How do I create and use project snapshots?
Project snapshots is a powerful feature that allows you to create and share with your coworkers, customers, guest users, etc. project snapshots based on the Gantt View functionality of Activity Center.
You can share a project snapshot either as a PDF document or an HTML link to a dedicated web page. You can also edit a project snapshot as regards its granularity and additional viewing options, such as show or not dependencies, health, etc.
Accessing project snapshots
To access Project snapshots:
- Go to Activity Center.
- Click More actions (
).
- Click Project snapshots.
Project snapshot options
The main things you can do with a project snapshot include:
- create it;
- view it in a screen-wide viewer;
- share it as a PDF document or HTML link;
- share it with guest users;
- edit it;
- delete it.
Capturing a project snapshot
You can take a snapshot of project data for a specific project. A project snapshot can then be exported or shared with other users, including guest users.
To capture a project snapshot:
- Go to Activity Center.
- Hover over the name of the project you want to capture a snapshot of.
- Click the More actions section of the Details button (
).
- Select Capture project snapshot.
- To upload a picture, e.g. your company logo, click Upload.
- Enter a name for the snapshot.
- Choose a detail level.
- Select appropriate layout settings.
- Click Create.
Detail layout
These options determine the structural layout of the snapshot being created. The options include:
- Based on Gantt View: Choose this option if you want the snapshot to show the project(s) exactly like shown on the Gantt View tab. With this option on one project can be shown as collapsed and another expanded if the Gantt View shows them that way.
- Projects: With this option on the snapshot will show only the project level, i.e. without activities being displayed.
- Projects and one nested level: If selected, this option will show the top-level activities along with the project level on the project snapshot.
- Projects and two nested levels: If selected, this option will show the top-level activities and one level below along with the project level on the project snapshot.
Uploading an image
You can decorate the snapshot with an image or logo in the top left corner. To upload an image:
- While in a snapshot creation screen, click Upload in the top left corner.
- Select a graphics file.
- Click Open.
Layout settings
With these settings, you configure the data displayed as attributes of the objects displayed on a snapshot. For example, if you want the projects to be color-coded in accordance with their health, you need to select the Health checkbox. The Start/End Date setting will turn on or off the showing of the project and activity start and end dates.
There are five settings, as follows:
- Dependency: Turns on/off displaying dependencies between activities.
- Critical path: Turns on/off displaying critical activities (if the setting is on, non-critical activities are shown faded as if off focus.)
- Baseline: Adds the current baseline to the project as a thick black line under the bars representing the project and activities.
- Progress: Turns on/off showing a numerical value of progress in percent in brackets.
- Start/End Dates: Turns on/off showing project and activity start and end date in brackets.