Contents

• Contents
• Glossary
• The Document Browser
  • The Sidebar
  • Browsing a Location
  • Sharing and Exporting
  • Importing to OmniPlan
  • Microsoft Project Import and Export (Pro)
  • The Location Toolbar
  • The App Menu
  • OmniPlan Settings
• The Document Toolbar
  • The View Menu
  • Using Filters
  • Using Baselines
  • Using Critical Paths
• Outline View
  • Creating and Deleting Tasks
  • Hierarchy and Task Groups
  • Configuring the Outline
  • Basic Columns
  • Effort and Resources Columns
  • Scheduling Columns
  • Cost Columns
  • Monte Carlo Estimation Columns (Pro)
  • Advanced Columns
• Gantt View
  • Navigating in Gantt View
  • Editing the Gantt Chart
  • Selection Mode
• Network View
  • Creating and Deleting Tasks
  • Creating Dependencies
  • Working in Network View
• The Task Inspector
  • Task Info
  • Scheduling
  • Assignments
  • Task Types
  • Recurring Tasks
• The Resources Inspector
  • Leveling
  • Resource List
  • Resource Info
  • Resource Types
• The Project Inspector
  • Name and Note
  • Publish and Subscribe (Pro)
  • Other Actions
  • Schedule
  • Formats and Conversions
  • Document
  • Scheduling Normal Hours
  • Scheduling Custom Hours
• Resolving Violations
  • Violations in the View Menu
  • Types of Violations
• Multi-User Collaboration (Pro)
  • How The Publish and Subscribe System Works
  • Connecting OmniPlan to a Server Repository
  • Publishing an OmniPlan Project
  • Balancing Resource Loads Across Projects
  • Sharing the Server Repository Credentials with Subscribers
  • Managing Server Repositories
  • Change Tracking
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Getting Help
  • Release Notes
  • Finding Help Online
  • Email Support
  • Phone Support
  • Online Forums
  • Omni Automation Support (Pro)

Actual schedule

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

Assignment

Assigning a resource to a task means that the resource is expected to be working on that task throughout its duration. Assignment amounts are expressed as the percentage of the resource’s work time being spent on the task. Manage resource assignments on a per-task basis using the Assignments section of the Task inspector.

Attachment

See linked file.

Baseline schedule

A baseline schedule, in contrast to the actual schedule, is the way a project is planned to proceed from a given point in time. Before you set a baseline for a project, the baseline and actual schedules are the same. After you set a baseline, further editing changes the actual schedule only.

Child

A member of a task or resource group is considered the group’s child. This is terminology common to outlining software.

Cost

Both tasks and resources can have monetary costs. 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 either or both of a cost per use and a cost per hour.

Critical path

The critical path is the series of dependent tasks which, if any of their durations change, will cause the whole project’s duration to change. You can check the critical path using the View menu. Critical paths can be charted to individual milestones as well as to the entire project duration.

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. For example, a task which takes 4 hours of effort and is assigned to 2 resources (both at 100% units and efficiency) has a duration of 2 hours.

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 (both at 100% units and efficiency) has an effort requirement of 8 hours.

Elapsed Time

A measurement of actual time required by a task or as a buffer between tasks. Elapsed time is “actual” in the sense that unlike regular duration or effort, the value refers to a specific amount of calendar time in the world and is not calculated based on the project’s work hours. Elapsed time is used when creating tasks with an elapsed duration, and can be used when setting lead/lag time between tasks.

Equipment

Equipment is a type of resource. It represents some kind of reusable asset, such as 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 equipment’s time that is available for the project.

Equipment can have Efficiency, Cost per Use, and Cost per Hour values.

Gantt Chart

A Gantt chart is a chronological representation of a project, as shown in OmniPlan's Gantt View. Each task is represented by a bar (which corresponds to a task row in Outline view), and may be connected to other tasks by lines representing dependencies; the horizontal size and position of the bar indicate the expected duration and schedule for the task.

Gantt View

A mode of the project document window in which you create, edit, and examine tasks organized on a Gantt chart.

Granularity

The level of precision with which tasks are scheduled, as set in the Project inspector. Tasks can be scheduled exactly, or with hourly or daily granularity settings. The amount of effort a task requires is preserved when changing granularity (put another way, granularity only affects scheduling).

Group

Items in the task outline or Gantt chart can be grouped together. The members, or children, of the group appear indented from the group itself in the outline. In the Gantt chart, a task group appears as a bracket enclosing its members.

Hammock

A task of flexible effort whose duration changes based on constraints imposed by tasks scheduled before and after it.

Inspector

A sidebar with tools to inspect your current selection.

OmniPlan’s inspectors live on right side of the main view. Tap the Inspector button in the toolbar to show or hide them.

Item

A single row in the task outline or Gantt chart.

Lead Time

Lead time is a duration you can put on a dependency to mean that some amount of time is needed between the two tasks involved. For example, a Start > Start dependency with a lead time of 1 day means that after the first task starts, the second task can start one day later.

Lead time can be negative; for instance a Finish > Start dependency with a –2 hour lead time will allow the second task to start once the first task is 2 hours from completion.

You can set up lead time by typing a duration (such as +3w or –2d4h) either at the end of a dependency code in the Dependents or Prerequisites column of the task outline, or in the Scheduling section of the Task inspector.

Lead time can also be a percentage of the predecessor task’s duration; for example you could enter 100% for a lead time exactly as long as the task it comes after.

Level

Leveling the project, or leveling resources, means automatically rearranging the project to make sure the resources are being used as efficiently as possible. This means not allowing a resource to be assigned at more than 100% of its available units at any time, and finding the best order for resources to work on tasks in order to complete them more quickly.

Newly created projects can be set to automatically level resources as they are allocated to tasks. You can disable automatic leveling in the Project inspector.

When not leveling automatically, you should level your project after making changes like updating task completion or changing resource assignments.

Linked File

In OmniPlan for Mac, a linked file is a representation in OmniPlan of a file somewhere on your computer. Links to these files are for your reference and the files remain local to your Mac. Linked files are not supported in OmniPlan for iPad and iPhone.

Material

Material is a type of resource, representing consumable supplies.

For material resources, Units represent how many of the resource are being used throughout the project. This value updates as the resource is assigned to more tasks.

Material resources can have Cost per Use values, but not Cost per Hour values.

Milestone

A milestone is a type of task that has no duration and requires no effort. Its purpose is to mark an important point in the project timeline. Critical paths can be charted to individual milestones as well as the project as a whole.

Monte Carlo Estimation

The Monte Carlo simulation method uses random sampling based on a spread of values to estimate probable outcomes—in the case of OmniPlan Pro, the likelihood that your project or milestone will reach completion on time. When a simulation is run, hundreds of randomized possible outcomes are considered, and the average result is reported as a percentile of confidence that the milestone will be reached on a given day.

Because the estimated data used is randomized across a range of possible values, running multiple Monte Carlo simulations on the same data set will generate slightly different results each time. However, the number of iterations in a single simulation is high enough to eliminate grossly inaccurate outliers.

Network View

A mode of the document window that describes a project as a network diagram—a web of task nodes connected by dependencies. Unlike a Gantt chart, a network diagram deemphasizes project chronology in favor of a clear, evident depiction of the relationships between tasks.

Outline View

A mode of the document window in which you can create, edit, and examine tasks. It contains a task outline that spans the entire window, providing a more data-rich view with as many custom columns as possible.

Parent

A group is considered the parent of all its members. This is terminology common to outlining software.

Publishing

When a project is publishing information about itself (a feature of OmniPlan Pro), it is telling other projects in a shared server repository what resources assigned to it are up to. If a resource is shared between projects (as indicated by an identifying email address), the load on that resource indicated by all publishing projects is taken into account when leveling across projects subscribing to the repository.

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 in the Task inspector. The three types of resources are Staff, Material, and Equipment.

Resource load

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. You can see each resource’s load by selecting a resource in the Resources inspector choosing Show Resource Load.

When shown, resource loads appear as a grouping of bars at the top of the Gantt view that represent the resources' work assignments over time, with a scale parallel to that of the Gantt chart.

Slack

Also known as float, in project management terminology slack refers to the amount of time a given task can be deferred until its duration to completion conflicts with the beginning of a subsequent dependent task (thereby causing a delay). Free slack refers to slack specific to a task and its successor, while total slack refers to a sum of all free slack in the project up to completion. Both values can be displayed as columns in Outline view.

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 units 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 (both of which can be set in the Resources inspector).

Staff can have Address, Efficiency, Cost per Use, and Cost per Hour values.

Subscribing

When a project is subscribing to a shared server repository (a feature of OmniPlan Pro), it is on the lookout for resource load data being published by other projects. When leveling loads, a subscriber will adjust resources based on usage information received from the published projects.

T day

The first day of a project that has a To Be Determined 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. A task is represented by a row in the task outline, and by a corresponding task bar in the Gantt chart.

Units

Units measure amounts of resources in various contexts. For staff and equipment resources, the units value is a percentage representing how much of the resource’s effort is available to be assigned to tasks in the project. For material resources, the units value is a number representing the physical quantity of the material used by tasks in the project.

