OnePager 7.0 has expanded the number of ways that you can format your swimlanes. New choices include custom swimlane cell background colors, custom heading text, and more text rotaion options. More importantly, many of these swimlane formats can now be templatized for future use across several different charts.
Swimlane Cell Backgrounds
You can now define the default background color of swimlane cells, either as a single color or in an alternating pattern. To do this, go to Home > Chart Properties > Rows/Swimlanes. Each swimlane level can have a different background color for its cells, so make sure that you have selected the correct level (1, 2, or 3), and then click Swimlane Formatting:
In this example, we are setting the background color of the cells for the Left #2 swimlanes to an alternating pattern of two shades of green. If you want all swimlanes to have the same cell background color, set both backgrounds to the same color.
Any swimlane cell background colors set this way through Chart Properties can be templatized for use in other OnePager charts.
Changing Swimlane Cell Backgrounds Manually
If you need more than two colors for a given swimlane level, or just want one particular swimlane to stand out, you can still change your swimlane cell backgrounds manually. These manual changes cannot be templatized, but they will be saved in the chart where you made the changes.
To change the background color of a swimlane cell, click once in the swimlane cell, wait a second, and then click again. This will select just the swimlane cell, as opposed to the swimlane itself:
Once selected, use the paint bucket on the Home tab to change the background color of the selected swimlane cell.
If you prefer, you can also right-click on any swimlane cell instead of slow-left-clicking. When you right-click on a swimlane cell, choose Properties... from the context menu, and then click on the Cell tab. From here, you can change the background color for the selected swimlane cell, among other things:
Swimlane Stripes
Unlike swimlane cell backgrounds which only color the cell of the swimlane, a swimlane stripe extends across the entire chart from left to right:
To adjust your swimlane stripes, go to Home > Chart Properties > Main. In the Chart Background section, click the dropdown and select one of the options for Swimlane Stripes. Note that a chart can only have one set of swimlane stripes, so if you have multiple swimlane levels, you'll need to tell OnePager which level of swimlanes should drive your swimlane stripes. We usually recommend setting this to the right-most level, so if you have three sets of swimlanes turned on, choose Left #3 Swimlane Stripes:
Changing Swimlane Cell Stripes Manually
Beginning in OnePager 7.0, users can customize swimlane stripes beyond the standard alternating A/B color that is defined in Chart Properties. Keep in mind that swimlane stripes that are set up in Chart Properties can be templatized, while manual swimlane stripes cannot.
To paint a swimlane stripe manually, left-click ONCE on the swimlane cell. Notice that the entire swimlane is selected, not just the cell:
If you were to click a second time, the swimlane cell would be selected instead, but in this case, we want to select the swimlane itself.
With the swimlane selected, use the paint bucket to add a swimlane stripe of any color:
If you prefer right-clicking, right-click in the body of the swimlane where you would like the swimlane to appear. When the context menu appears, choose Properties... and then go to the Swimlane tab. This tab controls the formatting of your swimlanes, as opposed to your swimlane cells:
If you have multiple swimlane levels, make sure that you are editing the properties of the correct level. Otherwise, you could end up with a swimlane stripe that is too tall or too short. Once you've confirmed this, change the background color of the swimlane and click OK.
Swimlane Text
Changing the Field Used for Swimlane Labels
By default, the text that appears in your swimlane labels is driven by the same field that you chose to group the swimlanes themselves. However, in some cases, you may find it necessary to group your swimlanes by one field, but label them by something different. To do this, go to Home > Chart Properties > Rows/Swimlanes and click on the appropriate swimlane level (e.g. Left #3), and then click on the Swimlane Formatting button for that level:
When you change the Label By dropdown to a different field, OnePager will change the text that appears in your swimlanes. It will not change the grouping, however, so you do want to make sure that your grouping field and your labeling field are compatible so that you don't get unexpected results.
Changing Individual Text Values in a Swimlane Label
If you need to adjust the text in a few swimlane labels without changing the rest, you can double-click on any cell of the swimlane to modify the text within it.
Swimlane Column Headings
By default, the heading at the top of each swimlane column is data-driven based on the field that is being used to label your swimlanes, which in turn is derived from the field used to group your swimlanes. For example, if you group your swimlanes by "Text 30" and let your swimlane labels use that same field, the column heading at the top of your swimlane will read "Text 30" as well.
Beginning in OnePager 7.0, you can create your own custom swimlane headings. This is useful if the field name from Microsoft Project isn't great for reporting and you want to display something more understandable. To change your swimlane column headings, go to Home > Chart Properties > Rows/Swimlanes and click on the appropriate swimlane level (e.g. Left #3), and then click on the Swimlane Formatting button for that level:
Uncheck the box to Make Heading Automatically, and then enter your own text in the Custom Heading box. If you want to save your custom swimlane headings for future use, they can now be copied to a template, just like all of the other settings in Chart Properties. In previous versions of OnePager, custom column swimlane headings were a manual change that could not be saved to a template.