Documentation of Version 2.8
Generated automatically from the Apple Help for Merlin.
Welcome to Merlin! We are delighted to welcome you to the project managers’ roundtable. This reference should assist our users in finding their way around Merlin. This document was not intended to be read from beginning to end (although, this is also possible). Moreover, you will find specific information within each chapter focusing on the relevant topic.
You will find several cross-references in this document that we hope will support you in gathering information throughout your project planning.
We would also like to recommend our website for more information focusing on Merlin. You will find this at http://www.projectwizards.net/en.
One of the most important Mac OS X concepts is Drag & Drop. Merlin uses the Drag & Drop concept for many of its operations. To open or import files you can drag them from the Finder onto the Merlin application icon.
Here is an overview of just a few ways you can use the Drag & Drop functionality in Merlin:
Another very special feature of Merlin is its versatility. With Merlin you can choose different directions in planning your projects. You can plan your projects from top to bottom (starting from the project down to the individual activities) or you can plan them from the bottom up (from the activities to the project). This process applies to the following sections
From the first "project vision" through the last "post-mortem meeting," Merlin offers you practical methods of attaching several types of information to a specific activity, a phase or to the entire project. It is analogous to using e-mail. Following the same principal, Merlin attaches Elements to an activity or to other information in your project. The attached Elements are always available to you whenever required. The following Elements have been integrated:
Merlin can be extended in several ways. Any project can be saved as a template, and the Library can be built into a valuable component for your documents. It is also possible to create you own reports.
Merlin’s interface provides you with a main window, which displays all the tools and information you usually use. The main window is divided into four areas offering a large variety of information regarding the project outline, elements, resources and inspector.
In the menus you will find all the commands that can be used in Merlin. A keyboard shortcut exists for almost all the menu functions.
Four different views have been integrated into Merlin. Clicking on the desired view will bring that view into focus.
Depending on the view you have selected, the main area offers you different details and information about your project. You can view and in certain cases modify the main outline of your project, adding activities, groups and milestones. Furthermore, this area also allows you to work interactively with the Gantt chart, Netplan and resource utilization.
The Elements Area provides a collection point for all the information that is gathered prior to, during and after a project completion. With Merlin’s Element concept we have implemented a new type of functionality for project management software. Elements will provide you with a powerful and organized structure to store and document events, risks, checklists throughout your project. The Elements area is always situated below the main area and can be accessed using the F2 key.
The Inspector displays detailed information of the selected object. You can enter required information in the Inspector and obtain valuable data for your project. Right clicking on an empty gray area in the Inspector will display a context menu, in which you can switch between small and large inspector controls. You will also find the setting for this option in the Preferences.
This area provides you with two different types of contents. A list of resources or grops that can be assigned to activiies. In addition, you can add your Address Book resources to Merlin by dragging and dropping the resources into this dialog.
The second type of content displayed in this area is project conflicts. When a conflict is selected from this list, Merlin highlights the corresponding activity in the main view.
Adjust the column separator for additional space for the activities or the described conflicts/warnings
Merlin's toolbar is global to the entire application. You can edit the tool bar icons by right-clicking anywhere on the tool bar itself and choosing "Customize Toolbar...". In addition to the view selector buttons, Merlin's tool bar has additional buttons described below:
This is the Project Settings icon. It can also be accessed using the Main Menu at "File - Project Settings".
This is the Library icon. Pressing it will show the Library. It can also be accessed using the Main Menu at "Window - Library."
This tool bar button will show/hide the Element section. Alternatively, the Element section can be accessed over the menu "Window - Show Elements."
This tool bar button is used to show/hide the inspector. The corresponding menu command for this is "Window - Show/Hide Info Area".
This tool bar button is used to toggle Merlin's publishing mode on or off. The corresponding menu command for this is "File - Publish".
Each view has an additional toolbar - the so-called feature bar. On this bar you will find the functions that are important for that specific view. Each feature bar is developed according to the same design. On the left side you will find the title of the view with its icon; On the right side, the functions used for this view. Unlike the main toolbar, it is not possible to modify these feature bars
The dimensions of each section in Merlin can be modified using the gray separators between each section. For example, if you would like to increase the height of the additional area section, simply grab the separator with your mouse and slide it upwards.
Furthermore the vertical separator in the Inspector can be used to modify the section between the field description and the data fields.
In addition, you can show/hide the Gantt chart in the Activities, and Utilization views by sliding the Gantt resizer button found on the bottom edge.
Merlin is a document based application where data is saved in individual files. Like most other document-based applications, Merlin files can be based on pre-defined templates or saved as templates.
It is also possible to save any project file as a template. User created templates are listed among the bundled templates
If you want to edit your template, open it using "File - Open" menu entry and navigate to the location of the template. Default location is "~/Library/Application Support/Merlin/Project Templates"
Merlin provides a user friendly interface to modifying the project calendar. Initially, the project calendar was found in the project settings but that has been changed since.
Project calendar is now accessed as a tab in the inspector when the project row is selected in the outline portion of the Activities View.
You can change the project calendar to accommodate for project wide events such as national holidays.
If you wish to re-use your project calendar in other projects, you can export/import calendars by clicking on the gear icon
Note: If you already have the exceptions on an iCal calendar, there is no need for you to enter them manually in Merlin. You can simply use the gear icon and import the iCal file into the selected Merlin calendar.
If you wish to observe multiple project files in one Gantt chart, you need to combine your projects into one, Master, file. You can combine your project files using drag & drop or Merlin menus.
Why should I combine projects?
Here are some scenarios that might benefit from combining projects:
You can also accomplish the same using the "File - Combine Projects…" menu.
Things to know about combined files
Combined files considerations
Although projects are combined into one master file, the following issues need to be kept in mind.
If you wish to combine the projects into one master file that you can reuse, you need to save the master file. Here is how to do it.
Remember that the master file is a conduit to the other project files. Even after saving the master file, changes to the combined files will be saved back to there respective files.
Note: We recommend you focus on using the "Utilization" view as it lists all the resources and their assignments. The following columns might be useful to show.
To limit the time span of a Gantt chart display, use the limiting date range feature.
Note: The "Limit Date Range" button indicates whether a date range limit is in effect or not. Here is how:
Like most users, you might want to customize the look and feel of Merlin. You might want specific colors for your Gantt chart, specific columns in your outline, etc. It would be very inefficient if you have to change all these parameters every time you open a new Merlin file. To help you preserve these settings, you can use Merlin Workspaces as a way of preserving and activating a specific set of changes.
You can adjust your Merlin environment as you wish and save these settings in a workspace so they are always available to you when you need them. You can save multiple workspaces and invoke the one you want. This is very useful when wanting to present your project file but don't want to show more information than needed. You can create a simple workspace that has only the necessary columns for your stakeholders.
Merlin offers you three different types of workspaces with which to work.
Built-in: Workspaces that comes with Merlin build in. They can't be modified
For all projects: Workspaces created by the end user. They can be used across multiple projects
For current project: Workspaces created by the end user but can only be used within the project file they were saved in
You can also activate a workspace from the workspace editing dialogue.
Select the workspace and press the "Activate" button
Within a view it is possible to save different parts in the Workspaces. You can expand any section and control every aspect of the workspace you wish to retain.
You can select a single Workspace as the default one so when you open a new file, it defaults to that workspace.
Here you can make changes that are specific to the project you are working on. These settings take effect when the project file is opened by Merlin.
You will find the basic settings for your project under the “General” tab
All basic financial data is entered here:
Define the length of the work day, week and month, taking the possible number of work hours into account.
The status date can be used to view the status of the project on this specified date.
All the contents of the Elements’ pop-up lists are available in the value lists.
The following lists are available:
How do you insert new values in a list:
How do you delete a value from a list:
This is a collection of project settings that don't belong to any other category.
You can drag and drop any image into this location. This image will be used in reports. PNG format is preferred.
When you call up the project settings for combined projects you will notice a small triangle in the title row of the Project Settings window:
When the title of such a project is clicked, all contained projects are displayed in a menu. To access the settings for a project contained in the combined project, select the desired project in the menu.
This way it is possible to manage individual project settings even for linked/combined projects.
WBS or "Work Breakdown Structure" describes the global structural layout of a project. In comparison to a graphical display of the project structure (which can be imported into Merlin, e.g. from a mind map), Merlin is responsible only for the structured display in the outline.
In the "File" menu you can access the "WBS Code Settings." Merlin will display a dialogue form in which you can define the structure of the WBS.
In the Activity view and the Utilization view it is possible to activate the relevant column in the outline. In the Netplan view the WBS code can be activated to be displayed in a section of the Netplan boxes.
You can find further information regarding the WBS in Wikipedia.
Activities are the main building blocks of projects. It is what most project managers think of when they visualize a project. Merlin uses the "Activities" view to list all the tasks related to a project.
Merlin has many types of activities you can enter:
Select the appropriate activity type you see listed under the "Insert" menu. Use this menu to explore the types of activities Merlin allows you to enter.
You can use
You can also use the
a new activity is created. If you click and hold, the context menu will be displayed offering you several types of activities you can add.
Tips and Tricks
If you prefer to keep your fingers on the keyboard than use the mouse, you can use "Enter" to edit the activities name and "Tab" to jump to the next column. This will allow you to easily edit your tasks information without needing to resort to the mouse often.
