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Activities page

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The Activities page is an interactive page that displays a WBS (work breakdown structure), activities, and schedule for a project or group of projects. Tabbed navigation, inline editing, and graphical drag and drop features help you quickly update project activities and schedule. Toolbar icons, keyboard shortcuts, and a right-click context menu provide easy, flexible access for performing tasks.

Initially, data displays in a combined table/Gantt chart format, but you can customize this presentation of live project data, creating and saving multiple Activity Views, or data layouts, to meet your requirements. A drop-down list enables you to quickly switch between views, and you can manage multiple views in tabs that you can move and dock to the right of, or under, the Gantt chart.

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Note: For detailed information about customizing features of the activity view, including Gantt charts, the activity network diagram, layouts, filters, progress lines, columns, groups, and user access, see Customize Activity View dialog box.
Read these tips before you start

When an activity has been edited, an
icon (yellow flag to represent edited activity)appears in the first column as an indicator to save your changes.

Note: An exception to this occurs when you add, edit, or delete assignments to activities in the Activity Assignments dialog (by right-clicking on an activity and choosing Edit Assignments). See Add, delete, or edit resource and role assignments for more information.

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Add, delete, or edit WBS elements

Except for the top level element of the WBS hierarchy, which represents the project, you can add a WBS element at the same level as an existing element (sibling) or at a subordinate level (child). At the top level of the WBS, you can add only child elements.

To add a WBS element
  1. Select the existing WBS element you to which you want to add a sibling or child.
  2. To add a sibling element, press Shift+Insert, or right-click on the WBS element and choose Add Sibling WBS.

    To add a child element, click icon to add WBS (Ctrl+Insert), or right-click on the WBS element and choose Add child WBS.

    In the new WBS row that is added, edit the code and name as necessary.

  3. To add additional WBS elements, up to the maximum number specified by your P6 administrator, repeat step 2.
To reposition an element in the WBS
  1. Select the WBS row.
  2. From the Move menu (Up arrowDown arrow) in the toolbar, click the appropriate arrow. To change the level of an element in the hierarchy, click the right or left arrow. To change the position of an element within its current level, click the up or down arrow.

To edit WBS details, right-click the WBS row and, from the WBS menu, select the WBS detail you want to view or modify.

To delete one or more WBS elements, select them and click icon to delete a project element (Delete).

If you attempt to delete a WBS that has activities associated with it, you must specify what you want to do with the activities

After choosing an option, click icon to save Activities tab changes (Ctrl+S) to save the changes. Or, to cancel your changes and return to the original state, click icon to cancel changes to Activities tab (Ctrl+Z).

Note: These two options also appear if the WBS has both activities and planned resource allocations. However, resource allocations cannot be merged. Regardless of the option you choose, the planned resource allocations are deleted. For this reason, when a WBS has planned resource allocations but no activities, these options do not appear.

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Add, delete, or edit activities

Tip: To add activities when working with multiple projects on the Activities page, you must group activities by Project or WBS. When working with a single project, you can add activities regardless of grouping options.
To add an activity
  1. Select the location in the project structure where you want to add the activity. The new activity will be added directly beneath the element you select.

For example, to add an activity to a project without assigning it to a specific WBS element, select the project row (when the view is grouped by project). To add an activity to a WBS element within a project, select the WBS row. To add an activity immediately beneath another activity, select the activity.

  1. Click icon to add an activity (Insert), or right-click on the element and choose Add activity.
  2. If data is grouped, the new activity inherits the value of the grouping field, or fields, if multiple grouping levels are applied. For example, if grouped by Activity Status and you add an activity to the In Progress group, the new activity is designated as in progress with an actual start date.

    When data is grouped by a field other than WBS or Project, new activities are assigned to the project level, or root node, of the WBS.

To delete one or more activities, select them and click icon to delete a project element (Delete).

To edit an activity name/ID or its associated data, navigate to the appropriate field cell, double-click, then type your changes or right-click the activity in the activity table and select the type of detail to edit from the menu.

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Add, delete, or edit resource and role assignments

If you have the required privilege, you can add, edit, or delete resource and role assignments directly on the Activities page or in Activity Details.

To assign a resource to an activity, select the activity in the Activity Table or, then click Assign Resource on the Activities toolbar. Select the resource you want to assign, click Assign, then click Close.

To assign the same resource to multiple activities, use Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select multiple activities in the Activity Table before selecting a resource.

To assign a role to an activity, select the activity in the Activity Table, then click Assign role on the Activities toolbar. Select the role you want to assign, click Assign, then click Close.

