timeline for a task when you apply the “Swimlane Timeline/Text/Visibility
Short Name” option. Tasks without a VisibilityShortName value will display the full Name field.
VisibilityColor
The “VisibilityColor” field can be any custom task number field. It contains the mapped color value that you
would like displayed in the Swimlane Timeline for a task when you apply the “Task Color” option in the “ST
Add/Show” Ribbon. The Custom Format option allows you to conditionally color tasks based on field values.
VisibilityType
The “VisibilityType” field can be any custom task number field. It contains the mapped milestones type value
that you would like displayed in the Swimlane Timeline for a milestone when you apply the “Milestone Type”
option in the ”St Add/Show” Ribbon. The Custom Format option allows you to conditionally format milestone
shapes based on field values.
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Menu - Swimlane Timeline The “Swimlane Timeline” Ribbon provides easy access to core Swimlane Timeline interactive display options.
The Ribbon options are subdivided into the following eight ribbon groupings: Task, Text, Select All, Swimlane,
Layout, Custom, Import, and Export options as shown below:
Filter
The Filter option allows users to filter tasks by a selected field read in from the source data. Selecting a field
from the “Fields” pick list will filter on values being either “Yes/No”, “True/False”, or “non-empty”.
In addition to the Filter field selected, the visibility of tasks is also determined by the visible “Date Range”, and
the visible project schedule outline “Levels” setting.
Users can create custom re-usable Filter-by-value settings using the “Define New…” pick list item or via the
“ST Manage/Filter” option. Once a custom filters is created, it will always appear in the Filter option pick list.
Group
The Group-by option allows users to group swimlanes by a selected field from the source data. The Swimlane
Timeline creates swimlanes for each value of the selected Group-by field.
If a task is encountered that has no value assigned for the Group-by field, then it is placed in a “<no value>”
swimlane. You can use the Filter option to filter out the <no value> swimlane tasks.
A “No Swimlane” pick list option is also provided that creates a Swimlane Timeline report with no swimlanes,
and all tasks are displayed in one drawing space.
Users can create custom re-usable multi-level Groupings using the “Define New…” pick list item or via the “ST
Manage/Group” option. Once a custom Grouping is created, it will always appear in the Group option pick list.
Sort
The Task Sort-by option allows users to sort tasks within swimlanes by a source data field. Supported sort
orders are Order in Data, Ascending, and Descending.
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Levels
The task outline “Levels” option is similar to the Project “View/Outline” Levels option. You specify how deep
into the project schedule work breakdown structure (WBS) you want to see. The default is 2 Levels deep.
Height
The task Height setting will vertically compress and expand task height in your Swimlane Timeline reports.
There are seven task height options to choose from: Shortest, Shorter, Short, Medium, Tall, Taller, and Tallest.
By default the Swimlane Timeline uses Medium height.
Text Position & Alignment
The default task text position and alignment can be overridden using these text positioning icons. Task Text Positioning of selected tasks can be Above, Within, Below, Left of, and Right of task. Text Alignment of selected tasks can be Left Aligned, Center Aligned, and Right Aligned. By default task text is wrapped, but users have the option to show text as a Single Line of Text by select the Single Line icon.
The below screenshot shows examples of text positioned Above/Left, Centered/Center, and Below/Right.
Text positioning controls can also be accessed by selecting task(s) and right-clicking on a selected task, and
choosing the Text Position and Text Alignment options.
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Task Selection
You can easily select All Interval Bars, All Milestones, or All Tasks (both Milestones & Interval bars) with a single click from the Ribbon menu.
These task selection options allow users to quickly apply changes to all selected shapes. Users can also access
these multi-select options by right-clicking on the page white border area.
Swimlane Stack
Swimlane Stack allows sorting of the swimlane stacking order by task field values in Ascending, Descending, or
“Order in Data”. Swimlane stack sorting can be done by the following task fields: Text, Dates, and Numbers.
The Swimlane Sort and Swimlane Layout options are highlighted below in the Swimlane Timeline ribbon:
The swimlanes can easily be stacked and sorted alphanumerically by their Swimlane Titles using the Sort
“<Swimlane Title>” pick list item. To sort swimlanes by a number field, users need to assign a sort index
number to all tasks in their data as shown in the example below:
Name Swimlane Group Swimlane Sort Order Start Finish
Regulatory 5 11/15/2012 11/15/2012
MMM Regulatory 5 11/15/2012 11/15/2012
Clin Dev 4 1/2/2012 1/9/2018
Study 1 Clin Dev 4 1/2/2012 9/1/2012
Study 2 Clin Dev 4 10/1/2012 8/30/2013
Study 4 Clin Dev 4 12/1/2014 12/30/2015
Study 3 Clin Dev 4 12/31/2015 1/9/2018
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Page Width
The Page Width option allows users to lock the page width of a Swimlane Timeline report. This can be a useful
method of expanding the page to provide more horizontal room between tasks and avoid text collisions. It
can also be useful in compressing a page that has grown horizontally large. The Page Width option dialogue is
shown below:
Selecting “Automatic Page Width” returns the page width setting back to the default setting where the
Swimlane Timeline determines the page width. Users can specify either Standard page widths using portrait
or landscape orientation, or they can specify a Custom page width. Once the page width is set, the timeline
intervals displayed will be force to fit the currently selected Page Width.
TIP: If the selected page width causes the timeline interval values to not display because there is not enough
room for the labels, then simply increase the page width.
Vertical Spacing
This option provides a method to override the default vertical spacing between tasks rows throughout the
drawing page. The currently applied vertical spacing is shown in the “Custom (in)” option for a point of
reference for custom settings. The spacing specified is saved and reapplied with a Style and Refresh.
The option is located next to the Page Width option as highlighted below:
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When selected, the user is presented with a dialogue as shown below:
Single Page
The “Swimlane Timeline/Autofit to Width” option will automatically adjusts the drawing page vertical spacing
for the correct aspect ratio, based on the current width, for a single page drawing to fit to page sizes: Letter,
Legal, Ledger, A(n) and Widescreen.
If a Swimlane Timeline option causes a re-layout, then re-apply the Single Page setting afterwards. Use the
“Widescreen” option to fit a single page view for a widescreen PowerPoint slide.
If you repeatedly apply the Single Page option, then your page size can might grow larger than desired. If this
occurs, then reset either the Page Width and Vertical Spacing or both to automatic spacing, and then re-apply
the Single Page option.
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Timeline Rows
The Timeline Rows option allows users to override the default “Automatic Calendar Rows” settings. Changing
the “Lowest Level” setting allows the user to specify the lowest tier timeline row displayed, but the Swimlane
Timeline will still control the top tier calendar rows. Selecting “Custom” gives users full control over the
calendar rows that are displayed, and also in what order they are displayed as shown below:
The diagram below is an example of the above “Custom” timeline row interval selections with the “Years” row
on top, then the “Quarters” interval row in the middle, and the “Go/NoGo” countdown interval at the bottom:
When you add the Countdown timeline row interval to the “Interval to Include” then you are solicited for the Countdown Name that shows in the upper left of the report, the Launch Date, the Countdown Prefix that can be any text, and the Countdown Interval (Hour, Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year and Fiscal Year) as shown below:
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You can also create multiple Countdown Rows in the Timeline by selecting to add another Coutdown interval
to the “Intervals to Include”. You can leverage a previous countdown by selecting the Countdown Name from
the Countdown Name pick list as shown below:
Timeline Row Height
The Timeline Row Height option allows users to customize the vertical height of the timeline rows. The
Timeline Row Height option can be used together with the Page Width option to preset a Timeline Row size
that will fit the desired timeline row font format specified.
Scenario: You would like to make the months showing in the timeline rows easier to see in the report, and
you have created a custom font setting that makes the timeline row font format larger, but now the font is too
large to fit in the size available for the text. You can now use the Timeline Row Height option to increase the
vertical height of the timeline rows.
Highlight Weekend Days
The Highlight Weekend Days checkbox will, when selected, show weekends highlighted when the “1 Day”
timeline row is visible. The default Weekend Highlight color is taken from the Color Palette that is applied.
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Date Markers
Date Markers allow you to show markers based on date fields associated with tasks. Date Markers can be
displayed for any date field in your source data, and the marker can be displayed either above or below the
task shapes. The Date Markers can be any number of shapes including: arrows, circles, squares, or no shape at
all.
Date Markers can be quickly toggled On/Off by clicking on the Date Marker icon image as highlighted below:
You can Manage Task Date Markers by selecting the “Manage Date Markers” option in the Visibility pull-down
menu. This option allows you to add, edit, and delete Date Markers. An example of the Manage Date
Markers dialogue is shown below:
The Date Markers appear in the Legend in the order they occur in the dialogue as shown below:
Users can change the order of the Date Markers in the Legend by using the “Move Up” and “Move Down”
buttons in the Date Marker dialogue.
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Date Marker symbols can show with date values, text, or a combination of both text and dates. To show
custom text with a Date Marker select “Custom” and specify the text desired surrounded by single quotes.
The dates for Date Markers can be displayed in any number of pre-defined formats. Users also have the
option to use a custom date format such as three letter month and day (MMMd) as shown below:
The above custom date format will result in the following display:
The Format Marker option allows users to change the color and marker shape displayed for the Date Marker.
The Format Marker dialogue varies depending on the version of Visio that you are using.
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Use the “Color:” field to specify the Date Marker color. Users can create custom markers by changing the
“Line ends” values for “Begin” and “End”. The “Begin” marker will appear outside of a task shape, and the
“End” marker will appear inside of the task shape. The “Begin size” and “End size” sets the size of the marker.
Date Markers are page independent. Therefore, users can have multi-page refreshable reports with each page
showing different Date Markers.
Date Range
The “Date Range” option allows you to filter the visible timeline date range to be all, fixed or rolling.