When entering time units, you don't need to spell out the time unit. You can use the first one or two letters of the unit and Merlin will recognize it according to the list below.
The above units are refering working units as defined in the project settings. Per default 1 working day equals 8 hours. If you need to define a duration in effective time, you may use "e"-units. Merlin recognises the following effective time units:
Using Indent and Outdent, you can structure your outline in whatever hierarchy you wish.
If one of these options is not available, it is because it is not possible due to structure restrictions.
You can move your tasks around the outline hierarchy using drag & drop. It important to note that you have to have the "#" column (manual sorting) selected.
Larger files are harder to view all at once. To help, Merlin has several hot keys to easily collapse or expand outlines.
If you wish to see all the assignments, use "Edit - Show All Assignments" menu option or "⌘⇧↓" short cut. To hide all the assignments use "Edit - Hide All Assignments" or "⌘⇧↓" short cut.
If you would like to view the project up to a specific outline level, select "Edit - Show Outline" and then choose the relevant level in the sub-menu.
You can also use "⌃⌥1...9" short cut.
You can link activities using dependencies to express the flow of your activities through out your project. Merlin supports the following types of dependencies:
You can link activities in Merlin using:
If you are a MS Project user switching to Merlin on Mac OS X, this is probably your most familiar linking method.
You can sort your activities automatically or manually.
You can define lead or lag only between linked activities. To do so:
A positive value would cause a lead of the successor. For lag, you should enter a negative value.You can enter here working time units or effective time; like eday, emonth, eyear, etc.
Warnings indicate that a specified value has been exceeded. A warning does not necessarily mean that your project plan contains an error. it can certainly be intended. For example, an activity starts or ends in a work-free period.
It is possible to deactivate the warnings in the Activities View Options.
Possible warnings are:
A conflict indicates a problem in the project planning. As a rule, conflicts always occur when you have entered a start or end value that cannot be executed by Merlin in the planning.
Possible conflicts are:
How Do You Resolve A Conflict?
Merlin doesn't support solving warning and conflicts automatically because no algorithm exists that can automatically solve planning conflicts. There can be several reasons for a conflict. Instead, we would like to offer a few tips for locating the source of a conflict:
Furthermore, it should always be the responsibility of the project manager to modify the data in a project. After all, there must have been a reason, why an activity (currently showing the conflict) was planned on a specific date.
Merlin provides very comprehensive support of entering actual values. Actuals for activities can be entered in the inspector under the "Actuals" tab or entered in the outline view using the relevant columns.
Assuming you have created the following project:
After the planning is finished, the project begins. Promptly the start of the first activities is delayed. You enter the actual start in the Inspector under the tab "Actual Values:"
The Gantt chart will look like this:
The gray bars represent the planned values and the colored bars now represent the expected values. This means that the project can end at the earliest (when no other delays occur) on the October 6th.
Note: If you need to create a report in which the planning values are not visible, you can deactivate the gray bars in the view options:
The Gantt chart looks like this:
The behavior in the Utilization View is pretty much the same.
There are different ways to manage your budgets in Merlin. Basically, you can plan and organize your budget top-down (based on the project) or bottom-up (calculated from the activity).
To enter a budget in a project without going through the approval process enter the amount in the Finance Inspector in the closed "Budget" section. This amount is taken over as an approved budget. All other fields in the section will be automatically filled out with the actual data.
To follow the approval workflow. Expand the "Budget" section and enter the necessary values.
When you insert the first activities of phases (groups) into your project, you will want to allocate a portion of the total budget to these activities. You can do this either in absolute or relative values.
After you have inserted an activity, allocate a budget in the Finance Inspector. Enter in the appropriate field an amount e.g. $2,000. Merlin uses the format and the currency set in the system preferences and applies this to the amount entered: "$2,000.00.".
Alternatively you can allocate a percentage to the budget by simply adding the percent sign (%) to your entry.
You can also check the fraction box in the - Approved Amount - section. Merlin calculates the percentage from the budget of the parent group (in this case from the project) as the approved budget.
In your project you can mix the budgets with absolute and relative portions as desired.
Distributed means that a portion of the budget has been associated with a specific activity or group of activities. If you have a budget or $10,000 and you assigned $2,000 to several tasks. The $2,000 is considered distributed budget. The other $8,000 will remain as not distributed.
This distribution is always calculated for the group located above the activity. When you, for example, add sub-activities to an activity, creating a group, the budgets of the activities are added to the group. The budgets of the groups are then added to the project.
Base cost can be assigned to Project, Group or an Activity. When "Base Cost" is closed in the Inspector, you can enter the total cost as a single entry. If you expand the disclosure triangle, you will be able to allocate multiple costs. If more than one amount is entered in the Base Cost, the combined base costs cannot be changed. This behavior applies to every Project, Group or Activity.
You can also determine the cost accrual. Your options are Start, Prorated, Immediate or End.
These costs are calculated either out of the standard resource costs (which you can allocate in the project settings), or from the costs of the assigned resources (which you can allocate in the Resource view). These costs are subtracted form the approved budget of the relevant activity.
The groups located above this add up these amounts so that in the topmost group (the project) has a sum of all the planned resource costs.
The Element costs are displayed as a sum of all attached Elements to an activity. These are also added to the groups located above the relevant activity. All groups are then added to the next higher group.
The costs of the elements attached to an activity and the costs for all the Elements located below this activity are added here. If an activity does not have any lower level activities (is therefore not a group), the Element costs are the same as the sum of the Element costs.
The balance is derived from the approved budget, the planned resource (base and work costs) and the sum of the Elements costs.
Resources are the backbone of any project. A resource can be a person, material, equipment, or a company. In Merlin's help, we will refer to all of them as "resources".
You have several different possibilities for inserting resources into your project:
Whenever you would like to create or transfer a new resource in your project, simply drag it from its source into the resource well (on the bottom right of the Merlin main window). Alternatively, you can click on the plus symbol in the resource list or use the Resource view
When you select a resource in the Resource view or double-click on a resource in the resource list, the details of this specific resource are displayed in the Inspector.
When this icon or this icon
is displayed next to the name of the resource, it is an indication that the resource has been inserted from either Mac OS X Address Book or MS Entourage. Clicking on the icon will start the relevant application and display the person in the address book. As the resources are linked to the relevant data record, all modifications you make in the source application can be reflected back in Merlin.
To refresh the contact information of inserted resources
Note: To disconnect inserted resources from the related contacts, call ‘Disconnect from Address’ out of the contextual menu shown.
Merlin supports many types of resources. They are:
It is possible to enter the resource costs. Entering an amount when a rate is expected will automatically change it into a rate/hour when you leave the relevant field. The currency type defined in the Project Settings is applied. If you would prefer to use a time unit other than hours, simply use the costs in the "Rate/Time" unit notation. The following abbreviations can be selected:
Whenever you assign a resource to an activity, the entered rates will be used as a basis for the cost calculations:
This is a the utilization that is given to a resource when assigned to an activity.
The automatic Status shows whether a resource is over or under utilized. If you manually select a flag, the automatic function of this feature is deactivated and the selected flag will always be displayed. Please see Utilization to discover the meaning of the flags colors.
Each resource has its own calendar. By default, the calendar is based on the project calendar. If you wish to make specific changes to a specific resource, such as marking their vacation time, you have to do it in the resource calendar.
When a resource calendar is specified, Merlin intersects the resource calendar with the Project calendar. This behavior can be overridden by specifying which "Precedence" the assignment calendar should take.
Assignment is a resource that has been allocated to an activity. The resource can be a person, equipment, company or a material.
In Merlin, an assignment is structurally displayed below the activity.
You can toggle showing/hiding the assigned resource per activity by clicking on the white () triangles.
There are many ways to assign a resource to an activity.
You can assign multiple resources to the same activity using methods 1 and 2.
You can delete a single or multiple activity resource assignment
There are multiple ways you can change the resource assignment for an activity
You can also:
Let's assume you have allocated two resources to an activity and know that one of the resources will be working 75% on the activity and the other only 25%.
To solve this issue remember one of Merlin's basic concepts. Top-Down & Bottom-Up!
When opening the activity containing both the assignments, you can directly enter these percent values in the column "Given Planned Work." Merlin calculates the exact times based on the activity work.
In that case, you will notice that 75% of 2 days of work is equal to 1.5 days and 25% of 2 days of work is 4 hours (0.5 day)
Let's assume you have allocated two resources to an activity and know that one of the resources can only work a fixed amount of time on this activity.
Merlin assigns a fixed amount of work for this assignment and will keep this upon later changes on the activities' planned work values.
To toggle between time units and percentages, use the ‘Fraction’ check box.
Additional Information
For additional tutorials and help, please visit www.ProjectWizards.net
Activity view is focused on displaying the schedule from the context of an activity since it is used as the main building block of that view. Utilization view displays the same project but from the resources context.
Utilization view lists all the activities grouped per resource. The Gantt chart is replaced with utilization blocks that represent resources allocation.
The colors of the boxes follow these rules:
By default, over allocation is defined above 100% and a under utilization below 25%. However, you can define it in the resource leveling settings.
If you select the button "Enlarge the cumulation" in the functional toolbar, the selected rows will be expanded. This switches the display to show you a histogram of the resource utilization in detail, based on the time scale. You can also expand or contract the rows by grabbing the bottom of the row with the mouse and dragging it to the desired size. If you press the Option (⌥) key while doing this, all the rows in the view will be expanded.