To assign the same role to multiple activities, use Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select multiple activities in the Activity Table before selecting a role.

To edit or delete an activity's assignments, or to add additional assignments for an activity, right-click on the activity and choose Assignments. The Assignments dialog box opens, in which you can add or delete assignments, replace existing assignments, and edit an assignment's details.

Clicking the Request Resources icon in the Assignments dialog box opens the Open a Request for a Resource dialog box, in which you can search for a resource or role to assign.

Tip: Assignments you add to an activity in the Activity Assignments dialog are immediately saved to the database; you do not have to click Apply or Save in this dialog. If you add an activity assignment, then click Close, the assignment you added is still retained. Changes you make to existing assignments (edits or deletes) in the Activity Assignments dialog are automatically saved when you click Apply or Save. Regardless of the task you perform (add, edit, or delete), the icon to save changes icon on the Activities toolbar is disabled, even after closing the dialog. Since the saving of assignment changes occurs within the Activity Assignments dialog, the yellow flag to represent edited activity icon does not appear next to the activity in the Activity Table when you add, edit, or delete assignments in this dialog.

For more detailed information about adding, editing, or deleting assignments to activities on the Activities page, refer to Add, edit, or delete resource and role assignments to activities.

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Add, delete, or edit activity relationships

If you have the required privilege to manage activity relationships, you can use the Activity Table or Gantt chart to make changes.

Tip: When multiple projects are open, you can add relationships between activities in different projects.

To add, edit, or delete relationships in the Gantt chart

To add a relationship in the Gantt chart:

  1. If relationship line display is not already on, click icon to show or hide relationship lines in the toolbar.
  2. Right-click on the corresponding Gantt bar and select Create Relationship.
  3. From the Start or Finish handle on the bar, click and drag to the predecessor or successor activity's Start or Finish, as appropriate, to establish the correct relationship type.
  4. Click again to complete the relationship.

To delete a relationship in the Gantt chart, right-click on the relationship line, then choose Delete Relationship.

To edit a relationship type or lag in the Gantt chart, right-click on a relationship line, then choose Edit Relationship.

To add, edit, or delete relationships for a single activity in the Activity Table

  1. In the Activity Table, right-click on the appropriate activity, then choose Edit Predecessors or Edit Successors.

    The Predecessors or Successors dialog displays, depending on the option you chose.

  1. Add, edit, or delete relationships as follows:
Tip: While the dialog is open, you can continue to select activities in the Activity Table and add, edit, or delete relationships for the activities you select.
  1. If you chose to retain your changes, on the Activities toolbar, click Save (Ctrl+S) to save your changes, or click Cancel (Ctrl+Z) to cancel your changes.
Note: When selecting a predecessor or successor activity, you can choose from activities in the open project(s) only.

To add relationships to multiple activities from the Activity Table

Tip: For additional information about adding, deleting, or editing relationships, including descriptions of relationship types and lag, refer to Add, edit, or delete relationships.

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Add, delete, or edit activity steps

If you have the required privileges, you can add, edit, delete, or update the progress of activity steps. You can add activity steps based on your own requirements or, if your organization has defined templates to standardize activity steps, you can add these predefined steps to an activity. For more information about Step Templates, as well as information about using step weights, see Activity steps overview.

  1. In the Activity Table, right-click on the appropriate activity and choose Steps to display the Steps dialog.
  2. In the Steps dialog:
Tip: While the dialog is open, you can continue to select activities in the Activity Table and add, edit, delete, or update progress for activity steps for the activities you select.
  1. Close the dialog box.
  2. If you chose to retain your changes, on the Activities toolbar, click Save (Ctrl+S) to save your changes, or click Cancel (Ctrl+Z) to cancel your changes.

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Assign, remove, or edit activity notebook topics

Notebook topics are created in the Project Management module, typically by an administrator. You can use notebook topics to share information about an activity, such as the activity's purpose or instructions for completing the activity.

To work with an activity's notebook topics:

  1. In the Activity Table, right-click on an activity and choose Edit Activity Notebooks.

The Activity Notebooks dialog displays a list of existing notebook topics for the activity, if any.

  1. In the Activity Notebooks dialog, do any of the following:
Tip: While the dialog is open, you can continue to select activities in the Activity Table and assign, revise, or remove notebook topics for the activities you select.
  1. Close the dialog box.
  2. If you chose to retain your changes, on the Activities toolbar, click Save (Ctrl+S) to save your changes, or click Cancel (Ctrl+Z) to cancel your changes.

