Datum Plan 0.5.7

Clearer links between plans, and fixes.

• Go to the linked task. Click the ⇠ or ⇢ mark by a task's ID (or right-click › Linked Tasks…): the menu lists the tasks it is linked to, and Go to shows the other plan's tab with that task selected, opening the plan from its file when it is not open.
• See when a link needs updating. When the other plan has moved, the mark turns amber (⇠!), the label on the Gantt says so, and the plan's tab shows ⟳ with how many tasks wait for new dates. Update Links is on the mark's menu and the tab's right-click menu.
• File › Close and Close All, and Close / Close All Plans on a tab's right-click menu. New and Open add a tab and leave the others open; now they are easy to close.
• Link to a plan that is not open: Browse… in Link to Plan picks a saved plan file.
• Fixed: saving one plan deleted the recovery copies of the other open plans with unsaved changes. Each unsaved plan now keeps its copy until it is saved or closed.
• Fixed: Escape did not close menus.
• The guide explains Go to, the update warnings and closing plans, in English and Chinese.

Datum Plan 0.5.6

See at a glance what is linked to what between plans.

• Marks by the ID: ⇠ (purple) on a task that waits for a task in another plan (click it to see or change the link), ⇢ (green) on a task that a task in another open plan waits for. Point at a mark to read the tasks.
• On the Gantt: what a task waits for is written before its bar in purple, with a dashed arrow into it ("Construction › A1130 Mechanical completion ⇢ ◆"); which other plan waits for it is written after the bar in green ("→ Construction › A1010 Site mobilisation").
• Linked Plans now shows both directions: what this plan waits for, and which tasks of this plan other open plans wait for, with Show plan to open that tab.
• The External Predecessors column reads like the Gantt: "Engineering › A1180 Final documentation issued (FS)".
• The linked-plans example shows the External Predecessors column beside Finish, and every plan's calendar closes for Christmas and New Year.
• The guide explains how to see what is linked, in English and Chinese.

Datum Plan 0.5.5

Several plans at once, in tabs, with links between them: a main schedule and its subplans, each in its own file, moving together.

• Plan tabs. Every plan you open or create gets a tab above the ribbon; a dot marks unsaved changes, × closes it (asking to save first), ＋ makes a new plan, opens one or opens the example. Ctrl+Tab goes to the next tab, Ctrl+W closes one. Opening a plan that is already open shows its tab. When you close the window, every plan with unsaved changes is listed and can be saved at once, and recovery covers every open plan.
• Links between plans. Select a task and choose Project › Link to Plan (or right-click › Link to Plan…): pick another open plan, find its task, and set the type (FS, SS, FF, SF) and lag. The task waits for it like for a normal link. The External Predecessors column shows the links.
• Linked Plans (Project tab) lists every link of the plan with the date it last knew and the date now, and marks the ones that have Moved. Update All Open Plans brings the new dates into every open plan, in the right order, until nothing moves; Update This Plan does one. Plans that are not open are read from their files, and links still find each other when the folder is moved. A loop between plans is refused with a message.
• A detailed example: File › Linked plans (example). A compressor station in four plans saved to a folder you choose and opened in tabs: a main schedule with its milestones, engineering, procurement (with long-lead equipment and costs) and construction, joined by thirteen links. Engineering and construction use resource calendars (a lead engineer's leave, a six-day site week with a holiday break). Change the manufacture time in procurement and update the links to see the main schedule move.
• The guide has a new chapter on tabs and links between plans, in English and Chinese.

Datum Plan 0.5.4

Resource calendars that drive task dates: each person's own working week and leave decide when their work gets done.

• Working Time for each person. Resources › Info… › Working Time: the person's base calendar (the project calendar, or another such as a six-day site week) and their leave or exceptions: annual leave, training, a holiday at home, or mornings or afternoons only.
• Turn it on in Project › Schedule Options › Resource calendars. Each assignment then runs on the person's own calendar, and a task finishes when the last person on it finishes. A task with its own calendar works only when both the task and the person work. It is off until you switch it on, so existing plans keep their dates.
• Ignore Resource Calendar (a task field, in the details and as a column) keeps a task on its own calendar whoever works on it: a cure time, a delivery.
• Workload, the Resource Graph and levelling count each person's own available hours, so leave shows as less capacity.
• Exchange files keep it: Project XML writes and reads a calendar per person with their leave (and Ignore Resource Calendar); XER writes resource calendars and resource-dependent activities, and reads them back.
• The guide has a new section on resource calendars, in English and Chinese.

Datum Plan 0.5.3

Your own dashboards: build the board your client or manager wants, inside the plan, always up to date.

• Several dashboards per plan, as tabs on the Dashboard page next to the built-in Project dashboard. + New dashboard makes a blank one or starts from a template: Client dashboard, Weekly progress or Vendors and countries. Rename, duplicate or delete them from Dashboard ▾.
• Tiles you lay out yourself. Edit layout, then + Add tile; drag tiles to reorder them, and set each one's width (a quarter to full width) and height (one to four rows).
  • Number: any formula, as in Sheets (=SPI, =ProjectFinish, =COUNTIF(Tasks[Late],TRUE), =Vendors!B4), with a format, a second line and an optional rule that turns it green or red.
  • Progress ring: a percentage as a ring.
  • Chart: one of the plan's charts (S-curve, progress per period, progress by phase, cost and earned value, manpower), or a chart of a sheet range or formula: columns, stacked columns, bars, line, area, doughnut or pie.
  • Table: a plan list (milestones, late or critical tasks, starting next period, completed this period), or a sheet range or formula; a column of countries shows their flags.
  • Countries: flags with how many resources or vendors come from each country.
  • Text: a heading or a note.
• Dashboards are saved with the plan, follow every change and print with Print / PDF.
• A new name for formulas: PlannedPercent, where the baseline says the plan should be at the status date (0–100).
• The guide has a new section on dashboards, in English and Chinese.