An example of the Set Fixed Dates dialogue is shown below:
An example of the Set Rolling Dates dialogue is shown below:
The Set Rolling Dates user interface allows you to select a timeline reference point - that can be a Day, Month,
Quarter, Year, or Fiscal Year - and then specify the time intervals to be shown before the reference point, and
after it. The before reference can be the “First Start", and the after reference can be the "Last Finish" so if the
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start and finish dates changed in the source data, then a Refresh would update the timeline accordingly. A
saved and re-opened report will update the date range when the report is refreshed.
Scenario: You’ve generated a monthly report to be used for a 5 year project, and you want to have a rolling
date range that shows two quarters before the current year and then out to the end of the project each time
you Refresh the report. You use the Rolling Date Range option and set the Reference Point to be the current
Year, the Before Reference Point to be 2 Quarters, and the After Reference Point be “Last Finish”.
TIP: A quick method of filtering the date range is using the Timeline Rows area by selecting the start date time
interval and shift-selecting the end date time interval, and then right-click to “Show Selected Date Range”.
This is described in greater detail in the Timeline Right-Click Options section.
Style
A Style allows you to apply essentially a report template with a predefined set of Swimlane Timeline settings
with 1-click. For example, a Style could perform all of the following actions:
Apply a custom Color Palette Apply a custom Font setting Apply a custom Text setting Apply a custom Align setting Apply a custom Conditional Format Apply a custom xLegend Change the visible project plan Outline Levels from 2 to 3 levels deep Change the Page Width to 11 inches Change the Vertical Spacing to Autofit to Width for a US Letter (8.5in x 11in) page Change the Timeline Rows to show Fiscal Years, Months then Quarters Show task dependency connectors
Users can create custom re-usable Styles using the “New from Current Page”. Make sure to give the Style a
unique name. Once created, the named Style, will now appear in the “Swimlane Timeline/Style” menu for re-
use each time you run the Swimlane Timeline. See the ST Manage menu “Styles” option for further
information about creating, editing and managing custom styles.
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Palette
There are a number of pre-defined color palettes available as shown below. The default palette is “Primary”.
The default color palette names are based on complimentary color wheel values to make activities within
swimlanes visually stand out. Users can also create their own custom color palettes that will show in the pick
list by first selecting one of the default palettes to start with, and then use the “Define New…” option to
define a custom named color palette based on the current palette and allow you to edit the colors.
Once a named custom palette has been created it will then show in the “Swimlane Timeline/Color Palette”
option pick list at runtime. You can find out more about how to customize and edit your own color palette by
reading the “Custom Palette” section in this guide.
Special Effects
The Fill Format option supports the Bevel special effects, and the Line Format options supports the Rounded
Corners effects. For example, if you would like the “Interval” bars to all have beveling and rounded corners,
then you would change the “Interval” bars Fill Format and Line Format to select the respective fill bevel and
line rounding.
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Font
The Font Settings option allows users to apply custom font settings to the fonts used for the Swimlane
Timeline Title, Swimlane Row Titles, Task Intervals, Milestones, Timeline Rows and Date Markers. A custom
font setting is saved and reapplied with a Style and Refresh options.
There are four installed Font Settings: Factory Default, Georgia, Palatino, and Trebuchet. Font Settings can be
selected from the Swimlane Timeline/Font option pick list as shown below:
Users can create their own custom named Font Settings files using the ST Manage/Font option.
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Text
The named Text settings option allows users to override the default “Name” field text that is normally
displayed. The Define New… dialogue looks like this:
By giving the Text setting a name you are able to re-select it later from the Text drop-down pick list. The
Header Text setting is the title of the report. Swimlane Text and Swimlane Level 2 Text will display text based
on values taken from the first (top) task in each swimlane. When you Edit a display setting, you are able to
select either a single field from your source data, or combine multiple fields using multiple rows. “Custom
Text” can also be displayed. For example, editing the Interval (bar) Shape Text with the following setting
would show the task Name then a space character, and left parenthesis, then the contents of the % Complete
field followed by the right parenthesis as shown below:
This Text setting would result in the following being displayed:
Users can create and change their custom user Text Settings files using the ST Manage/Text option.
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Overrides
The “Swimlane Timeline/Overrides” option, formally named “Align”, allows users to save, and then re-apply
later, the certain manual changes made to individual tasks in a report that override the defaults. The
following currently applied settings are saved for all visible tasks:
Text Alignment
Text Position
Text Wrap
Text Hidden
Date Marker show/hide
Overlap Task Settings
Milestone Type
Milestone Height
NOTE: The Overrides saved are specific to the unique tasks in your report source data. If Overrides are applied
to a report based on another set of source data, then unexpected results may occur.
The Overrides can be included with a custom Style when it is initially created by selecting the “Style/New from
Current Page” dialogue Include Overrides checkbox that will include the currently applied named Overrides.
Users can also use the ST Manage/Style/Change option, and select the desired User Alignment setting in the
“Customizations” tab.
Scenario: You generated a Swimlane Timeline report, and made a number of manual tweaks to tasks like
changing text alignment, text positions, hiding a couple task date markers, and used Overlap Task right-click
within a swimlane to get just the view and task alignment you want. You can now save those manual text and
shape alignment settings using the new custom “Overrides” option. Later, when you make changes to the
same set of source data, and regenerate the Swimlane Timeline report from scratch, you can quickly reapply
all of those saved manual text and shape alignment settings with a single mouse click.
Users can update and manage their custom named Overrides using the ST Manage/Overrides option.
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Format
The FORMAT option allows you to conditionally format tasks based on source data field values. If the
conditional test criteria is met, then the format settings specified for that condition are applied. Users can
change the following settings: Fill Format, Milestone Format, Line Format, and Text Format.
The “Define New” allows you to create a new custom Format definition. When saved, the named conditional Format will show in the Format pick list from then on.
When you select Import Existing Conditional Format then you are presented with an option pick list that includes all Installed, Shared, and Local User conditional formats to choose from. The import option will help you save time building custom conditional formats by leveraging existing ones.
The Format option is described in greater detail in the “ST Manage/Format” section of the User’s Guide.
xLegend
The xLegend option allows you to create and select an xLegend to display regardless of the Conditional Format
that is applied. In previous versions of the Swimlane Timeline, the legend was tied to a Conditional Format,
and you had to have the same name for the Legend as the Conditional Format in order for it to be displayed.
You can get an idea of how xLegends work by setting the ST Manage/Shared Folder to be the Demos folder
from the “Folder Name” drop down pick list, and then cycle through the Swimlane Timeline/xLegend Custom
Shared pick list items.
The Swimlane Timeline will continue work with older pre-v10 Conditional Formats & Legends, but you may,
however, want to consider using the xLegend/Migrate option to convert your older pre-v10 legends to be
xLegends. The Swimlane Timeline performance can improve; especially if you have a large number of older
pre-v10 legends.
Users can create and change their custom user xLegends using the ST Manage/xLegends option.
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Refresh
The Refresh Drawing option allows you to refresh your Swimlane Timeline report with the latest data. When
selected, you are presented with the File Selection Dialogue prefilled with the file name previously used. If the
project schedule name has changed, then simply delete the original source file name from the file selection
dialogue, and add the new file name and select OK to refresh. Users can Refresh either just the current page,
or all pages of a multi-page report.
The Refresh option will remember if you have manually deleted tasks in the Swimlane Timeline report. If the
manually deleted tasks create an empty vertical space in the swimlane, then Refresh will compress the
swimlane and remove the empty space.
In addition, the Refresh option will save and restore any shapes or images that you have manually added to
the page. When the Refresh is completed the manually added shapes will be pre-selected so you can quickly
and easily move all of the shapes to a new position if needed.
The Refresh option updates the Swimlane Timeline while preserving user text and shape formatting.
Copy
The “Copy” to clipboard option in the Swimlane Timeline Ribbon will place a copy of the Swimlane Timeline
into the Windows Clipboard.
NOTE: The default “Paste” is as a “Microsoft Visio Drawing Object” and that can significantly increase the size
of your destination document. If you only want to paste the image of the Swimlane Timeline report in your
document, then we recommend using “Paste Special” and then selecting “Picture (Enhanced Metafile)”. This
will still look just as excellent, and it will at the same time minimize the file size of the destination document.
Paginate
The “Paginate” option breaks up a vertically long Swimlane Timeline across multiple pages with each page
showing the same Header and Footer for printing or saving to PDF. The resultant paginated Visio report has
the Swimlane Timeline options disabled. It is for sharing only. The original Swimlane Timeline report is still
left open for making other visual changes if desired.
Export to PDF
You can quickly save your Swimlane Timeline report in PDF format by using the Swimlane Timeline/Export to
PDF option. Any swimlane or task drill-in hyperlinks are preserved in the PDF file.
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PowerPoint
Users can choose to save current pages directly to PowerPoint, or have the Swimlane Timeline break up a
vertically long report across multiple PowerPoint slides as described below.
Single Page
The Single Page option will generate PowerPoint slides for each page in your Swimlane Timeline.
Single Page (Widescreen)
The Single Page (Widescreen) option allow users to create PowerPoint slides in widescreen (16x9) format. NOTE: Prior to using the export to PowerPoint/Single Page (Widescreen) option you may want to manually set the report page to widescreen aspect ratio by selecting the Swimlane Timeline/Single Page/Widescreen option.
Paginated
The “Paginate” option breaks up a vertically long Swimlane Timeline across multiple pages with each
page showing the same Header and Footer, and then it automatically builds a PowerPoint slide deck
from the resulting pages.
Paginated (Widescreen)
The Paginated (Widescreen) option automatically sets the size for each page to be widescreen (16x9)
format when subdividing the report for the resultant PowerPoint slide deck.
By default, clicking on the PowerPoint icon will create widescreen (16x9) PowerPoint slides.
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Menu - ST Add/Show The “ST Add/Show” Ribbon provides additional options for enhancing your Swimlane Timeline reports. The
“ST Add/Show” Ribbon is shown below:
Date Line
Users can add their own custom Date Lines that span across all Swimlanes by using the “Date Line” option.
