OmniPlan for iOS is designed to help you visualize, maintain, and simplify your projects. Break down tasks, optimize the required resources, control costs, and monitor your entire plan—all at a glance. Collaborate with your colleagues and share every detail, update a calendar with your days off, and process changes one-by-one or all in one go. OmniPlan provides features like Gantt charts, schedules, summaries, milestones, and critical path highlighting to let you manage all of your activities. From customizable views to fast data entry, OmniPlan helps you manage projects that are as simple or complex as you need them to be—without the complexity.

OmniPlan 3 is the most advanced desktop-class project management app you’ll find on iOS. Built to be fully compatible with OmniPlan 3 for Mac, you can seamlessly manage your projects in OmniPlan wherever you are. Whether you’re in the boardroom or in your truck on a job site, OmniPlan is there for you.

To help guide you through the documentation and better learn everything there is to know about OmniPlan, a list of the chapters in this book follows.

Chapter 1, Introduction

The chapter you are currently reading provides an introduction to OmniPlan, describes the contents of this book, and offers tips on staying up to date with the latest versions of the OmniPlan documentation (the downloadable eBook is a great way to stay on top of updates).

Chapter 2, Using the Document Browser

This chapter describes managing your project files using OmniPlan’s built in document browser. Beyond creating, organizing, and sharing your documents, the document browser also holds tools for getting help and customizing your OmniPlan experience at a high level—you’ll learn all about those tools here.

Chapter 3, Getting Synced

If you’re working on a project with OmniPlan on multiple devices and you’d like your documents to stay in sync between them, or you’d just like the additional layer of backup provided by cloud-based storage, you’ll find instructions here for setting up single user file sync with OmniPresence. For users of OmniPlan Pro, this chapter also includes a quick-start guide for connecting to a shared server repository (setting up and using the collaborative publication and subscription features of OmniPlan Pro is covered in Chapter 7).

Chapter 4, Working in the Project Editor

In OmniPlan for iOS the project editor is where you will spend most of your time, from creating your project’s first task to marking the last milestone complete. This chapter provides an overview of the tools available for creating, customizing, and curating even the most complex projects using the editing tools available in the Gantt chart and its associated inspectors.

Chapter 5, Building Your First Project

Once you are familiar with the tools in the Project Editor you are ready to get your first project up and running. The tutorial in this chapter guides you through the preliminary phase of effective OmniPlan use: building a model simulation-style description of your project inside OmniPlan. When completed, you’ll have the first baseline picture of a plan from which your project can begin in earnest.

Topics covered include:

• Creating a new project
• Adding tasks, milestones, and task groups
• Describing dependency relationships between tasks
• Setting the project’s work schedule
• Adding resources and assigning them to tasks
• Assigning costs to tasks and resources
• Optimizing resource use by leveling
• Setting a baseline for progress

Chapter 6, Managing a Project

Once your project is set up with as many of its constituent variables, dependencies, resources, and scheduling constraints as possible, the real power of OmniPlan emerges. This chapter introduces the tools you will use to monitor, update, and revise your project as work proceeds, to help ensure that the work—from the first task to the last milestone—will be as quick and efficient as possible.

Once a project begins the tasks required to manage it aren’t as chronologically linear as the steps required to set it up. This tutorial chapter covers a range of tools available to help keep the project on track—but it’s not expected that you’ll need to use them all every day. Topics covered include:

• Updating, splitting, and rescheduling tasks
• Resolving violations
• Leveling and setting new baselines mid-project
• Simulating milestone completion estimates (Pro)

Chapter 7, Multi-User Collaboration (Pro)

If you are working on a project with multiple contributors, the publication and subscription features of OmniPlan Pro can be invaluable. This chapter introduces OmniPlan’s multi-user collaboration features, and guides you through setting up an account and syncing your files with a shared server repository. Balancing resource loads across projects that share a common resource pool and tracking changes to the project made by other users are also covered here.

Chapter 8, Keyboard Shortcuts

If you are using OmniPlan for iOS with an external keyboard connected to your device, you can take advantage of OmniPlan’s built-in keyboard shortcuts. This chapter provides a list of the available shortcuts based on where you are and what you’re doing in the app.

Chapter 9, Getting Help

If you ever get stuck when working on something in OmniPlan, if you have a problem installing the app, or you just want to tell our Support Humans or DocWranglers what an awesome job they’re doing, feel free to get in touch. This chapter points you to all of the help resources we have available: Support Humans, Support Articles, Videos, and Documentation.

Glossary

The glossary contains an alphabetical list of special terms you will encounter throughout the app, this documentation, and other project management resources you might be familiar with. If you are just starting out in project management or you are curious about how OmniPlan implements certain concepts, this is a great place to check.

New standard features in OmniPlan 3 include:

• Network View—An elegant and easy way to rapidly prototype and visualize your project’s flow as a network diagram of nodes connected by dependencies.
• Meeting Task Type—A new resource allocation option that allows you to specify if multiple resources need to work on a task independently or simultaneously.
• Catch-Up—If everything is going as planned, bring the completion percentage of every task (or just the selected tasks) in your project up to today’s date.
• Reschedule—If you have tasks which were planned to be complete by now, but aren’t, reschedule them with the tap of a button.
• Leveling Priority—Define leveling priority for tasks in your project.
• Display Off-Hours—Display all off-hours, holidays, and weekends as shaded vertical bars in the Gantt chart.
• Unlinked Duration and Effort—Set different values for a task’s effort and duration, then let OmniPlan crunch the numbers for your resource assignment percentage.

These features are on top of a list of returning features that make OmniPlan for iOS the leader in its class, including:

• Meticulously Designed Gantt Chart Interface—Rapidly build and easily maintain a project with this scalable, flexible view.
• Smart Scheduling and Automatic Leveling—Once your project is set up, OmniPlan’s automated scheduling and leveling tools help optimize your resource use every step of the way.
• Multiple Baselines and Critical Path Display—See your project's priorities clearly with critical paths, and reposition to address challenges that arise with as many baselines as you need.
• Printing and Export Options—Print over the air, send OmniPlan files via email, or export to common formats such as PDF and HTML.
• The Latest iOS Technologies—On devices that support them, OmniPlan includes Spotlight search, multitasking, 3D Touch controls from the app icon, and hardware keyboard shortcuts.
• OmniPresence File Sync—Sync and store your OmniPlan projects in the cloud with a free Omni Sync Server account.