By clicking on the triangle in front of the resource name, Merlin displays all the assignments for the respective resource. This is important: The resource assignments are displayed and not the activities
As in all Merlin views with many combined or multiple projects, there is a special function in the Utilization view: When common resources are inserted in the combined projects, these "Master Resources" automatically change and show all assignments of the contained projects.
Manual Leveling
When assignments are visible, their respective bars in the graphical view can be moved to the right or left with the mouse so you can manually level your resources.
You can modify the resources and assignments in this view; however, keep in mind: These are not activities!
Following this simple example, here is a little further background information:
The behavior in the Activity View is pretty much the same.
Resource leveling is part of every project managers arsenal of skills to ensure realistic delivery dates and maximum resources utilization. Utilization view is the most fitting view for monitoring resources utilization.
In addition to being able to manually level resources, Merlin provides a powerful auto-leveling feature. Resource leveling can level all assignments across the entire project or in a given date range. Merlin uses "Leveling Delay" to move the activities around in order to level your resources.
You can instruct Merlin to level your entire project or just the selected activities. Merlin uses the "Leveling Delay" values to level your project.
You can select "Reset All" or "Reset Selection" from the "Edit - Resource Leveling" to remove the values in the "Leveling Delay".
To modify the resource-leveling setting, select "Edit - Resource Leveling - Leveling Settings…". You will be presented with the following dialogue box.
Detect Over-utilization allows you to select the time unit you wish Merlin to use when detecting over utilization. Typically, use the unit your planned your project in. For example, if you planned your project in days, use days.
Select whether you want to level the entire project or a date range using the radio buttons.
If you already leveled your project, it is recommended that you clear the leveling delays before leveling again.
Select if you choose to level resources within available slack. In addition, you need to select the leveling order you wish Merlin to use.
Leveling order options are:
Should I level within available slack or not?
Leveling within available slack has the advantage of not changing your project end date. However, this will restrict your leveling because of the limited free space in your project plan. If you disabled this option, Merlin will attempt to level your schedule even if it means pushing your project end date forward.
Threshold values serve two purposes. First; The display settings for the resource utilization in the Utilization view are affected by these values.
If you have a project with the following threshold settings:
Merlin will use these settings to determine the colour of the resource utilization:
Secondly, Merlin uses the over-utilization threshold to define at what utilization percentage Merlin considers the resource to be over utilized. In the above example, it is 101% is the point where Merlin considers the resource over-utilized and starts leveling the activities for that resource.
When enabled, the "relative to default utilization" check box allows you to select the leveling values of a resource relative to the default utilization value of that resource.
Imagine you have a bricklayer crew made up of five people. You have the crew represented as a single resource titled "bricklayers" because you always plan this crew as a unit. Since the create is made up of 5 actual individuals, you set its default utilization to 500% (100%/individual). Because you assign the activities with the work for five people, you have a utilization of 500%. Merlin will consider this resource to be over-utilized (>100%).
By checking the "relative to default utilization" check box, the value (500%) will be used as the new basis and the resource will only then show over-utilization when it is at 501%.
You can group your resources within Resource Groups you define your self. This will allow you to manage a large number of resources. Like Users, groups can be given permissions as well.
To show or hide the groups area, press the button
You can also use the "+" on the top right side of the resource groups area to add groups
Members of the resource group will inherit the resource group permissions unless they were set explicitly.
The following description should help you determine the access rights for Resources Groups.
Title | Permission |
---|---|
Users | Read: Be able to read user permissions only.
Read & Write: Be able to view users permissions and modify them. |
Settings |
Read: Read project settings only.
Read & Write: Read and Modify project settings. |
Data from Others |
Read: Read data entered by other users
Read & Write: Read and write end users data No Access: Prevent from viewing or editing other users data |
Activities |
Read: Able to view project activities
Read & Write: Able to view and modify activities |
Resources |
Read: View the resources and their settings
Read & Writer: No Access: Prevent from viewing or editing resources and their data |
Assignments |
Read: View assignments
Read & Write: View and modify assignments No Access: Prevent viewing or modifying assignments |
Elements |
Read: View elements
Read & Write: View and modify elements No Access: Prevent viewing or modifying elements |
Financial Data |
Read: View financial data
Read & Write: View and modify financial data No Access: Prevent viewing or modifying financial data |
Actual data |
Read: View actual data
Read & Write: View and modify actual data |
We strongly recommend that you review the Users help page to learn more about the concept of Merlin users and permissions.
When assigning Resources Groups to tasks, Merlin will add the members of the Resources Groups to the task as assignments and not the group itself.
Deleting the Resources Group doesn't remove the resource members. Resources have to be removed explicitly
Merlin introduced the concept of "Users" to control access to shared project files. Any resource can be designated as a user. Merlin project file can have multiple users each with their own password and or set of permissions.
Resources can be designated as users using the "Is a User" option in the resource inspector.
How to designate a resources as a user with permissions
Please note that permission changes will apply immediately. However, password changes will apply upon login.
The following description should help you determine the access rights for users.
Title | Permission |
---|---|
Users | Read: Be able to read user permissions only.
Read & Write: Be able to view users permissions and modify them. |
Settings |
Read: Read project settings only.
Read & Write: Read and Modify project settings. |
Data from Others |
Read: Read data entered by other users
Read & Write: Read and write end users data No Access: Prevent from viewing or editing other users data |
Activities |
Read: Able to view project activities
Read & Write: Able to view and modify activities |
Resources |
Read: View the resources and their settings
Read & Writer: No Access: Prevent from viewing or editing resources and their data |
Assignments |
Read: View assignments
Read & Write: View and modify assignments No Access: Prevent viewing or modifying assignments |
Elements |
Read: View elements
Read & Write: View and modify elements No Access: Prevent viewing or modifying elements |
Financial Data |
Read: View financial data
Read & Write: View and modify financial data No Access: Prevent viewing or modifying financial data |
Actual data |
Read: View actual data
Read & Write: View and modify actual data |
Passwords
Please note that you need your old password in order to change the password. If you have forgotten your password, and you are the only designated user, you will lose access to the file indefinitely. Merlin attempts to capture this situation and warn you before it happens. If you lose your password, contact support for further help.
The Elements concept provides you with a single collection point for the many types of information obtained during the life of a project. Imagine an attachment to an email. The same principal is used for the elements concept in Merlin. Which is why the toolbar paper clip icon represents the Elements feature.
Merlin provides several types of elements to choose from, each serving a different purpose:
You will find the Elements section below each of the views offered in Merlin. You can expand or contract this section using the separators or by clicking on the paperclip toolbar button or pressing the F2 key.
In the upper right corner of the Element table, you will find an arrow that you can use to modify the amount of Elements displayed per activity (or project).
When the arrow points down (this means it is expanded), all Elements within the selected activity will be displayed. Furthermore, all those Elements that are listed in the outline for the sub-activities will also be displayed.
When the arrow points to the right (minimized), only those Elements that are contained within the selected activity will be shown.
The Elements bar on the top left corner of the Elements view is clickable. It allows you to filter the listed Elements by type. When a specific type is selected, pressing the "+" button will add that specific type of Element making it more convenient to add a type of elements quickly.
You can delete an element by selecting it then pressing "delete" button
Checklists are a common tool that many PMs use. Merlin helps the PMs by providing a Checklist Element that can be attached to any activity.
With Merlin Checklist Element, you can track all your lists easily. You can even generate a report for all the lists in your project to make sure that none of them slip through the cracks.
Here we will walk through how to create a check list element attached to a task then populate the elements with several items
Merlin has other features to help you manage your checklists. It allows you to mark your checklist items with simple checkboxes. Save them to a separate file, load them from an external file and of course copy and paste them.
To successfully import your checklists, you need to have them saved as OPML. To learn more about OPML, check out OPML page on Wikipedia here.
If your report doesn't list all of the intended checklists, check your report options by pressing the "Options" toolbar button in the report dialogue box
Of all the information a Project Manager is expected to manage during a project, Files are the most difficult to track and organize. The shear number of files, their relevance to parts of the project and the number of versions each file has can take a big chunk out of the PM's daily work.
To organize your project files, you can use Merlin's File Element. The File Element will allow you to easily store your files as attachments to tasks or resources. You can keep track of certain information related to the files such as who authored the document, its priority, and status. You can even keep older versions of your file as Merlin keeps track of your document versions as they change.
You can add a File element to your Merlin file in two ways
If you wish to delete the file element, simply select it and press the delete button.
It is no secret that PMs have a large number of events that happen during their projects. Most of these events involve project stakeholders, external contractors, management, etc. Merlin helps the PM better organize these events by providing an Event Element that can be added to any activity or resource. With iCal integration, you can export this element to your calendar.
Recommendation
When adding an attendee that is not part of the resources list, he/she will be automatically added to the resources list of the project. We recommend that you use the drop down menu in the "Resources" column when adding attendees to avoid accidentally adding resources.
Every project manager knows how much information is exchanged outside the official project planning sessions (whether it is in meetings or even around the water cooler). Some solve this problem with a Post-It notes all over their monitors, others have more creative methods. In larger projects, this becomes an impossible task.
Merlin solves this problem by providing the Information Element as a conduit to this type of information. Like all other elements, it can be attached to any specific resource or activity. Since Merlin is Spotlight compatible, finding these elements in a large group of Merlin projects is very straight forward.
symbol behind the field.