These cross-swimlane date lines can be a useful way of highlighting a specific date in your Swimlane Timeline;
such as a launch date. Users can add as many custom date lines as desired.
If no milestone task if pre-selected, then a Date Line is dropped onto the middle of the Swimlane Timeline, and
the user can drag the date line to a new location, or right-click and specify an exact date as shown below:
If a single or multiple milestones are pre-selected, then a cross-swimlane Date Line is placed on the exact
dates of each of the milestones selected.
The Highlight Date Lines default line format can be modified by creating your own custom palette using the
“ST Manage/Palette” option and then selecting the “Highlight Date Line Format” option.
The Highlight Date Lines can also be manually customized to look as desired using Visio’s line formatting
commands. Right-click on the Date Line and select “Format/Line” to quickly change the Line Color, Line
Weight, and Line Dash Type. These manual changes are not preserved on Refresh.
Users can also select a Date Line and type in a Date Line label. The text can be formatted as desired using
Visio Text Tools, and the text can be rotated using the Visio Text Block Tool.
NOTE: Text changes made to Date Lines are not preserved with a Refresh.
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An example of a Date Line that is labeled “Launch”, and 2 Highlight Windows showing Summer Releases
Windows is shown below:
Highlight Window
Users can add their own custom Highlight Windows that span across all Swimlanes with the “Highlight
Window” option. The highlight windows can be a useful way of highlighting a specific date range in your
Swimlane Timeline. Users can add as many Highlight Windows as desired.
When the Highlight Window option is selected with task or timeline intervals pre-selected, then a Highlight
Window is added on the exact dates of each selected task and timeline interval.
When the Highlight Window option is executed with no pre-selected task or timeline interval, then a Highlight
Window is added to the Swimlane Timeline on a random date. Users can then click and drag a Highlight
Window to a new position or right-click on the Highlight Window and specify an exact date range. Users can
also change the Highlight Window height from either the top or bottom of the Highlight Window to shrink or
stretch it across specific swimlanes.
The Highlight Window default fill format can be modified by creating your own custom palette using the “ST
Manage/Palette” option and then selecting the “Highlight Window Fill Format” option.
The Highlight Windows can also be manually customized to look as desired using Visio’s fill formatting
commands. Right-click on a Highlight Window and select “Format/Fill” to change the default fill Color and fill
Pattern.
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New Page
The “Add New Page” option allows users to create a multi-page report with different views into the same
data; where one page is one view, and the other pages are other views as shown below:
Task Dependencies
You can visualize task dependency connectors by selecting the “Task Dependencies” option. The task
dependency pick list options are: Show, Show user Only, Hide, and Filtered.
Show
Selecting “Show” will show all tasks that have a dependency defined by the “Unique_ID” and
“Unique_ID_Predecessors” task fields.
Show User Only
Selecting “Show User Only” will only display user created task dependencies. A user can add a
dependency connector between tasks by selecting the first task, and then shift-selecting the second
task, and then right-clicking and selecting the “Create Dependency” option as shown below:
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Hide
Selecting Hide will hide all task dependency connectors.
Filtered
The Filter option allows users to filter dependencies based on a selected task field value. A
dependency connector is displayed only if both visible tasks are dependent and have the filtered field
value of true. The filtered field value is considered true if the field value is true, yes, or a non-empty
text field.
Task Color
If you want to consistently re-use the same task colors in the Swimlane Timeline, then create a Custom Task
Number Field named “VisibilityColor” in your project schedule, and use that field to contain the task color
number that you want to use. After you generate a Swimlane Timeline, then apply the preset task colors by
using the “Task Color” checkbox in the “ST Add/Show” ribbon.
Colors numbers are mapped according to the standard Visio Color Palette as shown below from the Visio Color
Palette command below:
The “Swimlane Timeline/Format/Define New” option is another method to colorize tasks based on field
values.
Milestone Type
If you want to consistently re-use the same task milestone type in a Swimlane Timeline, then create a Custom
Task Number Field named “VisibilityType” in your project schedule, and use that field to contain the task
milestone type number. After you generate a Swimlane Timeline, then you can apply the task milestone types
in your source data by selecting the “Milestone Type” checkbox in the “ST Add/Show” ribbon.
Milestone types are mapped to numbers as shown below:
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1 Diamond 6 Circle 11 Left Triangle
2 2 Triangles 7 Square 12 Circle - Empty
3 Pin 8 Up Triangle 13 Circle - 1/4
4 Star 9 Down Triangle 14 Circle - 1/2
5 Up Arrow 10 Right Triangle 15 Circle - 3/4
Critical Tasks
You can see the critical tasks highlighted in a bold red outline by selecting the “Critical Task” checkbox option
in the “ST Add/Show” ribbon. This option will colorize the outline of critical tasks, and any dependency
connectors, that are connected to critical tasks, in red. A task is deemed critical if the project schedule
“Critical” field is set to “Yes”.
Active Tasks Only
The “ST Add/Show” menu “Active Tasks Only” option that will filter out inactive tasks from the current
Swimlane Timeline view when checked. The option is unchecked by default and will display both active and
inactive tasks. The option is for users of MS Project 2010 or above.
Endpoint Arrows
Selecting the “Endpoint Arrows” checkbox will show arrows on tasks when a Date Range is less than the full
Date Range. The Endpoint Arrow setting is saved to a Style. Default is OFF. Double-clicking on the arrow
moves the date range ahead or behind.
Today Line
By default, the Today’s Date Indicator line is shown as a red line through all swimlanes - if today’s date is
currently visible in the Timeline. You can hide the Today’s Date Line by unchecking the “Today Line” option.
Subheadings
Selecting the “Subheadings” checkbox will Show/Hide the subheading displayed beneath the Title at the top.
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Footer
By default the Swimlane Timeline Footer is shown at the bottom of all swimlanes, but you can use the
“Footer” option to toggle it On/Off. The Footer includes the “Creation Date”, “Project Modified Date”, and
the “Created by” fields. An example Footer is shown below.
Date Marker Legend
Selecting the “Date Marker Legend” checkbox will Show/Hide the date marker legend beneath the report.
Title
Selecting the “Title” checkbox will toggle the Title & Logo On/Off.
Format Legend
A Format Legend checkbox allows you to hide a legend that is associated with a conditional format view and
automatically displayed when a conditional format view is applied.
Shading
There are four Shading Styles to choose from: No Shading, Percent Complete, Percent Progress, and Percent
Work Complete.
Percent Complete is the default. The percent complete value is taken from the task “% Complete” field in the
Microsoft Project schedules, or the “Percent_Complete” field in an Excel spreadsheet.
The Percent Progress option is a calculated field based on the Schedule Performance Index (SPI), a time-
phased earned value field depicting the ratio of work performed to work scheduled.
The Percent Work Complete option is based on the “% Work Complete” field in Project, or the
“Percent_Work_Complete” field in Excel.
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Show Baseline
When the "Show Baseline" option is selected then a triangle for Baseline Start and a triangle for Baseline
Finish are displayed with a dotted line between them as shown below:
If using Excel source files, then use the column labels of "Baseline_Start" and "Baseline_Finish". The color and line style of the Baseline displayed can be changed by changing the color palette settings as described in the ST Manage/Palette option.
Summary Fields
This Summary Fields option can summarize a field for all tasks within a Swimlane or Timeline Interval. If using
Group-by, then realize that Parent tasks and Child tasks may appear in different swimlanes, and the totals are
based on child tasks if they are visible.
The example Swimlane Timeline below is summarizing the “Cost” field for three projects.
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Resource View
The “Resource View” option allows you to quickly generate a view of the tasks that are assigned to selected
resources. Each resource gets its own swimlane, and the tasks assigned to a resource are displayed within the
swimlane. This view provides a quick ballpark view into resource over or under allocation. The height of the
task shape indicates the percent the resource is allocated, and the exact percentage can be seen in the Shape
Data Window or by hovering the cursor over a task. An example Resource View is shown below:
Figure 1 Resource View Example Showing “Hover” Text
When the Resource View is active, a user can change the resources shown by using a Page Right-Click option
to “Select Resources…”
Layout
The Swimlane Layout Style option allows users to change how tasks are laid out within swimlanes. There are
three main Swimlane Layout options: Compressed, Expanded, and Relational as shown below:
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Selecting Compressed Swimlanes compresses the tasks within a swimlane to fit within as tight an area as
possible while avoiding shape and text collisions regardless of the parent/child relationships of the tasks.
Selecting Expanded Swimlanes expands the tasks within a swimlane so there is no layout compression. It will
look similar to a Project Gantt Chart.
Selecting Relational Swimlanes compresses the tasks within a swimlane, but with the added logic that if any
parent/child task relationships are visible within a swimlane, then the child tasks are placed beneath the
parent task. This is the default task layout.
The Grouped Swimlanes selection is applied if the user has selected a Task “Sort”. This option provides a
method of returning to the task sort in cases where the user has changed the layout to another style.
When a Swimlane Layout option is selected, it is applied to all swimlanes on the page. Users can also use a
Swimlane right-click option to change the swimlane layout for a single swimlane.
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Menu - ST Manage The ST Manage menu includes options for managing different Swimlane Timeline features. The ST Manage
ribbon menu is shown below:
Custom Styles
There are seven manage custom named Style options: “New From Current Page”, “Update”, “Change”,
“Rename”, “Copy Selected to a Folder”, “Copy Selected to User” and “Delete”.
New From Current Page
The “New from Current Page” option will solicit the user for the name to use for the Style that will be
saved. The Style settings include: Filtering, Grouping, Sorting, Outline Level Depth, Date Markers, Date
Range, Timeline Rows, conditional Format & Legend, as well as the “ST Add/Show” settings.
Once saved, the named Style is made available from the Swimlane Timeline main menu “Style” option
pick list, and will be available for all future Swimlane Timeline sessions.
