Conditional Formatting

Hi Robert

I need to know a bit more abour what you mean by conditional formatting.

You can format all or any cell by using the Format Cell dialogue.

Best regards

Mike Testro

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your response.

Using Excel you can setup formatting on a cell which is conditional to the data contained within the cell, for example excel can automatically format the text in a cell blue if the value is less than a specified value, or less than a value in another specified cell. I was hoping to be able to do similar within Asta as part of a procurement schedule, so any missed dates would be formatted red bold for example.

At the moment i have solved it using the traffic light priority indicators however from a presentation perspective i think if the whole title was formatted red it would be clear to the reader which items are overdue or nearing overdue as i find the priority indicators do not print out very well.

Maybe you can create a signal of whatever color to highlight missed dates only and no signal at all if not, then color won't matter.

If you want to highlight the difference for those missed by certain amount and for those missed by more, maybe your software allows to change the signal graphic as to differentiate one from the other, again color won't matter.

You can even have a signal definition for one range shown in a separate column from the signal for the first range, again color won't matter.

Still I prefer the use of filtered reports and views rather than looking for subtle difference in colors among thousands of activities. We find signals and colors rather limited and confusing. My software provides for these and can even define Gantt Bar colors using a selected signal but we never use it.

Rafael,

Thanks for your input, i understand your meaning but unfortunately Asta PowerProject (as far as i am aware) only allows the colour change on a small round priority indicator's, which I find is usually overshadowed by the overall colour of the Gantt Chart.

I have gone a different way with this now, exporting all the data into an excel schedule with conditionl formats setup on the columns of importance to highlight late and early key dates. As a regular user of planning software I can extract the infomation I want form a programme quickly and easily however i think others may not be able to do the same, so an excel schedule containing just the relevent info would seem to make more sense.

Thankyou for your comments anyway.

Hi Robert

Sometning I have never used is the Priority colours in Tools > Options > Spreadsheet.

That may be worth investigating.

Best regards

Mike Testro

Robert,

I do not use Asta but consider it a great product. The following shows my ideas, the separate columns with only one range signal I got it by defining unwanted ranges color to be "none", prehaps you have this option. As you can see in this way the column title let you know what the signal means if you use the name for these purposes.

Mike,

The option you mention is not conditional but looks worth looking at if you have Asta, seems interesting to me.

Best regards,

Rafael