Merlin Project Help

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While your Merlin Project from our Website runs on trial mode, it will offer following options:

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You can manage your existing subscription in the Merlin Project > Subscription panel.

By a subscription which is activated on the current macOS device…

…click Manage Subscription… for further information.

By a subscription which hadn’t been activated on this macOS device…

…click Manage Existing Subscription… for further information.

Enter the Email and Password for your subscription and click Continue….

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Click Manage Existing Subscription. Enter the Email and Password for your subscription and click Continue…. Now click Cancel Subscription….

You can plan a project forwards or backwards. If you’ve already got a fixed end date for the overall project, you can also take a backward-looking approach. To do this, in your project click Settings and set the Direction to »Backward«.

In the Inspector, click the Calendar icon in the Start > Earliest field. Use the calendar to set the earliest planned start for the project.

Per default you’ll find Sunday to be the first day of week for new projects. To change it, just select another day in the Settings > General > Date Presets. You may need to do this for projects taking place abroad, for instance.

The Flow view contains the logical connections and the structure of the project in the form of a Net Plan.

You can modify how the Net Plan is displayed in the View Options (1) using the Layout drop-down menu (2). The Inspector contains additional options for displaying the Net Plan.

The Kanban view is intended for agile project management and offers a variety of possible applications.

The Kanban Compact view is a slimmed-down variant of the Kanban view.

The Mind Map view is perfect for displaying projects graphically. You can adjust the layout of the Mind Map in the »View Options« and change how it looks. Click the displayed icon.

The Organizational Chart view in the Net Plan is perfect for the hierarchical display of different projects.

You can adjust the layout of the Organizational Chart in the »View Options« and change how it looks. Click the wrench icon.

Following inspector appears when the Work Breakdown view is enabled.

It contains the following options:

This inspector appears when the Resources view is enabled.

It contains the following options:

This inspector appears when the Net plan view is enabled.

It contains the following options:

This inspector appears when the Assignments view is enabled.

It contains the following options:

This inspector appears when the Report view is enabled.

This inspector appears when the Report view is enabled. It contains the following options:

This inspector appears when the Attachments view is enabled.

It contains the following options:

Call the File → Open… menu item. It opens existing documents. If the format of the selected document is supported, Merlin Project imports the content and opens it in a new document.

You can drag & drop a document directly onto the Merlin Project application icon or onto an existing project. Latter, imports the document into the existing project.

If you want to schedule your activity by the effort it will need to be completed, use the Plan inspector or enter the effort in the Given work outline column.

You want to schedule the painting of a room. You estimate the required effort for the activity as 2.5 working days. You expect that when assigning this activity to let’s say two resources, each resource’s effort will be half as much.

Alternatively: You can edit the Given Work value in the outline column.

If you want to schedule your activity by the duration it will need to be completed, use the Plan inspector or enter the effort in the Given duration outline column.

You want to schedule a seminar. The duration for this seminar is 2 working days. You expect that when assigning it to your trainer personel, all assigned trainers will work throughout the complete duration of this seminar.

Alternatively: You can edit the Given Duration value in the outline column.

You schedule a team meeting on a remote location. You want to plan with 1.5 working days. But also need to block 3 working days of your team for the overall duration. Within those 3 days, your team transfers to the remote location, works for those 1.5 working days and transfers back to its base.

You want to schedule an event for which you know it will be 3 calendar days long. It starts on Friday and the weekend (which is usually non working time) should be included in the overall duration.

Alternatively: You can edit the Given Duration value in the outline column.

You want to schedule the placing of a concrete slab. You estimate the required effort for the activity as 1.5 working days. You know concrete starts drying directly as you pour it and requires at least 1 calendar week of overall drying time.

Alternatively: You can edit the Given Work and Given Duration values in the outline columns.

In the above examples we used the terms working days, working week.

For simplicity reasons, we enter them in Merlin Project as '2 days' or '1 week'.

