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Activity Views

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What is an Activity View?

An Activity View represents a selection of data content presented in a particular visual layout, or format, on the Projects > Activities page.

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Using Activity Views

By customizing the Activities page, you can select numerous options to create Activity Views that present the project data you require in a display format that meets your needs. You can view and plan activities in the Gantt chart, schedule activities in the Calendar View, and view relationships between activities in the Activity Table and the Activity Network Diagram.

For each view, you can customize data and content-specific choices such as grouping, sorting, filtering, and selecting columns, applying a progress line and setting other visual layout options, including Gantt bar labeling and timescale increment designations in the Customize Activity View dialog box, which is displayed by clicking Customize Activity Views Customize Activity View Down arrow in the toolbar of the Activity page.

Note: The Customize Activity View dialog box may be displayed as the Create Activity View dialog box when you create a new activity view from Projects, Manage Activity Views, or as the Detail dialog box when you modify an activity view. For more information, see Manage Activity Views.

The view drop-down list on the Activities toolbar provides quick and easy access to all Activity Views that are available to you. While working with activities, choosing the best view for your needs can facilitate the process of recording project data. For example, to quickly record a range of details for new activities, you might choose a table-only view that maximizes the number of data columns available. Or, to have a particular attribute, such as WBS or activity code, automatically applied to newly added activities, you could choose a view that groups activities based on that attribute.

Create, modify, or delete a view

You can create, modify, or delete a view either from the Manage Activity Views page or the Activities page.

Tip: You must have the required security privilege to create global activity views.

To create a new view from the Activities page

  1. Open the project or group of projects you want to work with in the Projects section.

  2. Click Activities on the Projects toolbar to display the Activities page.

  3. From the view drop-down list on the Activities toolbar, 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.

  4. In the Activities toolbar, click the Customize Activity Views Customize Activity View Down arrow menu, and select Save View As or press Ctrl+F11.

  5. Enter a unique name for the new view and click OK.

Notes:

To create a view from the Manage Activity Views page

  1. From the Projects action menu in the global navigation bar, choose Manage Activity Views.
  2. Click Create Activity View. Search for or choose the view you want to use as a template for the new view.
  3. On the Create Activity View page, type a unique name for the new view, select the data content and layout of the view, and specify user access to the view. Details on choosing content and layout options are described below.
  4. Click Save.
Note: To modify a view on the Manage Activity Views page, click the name of the view you want to modify. On the Create/Modify Activity View page, choose and organize the view's content and access as necessary, then click Save.

To modify a view

From the Activity page, modify and save changes to a view in the Customize Activity Views dialog box,

To delete a view

To delete a view on the Activities page, choose the view you want to delete from the view drop-down list. When the view displays, from the Activity Views menu (Customize Activity View Down arrow), choose Delete View.

To delete a view from the Manage Activity Views page, click the view's corresponding Delete link to delete an existing view.

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Choose and organize the data content of a view

You can choose or change the content and organization of any Activity View you create. For activity views you can access but did not create, you can review the settings on the Customize View tabs (available from the Activities page), but you cannot make changes. You can also review settings for views you did not create by selecting a view on the Manage Activity Views page. For more information, see Access to Activity Views.

Tip: On the Activities page, to quickly rearrange the columns currently displayed in a view, drag and drop them.
Choosing activity data columns

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Grouping activities

Tip: Start date rollups reflect the earliest date for the group and finish date rollups reflect the latest date for the group. Unit and cost rollups are a total of the values for each activity in the 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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Filtering activities

  1. Select a filter type.

    Choose Standard to select from predefined filters, such as Critical activities behind schedule or Milestones only.

    Choose Custom to create a filter based on activity data fields and values you specify.

  2. Choose or create the filter.

    If you choose Standard, select a predefined filter from the drop-down list.

    For Activities Finishing Within Specified Days, be sure to specify a number of days.

    The My Activities filter displays all project activities you are either assigned to as a resource or designated as the activity owner.

    Tips: The Critical Activities Behind Schedule filter uses the project baseline to determine variance, identifying activities behind schedule. If no project baseline is assigned, the current project is used as the baseline, so no activities are displayed.

    If you have Team Member module access, either assigned as a resource or activity Owner, applying the My Activities filter will have no affect on the activity list display because your access is already restricted to your assigned and Owner activities.

    If you choose Custom

    In the Select Filter Criteria drop-down list, choose to display activities that meet all or any of the specified criteria. If you select Any of the following, any activity that meets at least one of the filtering conditions will display in the Activity View.

    To create a filter criteria statement, in the Parameter drop-down list, select a field. Next, select an operator from the Is drop-down list. In the Value field, type or select a value to complete the filtering criteria statement.

  3. Note: Project Activity codes and EPS codes parameters are not available on the Create Activity View page.

    You can create up to 10 criteria statements for a custom filter. Click the appropriate icon to add icon to add filter criteriaor delete icon to delete filter criteria a criteria statement.

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Customize the visual layout of a view on the Activities page

Tip: For detailed information about all icons in the Activities toolbar, see Activities toolbar.

Hide/show Gantt chart Click icon to show or hide Gantt chart to show or Hide gantt to hide.
In a grouped view, expand all rows Click icon to expand all rows.
In a grouped view, collapse all rows Click icon to collapse all rows.
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.
Reposition a column Position the mouse within a column heading, then click and drag to the new position.
Resize the table/chart sections

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

To zoom the timescale so that all bars are in view, click icon to auto adjust timescale.

To quickly bring the bar for a particular activity or group into the display area, double-click in the chart area to the right of the activity or group row.

To manually adjust the timescale, in the top section of the timescale header, click and release the mouse. Then, drag the horizontal arrow that appears.

To change the timescale setting (for example, Quarter/Month or Financial Period), either right-click in the timescale header row or choose timescale increments from the Customize View Bars tab.

Tip: If the Financial Period timescale option is available, choose it to display the range of financial periods defined in the Project Management module.

Expand the Activities view to full screen.

This hides the browser and Primavera application interface elements not required in the view.

Click icon that represents full screen display. To return to the normal display, click icon that represents full screen display again.

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

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User Access to Activity Views

When you create or modify a view, you can use the Customize View Access tab to specify who has access to the view.

Three classes of access apply to Activity Views

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Data security in Activity Views

Your ability to perform certain actions in a view depends on the view's access class, your role as either creator or user of the view, and your security profile.

If a multi-user or global view includes data elements that are affected by security profile privileges, the data is not available to users who do not have the required privileges. For example, if a view is grouped by secure codes, users who do not have the required privilege will see the activities arranged in a flat list, the secure code grouping is not applied. If the secure code is used for sorting, it is ignored and the default sort field and sort order are applied: Start Date and Ascending. Similarly, if a view includes financial data columns, users who do not have the required privileges will see dashes in these columns instead of the values stored in the database.

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Grouping and sorting 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.

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