Variance

Variance is the amount of time by which the actual schedule differs from the baseline schedule.

Violation

A violation is some sort of problem in the project that prevents it from working out properly. Violations can be resolved using the Violations tool in the View menu.

The Sidebar

The document browser's sidebar on the left side of the screen is the primary way to navigate between locations where your OmniPlan documents are stored. These can either be folders in a file tree, or “smart groupings” of files collected from across folders (such as the Recents view).

The top of the sidebar holds the following controls:

Show/Hide Sidebar Tap to show or hide the sidebar. (This button does not appear in compact views.)

More Tap to open a menu with the following controls for modifying the contents of the sidebar:

• Connect to Server—Choose a server to connect to via SMB, adding it as a location in a separate Shared section of the Locations list.

• Edit—Switch the list to Edit mode, where you can rearrange locations and tags, and choose which locations you want to be visible in the list. Note that changes made here apply to the Locations list everywhere it appears, including the Files app and other apps that use the document browser.

Recents

Tap the clock icon to switch to the Recents view of the document browser, which shows a collection of files that you have worked with recently. This list is drawn from every location available on your device, and includes files stored locally as well as those in the cloud.

The Recents view is a flat list of files sorted by date from most recently accessed to oldest. If you don't see a file here that you expect, you can use the Search dialog to look through all the files available, or switch to a location to look through the hierarchy of files on your device or a connected cloud location.

Locations

When browsing your files, the Locations list displays the storage destinations that are available on your device. Locations are collections of files contained in hierarchically arranged folders, each stored on a disk somewhere (either locally or in the cloud).

This always includes On My [device], which contains all of your files stored locally. If you have an Apple ID connected, iCloud Drive also appears as an available cloud storage location.

If you have any additional cloud storage providers installed on your device they will appear in this list as well.

The final item in the Locations list is Recently Deleted, where the operating system temporarily stores files after you have deleted them in case you want them back.

Favorites

You can designate folder locations that you visit frequently as favorites by touching and holding them in the document browser and choosing Favorite from the contextual menu that appears. Locations designated as favorites appear in the Favorites section of the sidebar for quick navigation.

To remove a location from the list, open its contextual menu and choose Unfavorite instead.

Tags

Beneath the list of available locations and favorites is a list of Tags.

Tap a tag in the list to view all of the items with that tag applied; you can apply tags to individual files using their contextual menus.

Browsing a Location

Upon selecting a location in the sidebar, its contents appear in a pane to the right (this pane appears on top of the sidebar when in compact views).

A search field at the top of the pane offers options to search recently opened files, the entire current location, or just the current folder for filenames that match the search terms.

File Details

Each file is represented by a thumbnail image. Once modified, OmniPlan generates a preview based on the contents of the file; otherwise, the file is represented by a generic document icon.

Along with the thumbnail, each file displays its name, the date it was last modified, and (when browsing a collection such as Recents) its location on your device.

• Tap a document preview to open the associated file.

• To change the name of a file or folder, tap the name and then enter a new title.

Contextual Menu

Touch and hold a file's thumbnail to open a contextual menu for the file, with the following commands:

• Copy—Copies the selected file and makes it available on the clipboard for pasting.

• Duplicate—Copies and instantly pastes a copy of the selected file at the current location.

• Move—Opens a hierarchical view of your locations where you can choose a new destination for the file.

• Delete—Deletes the selected file (it can still be recovered if necessary).

• Info—Presents a popup with detailed information on the file, including a larger document preview, metadata related to the file's creation and modification, location on your device, and any tags you have assigned.

• Tags—Presents the list of available tags along with the option to create a new one. Tap a tag in the list to assign it to or remove it from the file.

• Rename—Opens the file rename dialog, just as if you had tapped its name in the document browser.

• Share—Opens the share sheet, where you can choose from among the standard array of share destinations as well as additional OmniPlan-specific share options, as described below.

Sharing and Exporting

From a file's contextual menu or with a file selected, tap the Share button and then choose one of the following actions to perform on the file.

Share As...

Choose a format for sharing the file, and then choose a destination from the standard set of share destinations.

When sharing an OmniPlan file, the following file formats are available:

• OmniPlan — sends a copy of the selected OmniPlan file.
• Canvas Gantt — sends a PDF of the entire Gantt chart as a single page.
• Paginated Gantt — sends a PDF of the Gantt chart, but split over multiple printable pages.
• Task Report — sends an HTML page that lists all of the tasks in the project, which you can then print, save as PDF, or post to an internal website for the project.
• Resource Report — sends an HTML page that lists all of the tasks in the project by resource, which you can then print, save as PDF, or post to an internal website for the project.
• Microsoft Project MPP — sends a Microsoft Project (.mpp) file of the selected OmniPlan file via email or to another app. The Microsoft Project export option requires OmniPlan Pro.

Print

Prints the selected file to an AirPrint printer of your choosing.

Copy

Copies the selected file to the clipboard.

Importing to OmniPlan

If you receive OmniPlan files from elsewhere and would like to open them in OmniPlan, there are two primary ways to import files from other locations into OmniPlan on your device.

Aside from storing files in the cloud, you can also bring files into OmniPlan by sharing them from another app. This works well with Apple’s built in Mail app, for example; you can email an OmniPlan file to yourself from anywhere, then tap the attachment and choose OmniPlan from the share dialog that appears.

Other file transfer methods include AirDrop on Mac and iPad and iPhone, and Finder file transfer on Mac (iTunes file transfer on older versions of macOS and Windows).

The Location Toolbar

When viewing the contents of a location in the document browser, the toolbar along the top of the screen includes the following buttons:

Back

On the far left of the toolbar is the Back button, followed by the name of the folder that contains the files being viewed. Tap to go backward in the folder hierarchy or return to the Locations list.

Folder Title

At the center of the folder toolbar is the name of the current folder (such as On My iPad).

New Document

Tap to create a new OmniPlan document and open to its Gantt View. This document contains a single task and a single resource, equivalent to the Simple Project template in OmniPlan 4 for Mac.

New Folder

Tap to create a new folder inside the current location.

View

Tap to open the document browser's View menu, with controls for customizing how items are displayed in the browser view.

Automation Menu

Tap to open a menu with controls related to Omni's JavaScript automation.

• Automation Console—Opens the automation window to the console pane.

• Automation API Reference—Opens the automation window to the API reference pane.

• Configure Plug-Ins—Opens a pane that contains a list of automation Plug-Ins on your device, and controls for linking to a folder that contains Plug-Ins stored elsewhere (such as a cloud storage location).

If any Plug-Ins are installed, they appear in a list titled Actions beneath the Configure Plug-Ins menu item.

Learn more about automating OmniPlan at the official Omni Automation website.

App Menu

Tap to open a menu with tools and settings related to OmniPlan itself. See The App Menu below for details.

Select

At the far right edge of a folder’s toolbar is the Select button. When tapped, Select makes it possible for you to tap to select documents within a folder. Once a document is selected, use the buttons in the bottom toolbar to share or duplicate the file, move it to another folder, delete it, or copy it.

The App Menu

When viewing the contents of a location in the document browser, tap at the top of the screen to open the App Menu:

The App Menu has the following options:

About OmniPlan

Tap to see which version of OmniPlan is installed on your device, and to find Omni’s contact information.

Reference Manual

Tap to view the in-app reference manual.

Contact Omni

Tap to send us an email.

Omni Newsletter Signup

Tap to subscribe to Omni’s newsletter via email. When tapped, you are taken to the Omni website where you can enter your email address to subscribe.

Intro Video

Tap to revisit the introductory experience presented the first time you opened OmniPlan.

Release Notes

Tap to see what’s new in the current release. The release notes are also available on Omni’s website.

Restore Sample Documents

Tap to open a list of the sample documents included with OmniPlan and choose the ones you would like to restore.

Trial Mode

Trial Mode is only available prior to purchasing the upgrade to OmniPlan Standard or Pro. Tap to switch between Standard and Pro to see which version is right for you.

Omni Account

Tap to open the Omni Account sign in sheet. Here you can sign in to your Omni Account to manage your purchases, access subscriptions, and unlock upgrade pricing.

In-App Purchases

Tap to purchase the upgrade from Trial Mode to either OmniPlan Standard or Pro. This is also where you can restore purchases, if you ever need to reinstall OmniPlan on a device.

Server Repositories

Tap to open the sheet for setting up a shared server repository, useful when collaborating with multiple project contributors. Learn more about collaboration via server repository in the Multi-User Collaboration chapter.

Settings

Set preferences for working in OmniPlan. See OmniPlan Settings below for details.

OmniPlan Settings

Tap in the document browser toolbar to open the app menu and access OmniPlan settings.

• App Lock—to keep others from accidentally viewing or modifying your OmniPlan data, add a password (or use Touch ID or Face ID) to unlock the app. See Keeping Your Work Private with App Lock for details on this feature.
• Send Anonymous Data—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 when you tap here.

