November 2024 Newsletter

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Video: Timeline from MS Project

See how you can use our “Link to Active MS Project Task” to create a nice looking timeline in Milestones Professional. The cool thing is that you can update the schedule automatically when your MS Project dates change.

Check out the video below:

Check out our Videos page to see all of our available videos. You can also directly go to our Youtube Channel to see them as well.

Be sure to Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for all the latest and greatest Milestones software videos!

November 2024 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for November 2024

Set up a swimlane schedule
I want to create a “Swim-Lane” chart.  How do I get started?

Assign specific text to a toolbox symbol
Is there any way that I can assign each toolbox symbol to have a specific text to it or to include the task name next to each symbol automatically so I don’t have to do it manually?

Add a percent complete symbol in a column
How do I add a percent complete symbol to a column?

Blank custom symbol in the toolbox when sharing
I am sharing my schedule with others.  However, when I share the schedule, all of my custom bitmap symbols are missing and show up as blank symbols in the toolbox.

Add a link
Hey, can I insert a link into my schedule?  Does it go in a text box or is there some special vehicle for it?

Attach a date heading to a task row
I want to add a date heading about half-way through my schedule.  Is this possible?

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for November 2024

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023 for only $199 (if you already own any version of Milestones Professional).

To see what has changed, check out our “What’s New in Milestones Professional 2023” page.

Join the Milestones Professional Users LinkedIn Group

For anyone interested, there’s a free Milestones Professional user group on LinkedIn you can join to share best practices, network with other users, and maybe learn some tips along the way from other experienced Milestones users. To join, head over to the following website and click Join: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=6796817

Note: This user group is an unofficial group run by Milestones software users, and is not managed by KIDASA Software, Inc. A free LinkedIn account is required to join the group.

September 2024 Newsletter

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Video: Logarithmic Date Headings

Did you know that you can expand certain months on your schedule?Using Logarithmic Date Headings, you can make certain time frames up to 8 times larger!

Check out the video below:

Check out our Videos page to see all of our available videos. You can also directly go to our Youtube Channel to see them as well.

Be sure to Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for all the latest and greatest Milestones software videos!

September 2024 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for September 2024

Copy symbols from one schedule to another
I need to copy some symbols on one schedule to another schedule.  How can I do this?

Sanitize a project schedule
Is there a quick way to remove all links to any and all milestones in your file quickly, without having to go to each milestone?   We’d like to strip off all links associated with milestones within a file and any short names we’ve given or placed on a file.

Calculate BCWS using baseline duration
I have a row with many milestones (20 or so).  I would like to calculate the difference between two specific milestones on each row of my schedule.  (Start up date and First Delivery Date) Any ideas?

Frequency of use of a toolbox symbol
Is there a way to get a summary of how many times each toolbox symbol has been used?  I need to identify which symbols in the toolbox have been used the least.

Calculate difference between two milestone dates on a row with many milestones
I have a row with many milestones (20 or so).  I would like to calculate the difference between two specific milestones on each row of my schedule.  (Start up date and First Delivery Date) Any ideas?

Change the default save location
I would like to change the default location where charts are saved.  How can I do this?

Change the font size of many symbols at once
I want to change the font size of all symbols at once.

Customize the toolbox
I notice that the Milestones schedules all have different toolboxes.  Can I customize my toolbox so that when I create new schedules, I always start with the same toolbox?

Date format and importing from Excel
We are trying to import a spreadsheet from Excel to Milestones. We have correctly mapped the dates to the proper fields, yet the start and finish dates are not appearing in the Milestones schedule. What is the solution?

Date heading divider override
In the Date Heading area: is there a way to make the background color dark and the divider lines lighter?

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for September 2024

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023 for only $199 (if you already own any version of Milestones Professional).

To see what has changed, check out our “What’s New in Milestones Professional 2023” page.

Join the Milestones Professional Users LinkedIn Group

For anyone interested, there’s a free Milestones Professional user group on LinkedIn you can join to share best practices, network with other users, and maybe learn some tips along the way from other experienced Milestones users. To join, head over to the following website and click Join: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=6796817

Note: This user group is an unofficial group run by Milestones software users, and is not managed by KIDASA Software, Inc. A free LinkedIn account is required to join the group.

August 2024 Newsletter

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Video: Tips and Tricks #4 for Milestones Professional

We made another Tips and Tricks video, this time talking about copying / moving symbols between rows, Filtering your rows by symbol type, 3 different ways to show Vertical Text, and more!