If you have any specific comments you’d like to send us about the documentation, please do. You can drop us an email message via our Support queue, or you can ping us on Twitter; we’re @OmniWranglers.

Finally, we’d like to thank you for taking the time to read the docs.

Tap the Local Documents folder to see what’s inside. This opens the Document Browser, which is the place to view, create, and manage your projects.

1. Locations—Tap here to go back to the main screen where you can view the Local Documents folder and any server repositories you’re synced with.

2. Folder Name and Document Type—This is the name of the current folder. Your default folder for storing files locally is titled Local Documents, and the document type is Plans (this is currently the only document type available).

3. Add/Plus—Tap to create a new project.

4. Settings—Tap to reveal a menu with preferences for OmniPlan, as described in Settings.

5. Select—Tap to edit the contents of a folder. For example, you can select one or more documents and move them to another folder, to the trash, or create a subfolder within the current folder that contains the projects you’ve selected.

6. Projects—These are your saved projects and any subfolders you’ve created in OmniPlan.

7. Sort—When you pull down on the screen, the super secret Sort bar comes into view. By default, the projects you create are sorted by their creation date, or you can opt to sort them by title.

8. MS Project Support—A preview document for the Microsoft Project file import feature, available with the OmniPlan Pro in-app purchase.

To create a subfolder, tap Select in the navigation bar, and then tap and select one or more files in the Document Browser. Next, tap Move to in the upper-left corner and then tap New folder.

Enter a name for the folder and then tap Done. Subfolders have a dark gray background and display tiny icons for the projects they contain.

1. In the standard version of OmniPlan for iOS, the Add OmniPresence Account option is presented to create an account for syncing between multiple devices used by a single person.
2. OmniPlan Pro adds the option to sync with Server Repositories, useful when collaborating with multiple project contributors.

Learn more about setting up the various sync options in the Getting Synced chapter.

After adding an OmniPresence account, you’ll see it listed as a folder that’s a peer to your Local Documents folder on the Locations screen. Any connected server repository accounts are listed on the Server Repositories screen; to view them, tap Server Repositories.

See Working in the Project Editor for details on using the Gantt chart and Network Diagram, or check out the Building a Project chapter to get started with your first project.

Fortunately, deleting files from OmniPlan is easy. When viewing a folder of documents, tap Select in the navigation bar at the top of the screen. Then tap the documents you’d like to delete; you’ll see that the files now have a blue highlight.

Tap the trash can in the navigation bar to move the document to the Trash.

If you tap Locations in the navigation bar, you’ll see a Trash folder in your list of OmniPlan folders. Until you empty the trash, the files remain on your device.

Tap the Trash folder to open it in the Document Browser, and then tap Empty Trash to permanently delete the files from your device. The Delete button (the shredder icon, circled) will also delete items selected normally.

After all files in the Trash folder are deleted, you’re taken back to the Locations screen in OmniPlan.

When you open a folder, such as your Local Documents folder, tap Select in the navigation bar, and then select the project that you’d like to share. This places a blue highlight around the file to let you know which file you have selected.

Now tap the Share button in the navigation bar and select from one of the following options:

• Send via Mail—lets you choose a document format for the file you want to email, and then queues up an email message for your to send.

• Send to App—lets you open the file in a compatible app on your device, or, if you are on a Wi-Fi network with someone you know, you can share the file with another iOS device using AirDrop. The two PDF options—Canvas Gantt and Paginated Gantt—can also be sent to iBooks or any other iOS app that can render a PDF file.

• Print—lets you print the project’s Gantt chart to an AirPrint-compatible printer.

The first way to bring OmniPlan documents from the outside into OmniPlan for iOS is to copy them from another app. This works particularly well with Apple’s built in Mail app for iOS—you can email an OmniPlan file to yourself from anywhere, then tap the attachment and choose Copy to OmniPlan from the Send dialog that appears.

If you have a Mac or a PC with iTunes installed, a second way to transfer OmniPlan files to your iOS device is with iTunes file transfer.

1. Make sure your iOS device with OmniPlan is connected to iTunes.
2. Choose your device from the device list.
3. Choose Apps in the device’s Settings sidebar and scroll down to the File Sharing section of the apps list
4. Select OmniPlan in the list of file transfer-capable apps, and drag and drop your files into the list of OmniPlan documents.

• About OmniPlan—this displays a screen with information about the version of OmniPlan you have installed.

• OmniPlan Help—this takes you a screen with links to support resources for OmniPlan, including web-based and eBook versions of this manual.

• Contact Omni—this queues up an email message that you can send to the kind and wonderful Support Humans here at Omni. Don’t hesitate to ask us a question or send us feedback.

• Release Notes—discover what’s new in the latest version of OmniPlan.

• Restore Sample Documents—if you previously deleted any of the sample documents that came with OmniPlan, tap here to restore them to your device.

• Upgrade to Pro—the Pro in-app purchase is an add-on for OmniPlan that includes multi-collaborator publication, subscription, and change tracking, Monte Carlo effort estimation simulations, the ability to import Microsoft Project files as OmniPlan files, and export of OmniPlan files to the MPP format readable by Microsoft Project 2016.

• Settings—if you’d like to help Omni improve future versions of OmniPlan, you can choose to share anonymous usage data with us. The full content of the data sent is displayed on this screen.

There are two sync methods available in OmniPlan 3 for iOS. OmniPresence sync, intended for a single user to keep projects in sync across multiple devices, is available to all OmniPlan users. Publication and subscription to a server repository, useful when multiple collaborators need to contribute to a shared project, is part of the OmniPlan Pro in-app purchase upgrade. This chapter describes setting up sync in these two distinct ways.

Whenever you make a change to a file, the file in the cloud is updated when OmniPlan performs its next sync operation (assuming that your iOS device is connected to the Internet). If it isn’t, those changes will sync the next time you connect.

Another benefit of storing files in the cloud is that, if you lose or misplace your iOS device, your documents are safe and secure on your cloud provider’s server. All you need to do to access your files is log in to your cloud account, sync the files with your new device, and then you’re back in business.