Keeping Your Work Private with App Lock

If you use OmniPlan on a device that you occasionally share (with your children, coworkers, or clients, for example), there may be times when you would prefer that your OmniPlan data be out of reach.

The App Lock feature prevents accidental taps and casual glances by adding a password-locked privacy screen that must be dismissed before any of your documents or settings can be accessed.

To use App Lock, open the App Menu and choose Settings. App Lock appears in the Privacy section of Settings, and is turned off by default.

When you turn on App Lock, you are prompted to choose and confirm a new password. If you use OmniPlan on multiple devices, you need to configure and set an App Lock password on each device. App Lock passwords are device-specific and do not sync across devices.

After choosing a password, App Lock is turned on. The App Lock Settings screen offers the option to turn App Lock back off, change your password, or enable Touch ID or Face ID as an alternative means of unlocking OmniPlan on devices that support it.

To change your password, Tap Change Password. You are prompted to enter your old password, and then to choose and confirm a new one.

With App Lock turned on, the next time you open OmniPlan you will see a privacy screen with a field to enter the password you chose. Enter the password, and work resumes unimpeded.

If you choose to use Touch ID or Face ID, a prompt for these will appear instead. You will still have the option to enter your password, or you can tap the icon next to the password field to unlock with Touch ID or Face ID if you dismissed the prompt initially.

From left to right, the controls in OmniPlan's document toolbar are as follows:

Document Browser

Tap to close the current document and return to its folder in the document browser.

View Switcher

Tap the segmented control to switch between the Outline, Gantt, and Network views.

View

Tap to open the View Menu, where you can set a project filter, turn on change tracking, check for violations, and show baselines and critical paths.

Undo/Redo

Tap to Undo the previous change to your document. Touch and hold to reveal a pop-up menu with the option to Redo.

Document Title

The document title is displayed at the center of the document toolbar. Tap the title text to edit it.

New Item

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.

With a task selected, choose Set Task Default from the popover to designate it as the default for new tasks added to the project. New tasks are added as copies of the default task, along with pre-filled name, duration, and resource assignments.

Select

Tap to enter Selection Mode and reveal the editing controls along the bottom of the screen.

Share

Tap to open the Share dialog, with options for exporting, sharing, copying, and printing the document. These are the same options that are available when sharing from the document browser.

Automation (Pro)

With OmniPlan Pro, use the Automation Menu to run and manage Omni Automation Plug-Ins, and access features for developing your own.

The Automation menu contains the following commands:

• Automation Console—Opens the Automation Console, a command line interface specifically for creating and running Omni Automation scripts. Only used if you intend to develop Plug-Ins yourself.

• Automation API Reference—Learn more about what you can do with Omni Automation in OmniPlan by viewing the available classes along with their constructors, functions, and properties.

• Configure Plug-Ins—Opens the Plug-Ins screen, where you can view and manage installed Plug-Ins and add linked folders.

• Actions—A list of the available Omni Automation actions provided by any installed Plug-Ins. If no Plug-Ins are installed this section does not appear.

If you are interested in developing Plug-Ins yourself, see the Omni Automation website for documentation related to this feature.

If you are interested in using Plug-Ins created by others, see Installing Plug-Ins for more information. Sample Plug-Ins are available for download here.

Inspectors

Tap to open or close the inspectors:

• Task Inspector: Available when a task or group is selected, use the Task Inspector to customize various aspects of the task using the tabs, Task Info, Scheduling, and Assignments.

• Resources Inspector: Use the Resources Inspector to create and edit resources (staff, equipment, materials, and groups), and to modify their calendars of working hours.

• Project Inspector: Use the Project Inspector to set the structure and parameters for your project.

The View Menu

The View Menu contains tools for customizing how data is displayed in the main view, with a particular emphasis on tracking project progress.

• Filter—Apply a filter to the current view that limits which tasks are visible. Choosing a filtering parameter here doesn’t affect the hidden items beyond removing them from view. See Using Filters for more information.

• 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. See Resolving Violations for more information.

• 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.

• Critical Paths—Choose which critical paths you would like to display, 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.

• Change Tracking (Pro)—If you are 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. Learn more about change tracking in the Multi-User Collaboration chapter.

The following additional options are available in the View menu when in Gantt View:

• Label Prefix—Choose whether to include a numerical prefix before the label on each line of the Gantt chart. Options include Hierarchical Numbering, Flat Numbering, and Unique ID.

• Left Label, Right Label—Determine which task attributes are displayed alongside each task in the Gantt chart, on the left side and right side of the task bar respectively.

• Non-Working Time—Add shading to date columns in the Gantt chart that correspond to time where no work is scheduled (based on schedule settings in the Project inspector). Options include Holidays, Holidays & Weekends, and All Hours.

Using Filters

When you want to focus on a specific aspect of your project, you can view a subset of its tasks by applying filters for specific criteria.

Choose Filter from the View menu. A submenu appears with the following options:

• No Filter—Removes any filters currently applied, restoring all tasks in the project to view.
• Filter by Resource—Filters the project to show only tasks with a specific resource (or group of resources) assigned.
• Filter by Status—Filters the project to show tasks that meet a specific scheduled completion status or progress criterion.
• Filter by Type—Filters the project to show tasks of a specific task type.
• Filter by Visible Date Range—Filters the project to show tasks that are currently visible in the span of dates in the view.

Filters can be displayed either as a Flat List of Matches (the filter excludes task groups) or with Group Hierarchy included. Filters are mutually exclusive, so only one criterion can be applied at a time.

When your filter is set, any tasks which match your criteria remain in the outline, while the rest of the project is hidden away. You can work with the project normally while it is filtered, but you can only edit the visible tasks. A magnifying glass icon appears on the View menu button in the toolbar for as long as the project is being filtered.

Using Baselines

Once you have finished setting up a project and you are ready to start implementing it, you can set a baseline schedule. The baseline represents the original intentions of the project, for comparison with the actual schedule. The actual schedule, by contrast, is the way a project turns out in real life. Before the baseline is set for a project, the baseline and actual schedules are the same. After the baseline is set, further changes affect the actual schedule only.

To set a baseline, tap Baselines in the View Menu and choose Set Baseline. You’ll be prompted with a field to name the baseline; the default name is today’s date.

After choosing Set Baseline, the baseline schedule is set and any further changes to the project are applied to the actual schedule instead.

Choose one of the baselines in the list to see it the actual schedules together, so you can compare them.

OmniPlan 4 supports as many baselines as you want—so at any given point in the project, you can take a snapshot that sets a new standard from which the actual project can proceed.

Tap Edit in the Baselines menu to remove any baselines you no longer need.

Using Critical Paths

Looking at a project or milestone’s critical path is a great way to get a feel for the tasks involved that are most important to on-time completion of the goal. Identifying tasks that are part of the critical path (and vice versa) helps prioritize work to ensure that deadlines are met.

To manage which critical paths are shown, choose Critical Paths in the View Menu.

In the Critical Paths menu, you can edit properties of existing paths (the default Overall Project, for example), or add paths to display by selecting the destination milestone and choosing New Path for [Milestone].

Once created (or when editing an existing critical path), the following options are available:

1. Critical Paths—Return to the Critical Paths menu.

2. Enabled—Select to turn on display of the milestone’s critical path.

3. Include Resource Constraints—Select to have the milestone’s critical path take into account not only the dependencies between tasks and the slack limit, but also whether the necessary resources are available to complete tasks that are otherwise independent.

   The clearest way to see how this works is to create a project with two independent tasks, and assign the same resource to both of them. Level the project, and you’ll see the second task move to follow the first. At this point, showing the critical path will only highlight the second task (1). Choosing to consider resource availability will highlight both (2), illustrating that while the second task doesn’t rely on the first to begin, it’s constrained by the resource required to complete it.

4. Color—Use this color picker to choose a color for the highlight used when the milestone’s critical path is displayed. Tasks in views that show the critical path will be highlighted with this color when they are part of the milestone’s critical path.

5. Slack Limit—This value determines how closely a task can come to pushing a milestone back before it is considered part of the critical path. Increasing the time value here broadens the scope of critical paths to potentially include more tasks. In other words—the higher the value, the less comfortable a time cushion between tasks will feel.

Creating and Deleting Tasks

As you begin building a project, rapidly creating new tasks and milestones (and removing extraneous ones) are key parts of the process, and Outline View is perfect for the purpose.

There are several ways to create new items in the outline:

• Tap New Item in the document toolbar to add a task. Touch and hold to open a menu with options for adding a milestone or group instead.
• Touch and hold an empty space in the outline to open a contextual menu with the Add New Task command.
• Press return on an external keyboard to add a task. The new task appears beneath the currently selected task, or at the end of the outline when no task is selected.

There are a few ways to delete a task, milestone, or group:

• Tap Select in the document toolbar to enter Selection Mode, then tap the item rows you want to delete. Choose Delete from the bottom bar to delete them all at once.
• Tap to select an item, then touch an hold it to open its contextual menu where the Delete command appears.
• Press delete on an external keyboard to delete a selected item.

