Preguntas y respuestas

Minimum

To run Merlin products, you will need a Mac computer on which at least macOS 10.11.6 is installed.

Recommended

We recommend to always use the latest version of the operating system. At the moment this is macOS Mojave (10.14).

Read about all details regarding new features, changes and fixed issues for each product's versions in the release notes.

Merlin Server is an add-on to the basic software Merlin Project.

Merlin Project is the project management application for macOS. You install it on your local Mac. Your projects are generated and maintained there. Whenever you like to work at the same time or together with others (project members or devices), you may use Merlin Server.

Merlin Server is a separate product which has to be installed on a Mac of yours. It is no cloud service. You require either a subscription for Merlin Project or Merlin Project Go plus a license for Merlin Server.

How does Merlin Server work exactly?

Publish your project via Merlin Server. Other project members or devices can then subscribe to that project - e. g. with Merlin Project Go on the iPhone or iPad. The project file will be loaded on your device and also only modified there.

Whenever this device is connected to the internet, the local Merlin Project will try to communicate with Merlin Server, in order to synchronize modifications.

You do not have to do anything special to sync changes, it all happens in the background. In case you are offline, Merlin Project will wait patiently until you are back online to sync the latest changes.

No. Merlin products are only available for the Apple operating system (macOS, iOS). At the moment, we do not plan on extending support to other operating systems.

Yes, you can test all our products free of charge before you decide to subscribe to it or buy a license. The trial period for Merlin Project and Merlin Server is 30 days. Merlin Project Go and Merlin Project Express start with a 14 days trial.

The demo version contains all features. After subscribing to the app or buying a license, the demo will be unlocked to a unlimited version and you can continue working with the already entered data.

You will find the prices for our products as well as the links to the different online stores here.

We have drawn up a summary of the license fees for the different Merlin versions.

• Subscribe to Merlin Project directly from within the application. You will find the subscription management directly in the preferences of the app (more details are available in the quickguide). Additionally Merlin Project is also available in the Mac App Store.

• The subscription for Merlin Project Go can be signed at the App Store.

• The Merlin Project Express subscription is available at the App Store. Optionally you will find it at the Setapp subscription service.

• Merlin Server is not available on subscription, but can be purchased as an unlimited license in our online shop or directly from us.

The former version Merlin Project 4 is not available online anymore, but only upon request.

No: We have deliberately decided to offer Merlin Project, Merlin Project Express and Merlin Project Go on subscription only.

So you can constantly benefit from the improvements and enhancements in the software, without having to purchase them separately as updates.

Also, if you temporarily do not have a project to work on, you are free to cancel the subscription and re-subscribe again at a later date. Your data will be retained even without a current subscription and you can use the software in "read-only mode".

As an alternative to the annual subscription we offer a 3-year license. This is not automatically renewed. If you are interested, please email us.

Merlin Server is still available as perpetual license.

Yes. The basic license for Merlin Server contains 5 users. Already for a Merlin Server license with 10 users you may benefit from the following discounts:

Merlin Server with 10 users -> 5% discount
Merlin Server with 20 users -> 10% discount
Merlin Server with 30 users -> 15% discount
Merlin Server with 50 users -> 20% discount
Merlin Server with 80 users -> 25% discount
Merlin Server with 100 users -> 30% discount

For technical reasons, each purchase is considered separately. It is not possible to include licenses already bought in the volume discount scheme.

Sí, con una prueba suficiente, puede beneficiarse de nuestro 50% de descuento en educación e investigación sobre el precio de lista para Merlin Project y Merlin Server.

Envíenos por correo electrónico su prueba válida (por ejemplo, foto de su identificación de estudiante) y recibirá un código de cupón, que ingresará cuando se registre para la suscripción a Merlin Project o durante la compra de la licencia de Merlin Server. El descuento se toma automáticamente en cuenta.

Desafortunadamente, Apple no otorga un descuento edu en la App Store. No puede suscribirse a Merlin Project, Merlin Project Go y Merlin Project Express a un precio reducido. Se puede encontrar más información para clientes sobre educación en el sitio web de Apple.

