Introduction

Link Expert ™

Copyright © 1997 Asta Group plc

Link Expert is a tool which accesses a PowerProject® project and produces a text report of the logical links in the plan.

The text report is presented with each task in the plan highlighted. Any incoming links (predecessors) are listed before the task and any outgoing links (successors) listed after the task.

The information is presented in a column sheet and each column can be switched On or Off. The link details are presented in a complex link notation, i.e. the link type is presented as FS (finish-to-start), SS (start-to-start) and FF (finish-to-finish) with any Lead (+tive numbers) or Lag (-tive numbers) indicated.

The report can be printed to the currently selected Windows printer. The report will be adjusted to fit one page wide and paginated over as many pages as necessary. The details can also be exported to a Comma Separated File and the Clipboard.

Getting Started

Report Scope

Report Column Sheet

Customizing Your Reports

Output

Link Expert uses OLE automation technology to communicate with PowerProject. You must have version 4.1 of PowerProject, or above, and have installed the software using the Installation process (as the install process lets Windows know about the OLE capabilities of PowerProject). The OLE connection means that Link Expert will start PowerProject in the background (if not already running) and use it to carry out requests for information. This information is then presented by Link Expert as a Link Text Report. The OLE technology places a fairly heavy demand on your computer and with large projects the process can be quite slow. It is recommended that you have at least 16 Mb of RAM and a Pentium processor to operate Link Expert.


Getting Started

Starting Link Expert is just a matter of the selecting the Link Expert  icon from the Start bar (Windows 95), or double-clicking on the icon in the PowerProject window of your Program Manager (Windows 3.11). The Link Expert icon is show below;

If your copy of PowerProject is not already loaded and running, then once Link Expert has started it will cause PowerProject to load (indicated by the brief appearance of the opening banner) and run in the background.  Once both Link Expert and PowerProject are active you can proceed.

The steps to create a Link Text Report are:

1.	Open a project.

2.	Choose the extent of the report through the Scope Tab.

3.	Select what information to display through the Customize Tab.

4.	View the Columnar Link Text Report through the Report Tab.

5.	Print, or Export the report through the Menu options, or Clipboard.

6.	Close Link Expert via the File  Exit menu option..


Opening A Project

To open a project select the File  Open menu option.

If a project is already open in Link Expert you will be prompted to confirm closing it.

If a project is currently open in PowerProject you will be asked if this is the project you wish to report on.

If no project is open in PowerProject, or it is not the project you wish to report on, then the standard Windows file selector is presented. This requires you to select a valid PowerProject file (PDB). Open the project you wish to obtain a Link Text Report for.

Once you have selected your PDB, a list of all the charts in the project will be displayed on the Scope Tab.


Scope Tab

Once a project is opened to report on, the Scope Tab is active with a diagram of the project structure presented in the Chart Manager.

The Chart Manager is presented in a similar way to the Windows File Manager.

•	Charts with an icon of a folder, are charts which contain further sub-charts.

•	Charts with an icon of a document, contain no further charts only tasks.

By interacting with the Chart Manager you can select how much of the project (the scope) to report on and list the activities of a chart.

You can obtain a report for the whole project, a single chart or an activity.

Project Report

To create a report for the whole project, click the button labeled Apply to Whole Project. Link Expert will start calculating the Link Text Report for all the charts in the current project.

A warning is presented that it may take some time to compile such a report. You must confirm before proceeding.

As an indication of processing speed:

Project scale	Computer processor	Processing time*
One chart, 16 bars and 15 links	486 DX2 / 66MHz	41 seconds
One chart, 16 bars and 15 links	Pentium 133MHz	22 seconds
3 charts, 16 bars and 21 links	486 DX2 / 66MHz	73 seconds
3 charts, 16 bars and 21 links	Pentium 133MHz	48 seconds

* NOTE: Times given are average test times, times may vary depending upon the amount of available RAM and number of processes running.

Chart Report

To create a report for a single chart, you must first select a chart from the Chart Manager list.

•	Click on a chart/folder/document icon to select it.

•	Click on a tree line, next to the chart/folder icon, to reveal/hide further sub-charts. Double-clicking has no effect on a chart/document icon.

With a chart selected the Apply to Selected Chart button is enabled. Clicking this button will start Link Expert calculating the Link Text Report for the selected chart.

Activity Report

To create a report for a single activity, you must first select a chart from the Chart Manager list (see above).

•	Double-click on the chart title to view its activities.

A list of the charts activities, after a short delay, are presented in the right panel of the Chart Manager.  Activities surrounded by double chevrons (>>name<<) are sub-charts.

