Linking
Although you can use calculated fields to display individual fields from different data tables on a single spreadsheet, Open Plan offers a more general linking capability in multi-table spreadsheet views.
In multi-table spreadsheet views, you can display any field from linked tables just as though the field resided on the primary data table for the view. This allows you to produce sophisticated reports showing information from a number of different data tables.
Open Plan provides a number of multi-table spreadsheet views including:
- Predecessor/Successor Spreadsheet: Displays the predecessors and successors for each activity in a project.
- Activity/Resource Spreadsheet: Displays the resources assigned to each activity in a project.
- Resource/Activity Spreadsheet: Displays information from the resource description table (the primary data table for the view).
Just as you can expand and collapse records in a spreadsheet view using outlining, multi-table spreadsheet views allow you to expand and collapse the display of information based on one-to-many relationships. To expand or collapse the display of secondary records in a multi-table spreadsheet view, use the outlining button (displayed to the left of the row) or the Collapse, Expand, and Expand All commands.
Multi-table spreadsheet views can combine outlining on an activity or resource ID with the display of one-to-many secondary records from linked data tables.
Defining Links
You can define the links for many multi-table spreadsheet views. By customizing the linking in a multi-table spreadsheet view, you can display fields from any linked data table. To define links in a multi-table spreadsheet view, display the Define Link tab in the Spreadsheet Preferences dialog box.
Use this dialog box to define the tables and fields comprising the link. For example, to link to the Assignment table from the Resource Description table, you might use the Res. ID field, which appears on both tables. This type of one-to-many link would allow you to display the activity IDs for each assignment stored for a resource. To display more information about these activities (for example, their descriptions), you could then link from the Assignment table to the Activity table using the activity ID field.
Notice that Open Plan does not allow recursive linking — that is, linking a file back to itself. Thus, for example, you cannot create a view that shows both predecessors and successors for activities by linking the Activity table to the Relationship table and then linking the Relationship table back to the Activity table. Instead, you must define two links between the Activity table and the Relationship table as follows:
| Activity | Activity ID | Relationship | Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Activity | Activity ID | Relationship | Succ ID |
Open Plan limits the list choices for linking tables and fields to only those that are based on the From Table.
For example, if the resource description table is linked to both the assignment and usage tables, data from the assignment and usage records will be displayed on the same line. This is true even if no relationship exists between the data from these two tables except through the single resource description record.
You can also use this Define Links tab to indicate if the primary record should appear on a row by itself in cases of one-to-many links. If you do not select the Put Primary Record on Its Own Row option, Open Plan displays the first linked record on the same row as the primary record.
Clicking Baselines Colors displays a dialog box that allows you to assign a different color for up to three baselines.