Check out the video below:

Check out our Videos page to see all of our available videos. You can also directly go to our Youtube Channel to see them as well.

Be sure to Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for all the latest and greatest Milestones software videos!

August 2024 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for August 2024

Only one letter showing for month
I am trying to recreate a template that we use in Milestones Professional.  In the attached format, the month is represented by one letter versus 3.

Remove shadow from some symbols
I have several triangle symbols on my schedule.  That said, I only want to show a shadow on a few of them. Is it possible to do that without having to change all of them?  I can’t find the option when I click on the triangles that I want to change.

Find a task row
How do I add column data that shows me the “Task Row” that my milestone/bar is on? In “Symbol Properties” I can open tab “Vertical Links” to see that I have connected my milestone to “Task Row 403” but I have no way of finding that row.

Horizontal bar height
I need to change the vertical width of horizontal bars on my schedule.  Right now I want all the horizontal bars to be much thicker.

Month after start of contract date headings
Would it be possible to show date heading as a monthly count based on an event or milestone without utilizing custom heading options?

We would like to show range of month before milestone as count down (e.g. -1, -2, -3 and so on of the month from project award, and +1, +2, +3 of month after project award).

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for August 2024

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023 for only $199 (if you already own any version of Milestones Professional).

To see what has changed, check out our “What’s New in Milestones Professional 2023” page.

Join the Milestones Professional Users LinkedIn Group

For anyone interested, there’s a free Milestones Professional user group on LinkedIn you can join to share best practices, network with other users, and maybe learn some tips along the way from other experienced Milestones users. To join, head over to the following website and click Join: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=6796817

Note: This user group is an unofficial group run by Milestones software users, and is not managed by KIDASA Software, Inc. A free LinkedIn account is required to join the group.

June 2024 Newsletter

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Video: Automation using Programming in Milestones Professional

Did you know that Milestones Professional has an Automation interface? You can use macros in Excel, and other programs to create schedules inside Milestones Professional automatically, using the data inside Excel.

This video shows one example, and you can find more examples in the Help Tab > Automation Help.

Check out our Videos page to see all of our available videos. You can also directly go to our Youtube Channel to see them as well.

Be sure to Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for all the latest and greatest Milestones software videos!

June 2024 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for June 2024

Trouble changing schedule start and end dates
I have this one schedule which is giving me fits.  For some reason, I am unable to change the start and end date range for the schedule.  Any ideas?

Vertically linked symbols not moving as expected
I have my symbols vertically linked and they are not moving as expected

No change or unexpected changes after schedule refresh
I have a schedule and MPS that I have an issue with updating. The schedule is tagged to the MPS but the MPS is not updating.

Tag a column that contains fill color overrides
Could you explain the purpose of the “or Column tag of Override Fill Color” feature in the Symbol Properties>Size/Color/Summary menu, and how to use this feature? I’m unable to find any information on it in either the User Manual.

Symbol text too far away from symbol
My symbol text is spaced too far away (vertically) from my bar.

Task row height adjustment
How can I adjust the height of a task row?  How do I reset the height to its original setting?

Switch-to views for fast date switching
Can I easily switch to another time period?

Set percent complete from several tasks (on one row)
We have a Milestones Professional plan linked to Microsoft Project.  Is it possible to show the % complete from Microsoft Project if there is more than one bar per row?  I have read various documents in the Knowledgebase but haven’t seen any document that indicates whether this is possible.

Remove page breaks
How do I get rid of my page breaks so that Milestones just puts the same number of tasks on each page?

Need larger toolbox
Is there a way to increase the size of the tool box? it is too small to see what symbols I need to use. I’m using a very high res monitor.

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for June 2024

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023 for only $199 (if you already own any version of Milestones Professional).

To see what has changed, check out our “What’s New in Milestones Professional 2023” page.

Join the Milestones Professional Users LinkedIn Group

For anyone interested, there’s a free Milestones Professional user group on LinkedIn you can join to share best practices, network with other users, and maybe learn some tips along the way from other experienced Milestones users. To join, head over to the following website and click Join: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=6796817

Note: This user group is an unofficial group run by Milestones software users, and is not managed by KIDASA Software, Inc. A free LinkedIn account is required to join the group.

April 2024 Newsletter

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Video: File Compare in Milestones Professional

If you have two Milestones Professional schedules, each tagged with Unique Identifiers (such as UniqueID from MS Project or ActivityID from P6), you can compare the differences to any tagged dates by using our “File Compare” feature.