Setapp ofrece un descuento para estudiantes del 50% por la suscripción. Tendrá que registrarse con el correo electrónico de su institución educativa para recibir el patrimonio de Merlin Project Express. Más información para alumnos y estudiantes ha sido compilada por Setapp.

¿Desea equipar todo el curso de gestión de proyectos con licencias para Merlin Project? También ofrecemos licencias gratuitas y de tiempo limitado para profesores. Los detalles se pueden encontrar aquí.

Los diferentes descuentos no se pueden combinar entre sí.

Yes. We support Non-profits and charities with a discount of 50% off the list price for Merlin Project and Merlin Server.

As soon as we have received proof (send to sales@projectwizards.net), we will mail you a coupon code. Please enter it when subscribing to Merlin Project or purchasing a Merlin Server license in order to receive the discount.

The discount is only available for subscriptions via our store operated by Paddle. If you prefer subscribing at the App Store, you need to contact Apple directly for any kind of discounts.

Our prices include sales tax (Value Added Tax, Goods and Service Tax).

Payment processing is handled by an external service provider who also takes care of compliance with global and complex tax guidelines.

For customers from EU member states who enter a valid VAT identification number, the VAT will be deducted.

Yes, but only for Merlin Server. Alternatively to our online store, we do also offer direct purchase for Merlin Server licenses.

Send us your order per e-mail. We will issue an invoice which can be paid via PayPal or by bank transfer (no credit card payments) to our account in Germany. After payment has been received, we will send you your license key per e-mail. This will unlock Merlin Server demo to a full version.

For those Merlin versions available on subscription, the purchase can only be done online.

We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. During this time you can cancel your purchase at any time.

Email us including details of your purchase

• order number and date.
• email address used to purchase the license
• name/company

We will then take care of everything for you.

The respective billing provider will issue an invoice after the subscription or purchase of the license have been processed. You can then print these out for your accounting department.

• After collecting the payment, Paddle will send you an e-mail confirmation. This includes a link to your receipt. You can access it online and add your billing details.

• MyCommerce will e-mail you the order confirmation and invoice, as well as the license file as soon as the order has been processed.

• As usual, the invoice from the App Store will be issued and sent directly from Apple.

The basis for the calculation of individual currencies is the price in EURO. Only the prices in US dollars (USD), pound sterling (GBP) and Swiss francs (CHF) were set by us. The currency, on the other hand, depends on the country selected.

The exchange rate is subject to fluctuations and is determined by our billing partner. It is out of our control.

To subscribe to the Merlin Project you can choose between credit card and PayPal. The data will be stored by our billing partner for the recurring annual payments.

For the purchase of a Merlin Server license you additionally have the option to pay by bank transfer.

When you subscribe to the App Store, Apple uses the deposited payment option.

Payment by purchase order is not possible.

We are continually working on further developing our software and we publish these developments in the form of maintenance updates. These updates are free of charge for licensed users and already included in the subscription fee.

The upgrade from version 4 to 5 is free of charge for all Merlin Server customers. Download the latest version from our website.

Both versions can manage with Merlin Project 4 and Merlin Project 5 files. We recommend to use the server version of which you have more clients in use. This means Merlin Server 5 when you mostly work with Merlin Project 5 and Merlin Server 4 if the main use is Merlin Project 4.

Download Merlin Server 5 here.
Download Merlin Server 4 here.

It is not possible to upgrade from Merlin Server 2 to Merlin Server 4 or 5, since this is a completely new development. In this case you have to purchase a new license.

1. Download the current version of Merlin Server. You are loading the 30 days trial version which will be unlocked to a full version when entering the license file.

2. Drag and drop the loaded application Merlin Server onto your "Applications" folder.

3. Double click your license file to install it. The program starts and its license window pops up displaying all installed licenses.

The Merlin Server license is a small file, no string of numbers and/or characters.
You will receive it upon payment.

