Charts with multiple swimlane levels, where there is a main swimlane followed by a sub-swimlane, sometimes display duplicate values in the different swimlane levels. This can happen when the values used to drive and parent and child swimlanes are different for much of the project, but overlap for certain parts of the project.
In the example chart below, the Left #1 swimlane groups by the Level 1 Summary Name, and the Left #2 swimlane groups by the Level 2 Summary Name. Notice that "Phase 1" of the chart appears in both swimlane levels, while "Phase 2" and "Phase 3" are further subdivided into child swimlanes:
With OnePager v8.0, we can eliminate the duplication of the "Phase 1" text in the parent and child swimlanes to make the chart easier to read. To do this, go to Home > Chart Properties > Rows/Swimlanes. Check the box to Delete duplicate swimlane titles and then click OK:
OnePager will recognize that "Phase 1" appears in both the parent and child swimlanes, and will remove the duplicate text as well as the border between the parent and child swimlanes to create the appearance of a merged swimlanes that spans both columns:
When this setting is enabled, OnePager will only merge parent and child swimlanes when:
- The text between the two swimlanes is identical; and
- The two swimlanes contain the same number of rows
In this example, both the parent and the child swimlanes contained the same "Phase 1" text. In addition, both swimlane levels also contain five rows (four tasks plus a milestone), making it a perfect candidate to remove duplication.