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Track Changes to a Microsoft Project Schedule with OnePager Pro

How to quickly and easily show project schedule changes

Keeping track of schedule changes in a project can be a difficult activity because there are so many components that can change: start dates, finish dates, percent complete, resource availability, budget, and more.

First version of a timeline created in OnePager Pro.

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Fortunately for users of Microsoft Project, OnePager Pro provides a way to see changes to a project schedule quickly and easily. If you don’t already have OnePager Pro, you can download a 15-day free trial to see how it works.

This article shows you how to visually track changes to a Microsoft Project schedule. Here’s how it can be done:

  1. Start with a basic Microsoft Project plan:
    Microsoft Project file to be imported into OnePager Pro to create a Gantt chart. We’ve added the “Flag20” column to indicate which tasks and milestones we want to include in the report. We’ve also established baseline start and finish dates.
  2. Now it’s time to create a the initial view of the project with OnePager Pro. Simply double-click the OnePager Pro icon on your desktop. Choose New from the Start screen that pops up, and choose your Microsoft Project plan as the source file for your OnePager project schedule. The OnePager Pro import wizard will appear. Just fill it in as shown below:
    Redesigned import wizard, launched from Microsoft Project to create OnePager Pro timeline software.
  3. Simply click the Create new chart button on the wizard and OnePager will create a chart like this:
    First version of a timeline created in OnePager Pro. We’ve used OnePager Pro’s powerful slice and dice features to organize the project by Stage and to color-code by resource assignments. Be sure to save your new chart by clicking the blue disk icon in the upper left-hand corner.
  4. Now, assume a month has gone by and the project has experienced some delays. The Microsoft Project file was updated accordingly. You can now create a new snapshot of your chart. Launch OnePager again. This time, from the Start screen, choose Update instead of New. Select your saved chart as the file you want to update. Then, specify the new status/snapshot date:
    Redesigned update wizard, launched from Microsoft Project to refresh a Gantt chart with updated data.
  5. After clicking New, OnePager will refresh your Gantt chart:
    Track changes in MS Project: This revised version of a project timeline was created in OnePager Pro (an MS Project add-in), tracking project schedule changes using task data from Microsoft Project. Comparing the two charts we can see the change. Things have slipped. Likewise, since all the downstream tasks were dependent on the predecessor task show corresponding slippage compared to their baseline start and finish dates.
  6. You can fast forward and rewind time on the View tab to see different versions of your project schedule if you need to see what has changed from one reporting period to the next:
    View different versions of your project schedule in time-order using OnePager Pro.

By periodically taking snapshots of your project, you can visually represent how your project plan has changed from one update to the next.

Using OnePager Pro allows you to create dynamic, informative project presentations with the click of a button, and it eliminates the need to rebuild your presentation by hand every time your project schedule changes.

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

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