Asta Powerproject - The Asta Powerproject window
When the project opens, a chart window is displayed and Asta Powerproject looks like the following illustration:
Note that depending on the template you use to create your project, the project view, the properties view – and other elements of the Asta Powerproject window – may not be visible initially.
Ribbon
The Ribbon is designed to provide fast access to the commands that you need as you work with your projects.
The commands are organised in logical groups, which are collected together under tabs. Each tab relates to a type of activity, such as displaying different items in a view or working with allocations. Click the Ribbon tabs to move between them and access the commands that they contain.
To find out the function of a command, hover the mouse pointer over it. A tooltip displays the name of the command and a brief description of it.
The File tab is slightly different to the other Ribbon tabs: click this to display the Backstage view, which contains the commands that you use to do things to a project, rather than within a project.
Quick Access toolbar
Above the Ribbon, at the top-left of the Asta Powerproject window, is the Quick Access toolbar. You use the buttons on this toolbar to access a number of commonly-used commands.
View tabs
You use the view tabs above the spreadsheet and bar chart to switch between the different views that you currently have open onto a project. Each time you open a view, it appears under a new tab. You can close a view by clicking
at the top-right of its tab.
Project view
The project view provides a view onto the whole project, or programme of projects. As well as displaying the natural order hierarchy of a project, the project view also
displays various libraries of objects, including resources, cost centres, code libraries and calendars. Click the + box alongside an object in the project view to expand it and see its contents.
One of the quickest ways to assign resources, costs, codes and calendars to tasks is to drag and drop them from the project view onto tasks in the bar chart.
You can also use the project view to navigate between charts, re-arrange charts in the project hierarchy and switch between the different hierarchical views (natural order, RBS and CBS).
The project view is attached to the spreadsheet. You can change the proportion of the screen that is taken up by the project view by dragging the vertical bar that separates it from the spreadsheet. To turn the project view on or off, click
in the status bar.
Spreadsheet
The spreadsheet displays information about bars, tasks and allocations. A typical spreadsheet might display Name, Start, Duration and Finish columns. You can add and remove columns from the spreadsheet and display virtually
any project information in each column by configuring the columns to display specific fields. You can construct your own formulae to display precisely the information you want in spreadsheet columns.
You can edit bars and tasks by typing in the spreadsheet. For example, you can enter the names of bars and tasks and specify start and finish dates by typing in the appropriate columns.
Bar chart
The bar chart is where you draw and link tasks to create your project schedule. Most projects comprise
a number of different charts. Each chart has a series of numbered bars – also known as lines or rows – each one containing one or more tasks.
You can change the width of the bar chart to make it wider or narrower. To do this, drag the vertical divider
that separates the bar chart from the spreadsheet.
Date zone
The date zone is displayed at the top of each bar chart. It shows the time plan of projects – in other words when tasks are scheduled to take place.
You can display a variety of time units in the date zone, for example days, weeks, months and years, each one on its own line. You can add and remove date zone lines to display the time units you want.
You can change the horizontal scale of a project by clicking and dragging one of the horizontal tick lines in the date zone. Dragging to the left decreases the horizontal scale, ‘zooming out’ to see more tasks in less detail; dragging to the right increases the horizontal scale, ‘zooming in’ to see fewer tasks in greater detail.
You can split the date zone into two or three sections, each one displaying a different scale. For example, you could show the past and the future weeks’ work on a small scale, but show the current week’s work on a larger scale.
Properties view
The properties view appears in the lower portion of the Asta Powerproject window. It is divided into a number of tabs, each of which displays a different type of information about the selected task or bar. You can use the properties view to view and edit information about the currently-selected bar or task.
in the status bar.
Object Edit toolbar
You can use the Object Edit toolbar to carry out a variety of edits on bars, tasks, links and allocations. For example, you can enter progress, move and change the duration of tasks and assign codes and calendars to tasks.
Status bar
The status bar displays messages as you work with your projects. It also contains a number of buttons that you can use to toggle elements of the
Asta Powerproject window on and off, including the project view, the bar chart and the properties view. Use the slider control at the right of the status bar to zoom in and out of your project.
Library Explorer
Library Explorer provides a view onto all the library objects in your project, such as resources, calendars and codes. You use Library Explorer to create, edit and delete library objects. Library Explorer has a hierarchical structure, similar to that of Windows Explorer.
To enter Library Explorer, on the View tab, in the Show group, click Library Explorer, or click in the Quick Access toolbar. Library Explorer opens in a new tab.
The tree view in Library Explorer’s left pane displays all the available libraries. The list view, in the right pane, displays the objects within the selected library.
You can choose which libraries to display in Library Explorer: right-click the list view and select Show Libraries, then select the libraries you want to display in the dialog that appears.