Hierarchy and Task Groups

When initially creating a project, tasks can be organized in a flat list with each task a peer of every other. However, it can be useful to group tasks into hierarchical arrangements to better represent their relationships.

Tasks are represented in the Title column by their name, and is additionally designated by number in the Task Number column. Tasks at the top of the hierarchy are represented by integers, while tasks at lower levels have points appended to them for each level of hierarchy below the top. The first child of Task 1 will be Task 1.1, the first child of Task 1.1 will be Task 1.1.1, and so on.

When a task gains its first child task it is converted to a group task, and takes properties unique to to the group task type.

There are a few ways to approach grouping, depending on whether you are starting with an existing set of items you want to add to a group, converting an existing item to a group, or creating a brand new group task.

• To convert a task to a group and add child tasks inside it:

  1. Select the item you want to grant sub-tasks.
  2. Open the Task inspector and change the Task Type to Group.
  3. Tap the disclosure triangle on the task row to open the group, then tap the row to select it.
  4. Add tasks to the group by tapping New Item or pressing return on an external keyboard.

• To bring tasks into a group within another task in the outline:

  1. Tap Select to enter Selection Mode. Select the items to be grouped.
  2. Tap Move in the bottom bar, and tap the destination item to open its contextual menu. Choose Inside.
  3. The items become children of the destination item, which becomes a group (if it wasn't one already).

• To create a new group with selected tasks inside it:

  1. Tap Select to enter Selection Mode. Select the items to be grouped.
  2. Tap Group in the bottom bar.
  3. The selected items become children of a newly created group task.

• To create a new group with nothing inside it:

  1. Touch and hold New Item to open its popover menu.
  2. Choose Group from the menu.
  3. A new, empty group item is created.
  4. To add items inside the group, open it by tapping the disclosure triangle next to the group name, and with the group selected, create new tasks as normal.

Configuring the Outline

You can customize the outline in Outline View to display a set of columns with data specifically relevant to your project. Touch and hold the outline header to open its contextual menu for choosing choose which columns to display.

1. Hide Column—Hide the selected column (if opening the menu from a specific column).
2. Size to Fit Content—Resize the selected column to the width of its widest content.
3. Simple Creation—A preset selection of columns useful when rapidly building a new project. Adds the Effort Required column to the base set of Title, Note, and Violation columns.
4. Creation—A preset selection of columns useful when building a new project. Adds the Effort Required, Start Date, Prerequisites, and Assigned Resources columns.
5. Complex Creation—A preset selection of columns useful when adding detail to a project. Adds the Effort Required, Start Date, End Date, Prerequisites, Assigned Resources, Task Cost, Start No Earlier Than, and End No Later Than columns.
6. Simple Tracking—A preset selection of columns useful when tracking project progress. Adds the Status, Effort Required, and Effort Completed (%) columns.
7. Custom—Indicates the use of a selection of columns other than one of the presets.
8. Configure Columns—Opens the column selection menu for choosing the columns to display in the outline.
9. Show All Columns—Turns on the display of every available column.

Data in the these columns corresponds to task rows in the outline. Some column values (such as Duration and Effort Required) can be edited directly in the outline; others (such as Total Task Cost) are calculated automatically. Generally, values you can edit in the outline correspond to editable fields in the Task and Resources inspectors.

With an external keyboard connected, use tab and shift-tab to move between editable cells.

Drag column titles left and right to rearrange the columns.

Basic Columns

The following columns represent basic properties of tasks, as well as information related to the structure and status of the project.

Violations

This column displays an icon for each task that has a violation. Tap the icon to summon the Violations menu and see what the problem is.

Status

This column shows alarm clock icons for tasks that are incomplete and due in the next few days, or in the past. Note that these icons won’t appear if your project has a To Be Determined start date. Each icon color has a meaning:

• Almost due (green): this task is incomplete and due in the next 3 work days.
• Due (yellow): this task is incomplete and due in the next work day.
• Past due (red): this task is incomplete and past due.

Notes

This column indicates whether the task has a note associated with it. Tap the note icon on a selected row to open its note in the Task Info pane of the Task inspector for editing.

Task Type

This column displays an icon based on the the task's type: Task , Milestone , Group , Hammock , Split , or Recurring .

Task Number

This column displays the task's number. This is either based on its position in the task hierarchy or a flat integer corresponding to its row, based on the Task Numbers setting in the Formats and Conversions section of the Project inspector.

Task Title

The title of the task.

Effort and Resources Columns

The following columns represent the effort required by tasks and the resources assigned to them.

Effort Required

The amount of total effort the task takes to complete.

Assigned Resources

A list of the resources that are assigned to the task.

Effort Completed (%)

The amount of work that has been completed on the task, expressed as a percentage.

Effort Done

The amount of effort completed on the task, expressed in time increments.

Remaining Effort

The amount of effort remaining before the task is completed, expressed in time increments.

Duration

The task duration.

Scheduling Columns

The following columns represent the time-based properties and constraints of tasks.

Start Date

The actual start time for the task, as determined automatically by leveling or set manually in the Scheduling pane of the Task inspector.

End Date

The actual end time for the task, as determined automatically by leveling or set manually in the Scheduling pane of the Task inspector.

Start No Earlier Than

The task’s Start No Earlier Than constraint, if any. Set in the Constraints section of the Task inspector's Scheduling pane.

Start No Later Than

The task’s Start No Later Than constraint, if any. Set in the Constraints section of the Task inspector's Scheduling pane.

End No Earlier Than

The task’s End No Earlier Than constraint, if any. Set in the Constraints section of the Task inspector's Scheduling pane.

End No Later Than

The task’s End No Later Than constraint, if any. Set in the Constraints section of the Task inspector's Scheduling pane.

Priority

The task's relative priority. During leveling, if two tasks are assigned to one resource at the same time, the task with higher priority (expressed as a larger positive number) gets to use the resource first. Set in the Task inspector's Assignments pane.

Prerequisites

A list of the tasks, by number, that the task relies on in some way (as indicated by the dependency type code).

Dependents

A list of the tasks, by number, that rely on this task in some way (as indicated by the dependency type code).

Free Slack

Slack between an individual task and its subsequent tasks. This value cannot be edited directly.

Total Slack

Total slack refers to the time before an individual task would have an effect on the duration of the project as a whole. This value cannot be edited directly.

Cost Columns

The following columns represent the various costs associated with tasks.

Task Cost

Any costs associated with completing the task other than the cost of the resources assigned to work on it. Set in the Task inspector's Task Info pane.

Cost of Resources

The cost of the resources assigned to the task. This value cannot be edited directly (edit the individual resource costs or change the resource assignments instead).

Total Task Cost

The task cost plus the resources cost.

Monte Carlo Estimation Columns (Pro)

The following columns contain effort estimate data used when simulating milestone completion estimates.

Min Effort Estimate (Pro)

The minimum amount of effort that you estimate the task will take. This value can be set automatically using the Project inspector's Monte Carlo menu.

Expected Effort Estimate (Pro)

The amount of effort that you expect the task will take. By default this is equal to the task’s actual effort.

Max Effort Estimate (Pro)

The maximum amount of effort that you estimate the task will take. This value can be set automatically using the Project inspector's Monte Carlo menu.

Advanced Columns

The following columns represent less frequently used task metadata.

Hierarchical Title

The title of the task, preceded by the title of each task above it in the hierarchy, with each title separated by a colon.

Unique ID

The unique ID is a number assigned to each task that identifies it unambiguously, even if its name or position in the outline changes. A unique ID won’t ever change, and each new task or resource you create gets a new unique ID number. These numbers are useful for matching up items when you are sharing and exporting projects between OmniPlan and other applications.

Navigating in Gantt View

As you explore the Gantt chart, 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 the Gantt chart, their information is presented most efficiently in landscape mode. Rotate your device sideways to try it out; this is where OmniPlan 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, pinch vertically (i.e., toward the top and bottom of the screen) to zoom in or out.
• Changing Time Scale: In the Gantt chart, pinch horizontally (i.e., sideways) 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).

Editing the Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart is ideally suited for showing and editing the dependency relationships between tasks, as well as adjusting task duration, updating task completion, adding start constraints, and splitting tasks—each of which is addressed in the sections below.

Connecting Tasks with Dependencies

When a task must be completed before another can begin, a dependency exists between them. Charting dependencies in your project is a key part of understanding the critical path of tasks that leads through to its successful completion, on time and within budget.

Using the Gantt chart in Gantt View, you can represent the relationships between tasks with dependency lines. A dependency line is drawn from the beginning or end of one task (or group, or milestone) to the beginning or end of another.

When you create a dependency, the dependent task automatically reschedules itself to respect the dependency. With further changes to the schedule and leveling, the tasks continue trying to follow the dependencies. If a dependency becomes impossible or you manually cause a task stop obeying its dependencies, a violation occurs, which can be resolved with the Violations menu.