Update
The “Update” option allows users to apply the current settings to an existing custom named Style.
Change
You can only change settings that are in your PC local USER Folder (see Copy Selected to User). The
“Change” style option allows users to change the primary Style settings. Users have the ability to
select, or deselect, each Swimlane Timeline option in a Style. This allows a partial style to be applied
that is time saving method of creating multiple reports with a standardized layout.
If the Style option heading is checked in the Change/Style dialogue, then the specified value within it is
applied. If the Style option heading is deselected, then no action is taken for that particular option
when the style is applied.
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There are four subsections in the dialogue with tabs covering default settings for Data, Page Layout,
View, and Customization options as shown below:
Rename
The “Rename” style option allows users to rename a Style.
Copy Selected to a Folder
The “Copy Selected to a Folder” option copies the Style definition file, and all referenced custom files
(including custom: Filter, Group, Palette, Font Settings, Text Settings, etc.), to the destination folder.
Copy Selected to User
You can only change settings that are in your PC local USER Folder. The “Copy Selected to User”
option copies the custom Style definition file selected, and all referenced custom settings within the
Style (including custom: Filter, Group, Palette, Font Settings, Text Settings, etc.), to the User folder
where it can then be changed using the setting “Change” option.
Delete
The “Delete” style option allows users to delete a Style.
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Custom Filters
There are six custom Filter options: ‘Define New”, “Change”, “Rename”, “Copy Selected to a Folder”, “Copy
Selected to User” and “Delete”.
Define New
When defining a new custom named Filter, start by giving it a “Filter Name” at the top of the dialogue
otherwise it will default to be named “NamedFilter”.
Then use the Insert Row option to begin building a custom filter. Click on the Field Name “%
Complete” to view a pick list of all available fields to choose from as shown below:
Then select the logical test to use. The test options are equal (=), not equal (<>), greater than (>),
greater than equal to (>=), less than (<), and less than equal to (<=), and “Contains” and “Does Not
Contain” as shown below:
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Then select the Value to use. Click on the empty Value field to see a pick list of available values as
shown below:
You can include additional logic if desired. For example you could use “Insert Row” to test another
field, say “Functional Area”, is equal to “Design” as shown below:
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The below Named Filter example will display Company Critical tasks that are “True” and have a
Functional Area value that is either “Design” or “Develop”.
Notice that users can click in the parenthesis Fields to add additional begin and end parenthesis to
change the order of the logic used to apply the filter.
Change
You can only change settings that are in your PC local USER Folder (see Copy Selected to User). The
“Change” filter option allows users to bring up the custom named filter dialogue, and make changes.
Rename
The “Rename” filter option allows users to rename a custom filter.
Copy Selected to a Folder
The “Copy Selected to a Folder” option copies the selected custom Filter definition file to the
destination Folder location.
Copy Selected to User
The “Copy Selected to User” option copies the custom Filter setting selected to the PC local User
folder location where it can then be edited using the setting “Change” option.
Delete
The “Delete” filter option allows users to delete a custom filter.
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Custom Group By
There are six custom Group By options: “Define New”, “Change”, “Rename”, “Copy Selected to a Folder”,
“Copy Selected to User” and “Delete”. A multi-level group can have the first level shown either above or left
of the second level of grouping.
Define New
The “Define New” Group-by option allows users to create custom multi-level group-by reports where
users can group by one field and then group by another field as shown below:
Each level of grouping can have the results sorted by 1) the order that field values are encountered in
the source data, 2) ascending alphanumeric order or 3) descending alphanumeric order.
Change
You can only change settings that are in your PC local USER Folder (see Copy Selected to User). The
“Change” Group-by option allows users to bring up the custom Group-by dialogue, and make any
desired changes.
Rename
The “Rename” Group-by option allows users to rename a custom multi-level group definitions.
Copy Selected to a Folder
The “Copy Selected to a Folder” option copies the selected custom Grouping definition file to the
destination Folder location.
Copy Selected to User
The “Copy Selected to User” option copies the custom Group-by setting selected to the PC local User
folder location where it can then be edited using the setting “Change” option.
Delete
The “Delete” Group-by option allows users to delete a custom multi-level group definitions.
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Custom Palette
There are six custom Color Palette options: “Define New”, “Change”, “Rename”, “Copy Selected to a Folder”,
“Copy Selected to User” and “Delete”.
Define New
The “Define New” palette option will seed a color palette with all currently applied color palette
settings, and then solicit the user for a new “Color Palette Name”. The user is then able to change
palette settings using the options available as shown in the dialogue below:
Fill color settings allow users to change the fill color, gradient style, gradient fill color, and transparency. Line Color settings allow users to change the line color, dash style, line weight, and transparency.
Change
You can only change settings that are in your PC local USER Folder (see Copy Selected to User). The
“Change” palette option allows users to bring up the custom named palette dialogue, and make any
desired changes.
Rename
The “Rename” palette option allows users to rename a custom color palette.
Copy Selected to a Folder
The “Copy Selected to a Folder” option copies the selected custom Color Palette definition file to the
destination Folder location.
Copy Selected to User
The “Copy Selected to User” option copies the custom Color Palette setting selected to the local User
folder location where it can then be edited using the setting “Change” option.
Delete
The “Delete” palette option allows users to delete a custom color palette.
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Custom Font
There are six Custom Font options: “Define New”, “Change”, “Rename”, “Copy Selected to a Folder”, “Copy
Selected to User” and “Delete”.
Define New
The “Define New” Font option will seed a Font Settings file with all currently applied Font Settings, and
then solicit the user for a new “Font Settings Name”. The user is then able to change Font Settings
using the options available as shown in the dialogue below:
When an item like “Swimlane Font Settings” is selected, users are presented with a dialogue that
allows them to change the Font, Font Style, Font Size, Color, Background Color, and in the case of
Swimlane Titles the alignment and margins as well.
Change
You can only change settings that are in your PC local USER Folder (see Copy Selected to User). The
“Change” font option allows users to change the custom font settings of an existing font setting file.
Rename
The “Rename” font option allows users to rename a custom font file.
Copy Selected to a Folder
The “Copy Selected to a Folder” option copies the selected custom Font definition file to the
destination Folder location.
Copy Selected to User
The “Copy Selected to User” option copies the custom Font setting selected to the local User folder
location where it can then be modified using the setting “Change” option.
Delete
The “Delete” font option allows users to delete a custom font file.
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Custom Text
There are six Custom Text options: “Define New”, “Change”, “Rename”, “Copy Selected to a Folder”, “Copy
Selected to User” and “Delete”.
Define New
The “Define New” Font option will seed a Text Settings file with all currently applied Text Settings, and
then solicit the user for a new “Text Settings Name”. The user is then able to change Text Settings
using the options available as shown in the dialogue below:
Once created, the named Text Setting is available in the “Swimlane Timeline/Text Settings” option.
Change
You can only change settings that are in your PC local USER Folder (see Copy Selected to User). The
“Change” font option allows users to change the text settings of an existing text setting file.
Rename
The “Rename” font option allows users to rename a custom Text file.
Copy Selected to a Folder
The “Copy Selected to a Folder” option copies the selected custom Text definition file to the
destination Folder location.
Copy Selected to User
The “Copy Selected to User” option copies the custom Text setting selected to the local User folder
location where it can then be modified using the setting “Change” option.
Delete
The “Delete” font option allows users to delete a custom Text file.
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Custom Overrides
The “Overrides” option allows users to manage their named overrides. The following user task settings are
saved in the named Override settings for all visible tasks:
Text Alignment
Text Position
Text Wrap
Text Hidden
Date Marker show/hide
Overlap Task Settings
Milestone Type
Milestone Height
NOTE: The named Overrides setting is specific to one set of source data, and if applied to another set of
source data then unexpected results may occur.
There are six custom Overrides setting management options: “Define New”, “Update”, “Rename”, “Copy
Selected to a Folder”, “Copy Selected to User”, and “Delete”.
Define New
Users can either multi-select (with shift-select) just the tasks that you want to save the text and shape
alignment settings for, or if no tasks are selected, then it will save the current alignment settings for all
visible tasks.
Update
The “Update” Overrides option allows you to update an existing named Overrides setting.
Rename
The “Rename” Overrides option allows users to rename a custom Overrides setting.
Copy Selected to a Folder
The “Copy Selected to a Folder” option copies the selected custom Overrides setting to the
destination Folder location. If a new name is given, then the copied setting will be renamed.
Copy Selected to User
The “Copy Selected to User” option copies the selected custom Overrides setting to the local User
folder location where it can then be modified using the setting “Update” or “Change” option. If a new
name is given, then the copied setting will be renamed.
Delete
The “Delete” Overrides option allows users to delete a custom named Overrides setting.
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Custom Conditional Format
There are six custom Conditional Format options: “Define New”, “Change”, “Rename”, “Copy Selected to a
Folder”, “Copy Selected to User” and “Delete”. Conditional Format setting rows are evaluated from top to
bottom, and those at the top have precedence over those below.
Define New
You can “Insert Row” for each conditional format that you want to apply. Select the source “Field
Name” that you want to evaluate, then the “Test” condition you want to perform, and the field
“Value” that you want to test for, then the “Apply to Shapes” and “Edit Settings” that you want to
apply.
To start, enter a Conditional Format Name. This will be the name that shows in the Format drop
down pick list.
You can then either Import Existing Conditional Format, or Insert Row to build a new format from
scratch.
Double-click on a Field Name in a conditional format row in order to bring up the field name pick list
to select from.
The Test options are equal (=), not equal (<>), greater than (>), greater than equal to (>=), less than
(<), and less than equal to (<=), and “Contains” and “Does Not Contain”. These options are selected by
double-clicking on the Test cell for that row.
The Value” options can be selected by double-clicking on the value cell for that row.