Let’s check the defaults in Settings > General > Work

Per default, 1 working day are 8 working hours, 40 working hours make a week and 20 days a month.

So '2 days' are those '2 working days' of '8 working hours' each. '1 week' means '40 working hours' which calculates as '5 working days' or '8 working hours' each.

Let’s check the defaults Settings > Calendars

Per default, there are 5 work days: Monday to Friday. Each work day includes work intervals from 8am to 12pm and 1pm to 5pm.

So the working time on Monday starts at 8am and ends at 5pm.

Let’s select an activity of '2.5 days' work and open the Plan inspector.

We see in the Expected

We know that 2.5 days are 2.5 working days, 20 working hours. This activity has the same amount of effort and duration.

2.17 edays is the elapsed calendar time and time period to expect the activity to be completed. The prefix "e" denotes "elapsed".

The elapsed duration is the duration plus the free time contained.

By default and according to the settings (Settings > Calendars) a regular work day starts at 8am, contains a lunch break between 12pm and 1pm and ends at 5pm.

An activity with the planned 2.5 days of work, which starts at 8am requires for the first 8 hours (four in the morning, four in the afternoon) 9 consecutive hours (ehours) on the first day.

The works stop at 5pm and start next day at 8am. So there are 15 hours of free time. From 8am until 5pm on the second day there are further 8 hours (9 ehours), until once again at 5pm 15 hours of free time start again.

The remaining 4 hours can be scheduled on the third day to start at 8am and finish at 12pm. So to the 20 hours of work, you add 32 hours of free time which calculates as 52 ehours.

52 ehours divided by 24 ehours equals 2.16666 edays, or 2.17 edays.

Should you change the Calculation Unit to Hour in Settings > General > Duration …

And select again your activity, you’ll see expected values in hours thus:

All roads lead to Rome, including the various possibilities for creating links.

The resources pop-up is perfect for gaining a quick overview of project resources.

For more information on your resources and for a more detailed edit of the values of your resources, click on Resources View. Merlin Project will switch quickly to that view.

The resources pop-up can be used as a separate window. Move the window down with the mouse pointer.

Merlin Project allows you to use contacts from the Contacts app as resources in your project.

Open the Contacts app, select the contacts in question. Use the mouse to drag and drop them on activities, milestones, or groups. These contacts are added as resources to the project and assigned to the activities automatically.

If you enable the Current Time Unit option the time unit in the Gantt chart which contains the status date, will be shaded blue. This gives you an additional highlight on the Gantt of the project, to quickly visually identify the tasks that are due during this period.

Similar to the Current Time Unit option, the Time Line option allows you to add a vertical marker to the Gantt chart.

If you check the Time Line option, the status date will appear as a thin red line on the project Gantt.

Secondary-click the time scale to display the context menu.

The date range is set in the Time scale Inspector.

Click the time scale. The Inspector will appear. This contains the Date Range options.

Enter the desired start and end date for how you want the date range displayed. To do this, click the calendar icon and the desired date.

Once you’ve set the date range, the project displays the specified time period automatically. A blue bar above the Gantt chart (1) indicates the activated date range.

Another option appears in the Inspector that lets you control the display of hidden rows in the outline.

You have three options to choose from:

Never shows all rows, including those rows with link lines that are in the date range, but the corresponding activity bars are not visible in the date range.

With main bar outside of range refers to all rows containing an activity bar, but which are not in the date range.

With main and reference bars outside of range means all rows containing an activity bar and a reference bar, but which are not in the date range.

The Labels drop-down menu contains settings for controlling the display of labels in the activated date range.

The default option Extend visible range displays the labels in full.

The Cut off at edge option cuts off the labels at the edge of the date range.

The Based on option lets you display the calendar based on its non-working time in the project.

The Darken option has three configurations to control the display of non-working time in the project:

The Never option stops darkening the display of non-working time in the project.

The Uniformly option is set by default. The non-working times for the regular week in the project are displayed.

