Ge#ng Started Guide New Users and Starter Edi/on

Transcription

1 Ge#ng Started Guide New Users and Starter Edi/on

2 Goal Thank you for taking the time to use Viewpath as your project management solution. Our goal in providing this guide is to help streamline the process of setting up Viewpath for your organization s use. We designed this guide to cover the most common use in various industries. It does not cover all of the features you will find in Viewpath, but will give you a good base on which to build your knowledge. Viewpath Edi5on Levels Starter Edition - This free online app gives you an impressive suite of project management features such as drag-and-drop organizing and scheduling. Create as many self-managed projects as you want, and you can share as many Tasks with as many free "Guest" resources as you need. You can assign tasks to Guests and those individuals can easily update the status of assigned tasks on their secure "Today" page. There's no time limit on using this free edition. Projects are automatically preserved between Viewpath's free and paid editions, meaning you don't have to reproduce your projects when you change product edition levels. Team Edition - At any time, you can upgrade to a paid edition. Paid plans let you share Tasks and grant overall project visibility, enhancing collaboration and communication among team members. You'll also enjoy using additional productivity tools such as resource allocation, cost-tracking, time sheets, and customizable reporting across multiple projects. Professional Edition - Upgrade to the Professional Edition to use premiere features for advanced project managers. You can drill down to project details from high-level Dashboards and take advantage of Private Branding, Publishing capabilities, Daily Reminders, and other enhanced tools to help you manage your projects effectively. Enterprise Edition Unlimited Snapshots and project resources, both free and paid, Premier Support, and special pricing options make this the best choice for large organizations.

3 Which User Guide is Right for You? Please keep in mind the items covered in each guide are generally specific to each edition level, but are not necessarily limited to a specific edition level. Each guide adds additional information to the previous level. To see a feature list by edition level, please visit this page: New User Guide (all users): Creating a project Workdays schedule Adding tasks Adding/inviting Resources Gantt Chart view Inline editing WBS Linking tasks Drag-and-Drop Update completion Comments Attaching Links Undo/Redo Automatic saving Print your project notifications Personalized settings Today page Advanced User Guide (Paid Editions) Templates Reports Resource Allocation, both individual project and cross-project views and availability Baseline snapshots Date Constraints Exclude Holidays from your project schedule Snapshots Restricting tasks from Snapshots Cost Tracking Sprints and Burn-down charts Graphical Time sheets Tracking project metrics and goals Google Calendar and Contacts syncing Importing projects Status dashboard Critical Path Private Branding

4 New User Guide ACCOUNT CREATION If you are creating a new account with Viewpath, visit Viewpath.com to create a new account. You will receive an with additional login instructions. If you have been invited to a project by another Viewpath user, you will receive an with login instructions. Follow the instructions in the to validate your Viewpath account. FIRST LOGIN When you first login to Viewpath, you will be on your personal Today tab. This tab provides you a list of all the tasks assigned to you across all projects on which you are a resource. TODAY PAGE Your Today page may be empty when you login. This simply means you do not have any tasks assigned to you. If someone else invited you to Viewpath, you may see tasks already assigned to you on your Today page. From this tab you can update individual tasks, sort your tasks, or view your personal Gantt Chart.

5 CREATE A PROJECT Click on the Projects tab to see a list of your active projects. Click on the New Project icon on the toolbar or click File >> New Project. Enter a project name for this project and click the Next button. The Project Wizard gives you the option to start a brand new project. If someone has already given you access to another project or template, you ll also see the options to create a new project based on an existing project or a predefined template. For now, select the first option, Create a brand new project and click the Next button. Your project will open in a new tab. WORKDAYS SCHEDULE To get things started, set your project Workdays. Click the Workdays tab. The shaded area represents the hours of work. Simply drag your mouse over the white cells to include them in your normal work hours, or over a shaded area to remove those cells from your normal work hours. If, for example, you have a regularly scheduled staff meeting on Mondays from 9-10:30am, you can de-select this time, and your project tasks will be scheduled around this block of time. Upgraded users can also schedule project holidays here.

6 ADDING TASKS TO YOUR PROJECT You can add tasks to your project in a variety of methods: 1. Clicking the new task icon on the toolbar 2. Click the + in the lower left corner of the app to quickly add a task with default values. 3. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Enter (Command+Enter) Once a task is created, click on any field and simply begin typing in order to make edits to the field. Click the Enter key on your keyboard to commit your changes. For example, click on a field in the Complete column, then type the % complete (e.g. 20). When you type the Enter key, you will note the % complete is displayed in the field, and the Gantt Chart reflects this information as well. ADDING RESOURCES Once you have some project tasks in place, it s time to start adding Resources. You can add resources two ways: 1. On the Tasks tab, click in the Assignments field, and enter the name of the resource that will be assigned to this task. Go to the Resource tab. You ll notice the resource you added in the Assignments field is now listed, along with you as the project Owner/Creator. 2. You can select the Add New Resource icon from the toolbar 3. Click the + in the lower left corner of the app to quickly add a resource IMPORTANT THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT RESOURCES Resources with a yellow triangle by their name have not yet created an account. They will not have access to the project until you invite them, and they create an account. To invite a resource, select the checkbox(es) for the resource(s) you wish to invite, and click the envelope icon. You decide which level of project access each resource is granted. Access levels are reviewed on the next page. Starter Edition users can add as many Guests as you need Upgraded Edition users can add as many Observers as you need