There are a few ways to connect tasks:

• Tap Select to enter Selection Mode and select two or more tasks, then tap Connect in the bottom bar to add Finish > Start dependencies between each subsequent task.
• Outside of Selection Mode, tap a task to select it, then tap again to reveal its dependency arrows. Touch and hold an arrow to draw a dependency from either the start or the end of the selected task, to the start or end of another task. The direction, origin, and endpoint of the arrow determine the dependency type.
• In the Dependents or Prerequisites columns of a task in the outline, type a dependency or prerequisite code. These codes combine the IDs of the tasks involved and the type of dependency like so:

1. A Finish > Finish dependency from task ID 2, and a Start > Start dependency from task ID 3.
2. A Finish > Finish prerequisite from task ID 1.
3. A Start > Start prerequisite from task ID 1.
4. A Finish > Start dependency from task ID 4.2. (FS is the most common type of dependency, so a task ID by itself without any letters is assumed to be FS.)
5. A Finish > Start prerequisite from task ID 4.1, and a Finish > Start dependency from task ID 4.3 with a lead time of 1 day.
6. A Finish > Start prerequisite from task ID 4.2, with a lead time of 1 day.

Existing dependencies can be edited in the Dependents and Prerequisites sections of the Task inspector's Scheduling pane, and new dependents and prerequisites can also be added there.

Adjusting Task Duration

To change the duration of a task in the Gantt chart:

• Tap to select a task and reveal its scheduling controls.
• Touch and hold the traction pad at the right end of the task bar.
• Drag the end of the bar left or right to change the task’s duration.

Updating Task Completion

To adjust how much of a task has been completed:

• Tap to select a task and reveal its scheduling controls.
• Touch and hold the completion slider beneath the task.
• Drag it to the desired completion percentage.

Adding Start Constraints

To manually add a start constraint to a task:

• Tap to select a task and reveal its scheduling controls.
• Touch and hold the traction pad at the left end of the task bar.
• Drag the end of the bar left or right to convert it to a start constraint, or update an existing one.

Splitting Tasks

Whether because a key collaborator is on vacation or another part of the project has taken priority, suspending work on a particular task can be very helpful. When you want a resource or team member to devote time to something other than the task they’re currently assigned to, splitting the task into parts around the “time out” period is an ideal solution.

To split a task:

• Select the task in the Gantt chart.
• Touch and hold to open its contextual menu, and choose Split.
• In the popover, adjust the duration of both sides of the split, choose the date and time you want the task to resume after the break, and tap the Split Task; the task is split for later completion.

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.

Selection Mode

Each of OmniPlan's views includes a suite of tools that provide more fine-grained control over tasks and the relationships between them.

Tap Select in the toolbar to enter Selection Mode; you’ll see a set of editing controls along the bottom of the screen.

1. Cut: Delete the selected item or items and copy them to be pasted later. Paste by tapping Done to exit Selection Mode and touching and holding an item in the view to reveal its contextual menu. When pasted, the copied items 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 project.
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 Selection 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 the selected tasks with Finish > Start dependencies (if not connected) or removes dependencies between them (if currently connected).

Creating and Deleting Tasks

When you’re ready to start building (or adding to) a project in Network View, tap the third segment of the view switcher to switch to the view, and tap in the toolbar. A new task is created.

Creating Dependencies

If you have a task selected, creating a new task automatically connects to it with 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 are selected, a 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 Network View, you can switch to the Gantt chart or outline to see how your project-building exercise is looking, and see how its dependencies are described there.

Working in Network View

A few tips for working in Network View:

• When you’re working on a project of considerable size, you can zoom in and out on the network diagram using the vertical and horizontal pinch gestures shared by the Gantt chart.

• You can perform actions on tasks in the chart by touching and holding them to reveal their contextual menus. Available commands include Copy, Paste, Delete, and Collapse/Expand (for groups).

• To manipulate groups of tasks, tap Select in the toolbar to enter Selection Mode, which works in Network View just as it does in the Outline and Gantt views.

Task Info

The Task Info pane of the Task inspector provides settings for describing the parameters of the task, including its name, note, type, amount of effort or duration required to complete, and its visual appearance across OmniPlan's views.

1. Task Title—Edit the task’s name.
2. Note—Enter a note for the selected task.
3. Task Type—Choose a type for the task: Task, Milestone, Group, or Hammock. Set up rules for recurring tasks, and if the task is a group, choose its appearance when closed.
4. Effort—The amount of work hours required to complete the task. This value may be automatically adjusted based on the When Assignments Change setting in the Assignments pane.
5. 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 When Assignments Change setting in the Assignments pane.
6. Completion—The amount of work on the task that is currently complete, expressed as a percentage.
7. Bar Color—Choose the color for the task bar as it appears across OmniPlan's views.
8. 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.
9. Resources Cost, Total Cost—These values are not edited directly, but represent the total cost of the resources currently assigned to the project, plus the task cost.
10. Task Switcher—Use the up and down arrows to move between tasks in the current view while keeping the Task inspector open.

Scheduling

The Scheduling pane of the Task inspector describes how the task is contextually integrated into the project. It lists other factors influencing when the task is allowed to begin, provides controls for locking the task at a point in the project’s calendar, and shows any other tasks that are dependent on the tasks completion to begin.

1. Direction—Choose whether the task should be scheduled Automatically, based on the leveling needs of the project, or Manually, with start and end constraints that you choose. Automatically scheduled tasks are scheduled either as soon as possible (ASAP) or as late as possible (ALAP), which overrides the Direction setting in the Project inspector for this individual task.
2. Start, End—Set the start and end times for manually scheduled tasks. These cannot be edited for tasks scheduled automatically.
3. Start 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. This becomes End Influences for tasks scheduled ALAP.
4. Catch Up or Reschedule—Use these controls to update the task based on its current status: either catching up the completion percentage to the planned amount, or rescheduling remaining work for the following day.
5. Constraints—Use this submenu to add timing constraints to the task from among: Start No Earlier Than, End No Earlier Than, Start No Later Than, and End No Later Than. Each task can have a single start constraint and a single end constraint; a summary of any constraints is shown on the row in the Scheduling pane.
6. Prerequisites—This section lists any tasks that must be completed before for the selected task can begin, along with their details. Tap to edit an existing prerequisite or add lead time, or tap Add Prerequisite to choose a task from the list and create a Finish-Start dependency between that task and the one currently being edited.
7. Dependents—This section lists any tasks that rely on this task being completed to begin, along with their details. Tap to edit an existing dependent or add lead time, or tap Add Dependent to choose a task from the list and create a Finish-Start dependency between the current task and the chosen one.
8. Task Switcher—Use the up and down arrows to move between tasks in the current view while keeping the Task inspector open.

Assignments

The Assignments pane of the Task inspector controls how the task should be prioritized when leveling, and provides tools for assigning and configuring resources assigned to the task.

1. Assigned Resources—A list of the resources assigned to the task appears here, along with the percentage of their units (or effort) assigned to the task. Tap to change the percentage of assigned units, and see other details of the resulting effort and cost expenditure.
2. Add or Remove Resources—Tap to view a list of resources assigned to the project. Resources with a check mark are assigned to the current task; tap each resource to remove or assign it.
3. When Assignments Change—Pick from among the following behaviors when resources are added to or removed from the task:
   • Adjust Task Duration—Adding new resources increases the effort available to complete them, and this option uses that effort to shorten the amount of time the task will take to complete. The opposite is also true, as removing a resource from the task will increase its duration.
   • Adjust Task Effort—Adding new resources keeps the duration the same, and adds the effort they contribute to the total required to complete the task—this represents pouring work into a fixed timeframe. Removing resources indicates that less effort is needed to complete the task in the same amount of time as originally planned.
   • Adjust Assigned Amounts—With this option the duration and effort stay the same regardless of resource assignments. Instead, when new resources are added, the amount of effort asked of each resource is reduced evenly across the board (one resource contributes 100 percent, two resources contribute 50 percent each, and so on).
4. Task Progress Requires—Choose whether work on the task requires Any Available Resource to proceed, or All Assigned Resources. The latter is particularly useful for planning meetings or other pieces of work where all team members must be present.
5. Leveling Priority—When leveling, tasks with no constraints or dependencies are queued based on their order in the Gantt chart unless they are given a priority here. The highest priority task is the one with the largest numerical integer assigned. Priority descends from the largest integer, and negative integers are of lower priority than positive.
6. Task Switcher—Use the up and down arrows to move between tasks in the current view while keeping the Task inspector open.

Task Types

OmniPlan supports the following task types, each with their own unique properties.

• Task—The standard representation of a piece of work to be accomplished as part of the project. All tasks require some amount of effort and time to complete.
• Milestone—A task with no effort or duration that represents an important moment in the project’s life. Milestones are used when charting critical paths and in Monte Carlo simulations (Pro).
• Group—A parent task used for creating hierarchy with child tasks within it. Groups have no duration or effort themselves, instead having properties inherited from the tasks they contain.
• Hammock—A special type of task whose duration varies based on the completion of the preceding task and the start of the task that follows. See Creating Hammock Tasks below.