Activate the Individually per row option so that you can see the non-working times of resources and their vacation periods in the project in the respective row.

Using the slider, set whether you want the regular non-working times to be displayed or hidden.

Choose from the following options to display the working times:

Creation date shown as relative time point (today, yesterday, etc) and contains the date and time of any given comment.

Merlin Project calculates the author’s name into the comment.

There are various cases:

New comments on project files show Anonymous as author.

New comments on project files show Anonymous as author.

New comments on project files show the title of the user-resource which had inserted them.

There are various cases:

New comments show the initials of the resource.

New comments show a thumbnail of the author’s image.

The text to the comment.

When wanting to edit comments, there are various use cases:

Anyone opening the file may edit any given comment.

Alternatively

You can also select the Edit menu item from the (…) menu shown at the bottom of the Annotations inspector.

To delete any given comment:

Comments can be sorted in the following ways:

Default order is Newest Comments first

To change the sorting order:

Use this option to modify an existing filter. A copy will then be made.

Duplication saves you from having to go through the conditions from the original filter and set them manually.

All conditions are transferred during duplication and can be modified or added to.

The original filter remains unchanged.

You can reset changes in a shared filter.

To do so, click the rotated undo arrow. A dialog will then appear in which you can undo the changes.

Reset the filter:

Groupings are highlighted graphically and displayed with corresponding information in the current view.

Among other things, this lets you make different levels of progress in the project visible quickly, classify activities rapidly, and evaluate and visualize information easily.

Create and add your own groupings to the list of built-in groupings. Click the plus icon on the left below the list.

The category »Custom« will be created. This is to differentiate between the groupings you create yourself and those that are built-in. Give the grouping you created a distinctive name so it’s easy to tell what it is for future use.

Click the magnifying glass icon and use the grouping options.

Use the »Group« drop-down menu to group. Depending on the active view, you can choose between the following grouping options in the drop-down menu:

Set options according to which they are to be grouped. Use the drop-down menu to do this.

Click the plus icon to add further condition rows or remove options by clicking the minus icon.

The hierarchical display of the grouping can also be changed using the view options at the bottom.

This option can be handy to use an existing grouping as a template for a further grouping. A copy of the grouping is created.

Select a grouping and click the gear icon followed by Duplicate.

A copy of the grouping will be created and assigned a number. Name the grouping.

Following that, click the magnifying glass icon to modify and expand the grouping options.

If you want to publish changes in a shared grouping to local projects, click the gear icon and then the Publish Changes option.

The arrow icon is handy to undo changes in shared groupings.

It undoes changes made in shared groupings.

If you click the icon, a dialog will appear with options to undo changes.

Select an undo option and then click the »Reset« button.

If you no longer want a grouping to be shared locally, click the desired grouping and then click the gear icon.

In the list, click Share with other local projects. A marked checkbox in front of the option indicates that the grouping is already being shared.

Click an element to access the style or content options. In the above drop-down menu, you can see the selection you made and the selected element will be highlighted in blue.

In the following, the Bars (1), the entire Row (bar row type) (2) and the Reference Bars (3) are activated.

1

2

3

Activate the left label by clicking Title and changing the content of the left label using the option in the drop-down menu with the same name. You’ll also find style options here for modifying the Color and Font of the content.

From the Content drop-down menu, select the Expected Start instead of the default Title selection. This will display the expected start of the activity as a date in the left-hand label.

The General tab controls the styles for the display of many general elements in the active view.

If no selection is active in the view and you click the magnifying glass icon, the Style Inspector will open with the General tab.

The general settings for Style and Content apply in principle to all style options across the project.

The elements for the particular view, which you can configure to suit using the options available in the Inspector, can be found in the drop-down menu.

The By Rules tab lets you control style and content options automatically depending on specific conditions.

For example: You want all activities to which a specific resource has been assigned to appear in a specific color or alternate font automatically.

