Merlin – Download, install, start for the first time
Vicky Stamatopoulou on 17. April 2013
Installing Merlin for project management on your Mac with OS X is really easy and done in 3 steps.
Step 1. You download for free the Merlin zip archive from our website.
Step 2. Locate your Downloads. As soon as download completes, your Merlin application (blue wizards’ hat) will be automatically expanded there.
Step 3. There is no step three 
You may use it right away.
To start Merlin on your Mac for the first time after download, just double click it and confirm by clicking on “Open” when your Mac (OS X GateKeeper) asks whether you are sure you want to open it.
Even though Merlin does not require a specific location on your hard disk to run, we recommend you move Merlin into the Applications folder. This will group it along with your other Mac applications, have it available for Launchpad and keeps your Downloads folder uncluttered.
You may also want to watch the described installation steps as a video (more…)
Tags: Download, Easy installation, Gatekeeper, Install, Launchpad, Start
Merlin – Combine projects
Vicky Stamatopoulou on 21. March 2013
There are various ways to combine projects into one master project.
Combine local Merlin projects – no Merlin Server involved:
If combining local projects of your local hard disk, you can select them all and drag onto Merlin‘s icon or double click them and select ‘combine’ or choose File > Combine Projects:
Combine shared Merlin Server projects:
If combining projects which are shared by Merlin Server, please proceed as shown here:
That is… you choose File > Combine Projects, add the projects and open them by “remote open”. If the new master is to be shared by the same Merlin Server, save the file first on your local disk and copy it in a second step into the ‘Projects’* folder of Merlin Server.
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*) Or any other folder your Merlin Server shares.
Tags: Combine, Merlin, Merlin Server
Merlin – change the preselected project calendar
Vicky Stamatopoulou on 19. June 2012
Merlin provides a user friendly interface to modifying the project calendar.
Project calendar can be accessed in a tab of the inspector when the top most row (row “#0″) in the activities view is selected.
In the “Regular” tab you may modify the work intervals of the working week days if required.
You may also choose to change the preselected project calendar all together and switch from “Standard” to “Night Shift” for example.
Just select the desired project calendar from the appropriate pop up on the top right area of the inspector and make it your main project calendar afterward.
Please find hereafter a screencast of those actions (more…)
Tags: Calendar, Screencast
Merlin – View and edit notes in the web module
Vicky Stamatopoulou on 22. September 2011
Tags: ColumnSets, Merlin, Merlin Web, Notes
Merlin – publishing projects for collaboration with other Merlin users
Vicky Stamatopoulou on 15. July 2011
We have explained in the past how to share your projects with Merlin or Merlin Server for access over a web browser or iOS access. This post and the contained screencast shows how to share a project over your Merlin for Mac OS X application for collaboration with other Merlin users.
To start publishing…
- On one of your Macs you open the Merlin project in your Merlin for Mac OS X application
- Call File > Publish > Project (or press the yellow horn and switch to the “Project” tab)
- You start Project publishing by a click on ‘start’
- Leave the project open, and its publishing on. You can click on ‘close’ to close the dialogue though.
- Should your project be accessible only within your local network? Is so, you are done
- Would other Merlin users need to connect over the internet? You need to forward them the blue @ symbol shown on the project publishing dialogue
To open the published project…
- As a user on another Mac start your Merlin for Mac OS X application
- Call File > Remote Open
- If you are in the same local network as the publisher Merlin application, you directly see this Mac as discovered by Bonjour
- If you are accessing over the internet, you will need to enter the project’s address as calculated by the publisher Merlin and contained in the blue @ symbol.
Screencast of those actions… (more…)
Tags: Collaboration, Publish, Sharing
Merlin: Adjusting time rulers in the Gantt chart
Vicky Stamatopoulou on 29. April 2011
Merlin displays two ruler grid levels for the time line on the Gantt chart per default for new empty projects. One in days and another in calendar weeks. Depending on the planned work values of your activities, you may want to zoom in or out the time scale. To do so, simply click the according buttons on the bottom of the window.
Should you however need more ruler grid levels, you may define up to four. To add another grid, just click on the arrow pointing down on the right end of a grid level and select ‘Add top row’.
Tags: Merlin, Merlin 101, rulers, timeline, timescale, zoom
Merlin Web – access and edit a project shared by Merlin Server
Vicky Stamatopoulou on 29. March 2011
This is rather basic but since we get asked from time to time in support, please bear with us if you already are familiar with it, otherwise sit back and enjoy.
How do I edit my Merlin projects in the web browser? I share them over my Merlin Server.
Editing your Merlin projects on the web is easy.
- Once you know their address (in this case the Merlin Server’s address) just use the address on a supported web browser*.
- Merlin web shows no inspector, you edit the values in the shown columns directly.
- Expected columns contain automatically calculated values, are thus not editable.
- To edit your schedule use the column set ‘Time Planing’ and edit the ‘given planned… dates’. You can use the mini calendar or type the appropriate dates.
- To update your schedule use the column set ’Project Reporting (Percent)’; or ‘Project Reporting (absolute)’ depending on the reporting mode you want to use.
- To link or indent activities use the according buttons.
- Don’t forget to save your changes.
You may want to check the screencast showing how to enable Merlin Server, and access or edit the project in Safari afterwards: (more…)
Tags: Column Sets, Edit, Expected Date, Merlin, Merlin Web, Update, Web browser
We have wrote in the past Merlin & Merlin iPhone – how to share projects for iPhone
Vicky Stamatopoulou on 21. September 2010
In Merlin documentation, online help and various other web spaces one can read how to share projects for the iPhone when using Merlin for Mac OS X. The procedure is straight forwards. You open the projects in Merlin for Mac OS X, you call the publishing dialog by a click onto the yellow horn symbol, and start iPhone sharing.
- In case both Mac (with Merlin sharing the project) and iPhone are logged into the same LAN, you may use on the iPhone the Merlin *Server* automatically discovered over Bonjour and shown in the Servers list of Merlin iPhone app.
Tags: Firewall, Merlin, Merlin 101, Merlin iPhone, Port forwarding, Sharing, UPNP
Merlin – secure projects for access over a web browser
Vicky Stamatopoulou on 9. September 2010
We have described in a previous post the necessary steps for securing your Merlin projects. Pretty easily as you may already know; you either promote an existing resource to a user, or create a new resource just for the login purpose, configure its permissions in the ‘permissions’ inspector and hide your project from anonymous users.
Easy? Yes of course, but why do we mention an old post if everything is said in it? Well it’s obvious, isn’t? What our blog post didn’t do was to provide a short screencast of these actions.
This is done here, (more…)
Tags: Merlin, Merlin 101, Permissions, Privileges, Secure
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