Check out our Videos page to see all of our available videos. You can also directly go to our Youtube Channel to see them as well.

Be sure to Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for all the latest and greatest Milestones software videos!

April 2024 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for April 2024

Individual symbols displaying in the summary bar
If I add a milestone to a task row, it’s also showing up on the summary bar.  How can I turn this off for the entire schedule?

Copy and paste a toolbox to another schedule

Copy and paste a legend from one schedule to another

Make a hidden legend reappear
I hid the legend and now I need to put it back on the schedule.  After I hide the legend, how do I get it to reappear?

Use a bitmap graphic as a symbol
I have an image bitmap of a company symbol that I would like to use as a Milestones symbol.  How can I do this?

Vertical link to a symbol on the same task bar
Do you know how you can link to task within the same task bar? I would like to create a vertical link between two symbols on the same row.

Want a different triangle shape
Is it possible to get a different triangle symbol?  I see there are several to choose from but I have a specific requirement.

  

Want solid connector (not dashed) after status date
How do I make the horizontal connector between the triangles solid and not dashed after the status line?

Symbol note frame and background
I see that I can change the background color for the symbol note.  But what if I want to get rid of the background color and the frame?  Is this a possibility?

Attach a picture to a symbol
I would like to attach a picture to a symbol.  Is this possible?

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for April 2024

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023 for only $199 (if you already own any version of Milestones Professional).

To see what has changed, check out our “What’s New in Milestones Professional 2023” page.

Join the Milestones Professional Users LinkedIn Group

For anyone interested, there’s a free Milestones Professional user group on LinkedIn you can join to share best practices, network with other users, and maybe learn some tips along the way from other experienced Milestones users. To join, head over to the following website and click Join: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=6796817

Note: This user group is an unofficial group run by Milestones software users, and is not managed by KIDASA Software, Inc. A free LinkedIn account is required to join the group.

March 2024 Newsletter

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Video: Timeline Schedule Creation in Milestones Professional

We start from scratch and create a Timeline Schedule in Milestones Professional. This might give you some good ideas for your own schedule.

Check out our Videos page to see all of our available videos. You can also directly go to our Youtube Channel to see them as well.

Be sure to Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for all the latest and greatest Milestones software videos!

March 2024 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for March 2024

Add a date to a note
Is there a way to have the date be part of the Note?

  

Add a tag to a symbol
I added a symbol to my schedule and want to link it to Microsoft Project.  What’s the easiest way?

Adjust the position of symbol within a task row to relieve crowding
Symbols on a task row are close together, if not on top of each other. How can I display them better?

Comment symbols
How are Milestones’ Comment symbols generally used in a schedule?

Compare two files after refresh
I have refreshed my Milestones Professional schedule with the latest dates from Microsoft Project.  Is there any way to see the deltas for tasks which have been changed?  Like this?

Extra thick line on schedule
I can’t figure out how to get rid of this extra thick line on my schedule.  It’s apparently not a grid line and I can’t pick it.

Hide the dates on summary lines
When I roll-up all lower-level task bars to the summary line, I would like to hide the symbol dates.  Is this possible?

Hide the legend
I don’t want to show a legend on the bottom of each page. Is there a way to make that space disappear so I can use that space for more task lines per page?

Lost vertical connections
I have lost my schedule’s vertical connections, globally (all of them!).  Any ideas how that happened?

Moving symbol note is slow
Is there a faster way to move symbol notes?  I am using the toolbar directional arrows but find them sluggish

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for March 2024

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023 for only $199 (if you already own any version of Milestones Professional).

To see what has changed, check out our “What’s New in Milestones Professional 2023” page.

Join the Milestones Professional Users LinkedIn Group

For anyone interested, there’s a free Milestones Professional user group on LinkedIn you can join to share best practices, network with other users, and maybe learn some tips along the way from other experienced Milestones users. To join, head over to the following website and click Join: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=6796817

Note: This user group is an unofficial group run by Milestones software users, and is not managed by KIDASA Software, Inc. A free LinkedIn account is required to join the group.

February 2024 Newsletter

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Video: Filter and Sort Columns in Milestones Professional

Learn how to sort and filter your columns in Milestones Professional with this new video. Check it out below!

Check out our Videos page to see all of our available videos. You can also directly go to our Youtube Channel to see them as well.

Be sure to Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for all the latest and greatest Milestones software videos!

February 2024 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for February 2024

Date heading only shows letter on some pages
My date heading shows some months with the full name and others with an abbreviation.  Is there a way to make it consistent?

