May 2022 Newsletter

Video: Vertical Text in Milestones Professional

You can have vertical column text, vertical symbol text, and vertical freeform text.

See how to do that, and some common formatting options for the vertical text in our newest video.

See the video on YouTube below.

If you don’t have access to YouTube, check out our .MP4 Downloadable Milestones Professional Videos Page

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

May 2022 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for May 2022 

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for May 2022 

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021 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 2021” 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 2022 Newsletter

Video: Insert a Baseline

Learn how to insert a baseline into your Milestones Professional schedule.

This video also shows you how to set up your Baseline task and summary options as well.

See the video on YouTube below.

If you don’t have access to YouTube, check out our .MP4 Downloadable Milestones Professional Videos Page

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

April 2022 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for April 2022 

What is the best way to approach creating a schedule in Milestones Professional so I can make global changes to symbols and horizontal bars currently on the schedule?

Usually when I go to refresh a Milestones Professional schedule from Project, I am asked to select the Microsoft Project file name.  I have one schedule (only one!) which never prompts me to select a file and I wonder what’s going on.  Any ideas?

How can I have fiscal quarters and calendar year quarters, as shown above?

I need to add a page of text explaining why any scheduled date has changed. Is there a way I can link “Milestones” to a “Word” document?

I often forget where I put my Milestones schedules and have trouble finding them.  Help!

I would like to remove the password on all my Milestones Professional charts.  I have approximately 12.  Do I really have to send them to you to remove the password.

We keep our schedules in a shared folder on our server.  Can we control who has access to each Milestones schedule?

When I am importing an Microsoft Project plan, Microsoft Project loads all tasks (and Milestones) of the plan. That’s too much because the plan consists more than 2500 tasks.  Only the major work packages, not every task are relevant to the report I want from Milestones Professional.  Is there a way to only load certain tasks such as up to level 3?

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for April 2022 

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021 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 2021” 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 2022 Newsletter

Video: Append Tasks during MS Project Refresh

Learn how to append tasks when you Refresh your schedule from MS Project.

You can also use a Flag field to limit which tasks get appended, and you can use a Number field to tell Milestones which row to place the task on.

See the video on YouTube below.

If you don’t have access to YouTube, check out our .MP4 Downloadable Milestones Professional Videos Page

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

March and February 2022 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for February 2022 and also the Tips and Tricks for March 2022

Is there a way to change the height of a row using Milestones Professional Automation?

I am trying to show symbols above a bar, like this example.  Can you tell me what the trick is?

How many vertical links can start from a single symbol?

We use milestones for schedules and also for machine timing charts. When doing timing charts, we usually use 1 day as equal to 1 second. When cycles are really short, then we use 1 day equal to 1 millisecond, so 1000 days is equal to 1 second. We have a header type (within Date Headings Dialog Box) of Daily 1,2,…30, 31,32,33… Even though the frequency settings allows entry of numbers above 60, it seems to not change anything on the header. So the time breakup in header for frequency of any value above 60 is always 0—-60—120—180…… and is not readable due to everything running together. Is there a way to change this so that the header is 0–250—500—750—1000?

My coworkers still have Milestones Professional 2019 and I need to share my schedule with them.  How do I do this?  I have version 2021.

I have a schedule I am importing from Microsoft Project.  Each time we do a delivery we have a task in Microsoft Project which has the word delivery.  I would like to create a schedule which displays the delivery dates and also shows the total number of deliveries per month.  Is anything like this possible?

When I use the curtain/shading option, certain tasks are omitted from the shading, why is this?

How can I move a group of symbols about 2 months to the right all at the same time?

I am using Milestones Professional to build a chart for our management.  The task bars I am inserting (which should be solid) have a white stripe through the middle of them.  Here’s a picture.

 I need to display custom header and footer information on all pages of my schedule.  Is this possible?

I have the Symbols: Fill to Status Date and Bars: Fill to Status Date options toggled on.  However, it is not working. What could be disabling this feature?

I want my symbol to look like this.  Is it possible?

I want to remove all of the baseline symbols and status symbols on my schedule. Is there an easy way to do this?

I need to create a data graph with both bars and lines on the same DataGraph area.   It appears that DataGraphs  can either be bar graphs or line graphs, but not a mix.    Suggestions?

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for February 2022 and also the Tips and Tricks for March 2022

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021 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 2021” 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 2022 Newsletter

Video: Valuesets (1 and 3) and Datagraphs

Using a Type 3 valueset, you can spread column values over the duration of each task, and have them graphed automatically on the bottom of the schedule.