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Selecting “Apply to Shapes” allows you to specify what type of shapes will be impacted by the formatting. You can choose between “Intervals (bars) & Milestones”, “Intervals” only, “Milestones” only, or “Percent Complete Bar”. Selecting “Edit Setting” allows you to set the conditionally format for the Fill, Line, Text and Milestone
Shape.
Change
You can only change settings that are in your PC local USER Folder (see Copy Selected to User). The
“Change” font option allows users to change the Format settings of an existing Format setting file.
Rename
The “Rename” font option allows users to rename a custom Conditional Format.
Copy Selected to a Folder
The “Copy Selected to a Folder” option copies the selected custom Format definition file and its
associated Legend, if one exists, to the destination Folder location.
Copy Selected to User
The “Copy Selected to User” option copies the selected custom Format and its associated Legend, if
one exists, to the local User folder location where it can then be modified using the setting “Change”
option.
Delete
The “Delete” font option allows users to delete a custom Format and its associated Legend.
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Custom xLegends
There are six Custom xLegend options: “Define New…”, “Change”, “Copy Selected to a Folder”, “Copy Selected
to User”, “Delete” and “Migrate”
Define New
Selecting Define New brings up a custom legend drawing page as shown below. You build your
custom Legend on this page. You can drag & drop Visio shapes, create custom shapes, and import
bitmap images to build your Legend. Use the blue dotted guidelines to help you align shapes.
There are seven xLegend right-click options available to fast track the creation of your xLegends:
o Import xLegend Allows you to import an existing xLegend
o Import Legacy Legend from File Allows you to import a pre-v10 legend from any folder location
o Import Legacy Legend from USER FOLDER File Allows you to import a pre-v10 legend from your PC Local User Folder
o Import Legacy Legend from SHARED FOLDER File Allows you to import a pre-v10 legend from your Shared Folder
o Import Milestone Allows you to import a custom Milestone
o Show Document Stencil Displays the Document Stencil that includes pre-defined legend shapes that you can
drag & drop onto the page o Save Legend
Saves the newly created xLegend to your PC local User Folder. Once saved, from then on, the xLegend is available to choose in the Swimlane Timeline/xLegend pick list.
Change
You can only change settings that are in your PC local USER Folder (see Copy Selected to User). The
“Change” xLegend option allows you to change an existing xLegend. Use the right-click Save Legend
option to save your changes when complete.
Rename
The “Rename” xLegend option allows users to rename an xLegend.
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Copy Selected to a Folder
The “Copy Selected to a Folder” option copies the selected custom xLegend to the destination Folder
location.
Copy Selected to User
The “Copy Selected to User” option copies the selected custom xLegend to the PC local User folder
location where it can then be modified using the setting “Change” option.
Delete
The “Delete” xLegend option allows users to delete a custom Format and its associated Legend.
Migrate
The “Migrate” xLegend option allows you to migrate your pre-v10 legacy legends into the new faster
xLegend format. You select the folder location where your legacy legends reside, and hit OK, and then
the legacy legends are migrated to the xLegend format. When the migration process is complete,
then your legends will be available in the Swimlane Timeline/xLegend pick list.
If your legacy legend contains multiple shapes in the Document Stencil, then those shapes will be
migrated too. You may need to delete any non-desired legends from the source folder location.
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Custom Milestones
There are six Custom Milestone options: “Define New…”, “Change”, “Rename”, “Copy Selected to a Folder”,
“Copy Selected to User”, and “Delete”. Custom milestones are available to choose with either manually with
the milestone task right-click options, or when selecting milestone shapes for conditional format settings.
Define New
Selecting Define New brings up a custom milestone drawing page as shown below. You build your
custom milestone on this page. You can drag & drop Visio shapes, create custom shapes, and import
bitmap images to build your milestone. Try to fit your custom milestone shape into the square
created by the four blue dotted guidelines. Zoom in for detail work.
There are three Custom Milestone right-click options available to fast track the creation of milestones:
o Import Milestone Allows you to import an existing custom Milestone
o Show Document Stencil Displays the Document Stencil that includes pre-defined legacy milestone shapes that
you can drag & drop onto the page o Save Milestone
Saves the newly created xLegend to your PC local User Folder. Once saved, from then on, the custom milestone is available to choose with either milestone task right-click or be selected when selecting milestone shapes creating conditional format settings.
Change
You can only change settings that are in your PC local USER Folder (see Copy Selected to User). The
“Change” milestone option allows you to change an existing milestone. Use the right-click Save
Milestone option to save your changes when complete.
Rename
The “Rename” milestone option allows users to rename a milestone.
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Copy Selected to a Folder
The “Copy Selected to a Folder” option copies the selected custom milestone to the destination Folder
location.
Copy Selected to User
The “Copy Selected to User” option copies the selected custom milestone to the PC local User folder
location where it can then be modified using the setting “Change” option.
Delete
The “Delete” milestone option allows users to delete a custom milestones.
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Drawing Mode
In the default Dynamic mode, task operations like Filter, Group, and Sort are immediately applied when selected. In Batch Mode, Swimlane Timeline task operations are not executed until the user either selects the "Run Batch" option or switches back to Dynamic mode. Batch mode can be especially useful when working with very large source files and you don’t want to wait for each Swimlane Timeline operation to execute before proceeding.
Run Batch
The Run Batch option is only active when the Drawing Mode is set to “Batch”. When it is selected, then any
previous Swimlane Timeline operations sitting in the queue will be processed all at one time.
Another option that provides a single-click operation to execute a string of commands is to create a re-usable
Custom Styles of the current settings, and then re-apply the Style with one click later.
Regenerate Drawing
Regenerate Drawing differs from Refresh Drawing in that it does not preserve existing text and shape format
changes, and will regenerate a Swimlane Timeline report from scratch. There are three options available:
Select Source Files, Set Start Outline Number, and Create Drill-in Pages as described below.
Select Source Files
The Select Source Files options bring up the Source Selection Dialogue as previously described in the
Getting Started section.
Set Start Outline Number
The Swimlane Timeline defaults to starting a drawing from the project schedule summary task, outline
number 0, but you can also regenerate a drawing starting at any desired point (for example, outline
number 3.1).
Create Drill-in Pages
The Create Drill-in Pages option allows you to automatically generate multi-page Swimlane Timelines.
The default drill-in depth is 0. If you change the drill-in depth to be 1 level, then each swimlane in the
original Swimlane Timeline will automatically have its own Swimlane Timeline generated on a sub-
page.
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Shared Folder
The “Shared Folder” option allows users to specify a folder that contains shared Swimlane Timeline custom files. Once the shared folder is specified, any styles, filters, palettes, fonts or conditional format views that reside in the shared folder will automatically be added to Swimlane Timeline option pick lists at runtime. The “Select Folder” dialogue supports a drop-down pick list of previously selected shared folder locations as
shown below:
Users can also copy and paste folder paths into the “Select Folder/Folder Name” field.
If you want to customize a custom setting that resides in the Shared Folder then you will first need to copy the
setting to your PC local User Folder, and then you are able to change your local copy. Use the “ST
Manage/<custom setting>” option to “Copy Selected to User”. Once the custom setting is in your User Folder
location, then you can choose the “ST Manage/<custom setting>” Change option to modify your local copy of
the custom setting.
Drawing Logo
Users can easily change the logo that appears in the top left of each Swimlane Timeline report as shown below
from the Visibility.biz logo to any bitmap image.
To change the logo, select the “Drawing Logo” option from the “ST Manage” Ribbon, and then navigate to the
desired bitmap image. The default file format is JPG, but users can change the file extension to also search for
PNG bitmaps images. Once changed, then all future Swimlane Timeline reports will use the logo selected.
Users also have the ability to interactively Show/Hide the Logo in Swimlane Timeline drawings as shown
below:
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Map Fields
The Map Fields option allows you to map different date fields into the Start/Finish and Baseline Start/Finish values to allow you to visualize the tasks in your reports also based on Start1-n/Finish1-n and Baseline1-n Start/Finish
Export Unlocked
The new “Export Unlocked” option will save an unlocked version of the Swimlane Timeline that is unlinked from the source data, and has the Swimlane Timeline application removed so that any Microsoft Visio user can open and modify the unlocked drawings. Users have the ability to change the unlocked task locations, start date, finish date, and text displayed. The unlocked files have “_Unlocked” automatically added to the end of the filename to make it easy to distinguish from a normal locked and linked Swimlane Timeline drawing. By default, the unlocked files are stored in the same directory as the locked Swimlane Timeline report. Users are able to freely move the position of selected tasks and milestone shapes in the unlocked files by dragging them with a mouse vertically, horizontally, or diagonally to a new location beneath the timeline. Users can lengthen or shorten task shape start and finish dates by dragging the left side or right side of the shape, with a mouse to a new horizontal location beneath the timeline. Any visible Start or Finish Date Markers are automatically updated based on their new position beneath the timeline. The unlocked task and milestone shapes are grouped shapes that are made up of multiple sub-shapes. The first click on an unlocked shape selects the grouped shape, and allows users to drag the entire shape to a new location, or drag the unlocked Start and Finish dates horizontally beneath the timeline. The first click on an unlocked shape will outline the entire shape with solid fill vertices, midpoint indicators, and Date Marker yellow diamond text control handles as shown below:
The second click on an unlocked shape's text characters will select the text sub-shape. When the text sub-shape is successfully selected, the users will notice that the vertices and midpoints are no longer just solid fill rectangles, but contain an "x" at each point as shown below:
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At this point a user can start typing a new text label if desired, or use the Visio Text Format options to change Font, Font Size, Font Style, Font Color, etc.). Users can also stretch or shrink the text bounding box by dragging the handles to a new location. Note: the percent complete interval sub-shape is also sub-selectable, so be careful when you want to specifically select the text sub-shape - click on the text only. If the percent complete sub-shape is selected, then users will see a selection box around the percent complete interval sub-shape as shown below:
Users can Copy unlocked drawings by using the Ctrl-A keyboard shortcut to select-all shapes, and then "Paste/Special" as Picture (Enhanced Metafile) into PowerPoint slides and Word documents.