The For Selection tab controls the styles and contents for the selection. This lets you adjust elements individually.

In a view, select an element and click the paintbrush icon. The Style Inspector will open with the Selection tab.

Right-click a bar in the Work Breakdown view, a column row, or the Outline to access and edit the associated style and/or content options.

Right-click Non-working Time (6) in the Gantt chart and in the drop-down menu click the option Style > Non-working Time.

The General tab will open in the Inspector with the style option for Non-working Time.

Click the Background Color color well to change the display color of the Non-working Time in the Gantt chart.

The macOS Colors window will then appear. This includes a range of options for setting colors and the opacity.

Changing the background color. Following that, Non-working Time will be displayed in the selected color in the Work Breakdown.

Open a new or existing project in Merlin Project.

To change the color of a bar, milestone or group, first right-click a bar, group or milestone.

From the context menu, select the option Style and Content > Bars.

The For Selection tab will open in the Inspector. There you will find options to modify the styles for the selected bars.

Click Background Color. In the Color window, choose the desired color. This will be adopted immediately for the selected bars. Repeat the process for the Fill Level Color.

If required, make further changes to options in the Inspector to modify the style of the selected bars.

Click the cross icon if you want to undo the value of an option. In doing so, the value of the parent level or condition for the option will be used instead.

When making a multiple selection, if the bars have different values then Multiple Values will appear in the Info field. Click the field and adjust the color so that all selected bars are assigned the new color. This overwrites the old values.

Otherwise, click the cross icon to revert from multiple values to the default values.

Click the brush icon. In the Inspector, select the appropriate tab.

Select the General tab so that the change applies to all content in the view.

Click the desired label in the preview.

There are three labels to choose from:

Click the Content drop-down menu and select the desired content for the active label.

The Content drop-down menu contains all the information that can be used in labels.

All elements in the Outline include various options to change styles. These are summarized graphically in the following image.

Outline columns include various options to change column styles. These are summarized graphically in the following image.

Gantt chart bars include various options to change the bar styles. These are summarized graphically in the following image.

Net Plan boxes and histograms include various options to change the bar styles. These are summarized graphically in the following image.

Use Selection For Find lets you additionally search through hits.

Use the keyboard shortcut cmd + E for the option.

Jump to Selection lets you jump to a previously made selection, such as a selected activity or several items of selected content in the project.

Use the keyboard shortcut cmd + J for the option.

Jump to Current Date lets you find the current day in the project quickly.

Use the keyboard shortcut cmd + D keys for the option.

Jump to… lets you jump quickly to individual project rows.

Use the keyboard shortcut cmd + L keys for the option.

The Jump to box will appear in the active view. Enter the desired row number into the box.

By clicking the triangle you set your preferred numbering:

Date Presets relate to the project and are therefore important.

In the Regular Week section you can manage the regular work intervals per week day. Just select the Calendar you want to manage, select the various week days and edit its regular Work intervals as desired.

By clicking Exceptions (1) you can set single days or time phases as exceptions for free time and extra working time in the active calendar.

New exceptions are created by clicking the plus (2) icon. Each exception can be customized with the following information:

By default, new exceptions are defined as non-working hours.

These times are only active as additional working times (outside regular working time) when times are added in the Work intervals bar (3).

Use Export option, to export a configured calendar from a project to be able to import in another Merlin Project document. The exported file will include the Calendar’s name, Regular Week and Exceptions.

Use Import option, to import a Merlin Project calendar you’ve previously exported, or to insert Exceptions in your existing project out of an ics calendar file.

You can configure the Regular Week and Exceptions of the working times for your Resources in the same way as for the project Calendars.

Just select a Resource row in a Resources or Assignments view, and click the Calendar tab in the Inspector.

Resource calendars are per default based on the project calendar.

Use the Base Calendar drop-down menu to select another project calendar for the active resource if needed.

If you make changes to the resource calendar, these settings will take priority over the selected Base Calendar.