Select the required activity by clicking on it in the right hand panel. The Apply to selected activity button is enabled. Clicking this button will start Link Expert calculating the Link Text Report for the selected chart.

The progress of executing the report is indicated in the lower right panel of the display.

Once the report is complete you will automatically be moved to the Report Tab where you can view the results of the report and change the column widths. You can change the appearance and content of the report via the Customize Tab, before selecting to Output your report.


Report Tab
Report Window

The Report window contains a column sheet view of the report.  The report window can be selected, by selecting the Window - Spreadsheet menu option.  The Report window in this release of Link Expert can be fully resized.

The column widths and the row heights may be adjusted, by using the mouse.  However, only the column widths effect the layout of the output. The relative widths of columns are reflected in the printed report.

Using the Edit  Refit Column Sizes menu option forces the columns to fit the window on screen.

The Edit - Auto Refit Columns menu option, when checked causes the spreadsheet columns to fit to the size of the window, otherwise the column sizes act as normal.

If there is a tick against the User  Save Settings on Exit, in the main Link Expert window then the column widths and screen settings will be remembered for the next time you run Link Expert. Choosing this menu option switches the tick on/off.

The appearance of the report, including turning columns on and off, can be selected via the  Customize Tab of the main Link Expert window.


Customize Tab

The Customize Tab is your way of choosing the appearance of your reports.  The form is divided into a number of sections:

Columns

This section contains a number of check boxes.  If an item is checked then a column containing this information will be shown in the report, otherwise it will be omitted.

•	WBN. The editable bar WBN (Work Breakdown Number) the link starts/ends on. The WBN of the bar being reported on is also displayed (and highlighted).

•	Chart title. The title of the chart the link starts/ends on. This column need only be included for a Project Report.

•	Bar title. The title of the bar the link starts/ends on. The bar title of the task being reported on is always displayed (and highlighted).

•	Segment title. The title of the segment the link starts/ends on.

•	Start date. The start date the link starts/ends on.

•	End date. The end date the link starts/ends on.

•	Link type. The type of link, in complex link notation.
  FS is a finish-to-start link,
  SS is a start-to-start link,
  FF is a finish-to-finish link.

•	Lead/Lag. The amount by which the link offsets the connected tasks. Lead is displayed as positive numbers and Lag as negative numbers.

•	Display zeros. If checked, all values are displayed in the lead/lag column.  Otherwise only non-zero values are displayed.

Rows

This section determines which links and link information is reported. If an option is checked the information will be included on the report.

•	Predecessor Links. The details of incoming (predecessor) links for each activity are included.

•	Successor links. The details of outgoing (successor) links for each activity are included.

•	Critical links. Links which are critical are highlighted in red and indicated by a (C) symbol after the activity name when printed.

•	Flagged links. Links connecting to activities which have a Start Flag assigned are indicated by a  flag symbol and by the (S) symbol after the activity name when printed.

•	WBN On Activity. The WBN is included at the beginning of the bar description for the highlighted activity.

•	Highlight color. The activity being reported on - which has its predecessors detailed before it and its successors detailed after it - is highlighted for clarity. The background colour band is changed by double-clicking on the color box and choosing from the sector presented.

Output

This section determines how output will appear on the page. If an option is checked the feature will effect the output.

•	Page numbering. Pages will be numbered on printed reports.

•	Page border. A line is drawn surrounding the page on printed reports.

•	Gridlines. If checked, horizontal lines are drawn after each entry. Otherwise only headings cause a line to be drawn across the page on printed reports.


Report Output

Printing

Choosing the File  Print menu option will send your report to the default Windows printer, using all current settings (e.g. paper size and orientation settings).

You will be asked to confirm printing after which the print cannot be canceled from within Link Expert.

Exporting

To a File

Choosing the File  Export CSV menu option, entering a file name and location in the File Selector will create a  Comma Separated File (CSV).

A CSV file contains the data values of the report separated by a comma. This file type is easily imported into word processors, spreadsheets and database packages where the data can be manipulated in various other ways.

To the Clipboard

You can copy all, or some, of the cells from the report to the clipboard. Once on the Clipboard they can be Pasted into other Windows applications where the data can be manipulated in various other ways

Highlight the cells you want to copy.

Select the start cell by locating the pointer on it.

Dragging the mouse over those cells you wish to copy - they are highlighted.

You can select the entire report by clicking in the gray cell at the top left corner of the report column sheet.

Once you have highlighted those cells to copy Choosing the Edit  Copy menu option, or the shortcut Ctrl+C.