What’s New
The What’s New option opens the PDF document that describes the new features in this release.
Quick Start
The Quick Start option opens the PDF document that includes steps to verify your installation as well as step-
by-step instructions that highlight the use of a few key features.
User’s Guide
The User’s Guide option opens the PDF document that includes detailed descriptions of the Swimlane
Timelines features with hyperlinks from the Table of Contents to all topics.
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About
The “About” button presents a dialogue similar to the one shown below that displays specific information
about the version of the Swimlane Timeline application that is installed on a system.
Select the arrow in the lower right of the “About” group section allows users to manually select the Microsoft
Database Engine (JET or ACE) used by the Swimlane Timeline. This option can be useful for those users
running into issues with the Microsoft October 2017 Windows Update breaking the JET database engine, and
resulting in “No Data was Found” error message.
A dialogue is presented to the user to specify the Data Access Method (this only needs to be done once):
Selecting the “Force ACE” requires that the user have a PC with Office Access installed, or the Access runtime
installed, that matches the version of Office.
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Right Click – Timeline Rows When users right-click in any Timeline Row then the following options are available:
Hide/Show Date Line
The “Hide/Show Date Line” option allows users to toggle the Timeline Row cross-swimlane lines On/Off for
each individual Timeline Row.
Show Selected Date Range
The “Show Selected Date Range” option allows users to quickly filter tasks based on a user selected date range
using the Timeline Row interval shapes. Simply select the starting time interval and then Shift-select the
ending time interval to select the date range, then right-click and select the timeline “Show Selected Date
Range” option. In the example below, the user selected “June”, and then Shift-selected “Oct” to select the
date range, and then would now right-click to apply the date range filter. Once applied, all tasks outside of the
June 2009 to October 2009 date range will be removed so the user can focus in on that specified date range.
Users can also select time intervals by clicking on the time interval border line that runs through all swimlanes.
Just click on the cross swimlane interval line to select that time interval. You don’t have to select it from the
timeline at the top. An exact date range can be specified using the Swimlane Timeline Ribbon “Date Range”
option.
Show Full Date Range of All Visible Tasks
Selecting this option will show the full date range of visible tasks with the current filtering applied.
Remove Calendar Row
This option will remove the calendar row that is beneath the cursor from the Timeline.
NOTE: Removing the lowest level calendar row may cause the width of the page to shrink. If so, then use the
“Page Width” option in the Swimlane Timeline Ribbon to set the Page Width as desired.
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Right Click – Swimlane Name Executing a right-click on the title of any swimlane will show the following options:
Delete Swim Lane
This option allows users to delete a swimlane in order to create a one-off custom filtered Swimlane Timeline view. Refresh will restore the deleted swimlane. User can utilize the custom Named Filter option to permanently filter out all tasks within a swimlane so that swimlane is not displayed.
Drill-in
Users can drill-in on a swimlane for more detail. A new Visio page is generated that includes one outline level
deeper view of tasks as well as bi-directional page hyperlinks back to the parent page. The page hyperlink
allows viewers to have interactive navigation in Visio and when saved as PDF files or HTML Web Pages.
The Drill-in option is only available if “No Grouping” is currently applied to a Project Schedule, or an Excel
spreadsheet containing an “Outline_Number” field that defines parent/child relationships.
If a Group-by field is specified then the Drill-in option will not appear as a swimlane right-click option.
NOTE: Users can Drill-in on individual tasks that are shown regardless of the Grouping field applied. See Task
Right-Click Options.
Create New Page
The “Create New Page” option allows users to create a quick one-off view of selected swimlanes. Users can
CTRL-Select multiple swimlanes and then right-click and select the “Create New Page” option. This option will
create a new Visio page that includes just the selected swimlane(s). A preferred method to visualize this is to
use the Named Filter option.
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Apply Text Settings to All Swimlanes
With this option, users are able to make text font style changes to one swimlane using Visio text options, and
then quickly apply those same text format changes to all swimlanes.
Show Dependencies
This option allows you to show/hide dependency connectors on a swimlane by swimlane basis.
Select Shapes in Swim Lane
This option selects all shapes in the currently selected swimlane(s).
Re-layout Swimlanes
The Re-layout Swimlanes swimlane title right-click action removes any empty space left after manually
deleting shapes from swimlanes. The removal of empty space can also be accomplished with a Refresh.
In the diagram below a user has deleted (Cut) individual tasks in a swimlane that creates empty space.
Users can remove the empty space left after manually deleting tasks by right-clicking the swimlane title (in this
case “On Track”), and selecting the Re-layout Swimlanes option. The results of the re-layout is shown below:
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Expand/Compress/Relational/Grouped Swimlanes
The “Expand” option expands the tasks within a swimlane so there is no layout compression. It will look
similar to a Project Gantt Chart. This can be useful when displaying a Baseline View or multiple Date Markers
on shapes when the markers appear before or after the task shape itself.
The “Compress” option compresses the tasks within a swimlane to fit within as tight an area as possible while
minimizing shape and text collisions regardless of the parent/child relationships of the tasks.
The “Relational” option compresses the tasks within a swimlane, but with the added logic that if any
parent/child task relationships are visible within a swimlane, then the child tasks are placed beneath the
parent task.
The “Grouped” option is only enabled when a field has been selected using the Sort command. It is
automatically selected as the task layout style when a Task Sort field is applied. User may override this setting
and select a different Swimlane Style (i.e. Compressed, Relational, or Expanded) after the Sort field is selected.
If the Grouped Swimlane Style is active when the Sort is removed, the swimlane style will be changed to the
default Relational style.
The “Height-Specified Swimlane” option allows you to customize the height of a swimlane. Right-click on a swimlane to change the height of the swimlane. Height increments are in number of sub-rows. The tasks and swimlanes are positioned proportionally from the center-out rather than from the top-down.
Before changing height from 2 Sub-Rows to 3 Sub-Rows
After change height to 3 Sub-Rows
After changing height, you can Reset Height to return the swimlane to its original height and top-down layout.
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Project Task Hyperlink
This swimlane hyperlink takes users into the source Microsoft Project schedule with the selected task
“Indicators” row highlighted. This option works best if there is no Filter applied in MS Project and the view in
MS Project is the standard Gantt View with all Outline Levels visible.
TIP: This feature is particularly useful when creating Swimlane Timelines from a Project schedule that was
opened in Read/Write mode. That way, when you hyperlink back to project to make changes then you can
Save the project file to the same name. On returning to the Swimlane Timeline the “Refresh” option will
automatically select the previously used file to refresh against and update the drawing.
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Right Click – Task Executing a right-click on any task will show the following list of options:
Drill-in
The task Drill-in option allows users to drill-in on a specific summary task to see more detail. A new Visio page
is generated that includes a deeper Outline Level view of tasks as well as adding bi-directional page hyperlinks.
The page hyperlink allows viewers to have interactive navigation in Visio, and also when saved as PDF files and
HTML Web Pages.
The task Drill-in option is only available with Project Schedule source files, or with an Excel spreadsheet
containing an “Outline_Number” field that defines parent/child relationships.
Note: Although swimlane Drill-in links are preserved on Refresh, the Task Drill-in links are not preserved.
Overlap Tasks
The “Task Overlap” option allows users to manually override the standard Task and Text collision avoidance
algorithms that normally occur during task layout. The Task Overlap option provides a method for users to,
for example, overlap milestones on top of interval shapes. To overlap tasks, shift-select or multi-select the
tasks that you want to overlap, and then right-click on one of the selected tasks, and then select “Task
Overlap”. Users can also remove the Overlap. The tasks selected must reside in the same swimlane. The
manual task overlap settings are preserved on Refresh. NOTE: Excel files require a column field named
“Unique_ID” with unique values 1-n for each row in the source to support the Task Overlap feature. An
example of the results of milestones overlapping an interval is shown below:
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Remove from Overlap
The “Remove from Overlap” option allows users to select task(s) and remove them from overlapping.
Text Position – Above/Within/Below/Left of Task/Right of Task
The text positioning right-click options allow you to set the task text position for the currently selected task(s).
Text Positioning selections are preserved with “Refresh”.
Text Alignment – Left/Center/Right
The text alignment right-click options allow you to set the text alignment for the currently selected task(s).
Text Alignment selections are preserved with “Refresh”.
Single Line of Text
The “Single Line of Text” right-click option allows you to change from the default “wrapped text” to displaying
text in a single line for the currently selected task(s). This selection is preserved with “Refresh”.
Text Hidden
The “Text Hidden” right-click option allows you to hide the task text for the selected task(s). The Text Hidden
setting is preserved with “Refresh”.
Apply Text Settings to All Tasks, All Intervals, or All Milestones
With these options, users are able to make text font style changes to one task using Visio’s native text options
(Font, Font Style, Font Size, and Font Color) and then quickly apply those same text format changes to all
tasks, All Intervals, or All Milestones.
Create Dependency
Use the “Create Dependency” option to quickly create manual dependency connectors between shapes. Simply select the first shape, and then shift-select the second shape, and then Right-Click and select the "Create Dependency" option create the dependency connector between the two selected shapes.
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Show Date Markers
This option allows you to show/hide Date Markers on a task-by-task basis.
Change Milestone Type
This option will bring up a milestone selection dialogue, and all selected milestones will be changed to the new
milestone type. You can choose from the installed milestone shapes, any custom milestone shapes you have
created, or any custom milestone that exists in the Shared Folder. Manual Milestone Type settings can be
saved and reapplied using the custom Align option. You can also change the milestone type displayed using
conditional format settings.
Change Milestone Height
This option presents a milestone height dialogue that allows you to specify the height of a milestone. The
width is also changed to preserve the milestone shape aspect ratio. Manual Milestone Height settings can be
saved and reapplied using the custom Align option. You can also change the milestone height using
conditional format settings.