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Copy, cut, and paste activities or column data

You can access cut, copy, paste, and fill down functionality from the Edit menu (icon for cut activityDown) on the Activities toolbar. When multiple projects are open on the Activities page, you can cut, copy, and paste activities between projects just as you would within a single project.

To copy an activity:

Select the activity to copy. From the toolbar Edit menu, choosecopy activity iconCopy (Ctrl+C).

To cut an activity:

Select the activity to cut. In the toolbar, click icon for cut activity(Ctrl+X).

To paste an activity:

Select the row above the position where you want to insert a copied or cut activity. From the toolbar Edit menu, choose icon for paste activity Paste (Ctrl+V.) You can paste a cut or copied activity multiple times until you Save your data, perform another cut or copy, or leave the Activities page.

Use Fill Down to copy column data to non-adjacent rows

  1. Click in the column cell you want to copy, then Ctrl+click to select the rows you want to copy to.
    You can also use Shift+click to select adjacent rows.
  2. From the toolbar Edit menu, choose icon for fill down Fill Down (Shift+l) .

Use Fill Down to copy column data to adjacent rows

  1. Click in the column cell you want to copy.
  2. Position your cursor on the selection handle that appears in the bottom right corner of the cell. The cursor changes to a crosshair symbol.
  3. Click and drag up or down to select the rows you want to copy to, then release the mouse.

    graphic of auto-fill

Additional tips about copy, cut, and paste

To copy, cut, and paste data from one cell to another, you can also select data in a cell and use Ctrl+C (Copy), Ctrl+X (Cut), and Ctrl+V (Paste).

When you cut an activity, all attributes are cut along with it.

When you copy an activity, all attributes except Activity ID are copied because each activity's ID must be unique. After you save your changes, an Activity ID is automatically assigned to the copied activity, using the default ID option specified in preferences.

When you paste an activity to a different project, the following items are not included when you paste the activity: project-level activity codes, EPS-level activity codes (if the projects belong to different EPS nodes), work products and documents, and issues.

If you are working in a grouped Activity View, when you cut or copy, then paste an activity, it inherits the value of the group you paste it to, with some exceptions. For example, if your view is grouped by activity type, if you cut a Task Dependent activity and paste it to the Resource Dependent grouping, the activity type changes to Resource Dependent. An exception to this occurs in cases where the application business logic would be invalidated by applying the attribute of the new group. For example, if you copy a Start Milestone that has a constraint to a Finish Milestone group, the activity changes to a Finish Milestone, but the Start constraint is removed because a Finish Milestone cannot have a Start constraint.

Each activity that is changed because of a copy, cut, or paste action displays an icon (yellow flag to represent edited activity) in the first column. For example, if you copy an activity that has relationships, the copied activity, as well as its predecessor and successor activities display yellow flag to represent edited activity to indicate that they have changed.

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Search for activities

You can quickly find activities based on search criteria for the data column you specify.

  1. In the row where you want to begin searching, click in the column for the data field you want to search on.
  2. In the toolbar, click icon to launch Search (Ctrl+F).
  3. Type your search criteria, specify options as needed, and click Find.
  4. The row for the first activity that meets your criteria is highlighted. To navigate to the next result row, press Alt+F.
    If there are no activities that match your criteria, a Finish message displays. This same message displays after you have navigated through all results and there are no more to display.

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View activity relationships in Trace Logic

Trace Logic enables you to step forward or backward through a sequence of activities to focus on predecessor/successor relationships. You can use Trace Logic to determine why an activity is scheduled at a particular time, answering questions such as: Were any of its predecessors delayed? Do any of its predecessors or successors have an obsolete constraint? Are two activities that should be linked start to start currently linked finish to start? Why is there negative float?

To open the Trace Logic dialog box:

Right-click an activity in the activity table and select Trace Logic from the activity menu. The Trace Logic dialog box displays.

To analyze predecessor and successor relationships for an activity:

Select the activity you want to analyze in the Activity Table. In the Trace Logic dialog box, the activity you selected displays as a box with a blue border. Activity boxes to the left of the selected activity are predecessors. Activity boxes to the right of the selected activity are successors. Activity boxes with a red border represent critical activities.

In the Trace Logic dialog box, the following visual indicators represent critical activities, critical relationships, and driving relationships:

For more detailed information, including information on customizing the Trace Logic display and printing the Trace Logic layout, see Working with Trace Logic.

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Modify activity dates or durations in the Gantt chart

You can easily update dates and durations for an activity by resizing or moving Gantt chart bars.

To make a change to an activity date or duration:

Click on an activity bar; selection handles appear.

