Deltek Open Plan Help

Using the Help Search
Using the Help Search
  • Phrase:Returns all topics that contain the exact phrase in the search criteria. Use quotation marks around the phrase.
    Ex."system administration"
  • And:Returns all topics that contain all the words in the search criteria, in any combination. Insert a plus sign between all words in the search criteria.
    Ex.system + administration
  • Or:Returns all topics with any combination of words in the search criteria. This is the default.
    Ex.system administration
For more information:Searching Online Help

Filters Overview

Use the Open Plan filters to limit the display of items in a view, based on a set of specific criterion.

Open Plan provides a number of pre-defined filters common to many project management reports.

You can utilize filters in a number of ways:

  • Pre-defined filters: You can apply the general filters available on the Filters dialog box to a project view.
  • Custom filters: You can define custom filter expressions that you can apply to views. The filters that you define are stored in the database and can be shared with your team.  
  • Temporary filters: You can create temporary filters when the specific criteria you need is not likely to be used again.
  • Filters on a multi-table spreadsheet: You can apply filters to a secondary table in the Spreadsheet Preferences dialog box.
  • Filters in a network view: You can use filters for placements of activities and relationship lines in a Network view.
  • Filters for linking and outlining in spreadsheet or barchart views: You can apply filters when you are linking or outlining in a Spreadsheet view.

Each project view can have a different filter in effect. When a filter is in use for a view, you can continue to add activities to the view. Open Plan displays the activities as you add them, even if the new activities do not satisfy the current filter condition. However, if you close the view and return to it later or click the Reapply Filter And Sort button on the Edit tab, the activities you added may not display if the filter expression excludes them.

How Open Plan Applies a Filter

  • When selecting filtered activities, the status of the parent item applies to the status of the child. For example, if you apply a filter to a view and select and copy a parent activity or a resource pool, Open Plan automatically copies all children of the item, even if they do not meet the original filter criteria.
  • If you apply a filter to a spreadsheet or a barchart view with outlining enabled, the status of child items is determined by the status of the parent when you select the filter from the Top Down option. For example, if a parent activity fails to meet the filter criteria, none of the children display in the view, even in cases where the individual child activities satisfy the filter.
  • If you apply a filter to a linked spreadsheet view, the filter applies only to the information from the primary data table for the view.
  • In a multi-table spreadsheet, you can only apply the filter to the primary table. To apply a filter to a secondary table, use the Filters column on the Define Link tab of the Spreadsheet Preferences dialog box.

Filter Status

  • You can use a different filter for each project view. When a filter is in effect, the filter name displays in the status bar, at the bottom of the Open Plan window. If you hover your mouse cursor over a filter, Open Plan displays the details of that filter as a tool tip.
Note: The highlighted text in red on the image above is the custom filter in effect.

Custom Filters

You can define custom filter expressions that can be applied to views. These custom expressions are based on any field from an activity or resource-related data table and can feature complex expressions using logical operators and parentheses. After creating a filter, you can make it available to other users in the network.

In addition to their use as view filters, filter expressions can be used as criteria for bar attributes in a barchart view, box attributes in a network view, or in the Conditional Formatting dialog box.

When you create a new filter, Open Plan displays the New Filter dialog box where you can specify a filter name and the source of the fields to display in the filter. After entering a name and a data table for the filter, you can enter the expression for the filter criterion using the Filter Expression dialog box.

Guidelines for Defining Filter Expressions

  • When you enter literal dates, enclose the value curly braces {}.
  • When you enter literal strings, enclose the value in quotes (single or double).
  • When you enter literal durations, enclose the value in pipe symbols | |. If you do not specify a duration identifier (m, w, d, h, t), the default duration unit will be assumed. You should enclose enumerated or Boolean values in square brackets [].
Note: Open Plan requires that you define "today" as a specific date and time range. Therefore, if "today" is May 4, 2019, you will enter one of the following expressions in the Filter Expression dialog box:
  • ESDATE>{03MAY19 23:59} AND ESDATE<{05MAY19 00}
  • ESDATE BETWEEN({03MAY19 23:59},{05MAY19 00})

Related Topics

Related Procedures