The latest software version is available for download on the respective product page.

There is no difference between the test version and the full version apart from the restriction that you can only read projects after the trial period expired.

With subscribing to the product or buying a license you will unlock the demo to a full version. This lets you continue editing data you entered while demoing the software.

Of course, all licenses are stored in our database. We will gladly send you a copy of your license key. The e-mail address you used for your purchase helps us to find you in our database.

The fastest and easiest way is our automated online query. Enter your email address in the field provided and your licenses will be emailed to that address again.

Your email address is no longer valid or you are not sure which address you used? No problem. Please email us. We will then manually search our database. All information (name, company, email, order number, date of purchase) you have about your purchase will help us. We will then send the found licenses to your current e-mail address.

You may find the following Merlin Server quick guides in the Merlin Server documentation area:

• LAN or WLAN
• Sharing documents
• Subscribing documents
• Publishing accounts

Yes, some of our support articles in the blog and the questions and answers section already contain video tutorials in English and German language. You will find them all in our Merlin Project Playlist.

In addition, our partner LGO Knowledge has published some instruction videos in its own YouTube channel

You are missing a topic? Contact us. We will gladly add it to the list for you.

Yes. We work together with external trainers who offer different types of trainings face to face as well as online.

Please click here to see all current offers.

How do you transfer your documents to all your Macs, iPhones, and iPads? What’s the best way to share them with other users? And how do you sync every user’s changes? Cloud services such as Dropbox and the like have become very popular for tasks like these.

These services work with your usual files, are reliable, widespread, easy to set up, and even free of charge for many applications. So do these services solve all the problems of working in a virtual team? Unfortunately not. When you’re working on one document using multiple devices you run quickly into issues. Those time-consuming changes are lost if users continually overwrite each other’s files. In some cases, cloud services spot these conflicts and create special files for this purpose. While your edits aren’t lost, they are now spread across multiple files. So you have to go through the painstaking process of identifying chances in all conflicted variants and adding them in manually.

Example of a text file with conflicts because of synchronization.

Does it have to be like this?

No. Merlin Project uses our latest technology, MagicSync, which is optimized in a variety of ways for cloud services. With the help of MagicSync, Merlin Project synchronizes the changes made by multiple users without any data going missing or generating conflicting files. You don’t even need to close and re-open your documents to see the external changes, they simply appear immediately.

The sync function works even if you’ve been working on your documents offline for a while. Next time you go online, syncing will take place, allowing you still to undo your own changes (cmd-Z) long after you last synchronized them even if you quit Merlin Project in the meantime.

Sometimes you want to keep major changes to yourself and not have them affected by other edits? No need to pull the network connector. Just switch to the 'Private Work Area' of your Merlin Project document. While the latest document version will continue to be synchronized with your own devices, other users will see your private changes only if you choose to publish them.

Smooth project management in a team thanks to MagicSync

Simply drag and drop your Merlin Project documents to your cloud directory, and off you go. This whole new way of collaboration allowed by our MagicSync technology is special and unique, so we applied for a patent and now own it.

The macOS version of Merlin Project works with all popular file sharing platforms and cloud services. We’ve tested it with the following:

• Dropbox
• iCloud Drive
• Box.com
• Google Drive
• Microsoft One Drive
• Synology Cloud Station
• AFP- and SMB-file sharing

Merlin Project Go for iPhone and iPad currently supports these services:

• Dropbox
• iCloud Drive

Prefer working without Cloud services?

With Merlin Server, we also offer our own application for syncing documents which means you don’t need to use external cloud services. What other benefits does Merlin Server offer me?

• Sync as many documents with as many users as you like even over a slow Internet connection. Merlin Server is extremely fast and data-efficient.
• Control access to your documents using Merlin Project’s user and rights management system.
• Send project reports automatically.
• Allow project customers without a Mac or iPhone to view your projects via a web browser.
• Keep sensitive data under your control without entrusting it to foreign cloud services.

