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How to Create a Project Plan Dashboard using OnePager Pro

Project dashboards made easy

If you are a project manager, you know that communication is important if you want your project to be successful. Projects have a lot of moving parts, so when you walk into a project review meeting, you need to carefully select which elements of your project you want to review.

Alternate project dashboard created in OnePager Pro from the same MS Project plan.

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OnePager Pro, presentation software for Microsoft Project, helps you build project plan dashboards that are much easier to understand than Microsoft Project by itself, and are a lot less work than building a dashboard in PowerPoint by hand.

This article will walk you through how to quickly create a project plan dashboard. You can download a free trial of OnePager Pro and follow along if you'd like:

  1. Start by opening up your Microsoft Project file, such as the project plan example shown below. This will be the basis for your project dashboard. OnePager Pro lets you create a filter ("Flag 20" in the picture below) so that you only show the parts of your project that are relevant to your audience.
    Microsoft Project plan
  2. Next, double-click the OnePager Pro icon on your desktop. From the Start screen, choose New. Choose your Microsoft Project plan as the source file for your project dashboard. This will launch OnePager's easy import wizard to start building the dashboard:
    OnePager Pro allows you to create dashboards from Microsoft Project with an easy setup wizard.
  3. You can give your project dashboard a name and type in a status (snapshot) date for your dashboard as well. This makes it easy to make updates to your dashboard as your project plan changes later. Click the Create new chart to build your first dashboard:
    Project plan example: How to create a project plan dashboard in OnePager Pro, using data from Microsoft Project.

Customizable

Now you have seen how to make a project plan dashboard in OnePager Pro. It's really that easy! What's even better is you can slice and dice your project plan automatically in OnePager Pro.

For example, notice how the project plan example above has color-coded each task by resource assignments and has been separated into swimlanes by the phase of the project. This is all done dynamically based on the Microsoft Project data.

It's easy to change the formatting, and to slice and dice the project dashboard differently. With a few button clicks, you can transform the dashboard into a view that groups tasks by resource assignments and places a yellow bar on each task to show progress:
Alternate project dashboard created in OnePager Pro from the same MS Project plan.

OnePager Pro gives you endless possibilities for creating project dashboards. You can:

  • Dashboard one or multiple projects at once
  • Group, sort, and color-code by and field in Microsoft Project
  • Track versions to your dashboard as your project changes over time
  • Add comments and other annotations to clarify important parts of the project

To learn more about how to make a project plan in OnePager Pro and for more project plan examples, read some of our other how-to pages. Or get started today by downloading a free trial or attending one of our demonstration webinars.

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