While most cloud services—including Omni Sync Server—maintain backups, you shouldn’t trust that your cloud provider will help you out in a pinch. Just because you are storing your files in the cloud doesn’t absolve you from backing up your files—you totally should maintain backups of all your stuff! Be sure to regularly backup your iOS device (either to iCloud or to your Mac), and maintain a regular backup schedule for your Mac, too.

• Omni Sync Server, which is a bank of servers we maintain so you can store files in the cloud. OmniPresence is built into our iOS apps (there’s a desktop app for your Mac, too), so there’s nothing additional to download. All you need to do is sign up for a free Omni Sync Server account.
• WebDAV Connectivity is a hook we provide in OmniPresence so users who wish to maintain their own server can store and sync files. You can connect to your own WebDAV server, a third-party service that you trust, or you can even set up a WebDAV service on your local network using WebDAVNav Server.

Now that you know your choice of paths for using OmniPresence, let’s show you how to set them up in OmniPlan.

sync.omnigroup.com

Just go to that page, enter your email address, and click Sign Up. We’ll send you an email with instructions on how to set up your Omni Sync Server account.

When everything is ready to go with your Omni Sync Server account, return to the Locations screen in OmniPlan and then follow along.

1. To start syncing to Omni Sync Server, start on the Locations screen and tap Add OmniPresence Account.

   

2. Next, choose the type of cloud account you would like to use; you can choose between Add Omni Sync Server Account or Add WebDAV Server. The difference between the two is that we host and maintain Omni Sync Server, whereas you would need to find a third-party WebDAV server (or host your own) and entrust them to maintain the server.

   Tap Add Omni Sync Server Account.

   

3. On the Account Info screen that appears:

   1. Enter your Account Name
   2. Enter the Password for your account
   3. Optionally, enter a Nickname to be used as the name for your synced folder
   4. Tap Save to authenticate with Omni Sync Server

   

The next message you’ll see is Testing Server for Compatibility along with a progress bar. If everything checks out, OmniPlan lets you know that it has successfully connected to Omni Sync Server.

When your credentials have authenticated, you’re taken back to OmniPlan’s Locations screen where you’ll see a new folder for your synced files.

To access the files within a document folder, just tap the folder of your choice, and then tap the file you would like to work on. Or, tap the Add button (+) to create a new OmniPlan project.

While we’re not able to provide comprehensive support for WebDAV servers we don’t administrate (since it isn’t our software), we’re glad to help you get started with some pointers.

See this support article for information on Apple’s Server.app for use in setting up a WebDAV server on OS X. Another option for setting up WebDAV on your Mac is WebDAVNav Server, which is free on the Mac App Store.

1. Enter the URL for the Location of your WebDAV Server
2. Enter your Account Name
3. Enter the Password for your account
4. Optionally, enter a Nickname to be used as the name for your synced folder
5. Tap Save to authenticate with the WebDAV server

As with connecting to Omni Sync Server, OmniPlan informs you that it is Testing Server for Compatibility, and displays the Connected screen when it has connected to the WebDAV server successfully.

Keep an eye on this icon to monitor OmniPresence’s sync status:

• — denotes that OmniPresence is active and ready to sync files to the server.
• — denotes that a sync is currently in progress.
• — denotes that your iOS device does not have access to an active Wi-Fi or cellular network.
• — denotes that there was an error when trying to sync your files. You may see this icon if another device is working on the same file, or if a connection cannot be made to the sync server you are using. Try tapping the OmniPresence icon again and if you get the same error icon, please contact our Support Humans for assistance.

OmniPresence checks in with your active sync servers every minute or so, and saves any updates you’ve made to the server. OmniPresence also saves a version of your file to the server whenever you close a file or switch from OmniPlan to another app on your device. Alternately, you can tap the OmniPresence icon to force an update to the server at any time.

This chapter describes navigating the Project Editor and outlines the tools available within. As you read, one option is to dive right in and start building a new project. However, if you’re new to OmniPlan, exploring one of the pre-populated sample projects may help provide some initial context. The next chapter, Building a Project, offers a tutorial for when you’re ready to begin building in earnest.

As you explore the Project Editor, there are a few navigational tools that can help you get your bearings and fully contextualize the scope of the project at hand.

• Landscape Mode—Because tasks progress chronologically along the x-axis of both the Gantt chart and Network Diagram, their information is presented most efficiently in landscape mode. Rotate your device to try it out—it’s where OmniPlan for iOS is most comfortable.

• Pinch to Zoom—Many projects have more tasks than will fit on the screen at once at the default zoom level. When you need to view an entire project, use the vertical pinch gesture to zoom in or out.

• Changing Time Scale—In the Gantt chart, pinch horizontally to change the view’s time scale on the fly, or tap the date header to choose a scale from among granular options (including the ever-handy Scale to Fit Project).

The numbered controls on the figures correspond to the following tools that make OmniPlan’s Project Editor tick. These tools are available both in the Gantt chart and in the Network Diagram, and function similarly in each view.

1. Projects—tap to exit the project you’re working on and return to the current folder in the Document Browser.

2. Undo/Redo—tap to undo or redo the previous change.

3. Edit—tap to enter edit mode and reveal the editing controls at the bottom of the screen. See Working in Edit Mode for details.

4. Share—tap to choose an export method for the current project: Send via Mail, Send to App, or Print.

5. View Switcher—tap to switch between the Gantt chart and Network Diagram views.

6. Add—tap to add a new task to the project. Touch and hold to add a new Task, Milestone, or Group from the popover menu that appears.

7. View Inspector—use the View Inspector to set a project filter, turn on change tracking, check for violations, and view baselines and critical paths.

8. Task Inspector—with a task or group selected, tap to open the Task Inspector. Use the Task Inspector to customize various aspects of the task across three panes: Task Info, Scheduling, and Assignments.

9. Resources Inspector—Use the Resources Inspector to create and edit resources (Staff, Equipment, Materials, and Groups), and to modify their calendars of working hours.

10. Project Inspector—use the Project Inspector to set the structure and parameters for your project.

Tap Edit in the toolbar to enter edit mode and reveal the editing controls at the bottom of the screen. Selecting an item (or multiples) allows the following actions to be performed.

