Network View
A network view is a graphic representation of a project that shows activities as boxes and the relationships between activities as arrows.
Favored by many experienced project planners, network views stress the clear depiction of relationships between activities and are often used to display a logical diagram of a project. Network views are particularly well suited for communicating the critical path of a project, which may have important ramifications for the execution of the overall project plan.
The primary purpose of a network view is to show the relationships between activities, and thus, the logic of the project as a whole. In addition, you can create and display an annotation that you can attach to any activity or to the entire project.
In Open Plan, a network view allows you to display multiple levels of a hierarchical project at one time. You can also create relationships between activities in different projects and on different hierarchical levels.
Search
You can search for and view any activity in a network view instantly regardless of whether the activity is in the current view. When you enter an activity description, activity ID, or any available field on the Find and Replace dialog box, and click Find Next (or press Enter), Open Plan automatically navigates to the subproject where you can find the activity provided that the activity has not been filtered out by a filter assigned on the Placements dialog box.
Split View
Open Plan allows you to split a network view into two panes. Each pane features a horizontal scroll bar allowing you to adjust the amount of data displayed in each pane.
The split view feature is especially useful when you want to add a relationship between two activities that are not located next to each other in a large network. To create the relationship, display the predecessor in one pane and the successor in the other. Then Alt+drag the cursor from the predecessor to the successor.
The activity box sizes are resized automatically, depending on the values you set in the Network Preferences dialog box. You can also align activity boxes based on dates that you specify. With this option, Open Plan places the activity boxes beneath date labels that are displayed across the top of the network. Open Plan always displays the activity boxes in the order dictated by the project logic. Therefore, a successor activity is never placed to the left of its predecessor even if it has an earlier start date due to negative lag.
Because a network view depicts the logic of a project, it is sometimes called a logic drawing or a logic diagram. Other project management systems may call this view a flowchart or a PERT chart.
You can define the shape and color of the activity box ends as well as diagonal lines across the box to convey information about the activity. You can also customize the areas within the box to display data about the activity.
Network View Display Options
You can control the display of a network view with a number of settings accessed from the Options tab of the Network Preferences dialog box.
Conditional Formatting
Use the Conditional Formatting dialog box dialog box to override default settings by specifying the conditions under which the attributes of rows or an individual column or row will change. For example, you may want key figures that exceed a particular criterion to appear in bold red text, show a symbol, or display in a different background color.
Related Topics
Related Procedures
- Create an Activity in a Network View
- Edit an Activity
- Create a Relationship Using a Mouse (Network)
- Create a Relationship Using the Keyboard (Network)
- Select Multiple Activities in a Network View
- Change the Font on Activity Boxes
- Split a Network View into Two Panes
- Customize Network View Display Options