You can Reset to Base Values and remove changes from the resource calendar for the individual days.

The Calendar tab in the Resource Inspector offers some more options:

Three options are available for Utilization Calculation.

Here you can set the % values for the over-utilization and under-utilization thresholds. These values have a direct influence on the utilization calculation in the project.

The Respect pool assignments option also lets you include resources assigned from resource pools in the utilization calculation based on the thresholds.

You have a multitude of options at your disposal to perform resource leveling in the project:

Click the Level Now gear icon and select one of the leveling options:

Project files can be added as pools in the Resource Pools list.

The Publish Assignments option lets you make the resource pool assignments visible.

The »Folders« tab lets you select the language of the offered build-in library items and allows you to manage your own library content:

By default Merlin Project, shows its build-in library items in the application language.

If you want to use library content in a different language or enable more languages, select the desired language(s) from the drop-down menu Languages for default content. You can make multiple selections.

The Writeable folder option lets you change the default folder where all Library content will be stored when drag and items in the Merlin Project Library.

Click the arrow icon, to open the selected Library folder in its Finder window.

To change the default folder, click Default and select a desired folder.

You can configure additional folders with content for the Library in the Read-only folders list. Click »+« to add new folders or »-« to remove them.

The Library will list all content and sub folders from the inserted Read-only folders.

The »Address books« tab lets you select and configure the address books the Library should use when listing Contacts.

The Show macOS contacts option lets you show or hide in the Library Contacts from the Apple »Contacts.app«.

The Show Microsoft Outlook contacts option lets you show or hide in the Library Contacts from the »Outlook.app« which is part of the Microsoft Office suite.

You can enter LDAP servers in the LDAP Directory Services list. This lets you use contacts from an LDAP directory service with the Library.

Click »+« to enter information to connect to and use an LDAP directory service.

Click »-« to remove an entry. To edit entries, click »Edit«.

Click Show Library to open the Library dialogue.

If having currently opened the Library dialogue and made any changes in the preferences pane, click Reload to update all content listed in the Library dialogue.

Choose this option to create a duplicate with the same document history and be able to undo all your previous actions starting by document creation.

Choose this option to remove document history in the duplicate and work in this document by a new identity. This would allow you to combine for example the old file with the new duplicate within master projects.

Click the paper orientation option to select whether you want your project content printed in portrait or landscape format.

Then select Scaling from the drop-down menu. If, for instance, you have selected landscape, set the width to one page.

This resizes the entire project to fit the full width of one sheet.

You can create PDF files quickly and easily via the print window.

Click the Show Details button. This opens the advanced print view. Configure the print options as necessary. Following that, click the PDF button on the bottom left.

Click Save as PDF. The macOS Save dialog will open. Name the PDF file.

In addition, further options for creating the PDF file can be found here:

The Security Options… button gives you the option to password protect the PDF file and its contents.

Perform a secondary-click to open context menus in Merlin Project. This provides you with additional options for the clicked content.

New groups are created using this technique in Merlin Project. You can drag several activities and drop them on another activity.

The activity the content is to be dropped on will be highlighted in blue. Once you release the mouse button it will turn into a group (bold) automatically and the activities will become its child activities (indented).

In Merlin Project, you can re-sort the sequence of activities, groups, and milestones. To do so, drag several activities and drop them between other activities.

When doing this, blue line with a circle appears to mark the position between the content.

Activity C now appears between Activity A and Activity B.

The command key is abbreviated to cmd.

For instance, the Enter/Exit Full Screen option under the menu item Window is controlled using the keyboard shortcut ctrl + cmd + F.

To edit content, the following keys are especially useful.

1.Delete key (backspace) → backspace key 2. Function key → (Function) → no corresponding key with Windows 3. Enter (Return) → Enter 4. Delete (Delete) → DEL

Merlin Project uses a host of keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard shortcuts consist of several keys pressed simultaneously, for example, saving projects is performed with cmd + S. F keys (F1,F2, etc.) are available on all newer Apple keyboards using the fn function key.

