Best of OnePager Blog – Formulas in Microsoft Project

We’ve recently had a significant uptick in readership and for that reason we’d like to begin sprinkling in some of, what might be considered, our best posts in organized groups.

This week we’re going to share previous posts that will help you automate population of Flag columns in Project through the use of formulas.  Your Flag columns are Custom Fields in Project, which means that you can write formulas to avoid manually combing through your data and putting a “yes” value where you need them.FormulasImage Continue reading

Using Microsoft Project Flag Fields with OnePager Pro’s Conditional Formatting Rules

Conditional formatting was introduced in OnePager Pro version 5.0. This feature lets you tailor your project views and snapshots based on rules that control the shape, color, borders, fonts, and height of tasks and milestones. OnePager Pro’s conditional formatting rules work with Microsoft Project text, number, and date fields, in addition to flag fields (Yes/No).

As an example, suppose we have the Microsoft Project plan shown below which consists of three phases and four teams.

In the example, Flag1 is “Team Available” and will eventually be used to distinguish tasks in the OnePager Pro chart. For starters, though, we’ll create a view without conditional formatting to produce something like this:

Now, suppose you want to change the color of tasks to green when a team is available. You can create this conditional formatting rule by going to Project View Properties->Task Bars->Manage Rules:

When the conditional formatting rules are in place and the project view is created, it will look like this:

Notice that the legend now shows a green entry, indicating that Flag 1 is true. We’ve adjusted the verbiage to make it more meaningful.

That’s it! No more changing colors by hand to show something that you’re already tracking in Microsoft Project. OnePager Pro’s conditional formatting rules are the most powerful way to build meaningful project reports and timelines without the fuss.