There are two additional task types that are variations on a standard task: Split tasks, which are tasks that include periods of non-working time, and Recurring tasks, which repeat at regular intervals.

Creating Hammock Tasks

A hammock task is one in which the duration is dependent on both when the previous task ends, and the next task starts. This type of task is useful when facing a hard deadline and deciding what can be compressed if the project is running behind schedule, or if external factors influence when parts of the project must happen.

For example, if you were to prepare a written document, the time allotted for editing would vary depending on the completion of the document and its due date.

Using that scenario, let’s create an example hammock task. Our starting point is a set of two tasks and a milestone connected by Finish > Start dependencies: Write Newsletter, Edit Newsletter, and Publish Newsletter.

We want to publish the newsletter on April 19th, so we set the Start No Earlier Than date of the milestone to the end of the previous workday (April 16th).

Next, we add a dependency to indicate that editing finishes when publishing starts. Because Publish Newsletter is a milestone rather than a task its start and end dates are equivalent, so this dependency is Finish > Finish (if publishing were a regular task, this would be a Start > Finish dependency instead).

Because this dependency is directional, for OmniPlan to understand the relationship you’ll want to select the milestone and drag a dependency arrow to the Edit Newsletter task rather than choosing the dependency type from the Dependents section of the Task inspector.

After creating this dependency, we delete the unneeded Finish > Start dependency from Edit to Publish to avoid creating a dependency loop.

With our dependencies set up properly, the final step in setting up our hammock task is to select it and choose Hammock as the task type from the Task inspector.

Now, if writing the newsletter takes longer than planned, the duration of the editing task will diminish to respect the needs of the tasks on either side.

Recurring Tasks

A recurring task is a task designated to repeat multiple times. This can be useful for planning weekly meetings, restocking inventory, or accounting for quarterly milestones of a project’s progress.

To set a task or milestone as recurring, select it and open the Task inspector. In the Task Info pane, tap Task Type and and choose Make This Task Recur. The task recurrence dialog appears for setting up the properties of the recurring task.

1. Cancel, Done—Tap to cancel any changes, or to apply them to the task.

2. Duration—Set a duration for the recurring task.

3. Start—Set a start time for the task. If the first occurrence of the repeat interval would be later than the start time, the start time changes to the first occurrence automatically.

4. End—Choose whether to end by a specific date—scheduling enough occurrences to fill the interval between start and end—or to end after a set number of occurrences.

5. Repeat Interval—Pick an interval in days, weeks, months, or years, and set a value for how many of the interval elapse between repeats.

6. Interval Details—Use these controls to refine the parameters of the chosen repeat interval. This section changes depending on whether day, week, month, or year is chosen.

Once set up, the Task Type menu changes to reflect the task's recurrence settings.

Here you can Edit Recurrence Rules, which opens the dialog to change the recurrence properties of the task, and Stop Recurring, to cancel future planned occurrences of the task. When you cancel a recurring task, past and in-progress occurrences will not be deleted.

A recurring task is represented in the outline and Gantt chart as a group task that contains each instance of the task that is scheduled to occur. You can choose how recurring task groups appear When Closed. By default they are shown with Rolled Up Children, as below:

At the top of the Resource inspector are controls for leveling your project's resource loads, along with a list of the resources contributing to the project. Individual resources can have their details configured as described in the Resource Info section later in this chapter.

Leveling

The Resource inspector's Leveling section contains controls for determining how resources are allocated when the project is leveled.

1. Leveling—Tap to open the Leveling controls section.
2. Level Load—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.
3. Clear Leveling—Remove leveling optimization.
4. Resources—Return to the top level of the Resources inspector.
5. Automatically Level—Choose whether to automatically level resource loads across the project whenever a change is made.
6. Constrain to Future—Choose whether leveling affects only the schedules of tasks in the future (from the current date), or past tasks as well.
7. Allow Splitting—Choose whether tasks can be split as part of the leveling process. If this is turned on, a Min. Duration row appears for setting the minimum time span that can be created as part of either side of the split.

Resource List

The Resource List contains all resources currently assigned to the project, along with tools for adding and removing them.

1. Resource List—A list of all resources assigned to the project, badged with icons according to their resource type. If a resource is part of a group, it is displayed inside that group.
2. New Resource—Add a new resource to the project and customize its details.
3. Add from Contacts—Grant OmniPlan access to your Contacts list to add resources to your project directly from there.
4. Edit—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.

Resource Info

Tap a resource in the Resource List to view and customize its detailed information, described in the two sections below.

1. Resources—Return to the top level of the Resources inspector.
2. Name—Edit the resource name.
3. Email—For staff resources, add their email address here. This also serves as a staff member's unique identifier when balancing resource loads across projects.
4. Note—Add notes related to the resource.
5. Type—Choose the resource's type.
6. Next, Previous—Use the up and down arrows to navigate between resources in the list.

1. Start Date, End Date—If a resource is only available to the project for a certain time, enter the dates when its availability begins and ends here.
2. Normal Hours—By default a resource's normal hours are the same as those of the project. Use this calendar to note any differences from the project schedule that a resource may have.
3. Custom Hours—By default a resource's custom hours are the same as those of the project. Use this calendar to note any differences from the project schedule that a resource may have.
4. Units—The amount of a tool or staff member’s time dedicated to the project (relative to their full time schedule) is expressed by the resource’s Units value. For materials, Units describes the quantity of material used (based on the number of tasks the resource is assigned to) instead.
5. Efficiency—The amount of effort-per-time a resource contributes to tasks to which it is assigned.
6. Bar Color—The color of the resource's bar when showing resource loads in Gantt View.
7. Cost/Use, Total Uses—The monetary cost incurred each time the resource is assigned to a task, and the total number of tasks to which it is assigned.
8. Cost/Hour, Total Hours, Total Cost—The monetary cost of each hour of effort assigned ot the resource, the sum of the effort of all tasks the resource is assigned to, and the combined cost of all uses and all hours for this resource.
9. Show Resource Load—Toggle display of the resource's assignment load in the Resource Loads section at the top of Gantt View.

Resource Types

The following four types of resources can be added to your OmniPlan project.

Staff

Staff represents people who work on the project. Staff units are measured as percentages. A person who is fully available to the project has a units 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; these values can be edited by tapping the individual resource.

Equipment

Equipment represents some kind of reusable asset, such as special computer hardware. It can 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 means how many of the resource are available. The number of available units can affect resource leveling.

Material

Material represents consumable supplies. For material resources, Units means how many of the resource are being used throughout the project. This value updates as the resource is assigned to more tasks.

Group

A Group is a way to organize several resources together. As such, groups lack some characteristics of individual resources. Others, such as Efficiency and Cost, represent the average of the individual resources that form the group. If these values are changed for the group they are changed for each resource within the group as well, overwriting any existing values.

When a resource group is created, it is initially empty; to add resources to the group, create them and move them inside the group by tapping Edit in the Resource List.

The Project inspector is divided into a series of grouped controls, each with its own description below.

Name and Note

This section provides a top level description of the project, with fields for the project name and notes to add further detail.

• Project Name—Edit the project name.
• Project Note—Add notes related to the project as a whole.

Publish and Subscribe (Pro)

This section supports the Publish and Subscribe feature available with OmniPlan Pro for collaborating on projects with multiple contributors.

• Publish—When collaborating with others on a project document, tap to publish changes you have made locally to the shared project on the server.
• Refresh—When collaborating with others on a project document, tap to update your local copy with changes made by others to the shared project on the server.
• Configure—Configure the publication and subscription settings for this project. See Multi-User Collaboration (Pro) for more details on publishing and subscribing to projects.

Other Actions

This section contains useful actions that are performed on the project as a whole, including batch adjustment of task effort and running Monte Carlo simulations to estimate milestone completion dates (with OmniPlan Pro).

• Catch Up or Reschedule—In a project with specific dates, use these controls to indicate work done on all tasks at once: either to note that they are all on target and update their completion percentages accordingly (with Catch Up), or that work has stopped for the day and any remaining work should resume the next day (with Reschedule).
• Monte Carlo Simulations (Pro)—With OmniPlan Pro, use this control to assign effort estimates and run Monte Carlo simulations to estimate on-time milestone completion. See Simulating Milestone Completion Estimates below.

Schedule

This section provides controls for determining how the project is scheduled: its direction, whether dates are specific or to be determined, and the degree of granularity for start times and resource assignments. The project's working hours and any custom hours are also set here.

• 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.

• Dates—Choose from To Be Determined or Specific dates for the project. To Be Determined 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.

• Granularity—choose from Exact, Hourly, or Daily to specify how precisely to schedule task start and end times. Granularity applies to leveling, as well—resources are assigned in the time increments set here.

• Start—Set the start date for the project. This can only be edited directly in a forward-moving project with specific dates; otherwise it is generated automatically.

• End—Set the end date for the project. This can only be edited directly in a backward-moving project with specific dates; otherwise it is generated automatically.

• Normal Hours—This row displays a summary of the project's normal working hours. Tap to edit the regular work week for the project; see Scheduling Normal Hours below.