1. Cut—Delete the selected item or items and copy them to be pasted later. Paste by tapping Done to exit edit mode and touching and holding an item on the Gantt chart to reveal the contextual menu. When pasted, the copied items will appear below the one selected.

2. Copy—Copy the selected item(s) to be pasted later.

3. Delete—Delete the selected item(s) from the Gantt chart.

4. Group/Ungroup—With multiple items selected, Group creates a group containing those items. With a group selected, Ungroup removes the grouping container (but not the tasks inside it).

5. Move—Move the selected item or items elsewhere in the Gantt chart.

   To move an item or items in edit mode, tap to select them, then tap Move. To choose their destination, tap another row. A contextual menu appears that provides three location options: Above the chosen row, Below it, and Inside. Choosing Inside converts the chosen row into a group (if it isn’t one already) and adds the items to be moved as tasks inside it.

6. Connect/Disconnect—With multiple items selected, this command connects them with finish ▸ start dependencies (if they’re not already connected) or removes dependencies between them (if they’re currently connected).

If you had a task selected previously, the new task will be connected to it by a line that represents a Finish ▸ Start dependency. As long as a task is selected, you can quickly create a chain of tasks connected with Finish ▸ Start dependencies by continuing to tap Add. If no tasks were selected, the newly created task is independent of any others.

An unbroken chain of tasks with Finish ▸ Start dependencies is arrayed in a straight horizontal line.

To create other dependency relationships, tap a task node to select it and drag the line that appears to another task. This creates a dependency between them, and you’ll see the tasks rearrange in the diagram automatically to reflect this new relationship.

At any time while working in the Network Diagram, you can switch to the Gantt chart to see how your project-building exercise is looking, and see how its dependencies are described there.

When you’re working on a project of considerable size, you can zoom in and out on the Network Diagram using the vertical pinch gesture shared by the Gantt chart.

The Project Inspector contains tools for fine-tuning the details of your project’s structure and operating parameters.

1. Project Title—edit the project’s name here.

2. Publish and Subscribe (Pro)—configure the publication and subscription settings for this particular project. The Multi-User Collaboration chapter describes this feature in detail.

3. Dates—choose from Undetermined or Specific dates for your project. Undetermined dates are represented by T+0d, T+1d, T+2d, and so on, while Specific dates are chronologically anchored to set days in the calendar.

4. Direction—choose whether work on your project proceeds Forward from a Fixed Start or Backward from a Fixed End. This determines the direction from which tasks will be scheduled; the former schedules tasks as soon as possible, while the latter schedules them as late as possible. Individual task directions can be set in the Task Inspector. Projects typically have a predefined start date or final deadline (and sometimes both), so choose whichever is appropriate for your project.

5. Work Hours—set the calendar of normal working hours for the project here.

6. Monte Carlo Simulations (Pro)—in OmniPlan Pro, use this control to assign effort estimates and run Monte Carlo simulations to estimate on-time milestone completion.

7. Start Date—set the start date for the project. This option is only available if you have set a Specific start date for your project, rather than an Undetermined date.

8. End Date—set the end date for the project. This option is only available if you have set a Specific end date for your project, rather than an Undetermined date.

9. Total Cost—check here to see the total cost for your project, based on Cost/Hour and Cost/Use values you’ve assigned to resources contributing to the project.

10. Currency—set the currency type for your project’s expenses and costs.

11. Granularity—choose from Exact, Hourly, or Daily to specify how precisely to schedule task start and end times (this applies when leveling, too).

12. Duration Format—choose how to display time amounts throughout the project. The duration at the top of the screen is a preview that changes based on which time units you choose to display.

13. Effort Format—choose how to display effort amounts throughout the project. The effort value at the top of the screen is a preview that changes based on which units you choose to display.

14. Effort Conversions—choose how many work hours to count as one day, week, month, or year. This affects how large amounts of effort are entered an displayed.

1. Task Switcher—use the up and down arrows to move between tasks in the Project Editor while keeping the Task Inspector open.

2. Inspector Panes—switch between the three panes of the Task Inspector (Task Info, Scheduling, and Assignments).

3. Task Name and Note—edit the task’s name, and add a text note containing any additional relevant information.

4. Task Type—choose a type for the task: Task, Milestone, Group, or Hammock.

5. Task Metadata—attributes of the task that determine its scope, progress, cost, and visual presentation.

   • Effort—the amount of work hours required to complete the task. This value may be automatically adjusted based on the method for assigning resources chosen in Resource Assignment Options in the Assignments pane of the Task Inspector.

   • Duration—the length in actual time required to complete the task, based on the amount of effort assigned to it. This value may be automatically adjusted based on the method for assigning resources chosen in Resource Assignment Options in the Assignments pane of the Task Inspector.

   • Completion—the amount of work on the task that is currently complete, expressed as a percentage.

   • Task Cost—the cost of the task, in addition to the cost/hour or cost/use of any resources assigned to it. Expressed in the units of currency set up in the Project Inspector.

   • Bar Color—the color of the task’s bar in the Gantt chart.

   • Resources Cost—this value isn’t edited directly, but represents the total cost of the resources currently assigned to the project based on the resources’ cost per hour or cost per use.

   • Total Cost—as with Resources Cost, this value isn’t edited directly. It combines the Task Cost and Resources Cost values for an at-a-glance summary of the projected cost of the task in its entirety.

1. Task Scheduling Direction—choose whether the task should be scheduled as soon as possible (ASAP) or as late as possible (ALAP). This affects how the task is scheduled when leveling resources, and overrides the Direction setting in the Project Inspector for this individual task.

2. Task Influences—this section lists other aspects of the project that affect when the task can be scheduled, such as the project’s overall start date or the date a task group containing the task can begin.

3. Task Constraint Editors—these editors control various task parameters that limit when the task can be scheduled.

   • Locks—lock the task’s start and/or end dates here. Locking either or both of these dates prevents other factors, such as leveling after assigning additional resources to the task, from changing the dates its work is scheduled for.

   • Constraints—add bounding constraints to anchor the task loosely in time between “bracket periods” during which the task is allowed to start or end.