Symbol text not aligned
How can I get the numbers, which are symbol text to line up?  You can see that the first one is lower than the others.

Can’t remove picture
I’ve put together a schedule that contains imported (copy-and-paste) graphics.  For some reason, there is a graphic towards the top of my schedule that I can’t get rid of.  I can’t even click on it.  Any idea why?

Expand width of some column titles
I see some samples which appear to have some column entries spanning more than one column.  What’s the procedure to do this?

EV line takes a sharp drop
I have attached a file showing EV calculations I am doing for a project. I notice that the EV curve takes a dive after the current date“ or close to it. For the life of me I cannot understand this behavior.

Showing trends with a bar
Can Milestones’ bars show trends?  If so, how?

Create your own symbol dates
If you build custom date headings, can you get the symbol date format to correspond to those headings, rather than a specific calendar date?

Copy and Paste: one Excel column to Milestones
Can I select one column of information in Excel and paste that column into Milestones?

Unique ID
Is there a way to quickly see the Unique IDs on each symbol while I’m working on a Milestones chart?

Using Templates
Every time I start a new schedule, I format it the same way, including color scheme, toolbox choices, number of rows per  page, etc.  Is there an easier way?

Display Numerical Value
My calculation/indicator column is only showing the symbol indicator.  How do I get the numerical value to show as well?

Printing by Time Period
My schedule spans 12 months. I would like to print a separate sheet for every 3 months.

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for February 2024

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023 for only $199 (if you already own any version of Milestones Professional).

To see what has changed, check out our “What’s New in Milestones Professional 2023” page.

Join the Milestones Professional Users LinkedIn Group

For anyone interested, there’s a free Milestones Professional user group on LinkedIn you can join to share best practices, network with other users, and maybe learn some tips along the way from other experienced Milestones users. To join, head over to the following website and click Join: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=6796817

Note: This user group is an unofficial group run by Milestones software users, and is not managed by KIDASA Software, Inc. A free LinkedIn account is required to join the group.

January 2024 Newsletter

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Tips and Tricks #3: Milestones Professional

We made a great video for this month with some new Tips and Tricks, including:

  • Two symbols on top of each other
  • Global symbol date format
  • Vertical / Sideways text in column
  • Dependency Mode
  • Change Background of individual Rows
  • Symbol Text Background

Check out our Videos page to see all of our available videos. You can also directly go to our Youtube Channel to see them as well.

Be sure to Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for all the latest and greatest Milestones software videos!

January 2024 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for January 2024

Show hidden columns when all are hidden
I hid the only column on my schedule.  Now my schedule has no columns.  How do I add a column on the left?

Two symbols on top of each other
Is there any way to move milestones in front or behind when they are stacked on top of each other with overlapping dates? I don’t want to use vertical symbol position and move to another level.

Bar colors change unexpectedly after refresh
I have a schedule with several joined bars.  P3 is supposed to be filled blue but stays white.  Then, after I refresh, the bar for P2 disappears and P3 fills as expected:

See bar status color in toolbox
My bars are all the same color before status, but they have a different after status color, how do I tell them apart in the toolbox?

Link to Active MS Project Tasks not working
I am trying to bring tasks into my Milestones schedule from Project server.  I’m not getting any errors, but nothing is coming in

Remove a shadow under a bar
Can anyone advise how I may remove shading under a bar and legend entry?

Get list of all Project UIDs in Milestones schedule
I’m using Symbol Links to an MS Project file. Is there a way to get a list in Milestones Pro of all the UIDs I am linked to?

Numbers or letters inside symbols
I need to have numbers inside my triangle symbols.  Right now I am using symbol text and the text is pretty small and hard to re-size when the symbol sizes change.  Is there an easier way to do this?

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for January 2024

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023 for only $199 (if you already own any version of Milestones Professional).

To see what has changed, check out our “What’s New in Milestones Professional 2023” page.

Join the Milestones Professional Users LinkedIn Group

For anyone interested, there’s a free Milestones Professional user group on LinkedIn you can join to share best practices, network with other users, and maybe learn some tips along the way from other experienced Milestones users. To join, head over to the following website and click Join: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=6796817

Note: This user group is an unofficial group run by Milestones software users, and is not managed by KIDASA Software, Inc. A free LinkedIn account is required to join the group.

December 2023 Newsletter

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Coded Import Options from MS Project into Milestones Professional

We made a great video for this month on importing from MS Project.