• Custom Hours—This row displays a summary of the project's schedule exceptions (if any). Tap to set customized hours for the project as a whole (such as time off or additional work); see Scheduling Custom Hours below.

Total Project Cost—The total cost for the project is displayed beneath this section, representing the combination of individual task costs and the cost values of resources contributing to the project.

Formats and Conversions

This section determines how the project displays units of currency, effort, and duration, as well as the amount of time that constitutes certain units of work (such as the work day and the work week). It also governs the display of task numbering throughout the document.

• Currency—Set the currency type for your project's expenses and costs.
• Effort—Choose how to display effort amounts throughout the project. The effort value at the top of the pane is a preview that changes based on which units you choose to display.
• Duration—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.
• Work Units—Choose how many work hours to count as one day, week, month, or year. This affects how large amounts of effort are entered and displayed.
• Task Numbers—Choose whether the Task Number column in Outline View uses Hierarchical Numbering (as described in Hierarchy and Task Groups), or Flat Numbering (each task is numbered with an integer based on its position in the list).

Document

This section contains controls related to the document file itself: choose the best file type for compatibility with your file storage solution of choice.

• File Type—Choose the file type for the project document. Flat file is the default for new projects, and is most compatible with a variety of cloud storage options. Package is the format used by older versions of OmniPlan, and may be required when sharing files between versions.

Scheduling Normal Hours

Use the Normal Hours control in the Project inspector to edit the calendar for the project's regular schedule of weekly working hours.

This view displays the normal work hours for the project as green blocks of time in a week-long calendar grid.

1. Project—Tap to return to the top level of the Project inspector.
2. Weekdays and Hours—The calendar shows a typical work week, with days from Sunday to Saturday along the X-axis and hours from 12:00 AM to midnight in 15 minute increments on the Y-axis.
3. Working Time—Blocks of working time are shown in green in the calendar, spanning weekdays (horizontally) and hours (vertically). The time block is summarized by text in its center.
4. Editing Hours—To edit a time block, tap to select it and touch and hold the handles on its edge to drag them to the desired position. While editing, the scope of the edit is displayed in text at the top of the view.
5. New Time Block—Tap to add a new block of working time to the project.
6. Edit—Tap to switch to Edit mode, where time blocks can be deleted by tapping the red Delete icon in their corners.

Scheduling Custom Hours

Use the Custom Hours control in the Project inspector to add exceptions for any extra time (or time off) the regular weekly schedule.

This view displays a monthly calendar for browsing to dates where exceptions exist. Tap a week's row in the calendar to view and modify exceptions for the week.

1. Project—Tap to return to the top level of the Project inspector.
2. Monthly Overview—The Custom Hours calendar shows a monthly overview of the project, with the current date highlighted in yellow and green dates corresponding to regular working hours.
3. Exceptions—Dates with custom working hours are badged with a dot and tinted either red (for time off) or blue (for overtime). Tap a week in the calendar to edit its exceptions in detail.
4. Calendar—Tap to return to the monthly overview.
5. Weekdays and Hours—The calendar shows the selected work week, with days from Sunday to Saturday along the X-axis and hours from 12:00 AM to midnight in 15 minute increments on the Y-axis. Dates with exceptions are styled in red (for time off) and blue (for overtime).
6. Normal Hours—The project's normal work hours appear as faded green blocks in the calendar. They are shown for reference and cannot be edited here; use the Normal Hours calendar instead.
7. Time Off—Custom time off is represented by red time blocks in the calendar.
8. Overtime—Custom overtime is represented by blue time blocks in the calendar. To edit a time block, tap to select it and drag the editing handles along its edges.
9. Add and Remove Blocks—Tap Add Time Off and Add Overtime to add custom blocks of each type to the calendar. Tap the final control to switch to Edit mode, where time blocks can be deleted by tapping the red Delete icon in their corners.

Resolving Violations

Occasionally situations will emerge that break the rules of logic you have set up for your project. When one of these occurs, OmniPlan will let you know by indicating a violation related to the adjacent task.

When a violation occurs, a red icon appears on the task bar in the Gantt chart and in the Violations column of the outline. Tapping either of these opens information relevant to the violation in the View menu, along with suggestions to resolve it.

Violations in the View Menu

When a project has one or more unresolved violations, The View menu's icon changes to reflect this and the Violations section indicates how many violations are present.

Tap to open the Violations section for a list of all of the violations in the project, along with explanations of why they have occurred. Most explanations include links you can tap to immediately resolve the problem.

If the automated resolution provided by the Violations section is not what you want, tips in each description will help determine the source of the problem so you can fix it based on your scheduling needs.

Types of Violations

Violation	Description
Errors
More resources assigned than are available	More resources are assigned to this task than are available in the project. X has Y total currently assigned.
Constraints too close together	The start and end constraints are too close together to contain the entire duration of this task.
X constraint hit due to prerequisites	This task cannot start on or before its start constraint date due to prerequisites.
X constraint hit due to dependents	The possible end date of this task, minus its duration, makes it start before its start constraint date.
ASAP/ALAP task unable to be scheduled	This as-late-as-possible task can’t be scheduled because there is not enough time for it in between its prerequisite and dependent tasks.
Task ends after group’s end constraint date	The scheduled end date of this task occurs after its group’s end constraint date.
This task is involved in a dependency loop	The dependency upon task (X) Y has been disabled to avoid a dependency loop.
Hammock task doesn’t have start and end prerequisites	This hammock task does not have a dependency connected to both its start and its end, and so its duration is indeterminate.
Manual date set before prerequisites complete	This task's dates are set to manual, but it can't begin on its current date because its prerequisites won't yet be completed.
Manual date set earlier than no-earlier-than constraint date	This task is set to manual dates, but it can’t begin on its current date because it also has a no-earlier-than constraint that says it must begin later.
Scheduled outside of resource work time	There is not enough work time remaining for the resources assigned to this task for it to be completable.
Task ends after project’s end date	The scheduled end date of this task occurs after the project end date.
Task starts before project’s start date	The scheduled start date of this task occurs before the project start date.
Warnings
Couldn’t fit task during resource leveling	This task couldn’t be fully resource leveled and therefore the resources it is assigned to may remain overloaded. The task hasn’t been moved. Resource leveling failed because there wasn’t enough time to perform the task while honoring these constraints.
Maximum effort exceeded	OmniPlan supports a maximum of 20 years duration or 100 person-years of effort for a single task. This task was either set directly to a larger value, or the effort in the plan file was corrupted.
Reserve time lost from OmniPlan 1.x	This group contained reserve time in OmniPlan 1.x, which is an attribute that no longer exists in current versions of OmniPlan. That reserve time value is now missing. No other scheduling information has been affected.

How The Publish and Subscribe System Works

Once set up, Publish and Subscribe works like an infinite loop. The project manager and the resources assigned to the project are both capable of publishing and subscribing to everyone’s updates to the file. The key to making this work is the OmniPlan file itself, which resides on a server repository.

When you initially publish an OmniPlan file, a copy of your file gets pushed up to the designated server. That file on the server becomes the single point of reference to which everyone refers. The people assigned to the project subscribe to the file, which places a copy of the OmniPlan file in their On My [device] folder.

As people assigned to the project update their local file, they in turn publish those changes to the file on the server. The server then pushes those changes to everyone so their local file is always up to date.

Both the project manager and the resources contributing to the project use change tracking to receive and review changes which, when accepted, are published back up to the server.

Connecting OmniPlan to a Server Repository

With OmniPlan Pro installed, the App Menu in the document browser adds a Server Repositories item for setting up a shared server repository.

To create and connect to a server repository account, do the following:

1. From the App Menu, chooose Server Repositories:

   

2. Next, choose the server that hosts your OmniPlan files. Tap Add Omni Sync Server Account if you are syncing files with Omni Sync Server, or tap Add WebDAV Account if you are self-hosting or using a third-party WebDAV server:

   

3. On the Server Details screen, enter the information to access your account:

   

   After entering your account information, tap Connect in the window’s upper-right corner. Using the information you provided, OmniPlan attempts to connect to the server, and displays a message letting you know that the connection was successful.

   

   If you encounter an error at this point, re-enter your Username and Password, double-check the server address and any Path you may have provided and try again. (Leave the Path field blank if you are syncing via Omni Sync Server.)

   If you continue to experience problems connecting, contact your server administrator. If you are syncing to Omni Sync Server, contact our Support Humans for assistance.

You are returned to the Server Repositories screen, which lists available sync server locations:

Next up: publishing your project.

Publishing an OmniPlan Project

To share an OmniPlan project, follow these steps:

1. Open the OmniPlan project that you need to share.
2. In the toolbar, tap to open the inspector.
3. Tap Project to view the Project inspector.

4. Tap Configure under Publish and Subscribe:

   

5. Tap repository and choose the Repository to publish to (note that the Publish loads and Subscribe to loads switches are unavailable at the moment, so we'll be back):

   

6. Return to the Configure pane and turn on the Active switch to make the project available for publishing and subscribing:

   

7. Open the Repository settings again and choose whether you want to Publish and/or Subscribe to resource loads by turning on or off their respective switches.