   • Add Prerequisite—choose a task from the list to create a finish ▸ start dependency between that task and the one currently being edited, adding a new prerequisite task that must be completed before this one can begin.

4. Task Start and End—edit the task’s start and end dates. One or the other may be inaccessible; this can be due to a scheduling rule or other constraint (such as the absolute start date of the project). Note that unless they’re locked in, setting these dates doesn’t prevent them from being changed by leveling later.

5. Task Dependents/Prerequisites—a list of tasks dependent on the current task’s completion to begin. Tap a task to view its details and add lead time if desired. Tap Add Dependent to select another existing task to add as a dependent using a finish ▸ start dependency from the current task.

   If the selected task has any prerequisites to its own beginning, those will be listed here as well.

1. Resource Assignment Options—when resources are assigned to (or removed from) the task, set how the task’s effort, duration, and assignment percentages should change based on the revised resource allocation.

2. Resource Scheduling Method—by default, resources assigned to a task can put in their hours whenever is most convenient based on other scheduled work. The Meeting task type adds the option, when leveling, to require all resources be present to work on the task simultaneously.

3. Task Leveling Priority—when leveling, tasks with no constraints or dependencies will be queued based on their order in the Gantt chart unless they are given a priority here. Lower positive integers indicate higher priority (1 is the highest); tasks do not require consecutive priority numbers for their order to be respected.

4. Resource Selector—use this field to filter the resource list alphabetically. If a desired resource doesn’t already exist, add it using the Plus button that appears at the bottom of the filtered list.

5. Assigned Resources—view a list of all the project’s resources here, along with information about their assignments relative to the selected task. Any resource assigned to the task will list the percentage of its effort assigned below its name, and will have an Info button with details about the assignment and the option to change the percentage of effort being contributed.

1. Resource Load Leveling Controls—choose whether to automatically level resource loads across the project whenever a change is made, whether leveling affects only the schedules of tasks in the future (from the current date), and whether to allow tasks to be split as part of the leveling process.

2. Resource List—a list of all resources currently assigned to the project. Tap a resource to view its details, including type, email address, regular work hours and off hours calendar, units and efficiency, cost/use and cost/hour, and bar color (only relevant when sharing resources with a project in OmniPlan Pro for Mac).

3. Add New Resource—add a new resource to the project and customize its details.

4. Add from Contacts—grant OmniPlan access to your Contacts list to add resources to your project directly from there.

5. Level Resource Loads/Clear Leveling—reschedule tasks and change resource loads to most efficiently complete your project based on all the other parameters you’ve set up for individual tasks, resources, and the project as a whole. Or, remove leveling optimization with Clear Leveling.

6. Edit Resources—Switch to Edit mode, where resources can be removed with the deletion switch next to their names, and reorganized—including movement between resource groups—with their reordering handles.

1. Project Task Filter—apply a filter to the Project Editor that limits which tasks are visible. Choosing a filtering parameter here doesn’t affect the hidden items beyond removing them from view.

2. Violations—when a logical contradiction arises in your project, such as a result of an impossible dependency relationship or a scheduling change that violates date restrictions you’ve set up, you’ll see details on the problem here along with a suggested solution to resolve it.

3. Show Baselines—a baseline is a snapshot of project’s state of affairs against which the actual schedule can be compared. Set a baseline with Set Baseline in the bottom toolbar, and choose which you’d like to compare against the actual schedule from the list. Tap Edit to remove baselines with the deletion switches next to their names.

4. Show Critical Paths—choose which critical paths you would like to display in the Gantt chart, including critical paths to each milestone and the overall project. Tap a milestone to edit details of its critical path display: choose whether or not resource constraints are considered in charting the path, pick a color for the path line, and set an amount of slack OmniPlan considers built in to tasks for purposes of considering them part of the critical path to that milestone.

5. Change Tracking—if you’re publishing your project to a shared server repository with multiple contributors, enable change tracking to view and approve changes made to the project by yourself and others. Select changes in the list and tap Accept Change or Reject Change at the bottom to approve or deny them.

6. Gantt Bar Labels—pick metadata to attach to the left and right side of task bars in the Gantt chart, and to add as a prefix.

7. Non-Working Time—add shading to date columns in the Gantt chart that correspond to time where no work is scheduled (based on Calendar settings in the Project inspector). Visualization options include None, Holidays, Holidays & Weekends, and All Hours.

With an overview of the tools in the Project Editor complete, the next step in mastering OmniPlan is to begin building your first original project.

The second use of OmniPlan’s tools comes after the first, once the plan has been made and the project is in motion: adding a motor to that model airplane, refueling it and repairing any leaks, and recovering from bumps along the way. The “management” side of project management is covered in the Managing a Project chapter.

This chapter’s tutorial begins at the beginning, tracing the first step toward successful execution of a plan: building the model of the project itself.

Starting off in Local Documents, tap the New Project button.

This opens the Project Editor’s Gantt chart view, where a first task is waiting to be customized or edited. Before we get to that, let’s rename the project to something more interesting.

Open the Project inspector in the toolbar to edit the project title.

In the case of our game development scheme, we don’t have a hard deadline for the project to be finished - we want it to be done when it’s ready (but as soon as reasonably possible). To indicate this, we’ll go to the Project inspector and set the start date as today.

Conveniently, this is the default setting for any new project.

You’ll notice when setting the Start date that the End date field is greyed out. This is because for a project scheduled for task completion as soon as possible (also referred to as ASAP), an end date cannot be specified—by definition, the project ends as soon as all of its constituent tasks are complete.

If you’re planning a project with a specific do-or-die deadline, you’ll want to switch the project’s Direction from forward to backward and put the deadline date in the End field. Tasks will be scheduled back from this date (“as late as possible”, or ALAP), filling in the time from project completion to the present.

Tasks in OmniPlan represent discrete pieces of work that require substantial effort to complete, usually across a duration expressed in hours or days rather than minutes. Prepare morning coffee, for example, is a task that’s typically not within the scope of OmniPlan, while Install espresso machine very well could be — maybe even a group of tasks, if you need external help getting pipes or electricity connected.