Note: If you wish to add more information, you can always click on the "Text" tab and add all the text, history, notes you wish attached to this Information Element.
No project ever runs without at least one problem or issue. These issues can range from small, everyday catastrophes to a major crisis, where suddenly nothing runs as expected and the whole project threatens to collapse. For this reason, an experienced project manager conducts an "issue" list and tries to keep this synced to the project planning. Furthermore, certain contents of the project may change over the course of your project planning
Merlin helps the PM keep track of these issues by providing an Issue Element. Add your problem case as an Issue Element to your project and supervise it until it has been resolved.
symbol behind the field.
Planning, tracking and mitigating risks during a project is one of the challenges project managers face on daily basis.
With Merlin you can add risks to your project's activities, phases or entire project. This will allow you to mitigate the risk and during the post-mortem, you can visit all your risks and evaluate how successful the project was in dealing with them. Retaining your risk data in your project provides a unique perspective on it later on.
Risks are multifaceted by nature. In order to classify them easily, a few pop-up lists have been added. This concerns the:
When the risk has been recorded you can begin to assess the impact, or its effect on your project should it actually occur. Based on:
The result is the Risk Factor, which is displayed by a colored flag:
The results are calculated through a matrix calculation, which can be seen, when the Risk factor section is expanded. The calculation of the risk factor cannot be modified.
Your findings and the planned actions for the risk can be recorded in the text box Risk Actions and Closing.
In Merlin you can change the appearance of your Gantt, columns, styles, etc.
Merlin contains a wide range of columns. A brief description of the contents of each column can be found in the relevant activity, Elements or the resources "View Options" dialogue.
Although you can right click on a the column header to see a listing of all the possible columns you can show/hide, when wanting to enable more than one columns you will find it easier to do this in the View Options dialogue.
Columns headers are sortable so if you want to see all the enabled columns, click on the checkboxes column heading to sort according to checkbox status
In Merlin you can save a set of columns that you can activate at any time you wish.
You can also delete, modify or set-as-default any column set over the "Manage..." dialogue in the "Column Set" popup menu
You can define a custom title to be displayed instead of the predefined column names.
Alignment applies to given title or custom titles
Besides using the style information it is possible to modify the Gantt chart with several different available options.
Merlin can use a different project working time to display the Gantt bars than the project calendar settings
As described in the Actual Values page, the bars in the Gantt chart are displayed in gray when actual values have been entered for an activity. Uncheck this option to disable it.
Depending on the amount set in the time scale, you will find one to four checkboxes here. With this option it is possible to display a gray line in the Gantt chart for each time scale. This could make it easier to read the Gantt chart of projects with multiple levels.
With this option you can decide if the non working time is displayed in gray in the Gantt chart. You can select whether the project calendar should define the working hours for all activities or each row should be handled individually. The non working time refer to the time defined in the project calendar.
With this option you can activate or deactivate the display of the critical path in the Gantt chart. The critical path plays an important role in many projects. The critical path concerns all activities in a project that cannot be automatically deferred to the left (=in the past) or to the right (=in the future) and that directly influence the project (for a detailed definition please read the article on Wikipedia).
With this option you can enable or disable the display of the dependency lines in the Gantt.
If you activate this option, the actual unit of the lowest time scale will be highlighted in light blue in the Gantt chart.
The time line function displays the current point of time with a vertical red line in the Gantt chart.
If you have this option activated you will notice that the changes you make in the Gantt chart are animated. This means that, for example, when you drag a bar, the actual dragging to the new position becomes visible. However, if you are working on an older Macintosh model, which does not have an powerful GPU, it might be a good idea to deactivate this option enhancing Merlins performance.
Activating this option displays all the labels in the Gantt chart (in front of, within and behind the bars).
When enabled, calculated values in the outline portion of the view will be displayed in dimmed color (gray). We recommend that you enable this option.
When enabled, directly and indirectly (due to calculations) fields will have their background change color to indicate changed values. We recommend that you enable this option.
When enabled, warnings will be shown in the outline portion of the view as well as the resources well.
Besides using the style information it is possible to modify the Netplan in the "Net Plan" tab when applying various available options.
With this option you can enable or disable the display of the critical path in the Gantt. The critical path plays an important role in many projects. The critical path concerns all activities in a project that cannot be automatically deferred to the left (=in the past) or to the right (=in the future) and that directly influence the project (for a detailed definition please read the article on Wikipedia).
With this option you can activate or deactivate the dependency lines.
In a traditional PERT graph, and other graphs based on the Netplan method, it is often the case that an ongoing activity is displayed with a diagonal line within the box and then, upon completion, a second diagonal line is displayed (more information regarding this can be found on Wikipedia). It is possible to reproduce this behavior in Merlin by selecting this option.
Both of these options can be used to specify how much spacing should be displayed between the boxes horizontally and vertically.
When enabled, calculated values in the boxes will be displayed in dimmed color (gray).
When enabled, directly and indirectly (due to calculations) fields will have their background change color to indicate changed values. We recommend that you enabled this option.
When enabled, warnings will be shown in the resources well.
With the help of the styles it is possible to format your project look according to rules. You can change the look of:
The styles comprise the following areas:
After selecting the view options in the "View" menu, you can access the "Styles" tab in the upper right corner of the window.
In the section "Selected Part" we have developed a "click-able preview," in which you can select the part to be formatted by clicking it. You will find several categories in the "Condition" section, which can be applied to an activity while formatting. Furthermore, you will find a list for groups, status flags and other project planning topics. In the section below all other available settings will be listed according to the selected part.
Styles hierarchy
The condition "General" is the basic format from which all other conditions are derived. This means that when, for example, you change the color of the General formatting, all other styles that have not been explicitly modified in color will inherit their display from the General condition. The hierarchy is displayed in the popup menu.
Bold items in the popup menu have explicit values set.
In Merlin you can save a set of styles that you can activate at any time you wish.
You can also delete, modify or set-as-default any styles set from the "Manage..." option in the "Column Set" popup menu
If you want to change the color of the bars to represent the critical path instead of the blue, green, yellow, red colors of the status flags. This scenario is quickly realized by the following few steps :
You have now formatted your Gantt bar to highlight the critical path
You can import the following formats
How to import your file
Merlin can import .mpx, .xml, and .mpp MS Project formats. There are a few limitations that need to be considered:
Merlin allows you to share your project files with a large group of applications. You can export your Merlin project file to make it available to PC users using MS Project or export it as an OPML file that you can edit in Omni Outliner
You can export your Merlin file to:
How to export your project
MS Project Export Notes:
Mindmaps
You can export your project file as a mind map using the Mind Map - Freemind option. All you need to view your mind map is a web browser. This is a great way of sending your Merlin Project file mindmap to other users.
Merlin has very powerful publishing features that allow you to publish your project file to share with other users or other applications.
You can publish your saved project file to:
Use the Publish tool bar button to activate the publishing dialogue in Merlin or use "File - Publish…"
The Library is a source for project specific information that can be used via dragging and dropping a variety of objects into the project. The Library contains a wide range of documents and activities, which are useful for general projects.
You can use the library to store you own activities snippets so you can use them later on.
You can easily access the Library with the toolbar button, by using the menu "Window - Show/Hide Library" or the shortcut F3. The following properties can be found in the Library when you first start Merlin:
To allocate a resource to an activity, drag the address directly onto the relevant activity. If this address is not already contained within the project, Merlin will add this automatically as a resource in the resource list.
You can also drag the addresses from the Library directly into the resource list in the additional area to define them as resources for the project.
Drag the desired Element onto an activity, group or project. Merlin attaches the Element immediately to the selected object ready for editing or modifying.
When you drag an activity from the Library and drop it onto the target activity (or group) in the outline, Merlin creates a group out of the target activity. The activity dragged from the Library can be found within this group.
You can also place an activity (or a group) from the Library between other activities in the outline.
When you drag a file from the Library onto an activity, Merlin automatically creates the File Element and attaches it to this activity. This can then be edited in the Elements section.
There are two ways in which you can find desired contents in the Library. You either browse by clicking through the Library structure or you search for the desired object by specifying the relevant name in the Library search field.
All of the Library’s contents are categorized so that they can be located easily. For example, to attach a RUP method file (abbreviation for "Rational Unified Process" - read more in Wikipedia) as a File Element, click on the documents folder, which is located in the left column of the Library. In the right column the Library will display all the sub-categories of this folder. You will also find the folder "RUP." By clicking on this folder you will be offered all documents contained in the content list. Select the desired document and simply drag this to the relevant activity. Merlin automatically creates the File Element and attaches it to the activity.
A second, and not less comfortable, option for finding contents in the Library is to search for the name of the file. Enter the key word in the search field located on top of the Library sections. As soon as you enter the first letter, Merlin starts searching and lists all the contents found in the Library. Further specification of the key words will help Merlin reduce the list of matches.
Merlin searches only for the names. A search with regards to the contents does not take place. The list of the categories displayed will match the key words entered. The same applies for the sub-categories. Click on a sub-category and Merlin will display all the matches in the content list. In this case as well, simply drag the desired content and drop it into your project.