Most menu entries are provided with the corresponding keyboard shortcuts. They are located directly next to the individual menu entries. This lets you access these menu entries quickly and easily using the keyboard.

The content in the different views of Merlin Project can be moved around the visible section using input devices such as a mouse or a touchpad. The scroll bars only appear when scrolling.

Open the System Preferences in macOS and click the General icon. There you will find the options for displaying scroll bars when scrolling.

The three options for scrolling using the scroll bars are system-wide and apply to all programs used.

If you select Always, the scroll bars will then always appear in Merlin Project and in all other programs.

You have prepared a project file and want to share it on your Merlin Server? If the administrator of your Merlin Server agreed to give you the remote management password, go to File > Merlin Server > Share Document , click on 'Share' and enter the password.

Whenever you save the project file using cmd+S or when the project file is saved automatically, changes are synchronized with the project file on Merlin Server. If the device on which Subscribe projects is installed has temporarily no connection to Merlin Server (because the device or Merlin Server are offline or Merlin Server is currently not accessible via the Internet), the changes will be saved locally and synchronized the next time Merlin Server is successfully accessed (for example when the Mac returns and logs into the same LAN).

When synchronizing, the local file sends the locally saved changes to the server and receives changes made by other users from the server.

A thus decoupled file can be synchronized with the server again if you call File > Merlin Server > Link with existing Document on Server.

Budget means money that is available for the project.

Select an activity, milestone, or assignment and then click the Finance → Budget tab in the inspector. Here you can enter all budget information in the fields provided.

In the tab Finance > Cost you can enter base costs for the selection.

If you have several cost items, first click the triangle next to Base Costs and create new entries one after the other by clicking the + icon. Merlin Project will then add up the individual cost items automatically. The Base Costs field lists the total of all cost items.

You can select one of the possible accruals:

Under the Finance → Balance tab you will find an overview of cost values listed by Expected, Planned, and Actual.

Work costs are costs generated by work from resources allocated to the activity.

A resource can have following cost information:

Attachment cost are costs due to base costs on attachments.

In Merlin Project you’ll find following pre-configured cost views:

They contain column sets that give you an overview of the costs for individual groups, activities, milestones, assignments or resources.

Alongside Scrum, Kanban is one of the most widely used methods in project management.

It was originally developed for production management, meanwhile the agile method is now also used widely in project management.

The use of Kanban offers improved utilization, higher transparency, and faster iterations during the project.

The Kanban system is based on cards that can be moved from left to right in column rows along a board.

Every to do is noted on a card. Depending on the processing status, a card moves along the board from left to right until it is completed.

In moving along the columns, the cards are given a defined status. As the project progresses, an increasing number of cards move from left to right.

In the simplest Kanban system, the Kanban board is split into three columns. The cards always move from left to right.

To Do: In the left-hand column, to dos are entered that have not been worked on yet. These to dos are planned and are to be worked on soon.

In Progress/Doing: As soon as work starts on a to do, its card is moved to the center column. The card remains in this column while being worked on.

Done: Once the to do is done, the card moves to the right-hand column. This means that the to do has been completed successfully.

Merlin Project lets you plan using traditional and agile project management methods, and to switch between them or even use both simultaneously whenever you want.

The progress and thus the status between the traditional and agile planning method views is updated automatically. This unique function lets you work flexibly and plan using different methods.

The boundaries between agile and traditional project management have finally vanished with the introduction of Merlin Project.

Choose between two Kanban display modes in Merlin Project: Traditional and Compact. For the compact view, from the Net Plan drop-down menu select the Kanban Compact view.

Kanban offers a very flexible approach to working with projects. Read on to learn how you can get off to a quick start with Kanban in Merlin Project.

Open a new or existing project. To do so, click File > Open or use the keyboard shortcut cmd + O.

To create a new project, click File > New or use the keyboard shortcut alt + cmd + N.