Datum Plan 0.5.2

Better-looking charts that are never cut off.

• A new look for every chart (Dashboard, S-Curves, Manpower, Schedule Risk, reports, Report Builder): smooth lines with a soft fill under the actual progress, rounded bars, light horizontal gridlines instead of heavy black axes, round legend markers, a dark rounded tooltip and a status-date label, in a clearer set of colours.
• No more cropped charts. Charts follow their box when the window, the sidebar or the panes change size, and they are laid out again for printing, so a printed or PDF dashboard shows every chart whole (two per row).
• Charts in the same row are the same height, with no empty band under the shorter one.
• A chart with nothing to show says so ("No costs in this plan yet", "No hours assigned yet") instead of drawing empty axes.
• Manpower's forecast joins its weeks with straight lines (a smooth curve suggested values between the weeks).
• The guide's pictures show the new charts.

Datum Plan 0.5.1

Two fixes.

• Scrolling the schedule no longer sticks. The task sheet and the Gantt chart scroll together; each one used to echo the other's position back a moment late, so smooth scrolling fought itself and seemed to get stuck (worst near the end of the plan). Now a pane that was moved by the other does not echo it back.
• Tell Me (Ctrl+K) no longer hides the window. The search box now opens over the plan with the window dimmed behind it, instead of a blank page.

Datum Plan 0.5.0

Sheets that work like Excel and read the plan live: your own reports and vendor lists inside the plan file, with nothing copied by hand.

Formulas as in Excel

• Click cells into a formula. Type =, then click a cell or drag over several to add them (A1, A1:A5), or click another sheet's tab; each reference gets a coloured box. F4 cycles the $ anchors, and Enter closes any bracket left open.
• Suggestions as you type: all 490 functions, the plan's names and table columns, with Tab to insert. Inside a function, a hint shows its arguments with the current one underlined.
• Σ AutoSum (Alt+=; also Average, Count, Max, Min) and fx Insert Function, which finds a function by name or by what it does.
• Fill and paste carry formulas: the fill handle, Ctrl+D, Ctrl+R and copy and paste move references as Excel does (=A1*2 becomes =A2*2); Cut moves cells.
• Insert and delete rows and columns (right-click, the toolbar, Ctrl+Shift++ and Ctrl+−); formulas on every sheet follow, and references to deleted cells show #REF!. Renaming a sheet updates the formulas that name it.
• Number formats: Excel format codes (#,##0.00, 0.0%, dd-mmm-yy, custom codes), more or fewer decimals, currency and the plan's date format. Results of TODAY, DATE or a lookup of plan dates show as dates by themselves, and plan percentages get a % sign.
• Results that spill into several cells (FILTER, SORT, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE…) are shown. Column widths can be dragged or fitted with a double-click. Pointing at an error explains it.
• Fixed: typing quickly into a cell no longer loses the second key.

The plan, live, by name

• Tasks[column] has one row per task (Name, Start, Finish, % Complete, baseline dates and cost, float, Critical, Late, Milestone, Resources, earned value, custom fields…); Resources[column] has Name, Group, Country, Rate, Work, Cost….
• Names for the plan's numbers: ProjectFinish, BaselineFinish, FinishVariance, PercentComplete, SPI, CPI, TotalCost, TasksLate, CriticalCount and more.
• Plan Data… puts a live list at the selected cell: milestones, critical, late, unfinished or in-progress tasks, or those starting in the next four weeks, with the columns, order and number of rows you choose. One formula fills the rows and follows the plan.
• Older formulas such as =SUM(Plan!M2:M200) keep working. Excel export adds the Tasks and Resources tables and the names, so the workbook works in Excel too.

Country flags

• A Country with flag number format shows a country's flag and name: type a code (DE, cn) or a name (Germany, UK).
• Resources have a Country (person, crew or vendor), shown with its flag in the Resource Sheet and readable as Resources[Country].

Also

• Help › Guide works on computers without a Downloads folder set up (it saves in the home folder's Downloads, Documents or the temporary folder instead).
• The guide's chapter on Sheets is rewritten with two new pictures, in English and Chinese.

Datum Plan 0.4.4

The Datum Plan Guide: a step-by-step guide with pictures, in English and Simplified Chinese.

The guide

• Help › Guide (and a Guide tile on the File page, with a PDF icon) offers the guide in English or 中文. One click downloads it from GitHub, checks it against the release's checksums, saves it in your Downloads folder and opens it. The app itself stays small.
• About 30 pages with numbered screenshots: installing and updating, the window, building a plan (tasks, durations, links, constraints, calendars), people, man-hours and costs, baseline and progress, reports and printing, risk, the look-ahead and manpower, sheets and formulas, files, the command line, a glossary of planning terms and the keyboard shortcuts.
• The Chinese guide keeps the English names of buttons and menus (the app is in English) with their Chinese meaning beside them, and has an English–Chinese glossary.
• The first time Datum Plan starts, a short hint points to the guide. Tell Me (Ctrl+K) finds it too.

Datum Plan 0.4.3

• Windows now lists the publisher as Datum.
• An update keeps a custom install folder chosen at the first install (the installer used to remember it under the old publisher name).