Hyperlink to Project Task or Excel Row
This hyperlink takes users into the source file with the associated row highlighted. This feature is particularly
useful when creating Swimlane Timelines from a Project schedule that was opened in Read/Write mode. That
way, when you hyperlink back to project to make changes then you can Save the project file to the same
name. On returning to the Swimlane Timeline the “Refresh” option will automatically select the previously
used file to refresh against and update the drawing.
TIP: Hyperlinking to an Excel source file may generate a Visio Security Notice similar to the one shown below. Users can disable or enable the hyperlink warning messages by following the instructions provided in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925757
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Right Click – Page Border When a user right-click’s on the white border area of a Swimlane Timeline, when no other shapes are
currently selected, they are presented with the following page level options:
Show Timeline at Top
By default the timeline is shown at the top of the Swimlane Timeline report. You can toggle the timeline rows
displayed at the top of the Swimlane Timeline report with the option.
Show Timeline at Bottom
This option allows you to show the timeline rows at the bottom of Swimlane Timeline report. You can show
the Timeline Rows at both the top and bottom of the Swimlane Timeline report if desired.
Select Resources….
The “Select Resources” Page right-click option is only available if the user is in the “Resource View”. This
option presents the user with a list of resources that have been assigned to tasks in the Swimlane Timeline,
and allows the user to select the resources whose tasks they wish to view. An example of the “Select
Resources” dialogue is shown below:
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Select All Intervals
This option will select all interval tasks in a Swimlane Timeline drawing. Once all interval shapes are selected,
then users can right-click on a single interval and make global changes to all interval shapes on the page.
Select All Milestones
This option will select all milestone tasks in a Swimlane Timeline. Once all milestones are selected, then users
can right-click on a single milestone and make global changes to all milestone shapes on the page.
Select All Tasks
This option will select all tasks in a Swimlane Timeline. Once all tasks are selected, then users can right-click
on a single task and make global changes to all task shapes on the page.
Show Shape Data Window
Selecting the “Show Shape Data Window” option will turn on the Visio Shape Data Window. Once the Shape
Data Window is turned on, then users can select different Visio shapes and see the shape data values that are
associated with that shape. An example of the Shape Data Window that has been docked on the left side of
the page is shown below:
Show Color Definitions
NOTE: This option has been superseded by the new “ST Manage/Palette” option for customizing color
palettes.
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Hide Text Definitions
By default the Swimlane Timeline page Text Settings are shown in the Shape Data Window when you select
the white space area around the Swimlane Timeline. When you select the white space, then you are selecting
“The Page” rather than a specific shape. An example of the Text Settings is shown below:
You can quickly make page level text formatting changes by editing the Text Settings shown in the Shape Data
Window. For example, by change the Swimlane Text Font Size, you are changing the size for all swimlanes.
Show Task Mode Highlight
Selecting this option will highlight all Project 2010 tasks with “Task Mode” set to “Manual” to a grey fill color.
A legend entry is added to the Legend under the Swimlane Timeline.
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Working with Tasks The Swimlane Timeline positions tasks and their associated names to maximize swimlane compression and
minimize collisions. You can override the default task text position manually by either using the task right-click
text position options or from the Swimlane Timeline ribbon user interface.
Selecting Tasks
To select tasks, first make sure that the Visio Pointer Tool is selected from the Visio Ribbon/Home Group as
shown below:
You can also use the CTRL+1 keyboard shortcut to change to the Visio Pointer Tool. Users can select multiple
tasks by holding down the CTRL key while selecting tasks.
TIP: It’s easiest to select tasks by clicking on the task text.
Task Right-Click Text Position Options
The Swimlane Timeline default text position is vertically centered with the task shape. The default text
alignment is determined algorithmically during layout to be wrapped aligned right or left. Users can use the
task right-click text position and alignment options to override the defaults.
Page Level Task Text Formatting
You can also use the “Show/Hide Text Definitions” to make text changes editing text format fields the Shape
Data Window that are applied to all tasks, all swimlanes, and the title of the drawing page.
Project & Excel Task Hyperlink
The Swimlane Timeline has a unique hyperlink feature that is accessible with a right-click on any task by
selecting the hyperlink to either a specific “Project Task” or “Excel Row”. See an example hyperlink below:
This link will take you back into Microsoft Project with the selected task “Indicators” row highlighted. You can
then make changes to your schedule if it is opened in Read/Write mode. Once saved; you can then switch
back to the Swimlane Timeline that is still open, and select “Refresh” from the Visibility pull-down menu, and
the report will refresh the tasks and the schedule changes will be reflected in the Swimlane Timeline.
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This process works best when creating Swimlane Timelines from a Project that was opened in Read/Write
mode. That way, when you hyperlink back to project to make changes then you can Save the project file to
the same name. On returning to the Swimlane Timeline the Refresh option will automatically select the
previously used file to refresh against.
IMPORTANT: When working with 2013 Project Server schedules, we recommend you use the 2013 Project
Professional “Save for Sharing” option (File/Share/Save for Sharing/SaveAs MPP), then create Swimlane
Timeline reports with the “shared” MPP file. When the Swimlane Timeline reports are complete, then end
Save for Sharing (File/SaveAs/Project Web App/Save/Save).
Working with Swimlanes
Selecting Swimlanes
Users can select a swimlane by clicking on the swimlane title that is located on the left side of the swimlane.
Changing Swimlane Titles
Users can manually change the displayed swimlane titles by opening the Visio Shape Data Window, selecting
the swimlane to change, and then editing the “Short Name” field in the Shape Data Window as shown below:
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Sort Swimlanes
Swimlane Sort allows sorting by task field values in Ascending, Descending, or “Order in Data”. Swimlane
sorting can be done by the following task fields: Text, Dates, and Numbers. The swimlanes can be sorted
alphanumerically by their names using the “<Swimlane Title>” pick list item as shown below:
Below is the location of the Swimlane Sort in the Swimlane Timeline main menu ribbon:
To sort swimlanes by a number field, users should assign a sort index number to all tasks in their data as
shown in the example below:
Name Swimlane Group Swimlane Sort Order Start Finish
Regulatory 5 11/15/2012 11/15/2012
MMM Regulatory 5 11/15/2012 11/15/2012
Clin Dev 4 1/2/2012 1/9/2018
Study 1 Clin Dev 4 1/2/2012 9/1/2012
Study 2 Clin Dev 4 10/1/2012 8/30/2013
Study 4 Clin Dev 4 12/1/2014 12/30/2015
Study 3 Clin Dev 4 12/31/2015 1/9/2018
Users can apply one sort order for how the swimlanes are stacked (Swimlane Sort), and another sort order for
the how the tasks are grouped within swimlanes (Task Sort).
Drag & Drop Swimlanes
You can override the default swimlane stack order by manually selecting a swimlane title (to select the
swimlane), and then dragging it into a new vertical position in the swimlane stack.
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Swimlane Title Width
You can override the default width of the swimlane title text box area by clicking and dragging the right border
line of the swimlane title as shown below:
You will know when you have the line selected when you see the boxes at the top and bottom of the line.
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Multiple Page Reports
Add New Page
The “New Page” option in the ST Add/Show menu allows users to create a multi-page report with different
views into the same data. See the “New Page” option description for more details.
Drill-in Swimlane
You can right-click on a swimlane or summary task to create a new drawing page showing one level deeper of
task data. The swimlane Drill-in option is only available if “No Grouping” is currently applied to a Project
Schedule, or in an Excel spreadsheet containing an “Outline_Number” field that defines task parent/child
relationships.
Create New Page
The “Create New Page” option allows users to create a quick one-off view of selected swimlanes. Users can
CTRL-Select multiple swimlanes, then right-click on one of the selected swimlanes, and select the “Create New
Page” option. This option will create a new Visio page that includes just the selected swimlane(s). A preferred
method to visualize this view is to use the custom Filter option.
Auto Drill-in
The Swimlane Timeline offers users the ability to automatically generate multi-page Swimlane Timelines
where new pages reveal tasks at continually deeper Outline Levels. You can find out more about the Auto
drill-in feature in the Create Drill-in Pages section of the User’s Guide.
Sharing Reports
Print to Paper
You can customize your Swimlane Timeline print settings via the Visio “Page Setup” option dialogue. To access
the Page Setup options in Visio 2010, select the Page Setup shortcut highlighted in red below located in the
Visio “Design Ribbon/Page Setup Group”:
The Page Setup dialogue appears as shown below:
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You can override the default printer paper size, and print to any page size your printer supports by using the
“Printer paper” size pull-down menu. You can select your desired printer, from the “File/Print” dialogue as
shown below:
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Save As File Formats
Swimlane Timeline can also be shared in a variety of file formats including: VSD, PDF, SVG, DWG, DXF, GIF, TIF,
BMP, EMF, WMF, and as HTML Web pages. By default, the RIP Visuals Tool saves files in the Visio VSD format.
Use the “Save as” type pull-down menu to select a different file format. See the example Save As dialogue
below:
Printing to PDF
Use the Visio Save As” type PDF. Swimlane drill-in hyperlinks are preserved in the PDF document.
Free Visio Viewer
Visio VSD files can be viewed with the free Microsoft Visio Viewer that can be downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35811
Save as a Web Page
When you use the “Publish” option with Visio’s “File/Save As” Web Page (*.htm; *.html) and then select
“Publish” and you are presented with the following Save as Web Page dialogue:
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Pages to publish - notice that you have the ability to publish ALL pages, or selected pages.
Publishing options - you also have options to make Swimlane Timeline task Details (Shape Data)
available in Internet Explorer (IE), as well as the ability to add the capability to SEARCH Pages, and
dynamically Pan and Zoom your RIP Visuals Reports.
Note: to use the dynamic Pan and Zoom feature in IE, you need to ensure your IE “Tools/Internet
Options/Advanced” security setting is set to “Allow active content to run in files on My Computer”(see
the figure below):
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Advanced Tab – The Advance tab includes Display options and Output formats.