After resizing or moving a Gantt bar, when you save your changes, the activity remaining duration is recalculated based on the new dates and the activity's calendar. Because the calendar for the activity is applied when you save, a date you specified for an activity may change slightly if it occurs during calendar non-worktime. Also, if you move, but do not resize a Gantt bar, the duration may shorten or lengthen based on the activity calendar's non-worktime.

Tip: In the Gantt chart, you can impose only a Start On or After constraint. You can apply other constraint types, as well as Secondary constraints, in the Activity Table and on the Activity Details Status tab.

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Schedule open projects

Note: To schedule a project, you must have the required project privilege. When multiple projects are open on the Activities page, you must have this project privilege for all open projects in order to schedule them. If you do not have this privilege for all open projects, the icont to schedule project icon is disabled.
  1. In the toolbar, click icont to schedule project (F9).
  2. Choose one of the following options:

Choose All projects use their own data date if you want to schedule all open projects according to the data date currently specified for each open project. Choose this option when the open projects have different data dates and you want to maintain these dates.

Choose Apply selected data date to all open projects when you want to apply the same data date to all open projects when you schedule. If you select this option, click the Calendar icon to select a data date. By default, among the open projects, the application will use the earliest data date as the data date for all open projects, unless you specify a different date. This default date is displayed in the Data Date field, unless you change it.

  1. Mark the Display scheduling log upon completion checkbox if you want to display the schedule log when the job completes.

The schedule log includes errors, warnings, and exceptions as well as basic information about the job, such as option settings and statistics (for example, number of activities by status). The report displays in a separate browser window after the scheduling job completes. You can also view it later from the Projects > Tools page.

  1. To review options, click Scheduling Options.

When multiple projects are open on the Activities page, the scheduling options that display by default are the options defined for the first project listed on the Activities page. When you modify scheduling options, the options are applied to all open projects.

  1. Click Schedule.

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Highlight activities with expected progress

To quickly locate the activities you need to update, you can use the Progress Spotlight feature, which highlights all activities that should have progressed during a specific time period. This time period is defined by the smallest increment of the current timescale since the last data date. For example, if the current timescale is set to Month/Week, Progress Spotlight highlights all activities that should have progressed during the week since the data date.

To show or hide the Progress Spotlight, in the toolbar, click icon to show or hide Progress Spotlight.

In the Gantt chart, Progress Spotlight displays a yellow background, or curtain, to indicate the time period during which progress should have occurred. You can drag the end point of the highlighted area to extend or compress the time period.

In the Activity Table, all activities that should have progressed are highlighted. You can use Ctrl+ the Up or Down arrow key to navigate to each highlighted activity in sequence, recording progress in the appropriate data columns. If you want to automatically calculate progress for some activities, you can include the auto-compute actuals column in your view so you can turn this option on as needed for specific activities.

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Open a project's dependent projects

When an activity in one project has a relationship to an activity in another project (referred to as cross-project relationships), these projects are dependent on each other. When working with projects on the Activities page, you can open a project's dependent projects by doing the following:

  1. On the Activities toolbar, click Open Dependent Projects icon to launch the Open Dependent Projects dialog.

The dialog lists all currently open projects.

  1. To view a project's dependent projects, click Expand next to the project name.
  2. To open a dependent project, select it in the list, then click OK. To open multiple dependent projects, use Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select them.

If a dependent project is already open, a message displays. Click OK to close the message and the dialog.

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Choose and organize content on the Activities page

Tip: To quickly rearrange the columns currently displayed on the Activities page, drag and drop them.

Click Customize view, then make your selections in each of the tabs of the Customize Activity Views dialog box.

When finished customizing, from the Activity Views menu on the Activities toolbar (Customize view down), click Save View Save View to preserve your changes or, to create a new view that reflects the changes, click Save View As Save View As.

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Customize the Activities toolbar

The Activities toolbar is divided into functional sections, such as display settings and Gantt chart settings. You can choose the sections of the toolbar you want to show and hide.

To show or hide a section, right-click on the toolbar, then choose the section you want to show or hide. A checkmark indicates that a section is currently displayed.

Tip: See Customizing the Activities toolbar for more information.

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Customize the visual layout

To hide/show Gantt chart:
To expand all rows of a grouped view:

Click Expand All icon to expand all rows.

To collapse all rows of a grouped view:

Click Collapse All icon to collapse all rows.

To resize a column:

Mouse over the vertical border in the column heading and drag; the mouse cursor changes to a horizontal arrow when properly positioned.

