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Creating Multiple Views of a Single Microsoft Project Plan using OnePager Pro

How to present an MS Project plan to different audiences

Project and program managers know that clearly and effectively communicating a project plan is key to project success. However, you will likely have a need for a variety of view of your plan depending on which stakeholder or audience you are presenting to, which can lead to a lot of manual work creating separate reports to meet those needs.

Weekly team meeting Gantt chart made in OnePager Pro using Microsoft Project data.

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OnePager Pro allows you to create different views for any audience, all using the same Microsoft Project plan. This enables you to create presentations for:

  • Team meetings throughout the entire lifecycle of the plan
  • Executive summaries
  • Client presentations
  • Focused conversations with single members of your project team

Don't have OnePager Pro yet? You can download a 15-day free trial to see how it works, and then follow the steps below:

  1. Start by launching Microsoft Project and opening your project plan. OnePager Pro can filter your project plan for any audience by using flag fields. It's a good idea to use a different flag field for each project audience. In the example below, you will see that we are using "Flag 20" to select tasks that are relevant to our periodic executive review:
    OnePager Pro uses flag columns to select tasks and milestones that are relevant to executives.
  2. Next, click on the OnePager Pro button, located on the Microsoft Project Add-Ins tab or tool bar. From the Start screen that pops up, choose New. OnePager will prompt you to name your chart, and specify which flag field you would like to use to filter your tasks and milestones:
    Configure your executive summary Gantt chart.
  3. Then, click on Create new chart to get an executive summary view of your Microsoft Project plan:
    Creating a Microsoft Project Plan: This is a chart view showing only parts of a project plan, created using OnePager Pro, an add-in for Microsoft Project. This Gantt chart is perfect for executives because it shows the high-level progress of each phase, without going into too much detail. For a non-executive audience, however, you might want to show more detail.
  4. Now, let's create a second chart to fulfill the needs of a weekly conversation we'll have to have with a particular sub-team who call themselves the "Prime" team. To do this, we'll want to use a second flag field in Microsoft Project to select a different set of tasks and milestones. In this case, we'll use "Flag 19" as shown below:
    OnePager Pro uses flag columns to select tasks and milestones that are relevant to weekly team meetings.
  5. Just like before, click on the OnePager Pro button in Microsoft Project. This time, give your chart a different name, and specify "Flag 19" instead of "Flag 20" as before:
    Configure your weekly team meeting Gantt chart.
  6. Click Create new chart view again, and you'll now import your second set of tasks for use in a chart that's more appropriate for weekly team meetings, or another more detailed audience:
    Weekly team meeting Gantt chart made in OnePager Pro using Microsoft Project data. This Gantt chart is based on the same Microsoft Project plan as the executive summary created earlier, but uses a different set of tasks and milestones, based on the flag columns you selected.

OnePager Pro gives you the power to create a diverse set of chart and reports, all based on the same Microsoft Project plan. This allows you maximum flexibility when presenting to different audiences, but saves you lots of time compared to having to build each separate chart by hand, or to track things in different project schedules.

Get started today by downloading a free trial or attending one of our demonstration webinars.

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