Identify
Resources by Gantt Bar Colors
For a long time Project users have been asking for the
option to display distinctive Gantt Bars for tasks that are assigned to specific
resources or groups of resources. A new feature in Project 2000 can help you
achieve that goal: the custom fields with formulas. With Project 98, the only
close solution (without building a macro) is to filter the tasks. Using a custom
flag field (Flag1), we will build a formula that will check if a specific
resource is assigned to the task. Then we will use this flag field to make a
Gantt bar appear for this task.
To customize a field I usually
insert it in a table first and then right-click on its header to select the
Customize Fields command. That brings me directly to that field in the Customize
Fields dialog box. So, insert the Flag1 field in your task table and select
Customize Fields.
By clicking on the Rename button,
you'll be able to rename the field. This will also change the default title for
the field to your own label instead of "Flag1". In my example, I'll
rename the field "Tom Test".
Clicking on the Formula button
opens the formula editor where all the tools you need to build the formula can
be found.
A little like in Excel, you will
have to create a formula with one or more functions that return a value for each
task in the table. But the comparison stops here since the functions used are
based on Visual Basic Script and are not exactly like those in Excel.
Note: For more information on
VBScript, visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/default.htm?/scripting/vbscript/
The first function we will use is the IIf() function (spelled with two capital
i's) which is very similar to the Excel IF() function. Click the Function button
and select "IIf" from the General submenu on the Function menu.
Project will insert the IIF() function for you with its three arguments defined
as follows:
IIf( expression, truepart, falsepart )
The "expression" argument
refers to a test that returns "true" or "false" and the
other arguments are the values the function will return in each case. We will
test the Resource Names field to see if it contains a particular resource. In my
example, I'll test for Tom.
To insert the Resource Names field,
double-click the "expression" argument to select it; then select the
field from the Text submenu on the Field menu. You'll notice that brackets are
used to enclose field names. (You could have typed the field name in as well –
just remember to include the brackets.)
Now type an equal sign
("=") and a value in double-quote marks (like "Tom"). Since
Flag fields only accept Yes or No values (or True and False), we will replace
the "truepart" with Yes and the "falsepart" with No. The
formula at this stage looks like this:
IIf([Resource Names]="Tom",Yes,No)
Testing the formula will get you
the results shown in Figure A:
Figure
A
As you can see, the formula works only if Tom is the only one assigned to the
task and if he's assigned 100% to it. That's because our test expression
requires that the Resource Names field to be exactly equal
to "Tom", not that the field contains "Tom". We will
need the InStr (In String) function to do a contains test.
The InStr() function has these
arguments:
InStr( start, string1, string2, compare )
Or, as I like to describe it:
InStr( start, BigString, SmallString, compare )
BigString and
SmallString define what to search for and where to search for it: search
BigString (the Resource Names field) to see if it contains SmallString
("Tom").
The start argument
tells Project where the search should begin within BigString, and is mandatory
(unlike in regular VBScript). Use the number 1 to start searching at the first
character in BigString.
The compare
argument is an optional flag with the value 0 or 1, and it tells the function
how to compare text. A value of 0 causes a binary comparison (meaning it finds
exact matches only – which means for us that it is a case-sensitive search). A
binary test fails if it's asked to compare "Tom" and "tom".
A value of (1) causes a textual search (which is not case-sensitive). Binary (0)
is best used here since we don't want the test to say that "Tom" is
found in words like "Atomic" or "Phantom". However, be aware
that the binary search will say that "Tom" is found in both
"Tom" and "Tomas"; so, your resource names need to be
carefully chosen for this function to work properly.
Note: If you leave a blank in place of the compare
argument then Project uses a textual comparison as its default - unlike VBScript
where a binary comparison is the default.
The InStr() formula should look
like this:
InStr(1,[Resource
Names],"Tom",0)
and the complete formula
should now look like this:
IIf(InStr(1,[Resource Names],"Tom",0),Yes,No)
The InStr function returns the
position of the first character where a match is found, or 0 if it can't be
found. So the IIF() function receives a positive number if "Tom" is
located and a 0 if it is not. For the IIf function, 0 means false (so it will
return a No to the flag field) and any other number means true (it will return a
Yes to the flag field). So our formula will return "Yes" as long as
"Tom" is found somewhere in the Resource Names field (see Figure B).
Figure
B
Now that we have a flag field
testing for Tom, we only have to add a new Bar Style to show which tasks are
assigned to Tom. Here are the steps to add this particular Bar Style:
1.
Choose Format, Bar Styles (or right-click in the graphics
area and choose Bar Styles)
2.
Select the Normal Task Bar Style and click on Cut and then
twice on Paste (since you have no Copy Button available here!)
3.
Since the bars are drawn in the order they are listed and
you'll want Tom's bars to be drawn last (over the standard bar), select the
lower bar to show Tom's assignments.
4.
Change the title to "Tom's Tasks" (or whatever) and
change the "Show for … Tasks" from "Normal" to
"Flag1".
5.
Modify the bar appearance as you wish. Here I used the lower
half-bar shape to keep the main task bar visible.
Here is the result:
Figure
C
Now you can hide the Flag1 column
("Tom Test") and forget it, as it will always show the special bar for
all tasks that Tom is assigned to.
There are 20 custom flag fields
that you can use, so you can identify assignments for up to 20 resources. You
can use fields other than the Resource Names field to test for the resource
assignment. In fact, Resource Group and Resource Initials are even better
to use than Resource Names. They are automatically populated with text from the
resource Group and Initials fields for the assigned resources (just as the
Resource Names field is populated with the text in the resource's Name field).
But, whereas you typically want to use standard names in the Name field you can
type code-like text into the Group or Initials fields for resources. Therefore
you can create unique codes for each resource to help avoid mistaken matches
like "Tom" equals "Thomas".
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