Merlin Server is by far the most efficient method as it only transfers the actual changes. File-based cloud services transfer entire files every time they are synchronized, which naturally eats up more of your data allowance. The cloud services we are familiar with, analyze which sections of a file have actually changed and only transfer those parts, keeping additional consumption in macOS within limits.

Merlin Project Go however does need to transfer each time entire files due to restrictions with the interfaces published by the cloud services. This is why MagicSync throttles the upload speed of changes from Merlin Project Go; it consolidates as many changes as possible into one upload as in most cases it doesn’t matter whether changes arrive immediately or with a few minutes’ delay. That said, if changes are urgent you can force Merlin Project Go to upload changes immediately.

Not at all. You can edit shared documents offline just as freely as personal documents no matter if you’re using a cloud service or Merlin Server. When you’re back online, everything synchronizes automatically.

If using Merlin Project, just call 'Merlin Project > Preferences > Subscription'. You can check your information by clicking onto the button 'Manage Subscription…'.

If having license files and wonder to which version they belong…
These are the file extensions for the various versions:

• Merlin 1: .pwreg
• Merlin 2: .merlinLicense
• Merlin Project 3: .mprojectl
• Merlin Project 4: .mprojectl
• Merlin Server 2: .merlinServerLicense
• Merlin Server 4: .mserverl

Note: If you can’t see the file extensions, right-click the file name and then click “Get Info”.

During a license installation, the license file will be copied into a specific directory of your Mac. When looking for the actual file on your mac, this is the exact path depending on your Merlin version:

• Merlin 1 or 2: ~/Library/Application Support/Merlin/Licenses
• Merlin Project 3: ~/Library/Application Support/Merlin Project/Licenses
• Merlin Project 4: ~/Library/Containers/net.projectwizards.merlinproject/Data/Library/Application Support/net.projectwizards.merlinproject/Licenses
• Merlin Server 2: /Library/Application Support/Licenses
• Merlin Server 4: /Library/Application Support/net.projectwizards.MerlinServer/Shared/Licenses

The download for Merlin Server 4 is available here.

No, there is no upgrade from Merlin Server 2 to Merlin Server 4.

Merlin Server is a completely new developed product, therefore an upgrade from a former version is not possible.

Our support team is effective and the service is free of charges. So just contact us. We are looking forward to receiving your email.
To better understand your question, please also provide information about the following:

General information:

• which Merlin version are you using?
• on which OS version?

Additional information in case of an issue or a crash:

• Can you describe your last steps before the issue occurred?
• Is it reproducible when you repeat your last steps?
• Is it only occurring when you work with a specific project file?
  Send us a copy of the project file for us to check.
• Send us screenshots, for example those of error messages
  Pay attention to send the images in a readable size and use original size with Apple Mail.
• Send us in addition the support profile.

We thank you for your understanding as phone support is not available.

Please send all questions regarding licensing, subscription, purchase and training opportunities to our sales team per e-mail.

Questions regarding the use of the software will be answered by our support team per e-mail.

We are always very grateful for receiving any related information as it helps all our users.

In preparation for the public beta phase, we have put Merlin Project through intensive testing; we cannot however simulate every possible combination of hardware and, in particular, how different software products interact with each other.

We appreciate your feedback.

Like many of our users, we also routinely use Wikipedia. This online encyclopedia includes information on a wide range of topics that we have on our mind from time to time. When considering new features for our project management software, we hunt for relevant articles which describe aspects of the particular feature from a project-management viewpoint, or we search for interfaces from third-party vendors which might be integrated into Merlin to give it great new functionality.

As it is important to us that high-quality information is provided free of charge and ad-free on a non-profit basis, we support Wikipedia – and we’d love it if you followed our lead. Donate to Wikipedia too

By the way, if you'd like to check out the Merlin Wikipedia article, you will find it here.

Yes. We have set up a forum for English as well as for German speaking customers.

• The English forum can be found on LinkedIn.
• The German forum is available on XING.