Copyright: This file © Bob Kochem 12/5/2002


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yesyesnononoMinuteMan - Frequently Asked Questions31MM_FAQyesyes05/12/02


Table of Contents

1.) How Can I Work on a Project File by Double-Clicking??

2.) How Do I Specify Working And Non-Working Days/Weekends?

3.) Why Can’t I Edit a Task’s Start Date?

4.) How Do I Set a “Can’t Start Before” Date?

5.) Why Do Entries Move Unexpectedly?

6.) What Do Red And Blue Signify?

7.) Can I Delete The Start Task?

8.) How Do I Link To Tasks Off-Screen?

9.) What Is A Circular Dependency?

10.) How Do I Schedule Part-Time Workers?

11.) How Do I Specify Currency Symbols?

12.) How To Send Reports To People Who Don’t Have MinuteMan?

13.) Can The PERT Chart Be Made To Use Fewer Pages?

14.) Why Do Some Tasks Appear Twice??


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1.) How Can I Work on a Project File by Double-Clicking??

When you install MinuteMan, you may wish to configure your system so that double-clicking MinuteMan data files in a folder or on the Windows desktop will cause MinuteMan to be launched and that data file to be opened. To do this it will be necessary to “associate” the MinuteMan data file extension “PRM” with the MinuteMan Application MINMAN32.EXE

Following are instructions for doing this on Windows ME; instructions for other platforms are similar;

- Launch “My Computer” and select “View” and select “Tools” and select “Folder Options”

- Click the Tab for “File Types” and select “New” (See Note below if .PRM is already in use)

- Enter “PRM” and click “OK”

- Under “Details” click “Change”

- A list of programs on your computer will appear. If MinuteMan is not already in the list, Click “Other” and browse to the directory where MinuteMan is installed and select MINMAN32.EXE. Typically this is installed in C:\ProgramFile\MinuteMan

- Click “OK” as needed to exit

NOTE: It is possible that there may already be a program on your machine associated with the “PRM” file extension. “Print Shop” is one program that uses that extension. If another program is associated with the PRM extension, the only way to associate MinuteMan with MinuteMan data files is to identify the other program in the above procedure and use EDIT to associate “PRM” with MinuteMan


2.) How Do I Specify Working And Non-Working Days/Weekends?

Question - Our Company works on Saturdays, but the Calendar always shows Saturday as a non-working day. Can I change that?

Answer – Yes. Any day-of-the-week can be designated as working or non-working. To do this, use the menu for Options and Overall and Set Calendar (or click the Calendar symbol on the Toolbar.) Now click the name of the workday, at the top of the column, for the day you want to change. In this case click “Sat” at the head of that column. In the box at the right-hand side click “Set Standard Working Day”.

Note; if all occurrences of a workday  (i.e. all Saturdays) are set as non-working, you cannot then change individual days (i.e. just Saturday November 18th) back to working.


3.) Why Can't I Edit a Task's Start Date?
3.) Why Can’t I Edit a Task’s Start Date?

Question - I can’t edit the Start Date for a task. Why not?

Answer – This is most likely because the task in question has a predecessor. That is, it is “linked” to another task or task. The Start Date is always calculated as equal to the End Date of the last-to-complete of all the Predecessors of a Task. If you want a task to start on a Specific Date, it shouldn’t have any predecessors. To remove a task’s predecessors, click the Task to highlight it, the click the button labeled “Links” in the upper display area (or click the button that looks like a chain link in the Toolbar). Select each predecessor and click DELETE for each, and then DONE when finished.


4.) How Do I Set a “Can't Start Before” Date?
4.) How Do I Set a “Can’t Start Before” Date?

Question – How do I make a task hold off starting till a fixed date, even if other predecessors are already completed?

Answer – Create a milestone, having no predecessors, that starts and ends on the desired “Can’t start before date”. Then make that milestone a predecessor to the task in question.


5.) Why Do Entries Move Unexpectedly?

Question - In the Outline View, or the PERT Chart, I get all the tasks arranged just where I want them, and then the program moves them around! How do I stop that?

Answer – By default, the program “left-justifies” all tasks. (Usually this happens when recalculating dates) Each task goes to the left as far as it can without “passing” its predecessors. This results in a more compact view that tends to show the flow of work better. You can shut off this automatic left justification. Use the menu entries for Options and Overall and click/toggle “Automatic Reposition Tasks.”


6.) What Do Red And Blue Signify?

Question - Why is it that in the Outline View some of the boxes are Red and some are Blue? Can I change it?

Answer – Red is used to indicate tasks that are on the Critical Path. Blue tasks are those that aren’t on the Critical Path. The Critical Path is a standard term in Project Management defined as the sequence of tasks for which changing the duration of any one task, on the path, changes the completion of the last task in the project. This is important if you are trying to shorten a project – the best way to do it is to focus on shortening those tasks on the Critical Path. You can use the menus for Options and Overall and Critical Path to make all tasks Red (mark as Critical) or Blue (mark as Non-Critical) or back to the Standard Practice of indicating both Critical and Non-Critical

Note: MinuteMan does not support, at present, a means to selectively highlight some tasks as being “more important” than others. Sometimes people seeing the term “Critical Path” take it to mean “Selected as Important” but that is not what the Critical Path is about.