This video shows almost all of our Coded Import options for getting your tasks from MS Project over to Milestones Professional.

This video covers lots of different import options, including “Birds on a Wire”, “Coded Presentation Timeline”, “Coded Symbols and Bars”, “Coded Finish Dates”, and a few more.

With these import options, you can either set up a Text field in MS Project to group tasks together during the import, or you can even use Number fields with a couple of the options, to tell Milestones how to display the tasks.

Check out our Videos page to see all of our available videos. You can also directly go to our Youtube Channel to see them as well.

Be sure to Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for all the latest and greatest Milestones software videos!

December 2023 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for December 2023

Global symbol date changes
My symbols are not showing dates.  I’ve tried unhiding dates in the toolbox and also individually.  Why won’t the dates show up?

Highlight changed dates when refreshing
I refreshed my schedule and choose the option to highlight the changes.  Now, how do I turn off the highlighting?

Transfer a license
The last user of one of our milestones licenses has left the company.  How do we transfer his registered license to another user at our company?

Skipping dates when moving with mouse
In a Gantt chart when I try to move an end date, it always seems to skip one day of the week (i.e. Mon, Wed, Thurs, Fri). The day skipped changes as well. I have checked all calendar options and cannot determine why it is doing this.

Sorting by dollar values
I need to sort tasks by dollar amount and dollar categories.  How is this done?

Anchor text to a symbol
Is there a way to anchor  a string of text to a symbol or a task row?

Bars not filling in on imported schedule
I imported my Microsoft Project schedule into Milestones Professional.  I want the bars to fill to the status date.  Most of them don’t do this.  Why not?

Change a symbol’s color
How can I change the color of a single symbol on the schedule?

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for December 2023

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023 for only $199 (if you already own any version of Milestones Professional).

To see what has changed, check out our “What’s New in Milestones Professional 2023” page.

Join the Milestones Professional Users LinkedIn Group

For anyone interested, there’s a free Milestones Professional user group on LinkedIn you can join to share best practices, network with other users, and maybe learn some tips along the way from other experienced Milestones users. To join, head over to the following website and click Join: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=6796817

Note: This user group is an unofficial group run by Milestones software users, and is not managed by KIDASA Software, Inc. A free LinkedIn account is required to join the group.

October 2023 Newsletter

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Milestones Professional ValueSet Type 4: Values from Symbols

Did you know you can add DataGraphs to the bottom of your Milestones Professional Schedule?

In this video, we cover one of the types of ValueSets that you can graph, ValueSet 4 (where you can assign values to symbols).

Check out our Videos page to see all of our available videos. You can also directly go to our Youtube Channel to see them as well.

Be sure to Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for all the latest and greatest Milestones software videos!

October 2023 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for October 2023

Show baseline dates without showing baseline symbols
Is it possible to display baseline fields in the schedule’s columns but not show the baseline symbols and bars in the Gantt chart?

Show date and text on same line for a symbol
I have a few symbols on my schedule for which I would like to display both the start date AND the text on the same line on the left side of the symbol.  Is there a way to combine the symbol text and the date?

Vertical connectors on a multi-page schedule
My schedule has many vertical connectors, connecting dates across pages.  When I look at the connectors, it’s often challenging to determine which page they are connected to.  Is there anything I can do to make this easier?

Multiple legend rows
I would like to have a legend with multiple rows and 4 entries per row. How do I add a 2nd or 3rd row in the legend?

Move a symbol and keep the same date
When I move symbols to another task row, the dates changes.  I want the dates to stay the same when the symbols are rearranged on the schedule.  Is there a way to make them stick to their original date?

Insert page breaks
I need a couple of page breaks in my schedule so that I can have a couple of short pages.  Is this possible?

Flag tasks that are nearing completion
How can I display symbols in a column to indicate which tasks are, for example, 50%, 75%, 90% complete?  I want to show which tasks are complete, which ones haven’t started and so on.

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for October 2023

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2023 for only $199 (if you already own any version of Milestones Professional).

To see what has changed, check out our “What’s New in Milestones Professional 2023” page.

Join the Milestones Professional Users LinkedIn Group

For anyone interested, there’s a free Milestones Professional user group on LinkedIn you can join to share best practices, network with other users, and maybe learn some tips along the way from other experienced Milestones users. To join, head over to the following website and click Join: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=6796817

Note: This user group is an unofficial group run by Milestones software users, and is not managed by KIDASA Software, Inc. A free LinkedIn account is required to join the group.