The Library can be expanded by each respective user. To do this, simply drag the desired objects into the Library window. The following project contents can be dragged into the Library:
It is even possible to drag files from the Finder into the Library. Simply grab the file in the Finder with the mouse and drop it into the Library window.
In Merlin’s application preferences you will find a separate icon for the Library. In this section you may customize how the Library displays its contents, change the location for writable folders and select the source for addresses. More details on customizing the Library can be found in the section Preferences.
Merlin allows you to define your own custom fields in a project. These fields can be used with different items in:
You can manage and edit the User Defined fields in the Inspector. For each of the objects mentioned above, you will find the corresponding section in the Inspector behind the second to last tab - User Defined Inspector.
Columns in the Outline: The User Info fields can be displayed in the outline as columns. You will find how to activate/deactivate the columns in the section View Options
Fields in the Netplan: User Info fields can also be displayed as fields in the Netplan boxes.
Search: User Info fields can be searched for and also used in the search editor. You will find more information regarding the search here.
You can create any number of user defined fields using the inspector user defined field tab.
You can delete any user defined field using the "-" button or pressing the "delete" button.
Changing the type of an user defined field
You can change the user defined field data type. However, the contents will be lost. The contents can only be maintained when a field is changed into a text type.
In Merlin each section and view has its own built-in search field, which you will find on the respective functional toolbars of each section.
This means that you can search for information specifically in the relevant or required section. The search field has two different functions.
As you start entering a key word into the search field, Merlin will immediately hide all the non-matching items, showing only those that apply. The items displayed in grey show you the path where the matching hits of your search can be found.
Merlin provides an advanced search feature. Using this feature, you can define complex search criteria and save them for future reuse.
You can double-click the added entry to edit the search name or press "delete" to remove the selected search
Refine your advanced search
When an advanced search is in effect, its name is displayed in grey. You can enter a keyword to further refine the search.
This section will show you how to effectively use Merlin's printing capabilities.
The print dialog is displayed by selecting "File - Print" in the menu or with the ⌘P keyboard shortcut. In the displayed dialogue you can make all the required settings for your printout and send the results to a printer or create a PDF file.
All the settings you make here are persistent across projects including new ones.
How to create a specific workspace for printing
If you want a specific printout look
Use workspaces to provide an easy way of customizing the look and feel of the active view you wish to view on the screen or print.
You have the option of adding a header or footer to your printout.
By enabling Print header and footer checkbox, you can activate this function. Each footer is broken into 3 zones. Left, center and right. Select the desired zone then click on the "Header" or "Footer" text area to enter the desired text. If you wish to use automatically generated entries, simply select the item from the "Insert" popup menu and Merlin will insert a tag to the right of the cursor in whichever area the cursor was last active in.
Further customization can be achieved by pressing the "Font…" button. Please note that font changes apply to the entire header and footer.
Possible auto-entries are:
You can adjust die size and transparency of the project image by the use of the according slider.
It is imperative that the printout deliver ideal results in each of the views; therefore, Merlin provides individual settings for each view. The last tab in the print dialogue box has been reserved for the relevant views
In the drop down menu, you can select how you would like to print your project. Only the outline, only the Gantt chart or both.
The Alternating row background can be difficult to view on some printers (or plotters). If you experience problems, uncheck this option.
The same applies for the shadows. Some plotters do not implement shadows in the printout.
If you would like to Print column headers on every page, enable this option. Otherwise, Merlin will print the column headers on the first page only.
The Page breaks at Rows will create controlled page breaks at the end of each page without cutting any rows.
As the Shadows cannot be printed by certain printers or plotters, it is possible to deactivate this option here.
The Page Break at Rows will create controlled page breaks at the end of each page without cutting any rows.
The Page Breaks at Columns will create controlled page breaks at the end of each column without cutting any boxes vertically.
The Alternating Row Background option can be difficult to view on some printers (or plotters). If you experience problems uncheck the box.
You can Print column headers on every page using this option.
The Page Breaks at Rows will create controlled page breaks at the end of each page without cutting any rows.
In the drop down menu, you can select how you would like to print your project - only the outline, only the Gantt chart or both.
The Alternating row background can be difficult to view on some printers (or plotters). If you experience problems, deactivate this option.
The same applies for the Shadows. Some plotters do not implement shadows in the printout.
If you would like to Print column headers on every page, activate this option.
The Page Break at Rows will create controlled page breaks at the end of each page without cutting any rows.
Merlin has a powerful built in reporting system. To help most users, Merlin comes bundled with a group of pre-defined report templates. Reports can be either printed, e-mailed or made into PDFs.
Once you are in the reports preview dialogue, you will be presented with several tool bar buttons. You can use these toolbar buttons to further interact with the reports, send them to other applications or modify the template you are pre-viewing.
At any time, you can easily change the current report template. Click the "Template" button and a sheet will list all the available templates.
Some reports can be further modified. These changes can be made by clicking on the "Options" button.
If you happen to change your project file while previewing your reports, you can refresh the report by pressing the "Refresh" button.
To send the previewed report by eMail. Press the "Create E-Mail" button and Merlin will do the rest. Merlin will create a PDF of the report and attach it to a new email message.
Press this button if you wish to save your report. You can save your report as either a PDF or HTML file.
If you wish to print your report, press the "Print" button and you will be presented with the standard Mac OS X print dialogue.
Reports Logo
If you wish to include a specific logo or image in place of the standard "Merlin" logo, you can do is the project settings
As the requirements for reports can vary from case to case, customization of reports might be necessary. Merlin reports use two distinct technologies for generating their content. XML/XSLT and Weblitz. Currently, the only way to modify or create new reports is programmatically.
Merlin differentiates among five priorities. For each priority you can define your own title. You can either choose to leave the values from "Very low" to "Very high," or change them from "A to E" or maybe even "I, II, III ....".
In here you can manage all your Merlin licensing. You can add new licenses by dragging the license key to the table. Alternatively you can click on the "Add" button and enter the license key number or import an existing license file. However, the easiest way to transfer the license key to Merlin is by dragging and dropping the license key onto the Merlin application icon.
The individual columns display the following information:
With a click on the "Buy" button, you will be forwarded to our web shop where you can purchase additional Merlin licenses.
If your license is not yet personalized, click onto the "Register" button to enter your name. The entered information will be added to your license and sent to ProjectWizards.
We recommend leaving the "check for updates at startup" enabled. This will ensure that your Merlin version is always the latest and greatest. You can also select the interval between checks. This way it is possible to define either daily, weekly or monthly.
Here you determine the behavior and content of Merlin's library.
You can choose the languages the library should offer during use. If you want to only view English documents available in the Library then simply deactivate the "German" language entry.
As a project manager you will most likely have your own set of documents and files which you often use in your own projects. To be able to access these files directly in the Library without having to drag them into the Library, you can simply add the directory to the list with the help of the "Add" button. All the contents will be categorized by Merlin and displayed in the Library.
You can also choose the location where you want the library to save any items you drag & drop on it. This is important if you wish to collect all your project snippets into one location.
Show and Reload library will help you examine the effects of your changes to the library.
These are the descriptions of columns in the Activity view.
'#' gives each activity or each group in a project an explicit number. Only when the outline is sorted according to this field is it possible to manually organize the activities by dragging with the mouse. Sorting according to another field can be transferred to the '#' field by the use of the 'Freeze Sort Order', as listed under the Edit menu.
'# Successors'Successors' records a list with numbers (#) - separated by semicolons - of the groups and activities that chronologically follow the end of this activity. The type of relationship to each respective successor can be given in shorthand form: FS, FF, SS, or SF.
'# Predecessors' Predecessors' records a list with numbers (#) - separated by semicolons - of the groups and activities that chronologically precede the start of this activity. The type of relationship to each respective predecessor can be given in shorthand form: FS, FF, SS, or SF.
'% Complete' reflects the progress of the activity or the group in an ongoing project. A direct percent value can be given for activities. This field is calculated automatically for the groups or when using the fields 'Given Actual Work' or 'Given Remaining Work'.
'Actual Costs' contains the sum of costs, which results from the actual work.
'Actual End' records the date when the activity was actually completed. For groups no value can be given. When working with resources, the actual end can be set either for the individual assignments or for the activity as a whole.
'Actual Start' records the date when the activity actually started. For groups no value can be given. When working with resources, the actual start can be set either for the individual assignments or the activity as a whole.
'Actual Work' contains the total work that has actually been completed on an activity.
'Actual Work Costs' contains the costs that are generated by the actual work of resources assigned to the activity.
'Additional Title' describes the activity even further.
'Approved Budget' records the budget that has been approved for the activity and is therefore available for further calculation. Percent values can be entered which then relate to the approved budget of the containing group.
'Approved Budget Absolute' contains the same information as 'Approved Budget' except that percent values are converted to absolute ones.
'Approved Budget Distributed' contains the sum of the approved budgets of all subsidiary activities. It shows which part of a given budget is already distributed to subsidiary activities.
'Approved Budget Undistributed' contains the difference between the approved and the already distributed budget. It shows which part of a given budget still remains for distribution to subsidiary activities and groups.
'Actual Base Costs' records the fixed actual base costs of an activity.
'Actual Base Costs Subtotal' contains the sum of all actual base costs. Included in the groups are the sum of the actual base costs of all subsidiary activities.
'Actual Element Costs' contains the sum of all actual costs of the elements directly attached to an activity or group.