The process of project building starts with a brainstorm session for all the tasks you think the project will include. As noted, these are typically things that you think will take the effort of multiple people to complete, or have some impact on other work that the project requires. Don’t worry too much about whether a task fits the project’s scope at this point—it’s more important to get the ideas flowing. You can always come back and edit these later.

We’ll change the name of the default “Task 1” by double-tapping it or editing the name field in the Task inspector, and then tap the Add button to create new ones.

New tasks appear below the currently selected item in the Gantt chart, or at the bottom of the list if no tasks, milestones, or groups are selected.

For our project we’ve created several tasks that we think we’ll need to accomplish on the road to a final product. Since we now have more items than will fit on the screen at once, pinch vertically on the Gantt chart to change the view scale.

An easy way to gather tasks into a group is in Edit Mode. Tap Edit on the project screen, then tap to select all of the tasks and milestones to be grouped. Finally, tap Group in the bottom toolbar to complete the edit.

An existing task in your list may make a good candidate for a group already. Tap to select it and then open the Task inspector, where you can change its task type to Group. Assign other tasks to the new group in Edit mode by selecting the tasks (but not the group itself) and choosing Move, then tap the group and choose Inside from the contextual menu.

While you’re in Edit mode with the group and all of its tasks selected, this would be a good time to add a bit of visual distinction to the group as well. Open the Task inspector and tap Bar Color to choose a color that will identify all of the tasks in the group.

To create a milestone, tap and hold the new task button until the option appears:

Alternatively, tap a currently existing task to select it, then open the Task inspector. You can change the task type from a regular task to a milestone here.

Task duration can also be set using the Task inspector.

After organizing tasks into groups and estimating the time required to complete them, we’re starting to get a better picture of how our project will take shape. At this stage our Gantt chart looks something like this:

• Finish ▸ Start dependencies are the most common type, indicating that when task A finishes, task B can start.

• Start ▸ Finish dependencies indicate that when task A starts, task B can finish.

• Start ▸ Start dependencies indicate that when task A starts, task B can also start.

• Finish ▸ Finish dependencies indicate that when task A finishes, task B can also finish.

Connecting tasks in the Gantt view is as easy as tapping a selected task again, which puts dependency arrow handles on either side of the task bar.

Drag an arrow from the selected task to another task to create a dependency. The type of dependency is based on the start- and end- points of the arrow: dragging an arrow from the completion of one task to the beginning of another will create a Finish ▸ Start dependency, and so on.

While in Edit mode, you can use the Connect/Disconnect button to add Finish ▸ Start dependencies or remove dependencies between any number of selected tasks simultaneously.

In the case of our example project, now that we’ve established most of its dependencies we have a clearer idea of how long it’s likely to take. With that knowledge, we can anchor the final milestone to a point in time: we set Game Release for May 1st.

We decide that the public beta test period is the task that can give the most if we end up short on time toward the end, so that’s the one we want to convert to a hammock task. We start with a set of two tasks connected to each other with a Finish ▸ Start dependency in the Assure Quality group (“Friends and Family” Beta, Public Beta) with the group connected to the Game Release milestone by another Finish ▸ Start dependency.

We want to release the game on May 1st, so we set the milestone’s Start at earliest date (in the Task inspector’s Scheduling pane) to reflect that.

For a task to become a hammock task, it needs dependency relationships with the tasks preceding and following it. In our example the Public Beta task doesn’t have an explicit relationship with the Game Release milestone yet, so our next step is to create one. But what kind?

Our goal is to indicate that when Game Release starts, the Public Beta finishes. To do this, select the Game Release milestone and drag the left dependency arrow handle from the “start” of the milestone to the end of the Public Beta task, creating a Start ▸ Finish dependency between them.

Public Beta is now in the proper state to be converted to a hammock task: It’s connected to the task preceding it with a Finish ▸ Start dependency, and the task following it (a milestone, in this case) with a Start ▸ Finish dependency. For the final step, select Public Beta and choose the Hammock task type for it from the Task inspector.

The duration of the hammock task extends automatically to fill the available space, in this case adding an extra week to the Public Beta test period. If the project is running ahead of schedule this period lengthens automatically, or if it’s running behind, it shortens right up until the scheduled release date.

Open the Project inspector and tap Work Hours to access the regular weekly work schedule for the project. By default, working hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 5:00, with an hour-long break for lunch at noon.

Since we’re working with a bunch of more nocturnal folks, let’s change the schedule to reflect that. Tap and hold one of the time blocks on the calendar to bring it to a new position, or drag one of the side handles to change the size of the block. We end up with a schedule that fits our needs:

Time blocks can be created for individual days to indicate longer or shorter regular working hours (tap New Time Block), and deleted by tapping Edit.

One holiday we know is in the future for our project is a company tradition: Pi Day (3/14, or March 14th). We can add that to our schedule right now by returning to the top level of the Project inspector and tapping Calendar.

Green days on the exceptions calendar indicate regular work days. Swipe to scroll down to March, then tap the week of the 14th to access the exceptions calendar for that week.

We know we want to take Pi Day off, but we can also predict that this week will be crunch mode for the team. We use the Add Time Off button to create a block of time that covers the 25th, and then replace that lost time with evening overtime hours through the rest of the week.

One resource has been created by default for our project – a staff member. Tap it to access and edit their details, including name, resource type, and personal calendar.

After editing the default resource we’ll create a few more to fill out the list of our team members and the technology they’re using to bring the game to life. Remove or rearrange resources at any time using the Edit button at the top level of the Resources inspector.

Tap each resource you’d like to assign to the selected task(s) and their names will appear next to each task that they’re assigned to.

By default, resources assigned to tasks commit 100% of their effort to those tasks. This can be affected in a few ways:

• The amount of effort a resource contributes to a given task can be manually set in the Assignments tab of the Task inspector. Assigning less than 100% of a resource’s effort to the task means the work will be completed more slowly, but frees time for that resource to be devoted to other simultaneous tasks.
• If a task’s assignment options are set to Adjust Assigned Amounts, the percentage of effort contributed by each resource will be reduced uniformly when new resources are added. This keeps both the task’s scheduled duration and required effort at constant set amounts.
• The amount of a staff member’s time dedicated to the project (relative to their full time schedule) is expressed by the resource’s Units value in the Resources inspector. If Ivan’s time is split between two projects that he spends equal time on, his Units value for this project should be set to 50%, and 100% of his effort value applied to a task in this project equates to 50% of his total time on the clock.
• A new trainee’s work might not be as productive as that of an experienced employee. In that case, the resource representing them should have its Efficiency value reduced while they are in training. This represents the amount of effort-per-time the team member contributes to tasks to which they are assigned; 100% of their effort accomplishes less than 100% of the effort of a fully trained worker.

