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Applescript – Split activity in completed and remaining sub tasks

Vicky Stamatopoulou on 14. May 2012

When managing a project with Merlin you create your tasks and assign them to your resources. As your resources work on their task, you as a PM update your project by entering the actual values. That means, you enter the percentage of the completed work and the actual start date. If updating the tasks in absolute mode, you can enter the actual work or remaining work and duration.

Next time the resource works on the task, and reports its progress to update the data, you enter the new ‘% complete’ and if updating the tasks in absolute mode, the amount of actual work and remaining work so far.

Some users however would like to be able to pause the works on a task, to plan the remaining work sometime later on. This is also a good idea, if wanting to vary the utilization of a resource on a task in time.  So to do so in Merlin, you would need to create two tasks. One for the first part of the works on the task, and a second for the remaining.

To quicken this procedure, we wrote an applescript sample which requires Merlin 2.8.4, and creates the two sub-activities based on the planned and actual values of the task in progress.

If interested, feel free to download, use or modify as you like.  (more…)

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Merlin – Show only Gantt chart, close outline

Vicky Stamatopoulou on 7. May 2012

To hide the outline of your Merlin project, just drag the window divider control which is placed between the Outline and Gantt all the way to the left.

Related posts:

  • Merlin: Gantt chart is missing!
  • Merlin: Moving Elements on Gantt in the timeline
  • Merlin: Adjusting time rulers in the Gantt chart
  • Merlin: Automatic coloring in the Gantt
  • Merlin: How many calendar weeks in a year?
  • Merlin: Linking activities graphically
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    Planned – Actual – Expected

    Vicky Stamatopoulou on 26. April 2012

    When managing a project with Merlin, you can juggle with different kinds of values: given planned, planned, actual and expected.

    Given Planned…’ and ‘Actual…’ values are values you enter. That means they may or may not contain any data.
    Expected…’ and ‘Planned…’ values are calculated. That means, they will always contain data.

    Planned values:

    If you have entered given planned values for the task, milestone, activity group, assignment or resource the planned values, planned values will be equal to those given planned values. Planned values can also sum up given planned values on sub activities or assignments.

    Expected values:

    An activity which had not been started yet, has expected values based on the planned values.
    An activity which is in progress, has expected values based on the actual and planned values.
    A completed activity has expected values referencing only the actual values. (more…)

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    Applescript – Evernote to Merlin

    Vicky Stamatopoulou on 17. April 2012

    Merlin project management software integrates easily with lots of other Mac and Windows applications. For some applications you need to export/import files, with others you simply sync from Merlin. If you use Evernote to record your notes and want to transfer them to Merlin, you may now do so, by the use of the following AppleScript sample.

    It reacts on the Evernote selection and transfers selected notes to Merlin. Just select the notes you want to transfer in Evernote, call the AppleScript and see the selected notes transferred in the top most opened Merlin project as file elements. Those elements can be then viewed even without connection to the Evernote account or the Evernote app on your Mac and are now part of your project.

    Download: Evernote > Merlin AppleScript sample

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