You can also use a Type 1 valueset if you’d like to manually enter data for each date range.

See the video on YouTube below.

If you don’t have access to YouTube, check out our .MP4 Downloadable Milestones Professional Videos Page

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

January 2022 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for January 2022

Line thickness in PDF files

Why are the line weights so heavy when creating a PDF?  It really makes the schedule hard to read and is not good for presentations.  Is there something I can do to fix this?

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?

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?

Force a symbol to be “on top”

I have two different symbols that appear on the same day.  I want to be able to choose which symbol appears on top.  Is this possible?

Need to change UIDs in Milestones as Project UIDs have all changed

A significant number of tasks in my Project file have been reassigned new UID’s, and I need to manually re-establish them in Milestones Pro. I can see them in the automation tag report, but is there a way to mass-delete them, without having to click every symbol and remove the tags manually?

Change the font size of many symbols at once

I want to change the font size of all symbols of a certain type.  Do I need to select the symbols individually and change them one by one?

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for January 2022

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021 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 2021” 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 2021 Newsletter

Video: Make a Christmas Tree in Milestones Professional 2021

Check out this video to see how to create a Christmas Tree in Milestones Professional. I create my own tree and then show you a couple more examples that my co-workers created as well.
Even if you don’t want to make a Christmas Tree, you will probably still learn a few new things in Milestones Professional!
See the video:

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

December 2021 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for December 2021

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for December 2021

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021 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 2021” 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.

November 2021 Newsletter

Video: Import, Link, Refresh from Primavera P6

If you’re using Primavera P6, you can use Milestones Professional to display exactly whatever tasks you would like to show, by importing the .XER file or building your own schedule and linking the tasks individually.
You can also use the Refresh Process to update your Milestones Professional schedule automatically.
See the video:

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

Dashboard Chart Examples

Automobile dashboards advanced over time, now, giving a full view of the car’s operations. No more kicking tires to see how the car is performing.

Don’t wait for a blow out on your project, use Milestones Professional to create a project management presentation dashboard for an overview of how well your project is performing.

With Milestones Professional show Progress, Budget, Status, Percent Complete, Indicators in your project management presentation dashboard.

See our Dashboard Chart Examples page

November 2021 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for November 2021

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for November 2021

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021 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 2021” 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 2021 Newsletter

Video: Basics Training in Milestones Professional (part 2/2)

Here is part 2 of the Basics Training for Milestones Professional 2021. In part 2 of our Basics training course, I talk about the Toolbox, setting up Symbols and Bars, adding them to the schedule, changing the background of rows, Symbol Text, Symbol Notes, and Exporting and Saving your schedule.
Of course these videos are not interactive (where you could ask the trainer questions), but it’s a great way to get a nice overview of Milestones Professional.
See the video:

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

October 2021 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for October 2021

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?

Assign specific text to a toolbox symbol
Is there any way that I can assign each toolbox symbol to have a specific letter or string of 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?

Change the start and end dates for a schedule
Right now my schedule only shows 3 months. I want it to include all the months in the current year. How is this done?

Choose default symbols and bar to use for summary tasks
I want to change the symbols used for the summary bars. How do I do this?

Need to do a detailed 1-wk schedule
I need to present a chart showing work performed on a project over the course of a week. I need to set up more than one entry per day per line. I would like to be able to schedule work in 15 – 30 min increments. Is there any way to accomplish this with your software ?

Hide time in date columns
I only want to show the date in the Start and End date columns. Right now, I see the date plus the time. Is there a way to hide the time?

Hide calendar icons
All of my date columns display small calendar icons. Is there a way to remove these?

Hide several task rows in a single operation
I know how to hide a single task. Is there a way to hide several tasks in a single operation?

Change the shape of a symbol based on status
I would like a symbol to change both color and shape when it’s completed. Is this possible?

Bars not filling in
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?

Automation interface to Milestones
Is there a VBA or Visual Basic interface for Milestones? I use VBA to perform automation from PowerPoint, Excel, Word and Project and it would be useful if I could access Milestones Professional similarly.

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for October 2021

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021 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 2021” 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 2021 Newsletter

Video: Basics Training in Milestones Professional (part 1)

We’ve decided to record some longer videos that cover most of what you learn if you had bought the Basics training course on our website.
Of course these videos are not interactive (where you could ask the trainer questions), but it’s a great way to get a nice overview of Milestones Professional.
See the video:

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

September 2021 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for September 2021

Dialog box keeps appearing
Sometimes on a schedule I get this message that pops up multiple times. Is there a way to stop it from popping up and is there any action or format I should be looking at? I click okay each time.