By default, Julie’s normal working hours mirror those we set for the project earlier. However, Julie is an early riser and works best in the morning, and we’re pretty flexible with hours as long as people are around through the afternoon, so we’ll shift her normal working hours forward a bit here.

Next, let’s look at Julie’s off hours. Tap Calendar to view a resource’s personal schedule exceptions for the project. As with normal work hours this schedule mirrors that of the overall project by default, with any project schedule exceptions included. To add schedule exceptions for the chosen resource only, tap the week where the schedule varies and use the Add Time Off and Add Overtime controls to edit the week’s schedule as needed.

Julie’s birthday is February 29th, and she requested the time off four years ago. It would be criminal not to let her have it, really.

Where costs land the heaviest in your project depends what goes into accomplishing its constituent tasks. In the case of software development, much of the budget goes to employee salaries, with some going toward licensing middleware, outsourcing art and music production, facilities and equipment rental, and marketing (among others). Other projects, such as those in manufacturing and construction, have much higher costs in materials—lumber, bricks, silicon—or equipment rental.

Most project costs can be attributed in one way or another to a type of resource (Staff, Equipment, or Material), and resources can be assigned both Cost per Hour and Cost per Use values in the Resources inspector. Miscellaneous costs not associated with a specific resource can instead be added to the task itself, as Task Cost in the Task inspector.

In this example, we see that the Public Beta task is currently scheduled to cost a total of $13,835. Most of this comes as the resource cost of paying Julie to take point throughout the public beta; the rest is a flat fee added to the task that we plan to use for marketing during this period.

Because we set the public beta up as a hammock task and we haven’t leveled or adjusted the project yet, it’s almost two months long. This isn’t an accurate reflection of what we anticipate once the project actually gets rolling, so we’ll want to keep a close eye on this number (it will almost certainly go down, as the duration of the hammock task shortens to allow for delays earlier in the project).

For the highest level view of expenses planned for the entire project, the Total Cost value listed in the Project inspector displays the sum of all resource and task costs currently calculated based on the cost values entered for the project’s individual tasks and resources.

It’s hard to overstate the power of leveling in OmniPlan. When you first level a project, you cross the line between human and machine—making the statement that you’ve added everything you know about the project to your document, and now it’s time to see what OmniPlan can do to help get all those things done optimally. Automation happens, and everything moves to its most efficient place based on the model of the project you’ve described.

To level the resource workload for your project, open the Resources inspector and tap Level Load. Unless your staff is already in the optimal configuration you’ll see the tasks in the Gantt view shift to accommodate the most efficient use of your resources’ time.

Optionally, choose Leveling from the Resources inspector and turn on Automatically Level to have OmniPlan optimize your resource use every time a change is made to your project.

This is the world that is captured when we set a baseline for progress, a feature used to compare how the project is actually doing against initial expectations, so milestones and resource allocation can be adjusted accordingly.

To set a baseline, open the View inspector and tap Baselines. Tap Set Baseline and enter a name (the current date is the default); it’s now selected for comparison, and can be compared against subsequently set baselines as the project progresses.

While you’re in the View inspector, now is a good time to check your project’s Critical Path (tap Critical Paths, then Overall Project, then Enabled). The critical path highlights the series of tasks and dependencies which determine the project’s duration. If any of the tasks on a critical path ends up taking more or less time than planned, then the duration of the project as a whole will change as well.

In the case of our example project, the hammock task at the end is designed as a “shock absorber” for earlier phases of the project, so it alone lies on the critical path—if it becomes delayed, its start date moves beyond the date we plan to ship the product.

Here before us is our project in its ideal form, right before the real work begins. We have a good picture of what to expect if our estimates are accurate and everything goes well—and fortunately, we also have the tools to adjust along the way if things don’t go exactly according to plan. In the next chapter, we’ll use these tools to begin managing a project.

If everything is proceeding according to plan, you can use the Catch Up tool in the Project inspector to advance the completion percentage of all tasks to where they should be as of the end of today’s workday.

Alternatively, if all other work in the project has been accounted for manually, you can use the Reschedule tool to advance tasks with incomplete work to the beginning of the next workday.

If a task is partially complete, rescheduling will split the task and leave the completed portion in its original position, advancing only the incomplete work.

Violations can be fixed by opening the View inspector and tapping Violations, or by tapping the violation icon next to the task itself. You’ll find a description of the problem and a command to tap that should resolve it.

Optimal resource allocations can shift significantly due to these changes, and it’s important to know about them as soon as possible to make sure resources are working where they’ll be most useful.

Major turning points in the project—whether pre-planned milestones or unexpected diversions—are also a good time to set new baselines for progress. OmniPlan supports as many baselines as you find useful, and resetting the clock after a major shift provides a much more useful basis for progress than continuing to compare with an increasingly outdated preliminary plan.

To split a task, touch and hold it in the Gantt chart until the contextual menu appears, then choose Split. You’ll be asked to choose the duration of each segment of the task, and the date and time you want the task to resume after the break. If the resource will be absent during the split, remember to indicate this on its schedule in the Resources inspector.

After splitting a task it’s always a good idea to level to be sure the split is the most efficient way to manage the task at hand given the project’s available resources and time constraints.

Anywhere in the app, press and hold the Command (⌘) key on your connected keyboard to view a list of available shortcuts. There are some shortcuts that work no matter where you are, while others are specific to your current view. Some locations may have more than one overlay screen’s-worth of shortcuts available; in that case, browse between pages by swiping left or right with the Command key held down.

Undo (Command-Z)

Revert the most recent action taken.

Redo (Shift-Command-Z)

Reinstate an action that was just reverted. Note that redo works best immediately after undoing something; if you switch views or take additional actions redo may not be available.