To reposition a column:

Position the mouse within a column heading, then click and drag to the new position.

To resize the table/chart sections:

Place your mouse over the vertical bar that separates the table and chart, then drag to resize; the mouse cursor changes to a horizontal arrow when properly positioned anywhere along the vertical bar.

You can drag the bar to hide all table columns except the first.

Adjust the timescale

Tip: If the Financial Period timescale option is available, choose it to display the range of financial periods defined in the Project Management module. If your organization tracks actuals data in financial periods but the Financial Period timescale is not available, either projects are not summarized by financial period (which is controlled by an administrative preference in the Project Management module) or financial periods are not properly configured. Contact your P6 administrator to resolve the problem.

Expand the Activities page to fit the entire screen

Expanding the Activities view hides the browser and Web Access application interface elements that are not required in the view.

Click Full Screen Mode icon that represents full screen display. To return to the normal display, click Screen Mode icon that represents full screen display.

Note: Online help becomes unavailable when the view is maximized. To use online help, return the view to the normal display.

Show all or only driving relationships between activities

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Create or delete a view

You can create an Activity View for personal use or to share with other users you specify. If you have the required privilege, you can also create global views, which are accessible to all users. For more information about Activity View access and data security, see Activity Views.

To create a view:
  1. From the view drop-down list, choose the view you want to use as the basis for the new view.

    You can base your new view on a Default View, or on any existing custom view.

  2. From the Activity Views menu in the toolbar (Customize view Down arrow), click Save View As Save View As.

  3. Type a unique name for the new view and click OK.

  4. Customize the view to select the data content and layout of the view according to your needs. Refer to other sections on this page for information about choosing content and layout.

  5. Tip: To create a view for managing the WBSes of a project, on the Grouping tab, in the Level 1 field, choose WBS. In the To Level field, choose All.

  6. If you want to share the new view, use the Customize View Access tab to specify the users you want to have access. By default, when you create a new view it is saved only for your personal use, unless you specify other access.

  7. After customizing and specifying view access, click Save View.
To delete a view:

Choose the view from the View drop-down list to display it. Then, from the View menu in the toolbar
(Customize view Down arrow), click Delete Delete View.

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Group and sort activities

Grouping lists together, or categorizes, all activities that contain the same value for a specific data field. For example, if you choose to group by Project then by Primary Resource, the Activities page groups activities in project groupings. Then, within each project group, activities are further categorized according to primary resource. Finally, within each primary resource group, activities are sorted based upon the sort field and sort order you specify, for example start date.

In the Gantt chart, when you group activities, a summary bar appears for each group. You can expand and collapse the group as needed to focus only on the project Summary Schedule or on the Detailed Schedule.

In the Activity Table, when you group activities, each grouping level is identified and separated by a colored band or background. You can elect to show rollups, or summary totals, for each group.

Note: Unexpected display results can occur when hours per time period settings are stored per calendar in the Project Management module and you group activities by a duration field, such as original or planned duration. If an unexpected display results when grouping activities by a duration field, set your preference for duration format to hours. You can change your preference for duration format in Global Preferences. See Specify formats for time units, dates, and currency in Global Preferences for details.

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Export activity data

  1. Choose or customize a view to display only the data you want to export. All data, except grouping row information, is exported as it appears in the current Activity View.
  2. In the toolbar, from the Action menu (Dependent Projects icon Down), choose icon for export Export.
  3. Choose to open or save the export file.

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Import new activities into a project

You can import new activities into a P6 Web Access project from a Microsoft® Excel (.xls) file.

Note: This feature only adds new activities to the project.
  1. Open the project to which you want to import new activities, then click Activities on the Projects toolbar to display the Activities page.
  1. On the Activities toolbar, from the Action menu
    (Dependent Projects Down), click import_excel Import.

The Import Activities dialog box displays. You are required to select:

  1. In the Import File field, type the name of the import file or browse and choose the .xls file to import.
Note: To import activities to a specific WBS, the WBS must already exist in the project, and in the .xls file, WBSName must be a column title with the full WBS path specified using a period to indicate the WBS level (for example: 1.2.1).
  1. Click Import.

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Add, delete, or edit project-level activity codes and code values

If you have the appropriate privileges, click Activity code to open the Activity Codes page. On the Activity Codes page, all currently open projects are listed in alphabetical order. To view the activity codes and code values defined for each project, click Plus next to the project name. On this page, you can:

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Print Activity Views

To print the Activity View currently displayed, in the toolbar click print. For more information about printing Activity Views, see Printing activity information.

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