Clone a schedule
I have a schedule which I want to replicate for a new project. How can I make a new schedule based on a schedule I already have? The new schedule needs to be the same as the original schedule but, of course, the start date of my new project will be different.

Symbols disappear after refresh
Some of my symbols are disappearing after I refresh the schedule from Microsoft Project. Help!

Symbol text background
The area around my symbol text is blanking out parts of the symbols. Is there any way to change this?

Two digits for fiscal year date headings
I am using fiscal year date headings. Right now they are two digits. I would like to show 4 digits. How is this done?

Create your perfect Milestones toolbox
I want to create a toolbox to use with all of my schedules. Please advise.

Enlarge all symbols of a certain type
I have a bunch of green triangles on my schedule (and many other symbols as well). What I would like to do is enlarge all of the green triangles. I don’t want to change my toolbox. Is there another way to do this?

Show symbols above or below the bar
How do I add a downward pointing triangle, arrow or other symbol to the toolbox so that when added, it adds the milestone below or above the bar? I want to have a bar with several milestones above it but may also want to show milestones below the bar.

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for September 2021

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021 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 2021” 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 2021 Newsletter

Article: Successfully Present Your Projects

Project managers deal in details; management wants a snapshot.  How can you translate your project details into a brief summary which clearly conveys the status of the project?  This guide offers methods for how to create clear, concise project reports along with a few tips on what to report when you don’t know where to start.

In the article, you will learn more about these areas:

  • The ready-for-prime-time project status report
  • What to report when you don’t know where to start
  • Budget status presentations
  • Get the most information on a single-page report
  • Viewer-friendly earned value reports
  • Summary reports with drill-down
  • Baseline and current schedule reports
  • Major milestone summary reports
  • And much more.

Read the article: Successfully Present Your Projects

Video: Moving Symbols and Bars in Milestones Professional

In this video, you’ll learn how to change the date of a symbol, change the dates of ALL your symbols, or change the dates of just a few symbols that you select.
You can also shift the dates of an entire row in Milestones Professional, or even move symbols and bars to different rows entirely.
See how in the video:

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

August 2021 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for August 2021

Distorted symbols in PowerPoint

Have a problem when copying a Milestone chart with triangles and other symbols into PowerPoint.

Link a Microsoft Project schedule to my Milestones chart
I generated a Milestones Professional schedule from scratch based on the data in one of my Project Files. (I didn’t import them.) So now that I’ve done this, is there a way to link the symbols on the schedule back to the right tasks in Project so I can later update the Milestones symbols and bars whenever the dates in Project change?

Legend and DataGraph Placement
Is it possible to have a Legend and DataGraph(s) shown at the same time?

Lines on ends of bars not showing
When I print my schedule, the lines at the ends of the bars are missing. What could be causing this? I am using symbol shape #28 (blank symbol). On the screen the bars look fine.

Move a symbol and keep the same date
When I move a symbol to another task row, the date changes. I really don’t want it to change. Is there a way to prevent this?

Move Milestones to primary monitor
I am using Remote Desktop to access my computer at work. Sometimes my Milestones software is not visible. I think it’s because it is on my secondary monitor. Is there any way to force it to my primary monitor for Remote Desktop?

Move one symbol only
When I move one symbol on my schedule, other symbols are moving too. Help! I only want to move one symbol.

Move a task to another spot
I would like to move a task to another spot on the same page. How is this done?

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for August 2021

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021 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 2021” 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.

July 2021 Newsletter

Video: All About Date Headings in Milestones Professional

Learn all about Date Headings in this video, including Custom Date Headings:

Article: All About Date Headings in Milestones Professional

We also have an article if you’d like to read all about the different date heading options in Milestones Professional.

Read the article: All About Date Headings in Milestones Professional

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

July 2021 Tips and Tricks

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for July 2021

No vertical lines in date headings
We have created a new schedule and in the date headings we have displayed the Months, however there are no vertical lines separating the month titles. I have the vertical lines within the schedule but want the lines in the date headings area too. I have searched high and low…Can you tell me how to add these?

Numbered date headings
I want numbers instead of letters or month names in the date headings. This is for a project proposal. I don’t know when the project will start.

Show dates at the bottom of the schedule
Is there a way to show date headings at the bottom of the schedule?

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?

For these and more, view Tips and Tricks for July 2021

Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021

Click here to Upgrade to Milestones Professional 2021 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 2021” 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.