Cut (Command-X)

Remove the selected text or item(s) and copy them for pasting elsewhere.

Copy (Command-C)

Copy the selected text or item(s) for pasting elsewhere.

Paste (Command-V)

Insert copied text or item(s) at the selected location.

Delete (delete)

Delete the currently selected item(s). In the document browser this moves local documents to the trash; in the project editor this removes tasks from the Gantt chart.

New Document (Command-N)

Create a new OmniPlan document in the current location in the document browser.

Close Document (Command-W)

Close the project editor for the current document, saving changes, and return to the document browser.

New Task (return)

Create a new task in the project editor’s Gantt chart or Network Diagram.

New Milestone (M or Shift-Command-M)

Create a new milestone in the project editor’s Gantt chart or Network Diagram.

Expand Group (right arrow or Command-right arrow)

Expand the contents of a currently selected group.

Collapse Group (left arrow or Command-left arrow)

Collapse the contents of a currently selected group.

Previous Task (up arrow or Command-up arrow)

Move to the task above the current task in the Gantt chart.

Next Task (down arrow or Command-down arrow)

Move to the task below the current task in the Gantt chart.

Edit Title (E or Command-E)

Edit the title of the currently selected task.

Actual schedule

The actual schedule, in contrast to a baseline schedule, represents the way a project turns out in real life. Before a baseline is set for a project, the baseline and actual schedules are the same. After a baseline is set, further editing changes the actual schedule only.

Assignment

Assigning a resource to a task means that the resource is expected to be actively busy with that task throughout its duration. Assignment amounts are expressed as the percentage of the resource’s time being spent on the task.

Baseline schedule

A baseline schedule, in contrast to the actual schedule, is the way a project is planned to proceed. At the moment a baseline is set for a project, the baseline and actual schedules are the same. After the baseline is set, further editing changes the actual schedule only. As a project progresses, multiple baseline schedules can be set to provide updated benchmarks for comparison.

Child

A task nested hierarchically within a task group (the group becomes that task’s parent). This is terminology common to outlining software.

Cost

A task or a resource can have a monetary cost. The total cost of a task is the sum of the task cost and the costs of the resources assigned to it. A resource can have a per-use cost and a per-hour cost.

Critical path

A critical path is a series of dependent tasks which, if any of their durations change, will cause the whole project’s duration to change.

Dependency

The relationship by which one task must start or finish before another task can start or finish. For example, the task "Buy paint" must finish before the task "Paint fence" can begin.

Duration

Duration, in contrast to effort, is how long a task takes to complete in actual working time (that is, not including off-time). For example, a task which takes 4 hours of effort, and is assigned to 2 resources, has a duration of 2 hours. When you assign resources to a task, the duration or effort may change.

Efficiency

The measure of how much work a resource can get done in a certain amount of time. Efficiency can affect duration and effort: 100% efficiency means the resource can contribute 1 hour of effort for every hour of work; 50% efficiency means it can contribute 1 hour of effort for every 2 hours of work; and so on.

Effort

Effort, in contrast to duration, is how much work time a task takes to complete, considering all of the resources assigned to it. For example, a task which has a duration of 4 hours, and has 2 resources assigned to it, has an effort of 8 hours. When you assign resources to a task, the duration or effort may change.

Equipment

Equipment is a type of resource. It represents some kind of reusable asset, such as some special computer hardware. It can also be useful to consider things like meeting rooms to be equipment, if you need to balance their use between different tasks. For equipment resources, units represent the percentage of the resource that is available. Equipment can have Efficiency, Cost per Use, and Cost per Hour values.

Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart is a chronological representation of the project. Each task is represented by a bar, corresponding to a row in the outline, and possibly connected to other tasks by lines representing dependencies.

Group

Items in the Gantt chart or Network Diagram can be grouped together hierarchically. In the Gantt chart, a task group appears as a bracket enclosing its members from above. In the Network Diagram, the bracket appears to the left and right of its members.

Level

Leveling a project, or leveling resources, means automatically rearranging the project to make sure the resources are being used as efficiently as possible. This prevents a resource from being assigned at more than 100% of its available capacity at any time, and finds the best order for resources to work on tasks in order to complete them as quickly as possible.

Material

Material is a type of resource, representing consumable supplies. For material resources, Units represents the number of the resource that is being used throughout the project. This value updates as the resource is assigned to more tasks. Material resources can have Cost per Use and Cost per Hour values.

Milestone

A milestone is a task with no duration and no effort whose purpose is to mark some important point in the timeline of a project.

Parent

A task group exists at a level of hierarchy above its member tasks, and is considered their "parent". The tasks within a parent group are known as its "children".

Resource

Resources are the people and things needed to get a project done. Resources are listed in the Resources Inspector, and can be assigned to tasks. The three types of resources are Staff, Material, and Equipment.

Resource load / Resource allocation

A resource’s load is the amount of effort it is assigned to do at various times throughout the project. If a resource is assigned at more than 100% of its availability all at once, it is said to be overloaded or overutilized. Resource leveling tries to alleviate overload of resources.

Staff

Staff is a type of resource, representing people who work on the project. Staff units are measured as percentages. A person who is fully available to the project has a unit value of 100%; someone who is spending part of their working hours on other projects would have lower available units; note that this is not the same as having fewer working hours or being less efficient. Staff can have Address, Efficiency, Cost per Use, and Cost per Hour values.

T day

The first day of a project that has an undetermined start date. Until the start date is set, all dates are represented by an amount of time after T day, such as T+2w 1d.

Task

An item of work that needs to be done for the project to progress, represented by a corresponding task bar in the Gantt chart or node in network view.

Units

Units measure amounts of resources in various contexts. For a staff resource, the units value is a percentage representing how much of the person’s time is available to be assigned to tasks. Equipment resources are similar to staff in that units represent the percentage of the equipment’s effort that is devoted to the project. For material resources, the units value is a number representing a physical quantity.

Violation

A violation is a problem in the project that represents an untenable logical contradiction in the arrangement of its constituent tasks. Tasks that start before the project start date, tasks that don’t have enough time to complete before their dependent tasks need to start, and dependencies that cause a task to be prerequisite to itself are all examples of violations.