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Visio Tips
Dynamic Pan and Zoom
One key Visio feature that many users are unaware of is the ability to dynamically and instantly pan and zoom
around your Visio reports using keyboard and mouse combinations as shown below:
I want to... I’ll do this...
Zoom-in to a specific areaWhile pressing the Ctrl+Shift keys, click and hold the left
mouse button and drag out the windowed area and release.
Pan diagram real-timeWhile pressing the Ctrl+Shift keys, click and hold the right
mouse button and moving the mouse shifts the view center.
Zoom-out step by step
Zoom-in step by step
Navigate with Mouse Wheel
Zoom to see the whole page
While pressing the Ctrl+Shift keys, click the right mouse
button. This Zooms out at the cursor as the center of focus.
While pressing the Ctrl+Shift keys, click the left mouse
button. This Zooms in at the cursor as the center of focus.
Roll wheel to Pan Up/Down only
Ctrl+Roll wheel to Zoom In/Out by step
While pressing the Ctrl key, press the “W” key.
Ctrl-Shift
LT Click
& Drag
Ctrl-Shift
RT Click
Ctrl-Shift
LT Click
Ctrl-Shift
RT Click
& Drag
Figure 7 Visio Navigation Shortcuts (LT is Left, and RT is Right)
Status Bar
We highly recommend that users aquaint themselves with the “Zoom Slider”, “Zoom to Fit” and “Pan & Zoom
Window” options in the Visio 2010 Status Bar. The Visio 2010 Status Bar located at the bottom of the Visio
application window provides useful shortcuts and information.
When you Right-Click in the Status Bar it provides you with a list of customizable features as shown below:
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Shape Data Window
Users can view task field values that were read in from the source data and are associated with a selected task using the Visio “View/Task Panes/Shape Data” option. Users can also use the Swimlane Timeline Right-Click – Page Border to “Show the Shape Data Window”.
Task Shape Data
When the Shape Data Window is visible and you select a task, the task field values that were read in are visible as shown in the example below:
Page Shape Data
When the Shape Data Window is visible and you select the white page border, then you can see the current Swimlane Timeline settings as shown in the example below:
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Displaying the Shape Data Window
You can turn the Shape Data Window on by either right-clicking on the white page border and selecting Show Shape Data Window, or by selecting the “Visio/View/Task Panes/Shape Data” option. With the Visio Shape Data Window active, users can quickly click on various tasks to view their associated shape data field values that have been read in. Users can also edit some of the fields like “Short Name” to change the displayed task text, and change the “Type” of milestone visualized.
Users can click in the Shape Data Window title area and drag the window to any location desired, including a
secondary monitor.
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Appendix A – EXCEL Source Guidelines The Swimlane Timeline can visualize Excel files if they adhere to the following requirements:
The Excel source file must contain a header that includes at least the following fields:
1. “Name” – text field – represents the items shown in swimlanes 2. “Start_Date” or “Start” And/OR “Finish_Date” or “Finish” – formatted as a date field
If only a Start date or a Finish date is specified (not both) then the “Name” item is visualized as a milestone.
All Excel columns are read, and users can Group, Filter and Sort on field values.
Important: Each column in the Excel file must have values that are the same format in order to work with the
Swimlane Timeline (e.g., you cannot mix text values for some cells and then use numbers values for others).
For an example of a known working Excel file, you can take a look at the “Demo 8 – Portfolio Status” XLS demo
file in the Swimlane Timeline installation “Demos” folder. The Demos folder will normally be located in one of
these two locations depending on your PC environment:
C:\Program Files(x86)\Visibility.Biz\Visibility.biz Swimlane Timeline 32bit VSTO (vx.xx)\Demos
C:\Program Files\Visibility.Biz\Visibility.biz Swimlane Timeline 32bit VSTO (vx.xx)\Demos
If multiple worksheets are detected then the user is solicited for the worksheet to use as the source data.
If the Swimlane Timeline does not find a text field named “Outline_Number” that defines task parent/child
relationships, then, it solicits the user for the Group-by, Filter-by and Style selections as shown below:
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Excel Special Field Names
In addition to “Name”, “Start”, “Finish”, and “Outline_Number” there are a number of other field names that
have special significance to the Swimlane Timeline solution.
Used for the Baseline View
o “Baseline_Start” – Date Field
o “Baseline_Finish” – Date Field
Used for task interval shading
o “Percent_Complete” – Percentage Field
o “Percent_Work_Complete” – Percentage Field
o “SPI” - Schedule Performance Index used for Percent Progress shading
Used for highlighting Critical Tasks
o “Critical” – text field, values are “True” and “False”
Used for filtering, sorting, grouping on Milestones
o “Milestone” – text field, values are “True” and “False”
Used for displaying Dependency Connectors
o “Unique_ID” If used, then every row needs a unique number specified
o “Unique_ID_Predecessors” Refers to a Unique_ID number
Used for the Resource View
o “Resource_Names” – values are in the form “Judy Lew” or “Judy Lew[50%],Wendy
Wheeler[50%]” with percent allocation specified in brackets.
Used by the Summary Field Option
o “Duration” – Number field
o “Work” – Number field
o “Cost” – Currency field
Used for formatting Task Short Names, Task Color & Milestone Type
These fields are described in greater detail in the “Formatting” section of the User’s Guide.
o “VisibilityShortName” – text field (task nickname)
o “VisibilityColor” – number field (task color)
o “VisibilityType” – number field (milestone shape type)
The Excel column field name “Priority” has special meaning and is expected to have number values from 0-
1000 as in MS Project schedules. If users have a column header named “Priority” in their Excel source files
with values that are not numbers from 0-1000, then simply change the field name to something else like:
“Task Priority” or “Project Priority”. In addition, if using priority numbers from 0-1000, then the Swimlane
Timeline expects a value be assigned to each task (for example, a task with no priority would have a “0” placed
in the priority cell).
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Excel Dummy Row
The values in the first 8 rows of an Excel spreadsheet determine the field value formatting sent to the
Swimlane Timeline application (i.e., if an excel field value is interpreted as text, date, percentage, cost, or
number).
If the first 8 rows of a field column in an Excel spreadsheet are all empty, then the field format can be
misinterpreted (e.g., a date field could be sent to the Swimlane Timeline as a text field). Therefore, having the
first 8 rows of a field empty can cause issues when the Swimlane Timeline is processing an Excel source files.
To circumvent this potential problem, Excel users are encouraged to include a dummy row as the first row
after the header row with a “Name” field labeled “Dummy Row” or “Dummy” that includes correctly
formatted values for every field in the dummy row. The Swimlane Timeline will automatically filter out the
dummy row from the drawing. An example of a spreadsheet with a “Dummy Row” is shown below:
Name Start Finish Baseline_Start Baseline_Finish BudgetPercent_
Complete
Unique
_IDRoadmap Type
Dummy Row 4/1/2013 4/1/2013 4/1/2013 4/1/2013 $10 5% 0 Technology
Advertising Campaign 4/8/2012 7/17/2013 $1,500,200 30% 1 Technology
Audit Training 6/30/2013 3/12/2014 $55,200 0% 2 Operations
Device Drivers Support Complete 11/4/2012 $320,200 0% 3 Technology
E-commerce Portal 11/1/2012 6/26/2013 $45,200 75% 4 Operations
E-CRM Complete 5/13/2012 $25,200 100% 5 Operations
Internal Software Audit 1/28/2013 12/9/2013 $20,300,200 0% 6 Operations
Knowledge Management Outsourcing7/11/2012 11/3/2013 $8,500,200 20% 7 Operations
Legacy Mainframe Appraisal 12/29/2011 3/13/2013 $2,225,200 100% 8 Technology
Merger and Acquisitions Program 3/24/2012 8/4/2013 $130,200 15% 9 Operations
Mobile Client Deployment 4/2/2012 6/21/2013 3/1/2012 3/1/2013 $12,500,200 30% 10 Infra-Structure
If the Swimlane Timeline finds a text field named “Outline_Number” in the Excel source file, then it will use the row outline number for grouping tasks into swimlanes by parent/child relationships. The Outline_Number hierarchy is interpreted as follows:
0 The “Name” associated with Outline_Number 0 is the Title 1 The “Name” associated with Outline _Number 1 is the First Swimlane 1.1 This is a task that will appear in the first Swimlane 2 The “Name” associated with Outline_Number 2 is the Second Swimlane 2.1 This is a task that will appear in the second Swimlane
NOTE: Because Outline_Number values 0, n, and n.n may be interpreted in Excel files as numbers instead of text, simply place an apostrophe in front of these values in the Excel source file cells so that they are properly interpreted as text. For example ‘0, ‘1, ‘1.1. The n.n.n… Outline_Number values are always interpreted as text fields. No modification to Outline_Number are required if you created the XLS file using Save As from Microsoft Project since the format of the Outline_Number field is already correct for the Swimlane Timeline.
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Swimlane Timeline Custom Setting File Locations The Swimlane Timeline builds the custom setting pick lists at runtime by searching the Swimlane Timeline
folders in this order:
1) First searching for custom settings in the PC Local User Folder. 2) Then, if set, the Swimlane Timeline searches for custom settings in the Shared Folder location.
If custom settings are encountered with duplicate internal names within a folder, then the first one
encountered is the one that is referenced in the pick list.
User Folder
When custom setting files are created using the ST Manage options, then they are automatically saved to the
User Folder. The location of the PC local User Folder custom settings is shown below:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Visibility.biz
Shared Folder
The Swimlane Timeline custom settings can reside in a shared network location for easy sharing of corporate
standards.
Each user must use the Swimlane Timeline “Shared Folder” option to point to the shared folder network
location. The “Shared Folder” action only needs to be done once, and is remembered from that point on. The
“Shared Folder” option can be found in the “ST Manage” menu.
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Notes