   Balancing Resource Loads Across Projects

   If resources (usually human members of your team) are shared between multiple projects in the same repository, you’ll need to decide whether to Publish the current project’s resource loads to other projects and whether the current project will Subscribe to the resource loads of others.

   Choosing to Publish a project’s resource loads means that other subscribing projects will obey its workload information when leveling. For example, if Julie is working on Project A on Wednesday and its loads are being published to Project B, after leveling Project B won’t schedule her to work on Wednesday.

   Choosing to Subscribe to resource loads means that the project will obey all constraints by projects in the repository that are publishing their loads. By using only the publish or subscribe option a hierarchy of priority can be established between simultaneous projects. A project that only publishes will always have its needs met first, while a project that only subscribes will be assigned resources only when available.

   By publishing and subscribing to resource loads, projects are treated as equals. If a project neither publishes or subscribes, it ignores external factors and syncs only with its own updates.

   The key to balancing resource loads across projects is that individual resources are tagged and identified by a unique email address that is shared across all projects. This can be set in the Resource Info section of the Resource inspector.

8. Tap Back at the top of the inspector to return to the Configure pane of the inspector:

   

9. Tap Auto-Refresh Interval to set how frequently OmniPlan looks for updates to the synchronized file on the server:

   

   By default, this is set to Never, which allows you to manually check for updates in the Project inspector. Depending on how active your project is, however, you may consider choosing one of the available options (1, 5, 30, or 60 minute intervals).

   After setting a frequency for the Auto-Refresh Interval, you are returned to the Configure pane of the inspector:

   

10. At the top of the Project inspector, tap Project to return to the main inspector pane:

    

    As of now, the project has yet to be published.

11. Tap Publish to publish the project file to the server repository:

    

    The Project inspector displays the message All Changes Published beneath the Publish and Refresh buttons.

Once published, OmniPlan updates the local copy of your project file based on the Auto-Refresh Interval, or whenever you tap the Refresh button.

Subscribing to an OmniPlan Project

To subscribe to an existing OmniPlan project on an existing server repository, do the following:

1. Add the designated Server Repository to OmniPlan. See Connecting OmniPlan to a Server Repository, earlier in this chapter.

2. On the Locations screen, tap Server Repositories.

3. Choose the server that contains the project that you need to access:

   

4. Tap the published file to subscribe to it:

   

   When you tap the file, OmniPlan saves a copy of it in the On My [device] folder (accessible via the document browser) on your device.

   The OmniPlan file is available for editing just like any other OmniPlan project, with one important addition: it comes with its server repository settings pre-configured. The project is ready to publish its changes and receive updates from the server, and will by default publish changes to its resource loads and subscribe to those made in other projects on the server.

5. Tap to open the file.

You only need to run through the previous steps the first time you access the file on the Server Repository. Once the project file is saved to your On My [device] folder, just go there to open the project.

To ensure that your local copy of the project file is always up to date with the latest changes from other team members, we recommend that you follow these steps whenever you open your local copy:

1. Get updates to the project: Tap to open the inspectors, tap the Project inspector tab, and then tap Refresh.
2. Accept or reject changes.
3. Make your changes to the project file.
4. Publish your changes: Tap the Project inspector tab, and then tap Publish.

Managing Server Repositories

Once you have an account set up and have begun publishing and subscribing to projects, you can manage your repository accounts and shared projects on the Server Repositories screen.

From the App Menu:

1. Tap Server Repositories.

2. Tap to select the repository containing the files you want to manage.

   After tapping the applicable repository, the next screen you see contains a list of OmniPlan files on the server:

   

3. To delete a file from the server, you can either Edit and then tap the delete button () or you can swipe left on a file and then tap Delete.

When you tap Delete, OmniPlan presents the following alert:

If you delete the file from the server, people who have subscribed to the plan file won’t be able to publish their changes. Meaning, everyone who has subscribed to the plan will be out of sync with each other’s changes. Everyone will still have a local copy of the plan file on their device or Mac; they just won’t be able to publish or subscribe to changes.

Change Tracking

You can use Change Tracking to track changes made to the shared project and accept or reject the changes of others.

To turn on Change Tracking, tap in the toolbar, and then tap Change Tracking:

At the top of the Change Tracking pane, tap the switch to turn on Change Tracking for the shared project:

Whenever a change is made to the project (either locally or remotely), that change is logged in the Change Tracking pane of the View menu:

The Change Tracking screen displays a list of changes made since your last update to the project. Each change includes the relevant task name, the device responsible for the change, the date the change was made, and the nature of the change.

You can approve or reject changes individually by selecting each change and then tapping Accept Change or Reject Change, respectively. You can also approve or reject changes en masse by tapping either Select Local Changes or Select All Changes and tapping Accept Changes or Reject Changes, respectively:

Keyboard Shortcuts

If you use OmniPlan with an external keyboard connected to your device, you can take advantage of the app’s built in keyboard shortcuts for many common tasks.

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.

Action	Shortcut
Universal Shortcuts (available anywhere in the app)
Cut	Command-X
Copy	Command-C
Paste	Command-V
Undo	Command-Z
Redo	Command-shift-Z
Common View Shortcuts (available in all views)
New Task	return
New Milestone	Command-shift-M
New Milestone (when not editing)	M
Group	Command-option-G or Command-option-L
Delete Forward	delete
Delete Backward	backspace
Outline View Shortcuts
Move Up	Command-control-↑
Move Down	Command-control-↓
Indent	Command-]
Outdent	Command-[
Expand Group	→
Collapse Group	←
Previous Task	↑
Next Task	↓
Edit Next	tab
Edit Previous	shift-tab
Edit Title	Command-return or E
Gantt View Shortcuts
Move Up	Command-control-↑
Move Down	Command-control-↓
Indent	Command-]
Outdent	Command-[
Expand Group	→
Collapse Group	←
Previous Task	↑
Next Task	↓
Edit Title	Command-return or E
Network View Shortcuts
Select Right	→
Select Left	←
Select Up	↑
Select Down	↓
Text Shortcuts (when editing text)
Navigate Right	→ or control-P
Navigate Left	← or control-N
Navigate Up	↑ or control-F
Navigate Down	↓ or control-B
Move to Beginning of Paragraph	control-A
Move to Beginning of Paragraph and Select	shift-control-A
Move to End of Paragraph	control-E
Move to End of Paragraph and Select	shift-control-E
Document Browser Shortcuts
Create Document	Command-N
Create Folder	Command-shift-N
Open	Command-O
Rename	return
Move Here	Command-option-V
Duplicate	Command-D
Delete	Command-delete
Get Info	Command-I
Show in Folder	Command-R
Quick Look	space
Favorite	Command-control-T
Select All	Command-A
Find	Command-F
Show Recents	Command-shift-F
Show Browse	Command-shift-B
View as Icons	Command-1
View as List	Command-2
View as Column	Command-3
Sort by Name	Command-control-option-1
Sort by Date	Command-control-option-2
Sort by Size	Command-control-option-3
Sort by Kind	Command-control-option-4
Sort by Tags	Command-control-option-5
Go to Enclosing Folder	Command-↑
Go to iCloud Drive	Command-shift-I
Go to Downloads	Command-option-L
Go to Documents	Command-shift-O
Go to Desktop	Command-shift-D
Connect to Server...	Command-K
Eject	Command-E

Release Notes

For a detailed, comprehensive summary of the latest changes to OmniPlan, choose Release Notes from the Help menu. This is a good place to check if something is behaving in a new way after an update.

Finding Help Online

The OmniPlan Support Site provides a wealth of information (including this reference manual) as well as how-tos and support articles which go into finer detail on working with OmniPlan.

Similarly, the OmniPlan product page is always a good place to find the latest information about features and updates to OmniPlan.

Email Support

If you are stuck, if you have a good idea for the next version of OmniPlan, or if you want to let us know how we’re doing, go ahead and send us an email. Choose Contact Omni from the Help menu to queue up an email message addressed to us, or send us an email with your thoughts. We take support seriously, so you can expect a prompt response actually typed by human hands.

Phone Support

We understand that sometimes you can’t wait for an email response when you are knee-deep in a project and you are stuck or something is not working quite right. When this happens, you can call our Support Humans at 800-315-OMNI or 206-523-4152. Our Support Humans are available Monday-Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time (-0700 GMT).

Online Forums

Omni maintains online forums for all of our products, which are available to everyone. Come share your questions and ideas with other users, share tips to show off how you are using OmniPlan for getting stuff done, and seek help from the OmniPlan community.

Omni Automation Support (Pro)

With OmniPlan Pro you have access to Omni Automation, a suite of powerful JavaScript-based scripting tools and plug-ins that can automate tasks both within OmniPlan as well as between applications (and even between hardware platforms).

In addition to the support resources above, Omni maintains a separate website for all things Omni Automation at https://omni-automation.com, including OmniPlan-specific documentation and sample plug-ins to help you get started.