Change from the Work Breakdown > Entry view to the Net Plan > Kanban view.

When you first access the Kanban view a notification will appear with the button Group by status field.

Click the button to open the Grouping by Status Field wizard.

The wizard includes pre-defined status field templates.

The options »by new field:« and »Simple Kanban« are preset automatically. Click OK to work with this Kanban status.

The status values in the supplied »Simple Kanban« field can be seen as columns in the Kanban board.

You can arrange the Kanban cards based on these status values and edit them with a defined Kanban status in the traditional view.

The status values can be changed in the wizard. Click on an entry to change it.

Click the plus to create new status values or click minus to remove them.

The following tells you more about using Kanban in Merlin Project.

The status values from the »Simple Kanban« field appear in separate columns in the Kanban board.

The columns are arranged from left to right with the following status values:

If the project has activities, these appear automatically in the columns as Kanban cards. The card’s status in the project dictates in which column they are arranged.

You can create new Kanban cards by clicking the plus icon or using the keyboard shortcut cmd + N.

The card that is created appears automatically as an activity in the traditional view. Click the arrow on the right next to the plus icon to create further card types as well as attachments.

Select one or more cards and then click Attachment.

This option lets you add any files or information to the selected card(s). Attachments are represented by a paperclip in the lower left corner of the card.

Grouping by status field is required for the Kanban view.

The wizard includes the following status field selection options:

Once you have selected the status field, a preview will appear of the status values contained in the status field.

The by new field from template option lets you start directly with a new pre-defined template. This is the easiest way to create a Kanban.

The drop-down menu options can already be used for a variety of projects. The by new field from template option lets you select custom fields, that are already included in the project, to group the columns.

The Status (calculated) field differs from most fields as it accesses the values calculated in the project. This means you can no longer move the Kanban cards in the Kanban view manually; they are moved automatically by the values calculated in terms of the project’s progress.

Should a Kanban board be grouped by Status (calculated), the Unscheduled column is shown as a single column until the project is progressing within actual values.

The status can be also shown in a column with the same name in the Work Breakdown > Entry view.

Click the Grouping icon to display the list of built-in groupings.

Click the gear icon in the Group Inspector and a drop-down menu will appear as shown. Click the option Group by Status Field.

The Grouping by Status Field wizard will appear. Select your desired grouping for the Kanban view.

Click the Grouping icon to display the list of built-in groupings.

Click the plus icon on the bottom left in the Group Inspector. A new grouping in the "Custom" category will be created.

Name the grouping and then click the magnifying glass.

The dialog for modifying the grouping will be displayed. You can set the grouping options here. The view will be grouped based on these options. To do so, use the drop-down menu.

Click the plus icon to add additional grouping conditions. Click the minus icon to remove them again.

Click the rectangle on the left next to a grouping to activate it and apply it directly in the Kanban view.

The active grouping will be displayed next to the grouping icon. Click it to access the list where you can change or modify the grouping whenever you want.

Click a column title in the Kanban view to display the "Group" Inspector. The clicked value of the status field will be displayed there and can be adjusted.

You can choose from the following options in the "Group" Inspector:

Click the Edit All Values option in the Group Inspector to open the Inspector for the current grouping values. See the Field Values Inspector section for further information.

The Minimum Number option lets you set the minimum number of cards displayed in the column.

If you set a minimum number of cards, a counter with the current number of cards and the minimum number set is displayed in the title column.

The Maximum Number option lets you set the maximum number of cards displayed in the column.

If you set a maximum number of cards, a counter with the current number of cards and the maximum number set is displayed in the title column.

You can edit and adjust the field values in the Custom Fields Inspector.

These field values set the progress for the cards and in doing so for the activities in the Kanban view and other views in Merlin Project.

The current grouping and associated values can be found in the Custom Fields Inspector.

Click the icon to the right of the value and all available values in the active grouping will appear in the drop-down menu. These values are used for the columns in the Kanban view. The selection is applied immediately for the selected card(s).