'Assigned Resources' lists the names of all the employees assigned to the activity, separated by semicolons. To assign resources to an activity, drag them from the resources list and drop them directly onto the activity or choose the menu item 'Insert - Assignment'.
'Assigned Resource Initials' lists the initials of all the employees assigned to the activity, separated by semicolons. To assign resources to an activity, drag them from the resources list and drop them directly onto the activity or choose the menu item 'Insert - Assignment'.
'Base Costs' records the fixed base costs of an activity.
'Base Costs Subtotal' contains the sum of all base costs. Included in the groups is the sum of the base costs of all subsidiary activities.
'Budget Info' records a text description of the budget.
'Budget Status' records the status of the budget for an activity. It can be used to implement an approval procedure with several stages.
'Budget Status Date' records the date of the last change to 'Budget Status'.
'Budget-Approving Resource' records the name of the resource approving the budget of the activity.
'Budget-Req. Resource' records the name of the resource requesting the budget of the activity.
'Budget/Actual Cost Saldo' contains the difference between the fields 'Approved Budget' and 'Actual Costs'.
'Budget/Expected Cost Balance' contains the 'Approved Budget' minus the fields 'Expected Work Costs' and 'Element Costs Subtotal'.
'Budget/Planned Cost Balance' contains the 'Approved Budget' minus the fields 'Planned Work Costs' and 'Element Costs Subtotal'.
'Element Costs' contains the sum of all costs of the elements directly attached to an activity or group.
'Element Costs Subtotal' contains the sum of all costs of the elements directly attached to an activity or group. Included in the groups is the sum of the costs of all subsidiary activities.
'Expected Costs' contains the sum of the costs that are expected during the process of a project
'Expected Duration' defines the working time span between the expected 'Start' and 'End'. Non-working times are hereby taken into account.
'Expected Early End' contains the earliest date that an activity could possibly end, based on the early finish dates of predecessor and successor activities and other constraints.
'Expected Early Start' contains the earliest date that an activity could possibly begin, based on the early start dates of predecessor and successor activities and other constraints
Expected Elapsed Duration' defines the time span between the expected 'Start' and 'End'. This duration is given in calendar units and includes non-working times.
'Expected End' contains the date at which the actual end of the activity is expected. If an actual end is known, 'Expected End' will contain this value.
'Expected Late End' contains the latest end date on which an activity can be ended.
'Expected Late Start' contains the latest start date on which an activity can begin.
'Expected Maximum Possible Work' contains the maximum amount of work that can be spent between the expected start and the expected end of an activity respective of the work calendars.
'Expected Free Slack' the working duration an activity can be delayed without delaying any successor activities. If an activity has no successors, the free slack equals the total slack.
'Expected Start Slack' contains the working duration between the 'Expected Early Start' and 'Expected Late Start'
'Expected Total Slack' contains the smallest of the 'Expected Start Slack' and 'Expected End Slack' values. It describes the working duration an activity can be delayed by without delaying the project's finish date.
'Expected Start' contains the date at which the actual start of the activity is expected. If an actual start is known, 'Expected Start' will contain this value.
'Expected Utilization' contains the ratio of work expected to be spent on the possible work between the start and end.
'Expected Work' contains the total work that is spent on an activity.
'Expected Work Costs' contains the costs that are generated by the work of resources assigned to the activity.
Checking 'Fixed End Window' prevents dependencies from pushing the end of an activity out of its given window. By this, potential scheduling conflicts are deflected from the activity to the dependencies.
Checking 'Fixed Start Window' prevents dependencies from pushing the start of an activity out of its given window. By this, potential scheduling conflicts are deflected from the activity to the dependencies.
'Flag Status' maps the status of the activity to a flag. This can be carried out automatically or manually.
'Given Actual Work' records the work that has been completed so far on an activity.
'Given Actual Work Overtime' records the part of the actual work that has so far been completed as overtime work on the activity.
'Given End Mode' specifies how the planned end of an activity is calculated.
'Given Planned Duration' defines the planned duration of an activity independently from its work. Durations given in e-units are interpreted as real time values that are not affected by the calendars defining the working time.
'Given Planned Duration Absolute' contains the same information as 'Given Planned Duration' except that percent values are converted to absolute ones.
'Given Planned Earliest End' constricts the planned chronological end of an activity. When it is highlighted in red, the specification cannot be complied with because as a conflict exists.
'Given Planned Earliest Start' constricts the planned chronological start of an activity. When it is highlighted in red, the specification cannot be complied with because a conflict exists.
'Given Planned Latest End' constricts the planned chronological end of an activity. When it is highlighted in red, the specification cannot be complied with because a conflict exists.
'Given Planned Latest Start' constricts the planned chronological start of an activity. When it is highlighted in red, the specification cannot be complied with because a conflict exists.
'Given Planned Utilization' records the percentage of effort with which the activity should be executed. 100% represents the complete work that is available in the calendar.
'Given Planned Work' records the amount of work (e.g. Hours, Days, Weeks) planned for the activity. Percent values can be entered which then relate to the given planned work of the containing group.
'Given Planned Work Absolute' contains the same information as 'Given planned Work' except that percent values are converted to absolute ones.
'Given Remaining Duration' defines the actual time that is still needed in an ongoing project to complete the activity independently from the given work. Durations given in e-units are interpreted as real time values that are not affected by the calendars defining the working time. For groups no value can be given. When working with resources, the remaining work can be set either for the individual assignments or the activity as a whole.
'Given Remaining Work' defines the amount of work that is still to be spent on the activity in an ongoing project. For groups no value can be given. When working with resources, the remaining work can be set either for the individual assignments or the activity as a whole.
'Given Start Mode' specifies how the planned start of an activity is calculated.
'ID' is a unique number in a project. It will be generated upon saving project structures in a new file and does not change afterwards in that specific file.
'Info' shows with symbols whether a conflict or warning exists for an activity, whether there are limitations with fields like 'Given Planned Earliest Start,' whether an element is attached to an activity and whether a text has been deposited. More information about the meaning of the shown symbols here
'Last Actuals Reporting Date' records the base date absolute actual values for an activity that have been reported. It is interpreted as the start of the remaining work or duration of an activity.
'Leveling Delay' records the time units in which an assignment is delayed according tho the "Resource Leveling" function.
A 'Milestone' can be set for an activity if this activity has only a symbolic meaning for reaching a part of an objective. A milestone contains no work and no duration.
When 'Optimize Duration' is checked, scheduling calculation tries to achieve the shortest possible duration for the activity. This is important for Start-Finish and Finish-Finish dependencies.
'Planned Costs' contains the sum of costs that are planned for an activity.
'Planned Duration' defines the working time span between the planned 'Start' and 'End.' Non-working times are hereby taken into account.
'Planned Early End' contains the earliest end date on which an activity can be ended.
'Planned Early Start' contains the earliest start date on which an activity can begin.
'Planned Elapsed Duration' defines the time span between the planned 'Start' and 'End'. This duration is given in calendar units and includes non-working times.
'Planned End' defines the calculated date for the planned end of an activity.
'Planned Late End' contains the latest end date on which an activity can be ended.
'Planned Late Start' contains the latest start date on which an activity can begin.
'Planned Maximum Possible Work' contains the maximum amount of work that can be spent between the planned start and the planned end of an activity respective of the work calendars.
'Planned Start' defines the calculated date for the planned start of an activity.
'Planned Utilization' contains the ratio of the total work to the maximum possible work between the expected start and end of an activity.
'Planned Work' contains the total work that has been planned for an activity based on the complete calculation of the project schedule.
'Planned Work Costs' contains the planned costs of an activity caused by assigned resources. When no resources are used, the costs are calculated from the default work rate of the project.
'Predecessors' contains a list of all the titles of the groups or activities that chronologically precede the start of the activity. It is the counterpart of the field 'Successors.'
'Priority' describes the priorities of an activity.
'Private' may be switched on or off depending on whether the information of an activity may be published.
'Remaining Work' contains the amount of work which is left to complete after a full calculation of the project schedule.
'Requested Budget' records the budget requested for the activity. When the field 'Approved Budget' is filled with an amount, the budget counts as approved and enters into further calculations.
'Subtitle' further describes the activity.
'Successors' contains a list of all the titles of the groups or activities that chronologically follow the end of the activity. It is the counterpart of the field 'Predecessors'.
'Text' records a text describing the activity.
'Title' describes the activity.
'WBS-Code' contains the outline number of the activity calculated by a given scheme.
'Expected Slack' contains the working relation between the 'Expected Early End' and the 'Expected Late End' date.
These are the descriptions of the columns available in Elements
'Actual Cost' contains the sum of all actual costs of the element.
'Additional Title' describes the element further.
'Cost' contains the sum of all costs of the element.
'Cost Accrual' records the accrual when the base costs will be added to the 'Actual Costs Subtotal'.
'Cost Total' contains the sum of all costs of the element.
'Flag Status' maps the status of the element to a flag. This can be carried out automatically or manually.
'ID' is a unique number in a project. It will be generated while saving a file and does not change afterwards.
'Private' prevents an element from being published. If it is disabled the element will be published. This information will also get considered, when exporting to iCal.
'Review Date' records the date when the element should be reviewed.
'Status' maps the status of the element to a flag.
'Subtitle' further describes the element.
'Text' records a text describing the element.
'Title' describes the element and can be chosen freely.
'Type' is the type of the element.