7.) Can I Delete The Start Task?

Question - Why can’t I delete the Task labeled “Start” in the upper left corner of the Outline View?

Answer – This task serves as a starting point for all Critical Path and Date calculations in the present task.  You can just leave it in and ignore it, or you can edit it to be part of something in the beginning of your project.


8.) How Do I Link To Tasks Off-Screen?

Question - I need to create a link from one task to another that is not on the presently viewable screen. How do I do that?

Answer – Click the latter task, the “Successor” to highlight it. Then click the Links button. A “Predecessors” window will come up. Use the drop-down menu to select an eligible predecessor. Then click “Add” and then “Done” when finished.


9.) What Is A Circular Dependency?

Question - I tried creating a link, but it got rejected with a message “This would create a circular dependency.” What’s that?

Answer – A circular dependency is when you’ve got a circle of tasks all dependent on each other, where it is impossible to determine the start and the end. As a very simple example, consider just two tasks A and B where A is to start after B is complete, and B is to start after A completes. Obviously this is an impossible situation, and a schedule could not be calculated. When you get a larger project, with a lot of tasks already linked, it becomes easy to inadvertently attempt to create such a loop. The program automatically detects this and prevents it.


10.) How Do I Schedule Part-Time Workers?

Question - When assigning people to a task, I have some people who only work part-time on a given task. How do I handle that?

Answer – If the person is going to work part-time on the task for the duration of the task, you can assign them to that task on a fractional basis. Click the task, and then click the Costs button on the Toolbar (it looks like a US Dollar Sign - $). Select a resource from the pull-down-menu and then under Quantity type the fraction as a decimal; .5 for 50%, .33 for 33%, etc If the person is going to work full-time for part of the task, and not at all for the rest of the task, you should break the task into two separate tasks and assign the person at 100% to one, and 0% to the other.


11.) How Do I Specify Currency Symbols?

Question - Speaking of US Dollar Signs, we’re not in the US. How can we use a different Currency Symbol?

Answer – Use the menu entries for Options and Overall and Currency Symbol. You can select from the US Dollar Sign, the UK Pound symbol, or a single alphabetic character. You can also select “No Currency Symbol”.


12.) How To Send Reports To People Who Don't Have MinuteMan?
12.) How To Send Reports To People Who Don’t Have MinuteMan?

Question - I need to send status reports with the Timeline or PERT Chart to people in my department. Do they each have to have a copy of MinuteMan?

Answer – Not at all! This is a very important feature of MinuteMan. You can send the Timeline, Outline View, and Pert Chart, to a graphics file “.bmp” output instead of a hardcopy printer. (Also, the output of the Report Generator can be sent to a “.txt” text file on your system) You can then just insert the graphics files or text files into a word processor document or email, format them as you wish, and distribute them to anyone. To obtain a graphics output of the TimeLine, Outline, or PERT, click Print as you normally would. In the Print Dialog, under the list of available Printers, select Graphics File. The just print it. One file will be created for each page and sent to a sub-directory /GRAPHICS off the directory where MinuteMan is installed. They will have names like OUTL01.BMP. OUTL02.BMP, etc.


13.) Can The PERT Chart Be Made To Use Fewer Pages?

Question - My PERT Chart, when printed, takes up too many pages!  I don’t like taping them together. What can I do?

Answer – PERT Charts inherently use a lot of space, and paper, but there are a few things you can do to minimize this. You can print on bigger sizes of paper, up to US size “C” (17”x22”) if you have a printer or plotter that supports it. That will cut down the number of pages to be taped together. Another, maybe better, way is to send the PERT chart as size C to a graphics file as above. Then, read each page into a word processor and re-size it so it fits onto a single “A” size page. This results in a 4:1 compression of the PERT Chart, and a corresponding reduction in the number of pages.


14.) Why Do Some Tasks Appear Twice??

Question - In the Timeline, why does each task get repeated? It shows up on two rows. How can I stop wasting all that space?

Answer – First some background; In the Outline View, you can have one or more related tasks in the same row. The text in the “Work Outline” on the left is intended to serve as a general description for the activities in that row. If you only enter one task per row, by typing the text in the Work Outline area, then that one task will by default have the same Description as the Work Outline Text. (Y can easily edit it to be something else. Just highlight the task, and edit the Description Field.)

Proceeding to theTtimeline, it is set up by default to display the Work Outline text on one row, and then on succeeding rows the descriptions of all the tasks in the same row in the Outline View. So, if you only have one Task per row in the Outline View, and each task has the same Description as its associated Work Outline text, then it is going to look like each Description is printed twice.

There are two things that can make this look better; One is to enter multiple tasks on the same row in the Outline view.  The other is, just shut off the Display of the Work Outline Text in the TimeLine View. Do this using the menu entries for Options and Timeline and then click/toggle “Display Summary Information.”