Using the Freeze Panes Feature in OnePager 5.1

OnePager Pro and Express 5.1 were designed to support large program reports across multiple pages. While the controls and methods for using multi-page features are presented elsewhere in this blog series, we want to show you here how you can improve your project view editing skills with the Freeze Panes feature.

Take the project view below as an example of a project with many tasks:

PV-Initial-FullScreen-06052014

Many people choose to zoom into a single swimlane for easier editing::

PV-Zoominto-Swimlane2-06052014

Unfortunately, this view is missing (1) the time axis as the top and (2) the swimlanes on the left, which means we have to keep scrolling back and forth while editing to see where we are. The Freeze Panes feature is the answer to this problem.

The controls for the Freeze Panes feature are on the Page Layout tab. There are several options to select from as shown here:

PageLayoutRibbon-FreezePaneOptions-06052014

Suppose we choose to Freeze rows and swimlane labels. What this does is assures that the row and swimlane labels always appear on your screen, no matter where you scroll and how far zoomed in you are:

PV-FreezePaneRowSwimlaneson-06052014

If we turn on the Freeze top time axis option, then the time axis will appear, no matter where we scroll:

PV-FreezePaneTimeAzisandRSLlabelson-06052014

The Freeze Panes feature has no impact on how the project view will appear when copied to PowerPoint or printed. The feature is simply there to make editing easier.

Manually Changing the Number of Pages with OnePager 5.1

OnePager Pro and Express 5.1, as we mentioned elsewhere, support your need to insert, move, and remove page breaks in your project reports. OnePager also lets you  specify the number of horizontal and vertical pages in your document. In this mode, OnePager will take the number of pages you specify and place the horizontal and vertical page breaks for you.

To illustrate this, look at the single-page project view below and the Page Layout tab:

PV-PageLayout1X1-05282014

Now, suppose you want to configure the project view above into four pages: two horizontal and two vertical. To do this, just make the changes to the Document Fitting section of the Page Layout tab by selecting 2 pages for the Width and Height as shown below:

Pagelayoutribbon-Height-Widthto2X2-05282014

When these two selections are complete, the project view will look like this in Page Break View mode:

PV-PageLayout2X2-05282014

As you can see from the Width and the Height dropdowns, you have many choices including an “Automatic” choice where OnePager will examine the project view and will suggest an appropriate number of pages for you.

For example, for project views that have a lot of tasks extended over a relatively short time frame, selecting the “1 X Automatic” combination for Width and Height is a good way to set up a long (vertically) but narrow (horizontally) multi-page project view like the one below shown in Print Preview Mode:

PV-PageLayout1XAuto-Printpreview-05282014

The new multi-page feature in OnePager Pro and Express 5.1 gives you tremendous flexibility with your project reporting.

Manually Moving Page Breaks with OnePager 5.1

In a previous blog post, we talked about adding and removing page breaks. In this post, we’ll illustrate how to manually move page breaks to fine-tune the pagination of your report.

To move the vertical page break, just hover your mouse over the page break. It will automatically change to a double arrow. Clicking and dragging will allow you to move the page break left and right:

PV-MoveVeticalPageBreakDown-05282014

When you release the mouse button the page break will be established in its new position and the previous vertical page break position will disappear.

When you look at the project view using the Print Preview mode, the four pages will look like this:

PV-MoveVeticalPageBreakDown-PrintPreviewMode-05282014

At this point you may want to make further adjustments to the page breaks, remove them, or add additional page breaks. You have a great deal of flexibility to configure the pages in ways that meet your presentation needs.

Adding and Removing Page Breaks in OnePager 5.1

In a previous blog post, we showed how OnePager Pro and Express 5.1 can prepare multi-page project views. In this blog post, we are going to show how you can add and remove page breaks to a project view to suit you specific needs.

First off, the controls for adding and removing page breaks can be found on the Page Layout tab in the in the Page Setup section as shown below:

RibbonPageLayout-PageBreaksButton-05282014

Selecting this button causes a drop down menu to appear as shown below:

RibbonPageLayoutPagebreakdropdown-05282014

You may insert a manual vertical or horizontal page break at any time. The two Remove all page break options are only active when there are page breaks available to remove.

Clicking the Insert vertical page break option gives you a cursor that will drop a horizontal page break between any two rows. This is shown below:

PV-InsertVertical Page Break1-05282014

Once the vertical page break is positioned, the project view will look like this when viewed in the OnePager 5.1 Page Break View mode:

PV-InsertedPageBreaknow2pages-05282014

The exact same process can be used for inserting horizontal page breaks. Repeating the process allows you to insert as many page breaks as needed.

Removing page breaks requires the selection of one of the two Remove all page break options shown in the illustration above.

How OnePager 5.1 Numbers Your Pages

When you create a multi-page project view with OnePager Pro or Express 5.1, the pages are numbered just like they are numbered in Microsoft Excel. That is, from top to bottom, left to right. So in a four page project view, page number one would be in the upper left and page four would be in the lower right.

To illustrate this, below is a four page project view displayed using the OnePager 5.1 Page Break View feature:

NumberingPages-PageBreakViewMode-05282014

To see what the individual pages will look like when printed or individually copied to another document, go to the OnePager 5.1 Page Layout tab and click the Print Preview button:

RibbonPageLayout-PrintPreview-05282014

OnePager 5.1 will then show you what the pages will look like as shown below in this Print Preview screen:

PV-PrintPreviewMode-4pages-05282014

OnePager Pro 5.1 prepares your project view the way you need it in the number of pages that are required for your presentation or document. You have all the controls necessary to see where page breaks will be automatically inserted by OnePager 5.1 and what the output will look when presented to your audience.

In following blog posts, we’ll look at how you can:

1. Add and remove page breaks,
2. Manually move page breaks, and
3. Manually change the number of vertical and horizontal pages.