7 RESOURCES ACCESS LEVELS There are 6 levels of permissions: When you choose None*, this resource cannot view any part of the project, even his or her assigned tasks. A Guest cannot see the overall project. Their assigned tasks appear on their personal Today page, and are updated there. You can include an unlimited number of Resources with Guest access on your projects. An Observer can view the project, but can only edit the %Complete of tasks to which he/she is assigned, as well as adding documents and comments to the project tasks. Paid edition users can have an unlimited number of Resources with either Guest or Observer access with anyone who also has a paid edition of Viewpath. Team Edition users can add up to 2 Observers who are on the free Starter Edition. In order to assign Editor, Manager or Owner rights, both you and this assigned Resource must be on a paid Edition. An Editor can view and edit any Task in the Project an edit the project workdays. A Manager has the added ability to view and edit data in the Cost columns, make changes to Resources, add Sprints and Baseline information. The Owner level grants full editing rights on tasks and resources. Note: There is no limit to the number of Guest, Observer, Editor, Manager or Owner access rights a paid user can assign to other paid users.

8 RESOURCES ACCESS LEVELS

9 GANTT CHART When you add tasks to the Project list, the duration of those tasks is displayed in the Gantt Chart. You can use click-and-drag to adjust the schedule: Place your cursor on the center of the graphic image so that the is displayed. Now, click and drag the task to a different day. This will adjust that Task s Start and Finish dates without changing its duration. To change the duration, grab the right end of the task and slide it left or right to shorten or extend the duration. When you adjust your schedule in the Gantt Chart, the list view will also automatically adjust as well. Use these buttons to zoom in and out on the time scale in the Gantt Chart. You can drill down to the hours of the day or zoom out all the way to a multi-year view. Use this button to hide or display the Gantt Chart. WBS AND INLINE EDITING Use this arrow icon in the toolbar to indent and automatically re-number the task. These nested levels are referred to as having a Parent and Child relationship. Notice there is a +/- symbol on the Parent task to expand or collapse each Parent level. Inline editing is available throughout the application, allowing you to make rapid changes from the List View. Just click in the field and start typing. Hit enter when you re finished.

10 DRAG-AND-DROP Viewpath developed ultra-fast drag-and-drop scheduling to save you time. To reschedule a task, simply grab the middle of the task bar on the Gantt Chart. A text box displays the Start and Finish dates as the task is being moved. When a linked task is moved, all other linked tasks automatically move as well, which means you don t have to manually update Start and Finish dates. Task Duration can also be increased or decreased by dragging the right edge of the task to the right. UPDATE COMPLETION STATUS Completion status can be updated both on your Today page as well as from inside the project, if you have Observer or higher access level. Just hover over the completed field for the task you wish to update. A checkbox will appear. When you click the checkbox, the task is marked 100% complete. You can also enter any whole number level of completion, e.g. 25%, 50% or 90%. To mark multiple tasks with the same completion value, highlight the completed field of all of the tasks you wish to update, and click the checkbox or enter the amount of completion. DISCUSSION THREADS Track discussions on Tasks by clicking in this column. The threaded discussion automatically displays who added the comment and when it was posted.

11 ADDING DOCUMENTS You can attach links to an online document, such as Google Docs, Dropbox or Sharepoint, to any task by clicking in the field with the paperclip header. All users can attach links to online documents. To upload a document from your computer, you must be on an upgraded edition. UNDO/REDO These toolbar icons let you Undo or Redo any number of schedule changes during a login session. This advanced feature design is a big time-saver you ll rarely find in any other online project management application. We ve also included icons for frequently-used features including: Add a Task, Edit a Task, Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete functions. AUTOMATIC SAVING With Viewpath, your changes are stored automatically every few seconds. The Save icon turns blue briefly while the application saves recent changes. When the icon is gray, all project changes are saved. Saved Save in Progress PRINTING YOUR PROJECT The print icon on the toolbar allows you to create a PDF of your project which you can either print or save on your computer. It includes many print options such as selecting date ranges, which columns to include, and a helpful print preview.

12 NOTIFICATIONS When a task is assigned to a Resource, you can send an notification to the resource from the Task tab. Select one or more tasks assigned to at least one resource Click on the envelope icon In the dialogue box, enter a personal message Click on the Preview button to see the exact message the will contain. Note the name of the Project and the Task(s) you selected appear at the bottom of the message. Click the OK button. The Reply To address of the they receive will be the address you used to login to Viewpath. The will contain links to the tasks the recipient can click on. They are taken to the Viewpath login page, and then directly to the project and task so they can update it immediately.

13 PERSONALIZED SETTINGS Viewpath lets you customize your view of each project. You can: Increase or decrease column widths Use drag-and0drop to easily reorder columns Apply column sorts, and Add or remove columns. If you remove a column, the data is still there, it simply removes the information from your view. These personalized settings are available throughout the Viewpath application. You can also change the language settings using the built-in translator. Simply click the triangle next to your login name and select Language to change the user-interface to any of the listed languages. This is a preference setting for each user, so these changes will not affect the view of anyone else on that project. The Date Format option allows you choose which date format to display on your projects. Choose from three different options: CUSTOMER SUPPORT Telephone: (877) support@viewpath.com Hours: Monday Friday, 8:00 a.m. 6:00 p.m. (Pacific) Online Help: support.viewpath.com