Merlin Project: Descriptive Text Help for Custom Columns

You plan your projects with Merlin Project? Then you already know that you can add new columns in the Outline and create your own views.

New columns can be created in Merlin Project for existing fields or new fields.

So what if you need to create a column with a custom new field and want to explain the intended contents to other Merlin Project users?

This is how it works in Merlin Project (starting with version 8) using the dynamic help.

For the next steps we use the demo document from Merlin Project. Open it and select the view Schedule, we take this as a basis for the further steps.

Create a View

The new column information may be displayed in a separate view.
To do this, duplicate the Schedule view:

Click Schedule
Select Edit...
Click +
Name the new view for this example as Internal
Click Activate

Add new Column

Now add a new column to the activated Internal view:

Perform a mouse click on the arrow in any column header
Select the New column... option

Select For new Field: in the next dialogue
Name the new field for this example as Documentation
Confirm with OK

The new column is now visible and selected.
Using the Column:Info inspector, options for the column are now available.

Prepare Help Text

The new column Documentation can now be filled with content. If you want to help other users of the document know which content should be inserted and displayed here, you can enter a help text.

Using Inspector for the still selected column Documentation:

Switch to the Notes tab
Enter the corresponding help text into the text field

Enable Dynamic Help

With Merlin Project 8, in addition to the existing program tutorials there is an important new supplement, the Dynamic Help.

Enable the help clicking the question mark, this will be colored blue accordingly.

Move the mouse pointer over the column header of the Documentation column.
The help text you entered will now be displayed directly where it is needed.