These are the descriptions of all the columns available in the Resource View.
'Actual Costs per Assignment' is a constant amount that actually has been charged for the assignment of the resource.
'Actual Elements Costs' contains the sum of all actual costs of the elements attached to a resource.
'Actual Standard Rate' for working resources describes the resources actual price per working time unit. For material resources it contains the price of the material per unit.
'Actual Overtime Rate' for working resources describes the resources actual price per time unit for doing overtime work. For material resources it is the price of the material per unit.
'Actual Work' contains the sum of the actual work of all assignments of a resource.
'Actual Work Costs' contains the sum of the actual costs of all assignments of a resource.
'Additional Title' describes the resource in more detail.
'Cost Accrual' records the accrual when the base costs will be added to the 'Actual Costs Subtotal'.
'Costs per Assignment' is a constant amount that is charged every time a resource is assigned.
'Default Utilization' is a percent value which is used for the field 'Planned Utilization' in new assignments of a resource.
'Elements Costs' contains the sum of all costs of the elements attached to a resource.
'Expected Work' contains the sum of the expected work of all assignments of a resource
'Expected Work Costs' contains the sum of the expected costs of all assignments of a resource.
'Flag Status' maps the status of the resource to a flag. This can be carried out automatically or manually.
'Global Cost' is charged once to the project's total resource cost if the resource is assigned at least once.
'Groups' contains the titles of all groups the resource belongs to.
'ID' is a unique number in a project. It will be generated while saving a file and does not change afterwards.
'Info' shows with symbols whether an element is attached to a resource and whether a text has been deposited.
'Initials' is filled with the first letter of each word in the resource's title. You can specify custom initials.
'Material Unit' determines the unit in which amounts of the material are measured.
'Overtime Rate' or working resources describes the resources base price per time unit for doing overtime work. For material resources it is the price of the material per unit.
'Phone' contains the telephone number at which you can reach the resource.
'Planned Work' contains the sum of the planned work of all assignments of a resource.
'Planned Work Costs' contains the sum of the planned costs of all assignments of a resource.
'Private' specifies if a resource is not allowed to be published.
'Role' specifies the resource's role in the project.
'Standard Rate' for working resources describes the resources base price per working time unit. For material resources it contains the price of the material per unit.
'Subtitle' describes the resource further.
'Text' records a text describing the resource.
'Title' describes the resource and can be chosen freely.
'Type' determines whether the resource is a 'working' or a 'material' resource.
'eMail' contains the eMail address at which you can reach the resource.
~/Library/Application Support/Merlin/Project Templates/
The project is immediately available to use as a template and can be accessed over "File - New Project".
While using Merlin 2 various files will get created on specified paths in the file system. Here you find their possible locations:
~/Library/Application Support/Merlin/Library/ | Library contents |
~/Library/Application Support/Merlin/Licenses/ | License files |
~/Library/Application Support/Merlin/Project Templates/ | Project templates |
~/Library/Application Support/Merlin/Reports/ | Report templates |
~/Library/Application Support/Merlin/Searches/ | Saved advanced searches |
~/Library/Application Support/Merlin/Workspaces/ | Customized Workspaces, styles and column sets |
Should you drag & drop a license file onto Merlin's application icon or in the Licenses tab of the Merlin's Preferences, Merlin will always install them in the License path of the current user:
If needed you can move the license files manually in one of the following paths:
Every project manager knows how tedious it can be to carry out routine jobs. Furthermore, many project managers also have their individual procedures, which may change from project to project, on their agendas. For this reason we have implemented AppleScript in Merlin.
AppleScript is used to write script files, which automate actions of the computer and the applications used on the computers.
This will allow you to discover the level of AppleScript support Merlin has.
Unfortunately we are not able to give you programming instructions for AppleScript. We have however, collected a list of links from the internet that you might find helpful.
Item | Meaning |
---|---|
![]() |
As late as possible is set in the given start date |
![]() |
As soon as possible is set in the given end date |
![]() |
Calendar entries are set |
![]() |
Conflict |
![]() |
Time/Date constraint |
![]() |
Notes is not empty |
![]() |
Attached element |
![]() |
Warning |
![]() |
Checklist element |
![]() |
Event element |
![]() |
File element |
![]() |
Information element |
![]() |
Issue element |
![]() |
Risk element |
![]() |
Start-Start dependency |
![]() |
Start-Finish dependency |
![]() |
Finish-Finish dependency |
![]() |
Finish-Start dependency |
![]() |
Resource was added from Mac OS X Address book |
![]() |
Resource was added from MS Entourage |
![]() | Resource is an equipment |
![]() | Resource is a company |
![]() | Resource is a material |
![]() | Resource is a person |
![]() | Activity is complete |
![]() | Activity to start in the future |
![]() | Activity was started, but is behind schedule |
![]() | Activity is in progress either ahead of schedule or on time |
![]() | Activity is late and hasn't started yet |
Symbol | Meaning |
---|---|
⌘ | Command |
⌥ | ALT |
⌃ | Control |
⇧ | Shift |
Menu | Command | Shortcut |
---|---|---|
Merlin | Preferences… | ⌘, | Merlin | Hide Merlin | ⌘H |
Merlin | Hide Others | ⌥⌘H |
Merlin | Quit Merlin | ⌘Q |
File | New Project… | ⇧⌘N |
File | New Empty Project | ⌥⌘N |
File | Combine Projects… | ⌥⌘N |
File | New Report | ⇧⌘R |
File | Open… | ⌘O |
File | Close | ⌘W |
File | Save | ⌘S |
File | Save As… | ⇧⌘S |
File | Save As Template | ⇧⌘T |
File | Export | ⇧⌘E |
File | Publish | ⇧⌘P |
File | Project Settings… | ⌘; |
File | WBS Code Definition… | ⇧⌘W |
File | Print… | ⌘P |
Edit | Undo | ⌘Z |
Edit | Redo | ⇧⌘Z |
Edit | Cut | ⌘X |
Edit | Copy | ⌘C |
Edit | Copy as Rich Text | ⇧⌘C |
Edit | Paste | ⌘V |
Edit | Paste Content... | ⇧⌘V |
Edit | Delete | delete. (⌦) |
Edit | Select All | ⌘A |
Edit | Search | ⌘F |
Edit | Find Elements | ⌥⌘F |
Edit | Indent | ⌘→ |
Edit | Outdent | ⌘← |
Edit | Collapse All | ⌘↑ |
Edit | Expand All | ⌘↓ |
Edit | Hide All Assignments | ⇧⌘↑ |
Edit | Show All Assignments | ⇧⌘↓ |
Edit | Show Outline ▶ Level 1 | ⌃⌥⌘1 |
Edit | Show Outline ▶ Level 2 | ⌃⌥⌘2 |
Edit | Show Outline ▶ Level 3 | ⌃⌥⌘3 |
Edit | Show Outline ▶ Level 4 | ⌃⌥⌘4 |
Edit | Show Outline ▶ Level 5 | ⌃⌥⌘5 |
Edit | Show Outline ▶ Level 6 | ⌃⌥⌘6 |
Edit | Show Outline ▶ Level 7 | ⌃⌥⌘7 |
Edit | Show Outline ▶ Level 8 | ⌃⌥⌘8 |
Edit | Show Outline ▶ Level 9 | ⌃⌥⌘9 |
Edit | Freeze Sort Order | ⌃⌘F |
Edit | Make Milestone | ⌃⌘M |
Edit | Link Activities ▶ Finish-Start | ⌃⌘L |
Edit | Completion ▶ 100% | ⌃⌘C |
Edit | Resource Leveling ▶ Leveling Settings… | ⌃⌘E |
Edit | Resource Leveling ▶ Level All | ⌃⌘R |
Edit | Resource Leveling ▶ Reset All | ⌃⌘U |
Edit | Resource Leveling ▶ Level Selection | ⌥⌘R |
Edit | Resource Leveling ▶ Reset Selection | ⌥⌘U |
Edit | Special Characters… | ⌥⌘T |
Insert | Activity | ⌘N |
Insert | Milestone | ⌥⌘M |
Insert | Sub-Activity | ⌥⌘G |
Insert | Successor Activity | ⌥⌘S |
Insert | Predecessor Activity | ⌥⌘P |
Insert | Aunt Activity | ⌥⇧⌘A |
Insert | Assignment | ⌥⌘A |
Insert | Resource | ⌘R |
Insert | Element ▶ Choose… | ⌘E |
Insert | Element ▶ Event | ⌥⌘1 |
Insert | Element ▶ File | ⌥⌘2 |
Insert | Element ▶ Information | ⌥⌘3 |
Insert | Element ▶ Issue | ⌥⌘4 |
Insert | Element ▶ Risk | ⌥⌘5 |
Insert | Element ▶ Checklist | ⌥⌘6 |
Insert | Project | ⌥⌘L |
View | Activities View | ⌘1 |
View | Netplan View | ⌘2 |
View | Resource View | ⌘3 |
View | Utilization View | ⌘4 |
View | Show/Hide View Options | ⌘J |
View | Show/Hide Element View options | ⇧⌘J |
View | Zoom In | ⌘+ |
View | Zoom Out | ⌘- |
View | Show Current Date | ⌘D |
Window | Minimize | ⌘M |
Window | Hide/Show Inspector | F1 |
Window | Hide/Show Elements | F2 |
Window | Hide/Show Library | F3 |
Window | Show Resource Well | F4 |
Window | Show Scheduling Conflict | F5 |
Window | Workspaces ▶ [List of Workspaces] | ⌃⌘1 - ⌃⌘0 |
Window | Save Workspaces… | ⌃⌘S |
Window | Edit Workspaces | ⌃⌘W |
Help | Merlin Help | ⌘? |
The following table lists all the shortcut keys Merlin Web Module supports per browser.