You will find a list of pre-defined values for the active grouping further down in the Inspector. Click the plus icon or minus icon to add/remove values to the grouping.

The values can have different properties. These are:

Value is also the title of the column in the Kanban view

Completion controls the progress of the activities both in the Kanban view and in all other views.

The following options are available:

When entering a % value for an activity that corresponds to the % value in the Completion column, the card associated with the activity is moved automatically in the Kanban column.

Conversely, you can also move a card manually. If you move a card in this Kanban column, the activity is assigned the % completion value automatically.

Min is the minimum number of cards in the Kanban column. This value corresponds to the Group Inspector option with the same name.

Max is the maximum number of cards for the Kanban column. This value corresponds to the Group Inspector option with the same name.

Level includes the optional categorization of the value in:

This categorization is only visible in the list of vales and has no planning impact; it is for the planner’s information only.

There can be several reasons why a conflict arises and various ways dealing with them. An algorithm cannot possibly tell which conflicting setting should be ignored. So the app isn’t supporting conflicts solving automatically.

Feel free to contact our support with your project so we can try to help you with your options.

The resource pool is the perfect solution when working on more than one project where the same resources are used regularly.

The resource pool lets you use the same resources with multiple projects, whereby all the resource information from the resource pool is available to everyone working with projects linked to the resource pool file.

If resources change in the resource pool file, the information is updated automatically in the connected projects.

Using resource pools makes it easier to work on a number of projects with the same resources and assignments.

You need a new project file to create a new resource pool.

Start Merlin Project and open a new project. To do so, click File > New or use the keyboard shortcut alt + cmd + N.

It’s quick and easy to create new resources for the resource pool.

Click the Resources icon in the toolbar.

Then, click the plus icon to create a new resource.

Name the new resource. Continue by clicking the plus icon. Repeat these steps until you have added all required resources to the resource pool.

Switch to the Resources > Entry view to edit resources in more detail. In this view, you can find various columns with further information to your resources.

If you select a resource, the Resources Inspector is also displayed. It contains all the fields to modify the selected resource.

Click the insert button as shown in the Image column, to insert an image for your resources.

If the Contacts.app or Microsoft Outlook already includes contacts, you can add them directly in the Resources > Entry view by using your mouse to drag and drop them, thereby adding them as resources to the resource pool.

Please note that the blue lines perform different functions when adding contacts.

Place the business card between the rows and the contact from this card will be added to the resource list.

If you place the business card on top of an existing resource (on the line), the contact on the card will replace the resource.

If you use other apps that export to the vCard (.vcf) format, these contacts can also be dragged and dropped to the Resources view and used as resources.

The information in the vCards is imported automatically into the individual columns in the Resources view. This includes the contact’s photo, email address, and telephone number if these details are included in the vCard.

Once all the resources and required information, such as standard rates (meaning the cost of the resource per time unit), have been fully entered in the resource pool, save the file.

To do so, click File > Save or the keyboard shortcut cmd + S.

Name the resource pool file and then click Save.

Open a new or blank project in which you want to use the resource pool file.

In the toolbar, click the Settings icon (1) and select the first icon on the right, the Utilization tab (2).

In the Utilization Inspector you will find the Respect pool assignments option in the Utilization Calculation area.

It is activated by default. If the project includes resource assignments from resource pools, they are taken into consideration in the utilization calculation. Unmark the checkbox and the pool assignments will not be included in the utilization calculation.

The Resource Pools list is located in the lower area.

Here you can add, remove, and edit pool files for the opened project as resource pools.

The Publish Assignments option shows all assignments from the projects in the resource pool file. This option is activated by default. Unmark the checkbox if you do not want assignments to appear in the pool file.

The easiest way to use one or more project files as a resource pool is to drag and drop it/them into the Inspector field using the mouse.

When adding the resource pool, you can adopt all resources automatically.