Command | Shortcut | Firefox 2+ (Mac OS X) | Firefox 3 (MS Windows) | Safari 3+ (Mac OS X) | Internet Explorer 7(1) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Save | Alt+S | x | x | x | |
Alt+P | x | x | x | x | |
Undo | Alt+Z | x | x | x | x |
Redo | Shift+Alt+Z | x | x | x | x |
Delete | Backspace | x | x | x | |
Select All | Alt+A | x | x | x | x |
Indent | Alt+Right | x | x | x | x |
Outdent | Alt+Left | x | x | x | x |
Collapse All | Alt+Up | x | x | x | x |
Expand All | Alt+Down | x | x | x | x |
Hide All Assignments | Shift+Alt+Up | x | x | x | x |
Show All Assignments | Shift+Alt+Down | x | x | x | x |
Level 1 | Shift+Alt+1 | x | x | x | x |
Level 2 | Shift+Alt+2 | x | x | x | |
Level 3 | Shift+Alt+3 | x | x | x | |
Level 4 | Shift+Alt+4 | x | x | x | x |
Level 5 | Shift+Alt+5 | x | x | x | x |
Level 6 | Shift+Alt+6 | x | x | x | |
Level 7 | Shift+Alt+7 | x | x | x | |
Level 8 | Shift+Alt+8 | x | x | x | |
Level 9 | Shift+Alt+9 | x | x | x | |
Freeze Sort Order | Shift+Alt+F | x | x | x | x |
Make Milestone | Shift+Alt+ctrl+M | x | x | x | x |
Activity | Alt+N | x | x | x | |
Milestone | Alt+M | x | x | x | |
Sub-Activity | Shift+Alt+G | x | x | x | x |
Successor Activity | Shift+Alt+S | x | x | x | x |
Predecessor Activity | Shift+Alt+P | x | x | x | x |
Aunt Activity | Shift+Alt+Ctrl+A | x | x | x | x |
Assignment | Shift+Alt+A | x | x | x | x |
Activities View | Alt+1 | x | x | x | x |
Resources View | Alt+2 | x | x | x | x |
Utilization View | Alt+3 | x | x | x | x |
Zoom In | Shift+Alt+Ctrl+Up | x | x | x | x |
Zoom Out | Shift+Alt+Ctrl+Down | x | x | x | x |
Merlin Help | Alt+H | x | x | x | x |
1: You can use MS Internet Explorer 8 using IE 7 compatibility settings.
Merlin 2 has the ability, using the Web Module addon, to publish Merlin project files onto the web hence allowing users, on other platforms, to collaborate on Merlin files using a simple web browser.
Every effort was taken to make Merlin Web Module look and behave similarly to the native Merlin application. However, certain usability issues need to be considered when accessing project file using a web browser.
ProjectWizards would like to thank the following people for their support with the development of Merlin.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 2.5. To view a copy of the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 2.5, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/legalcode. RBSplitView is also licensed under the MIT license, approved by the Open Source Initiative.
This work is licensed for free.
The LGPL as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 2.1, available at: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/lgpl.html.
His work is licensed under the MIT License.
Licensed under the GNU GPL.
PlotKit is copyright © 2006 Alastair Tse. Licensed under the BSD License.
Excanvas.js is copyright © 2006. Google Inc. Licensed under the Apache License.
is copyrighted. © Federal Republic of Germany 2004. All rights reserved.
Copyright Reserved © Federal Republic of Germany 2004. V-Modell® XT is copyrighted. The work and associated parts can be unmodified used or duplicated and repeated at the owner’s discretion for non commercial purposes or for non monetary compensation, such as educational training or professional development under notice of the copyright name:
„V-Modell® XT is copyrighted. © Federal Republic of Germany 2004. All rights reserved.“ All other rights remain reserved, especially for changes to the work a special licensing agreement with the author is required. Further information about the licensing agreement can be accessed over the internet at http://www.v-modell-xt.de.
Provided via http://jdbv.sourceforge.net/RUP.html.
THE FOLLOWING ARE THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USAGE AND PURCHASE OF SOFTWARE (PRODUCT) DEVELOPED BY ProjectWizards (GERMANY). YOU, THE LICENSEE/CUSTOMER, HAVE TO AGREE TO THESE TERMS BEFORE YOU MAY INSTALL AND USE THE PRODUCT. PLEASE USE THE DOWN-BUTTON OR THE SCROLLBARS ON THE RIGHT SIDE TO READ THE WHOLE TEXT.
Subject of the contract is the permanent licence of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT against a once-only payment. The software product will whether be delivered on a physical data media, via the internet („instant download“) or in a bundle together with an other product (OEM ver-sion). The amendment and development of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, the software sup-port, the briefing or the execution of trainings as well as the installation of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT are therefore not owed. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is protected by copyright, trade mark right. All rights on the SOFTWARE PRODUCT as well as on all other documents relinquished within the scope of contract's initiation and implementation are entitled to Pro-jectWizards only as regards the relation of he parties. If there is any other software by another author or publisher on the media that is not directly integrated into the SOFTWARE PRODUCT (e.g. shareware, freeware and demos), this software is subject to the terms and conditions which are displayed during its installation process.
ProjectWizards grants you for the duration of this agreement the simple, non exclusive right (called “license” in the following) to use the supplied copy of the SOFTWAREPRODUCT on a single computer at once. You are allowed to make a backup copy necessary for secure operation. which is only intended for backup purposes. These have to be marked accordingly and (as far as technically possible) to mark it with the copyright of the original data media. Possibly delivered instruction manuals may only be copied for internal purposes. Copyright notes, trade marks, other legal reservations, serial numbers as well as other features for program identification may not be modified or garbled. You may only disseminate the software to a third party if it agrees to the further validity of the contract's terms. In case of passing on the software to a third party you are obliged to definitely stop the use of the software and not to retain any copy. You deliver the existing data medias and manual in original to the third party.
If more than one license of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT has been purchased, you have received the corresponding amount of volumes or a licensecertificate. – In any case these additional licenses are treated as normal single licenses of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT. – No further extended rights of use apply here.
ProjectWizards delivers the software to the licensee free of defects of quality and any other faults. Deficiencies which lead to an irrelevant decrease in the use of the software remain out of consideration. Function's damnifications caused by the customer's hardware and software environment, faulty operation, external defective data, malfunctions in computer networks or other reasons resulting from the customer's risk range are no deficiency. ProjectWizards shall not warrant for software modified by the licensee, except the licensee satisfactory shows that the modification is not causal for the deficiency. ProjectWizards gives warranties for defects of quality by post compliance namely to its choice by means of correction or compensation delivery. In particular, the post compliance can be the delivery of a new program version or that ProjectWizards is showing how to avoid the effects of the deficiencies. A new program version also has to be accepted by the licensee if this would cause an acceptable effort for adaption.
The post compliance in case of defects of other faults is made by ProjectWizards making available a legally unobjectionable usability of the software to the customer. Hereby, ProjectWizards may exchange the concerned software against an equal software corresponding to the terms of the contract if this is acceptable for the licensee. If licensee is charged with the infringement of third party rights licensee shall immediately inform ProjectWizards about this allegation. ProjectWizards will dispute or settle the claim on its own choice and in accordance with the licensee. The licensee may not accept claims of a third party. ProjectWizards disputes the claims of a third party at its own expense and indemnifies the licensee from all costs and damages caused by the dispute of the claim unless they are due to a nonfeasance licensee's behaviour.
No matter for which legal reason (i. e. breach of duty, tort), ProjectWizards does only make up for damages or in vain expenses only on the following scale:
Claims of the licensee because of defects of quality an other faults become time-barred within one year after delivery. If the fault consists of a right of a third party because of which the software might be demanded for the legal status of limitations do apply. In case of wrongful intent or gross negligent breach of duty the legal status of limitations do apply.
Hereby, the licensee is informed that ProjectWizards collect, save, process his data and in as much as necessary forward his data to a third party in the necessary scale for the contract's execution and on the basis of the regulation of privacy.
We sell our SOFTWAREPRODUCT to retailers only for the purpose of reselling or distributing the software to end users, according to this agreement. A special agreement is required in order to be allowed to sell the SOFTWAREPRODUCT to end-users.
Any changes or amendments to this agreement must be in writing. The contracting partners do fulfil this prerequisite also by sending documents as text especially via fax or email unless it is not differently determined for single declarations.
If one or more provisions of this agreement should be or become invalid or unenforceable, the balance of the agreement shall remain unaffected thereby and remain in full force and effect. In this event, the parties shall substitute the invalid or unenforceable provision by a valid one which as closely as possible achieves the economic purpose of the invalid or unenforceable provision. The same applies in case of any omission in this agreement.
This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany, excluding the application of the CISG-rules.
Court of jurisdiction for all disputes is Osnabrück, if the customer is merchant or if its domicile / branch is abroad.
Melle, Germany, in August 2007