
                                Psion 3a

                               Plan 2.2.2

                               User Guide

                       Copyright Andy Clarkson 1995

INTRODUCTION

Plan is a project planning application for the Psion 3a. Plan allows a
project plan to be constructed from individual task components. Task and
resource details are entered into the application along with dependencies
between tasks. The application will then calculate the schedule for each
task and the project as a whole.

Each task has the following key values:

   - start date and time,

   - work,

   - resource work rate,

   - end date and time.

Usually only two or three of the above values are entered, with the other
values being calculated by Plan. For example:

   - A start date and time may be entered along with an amount of work
     and work rate, from which the end date and time are calculated.

   - Given a start and end date and time, and a rate, Plan will calculate
     the work. This could be used where a task has been completed, the
     start and end are known along with the average work rate but the
     exact amount of work needs to be calculated.

   - Given a start and end date and time and work, Plan will calculate
     the work rate. An example of a case where this could be used is
     where it is required to calculate the number of people who will need
     to work on a given task in order to complete it on a given date.

A resource may be assigned to a task at a given work rate. The resources
work hours, holiday information and work rate are then taken into
consideration when calculating when the task will end or the work
required for a task.

Consider a task which is estimated to take two man days to complete. One
man day being the time between the start and end of a normal working day
(set to 8.0 hours in this particular case). A resource is assigned to the
task where the resource has the following features:

   - A standard work day, starting at 9:00am, ending at 5:00pm

   - Works a standard week starting on Monday and ending on Friday.

The task start day is set to a Monday at 9:00am and the work set to two
days. Plan calculates the end of the task to be 5:00pm on Tuesday. Assume
now that the resource is only available to work on the task at a rate of
50% rather than 100%. Plan would now indicate the end of the task to be
Thursday at 5:00pm. Assume also that the resource takes one day holiday
on Tuesday. Plan would calculate the end to be Friday at 5:00pm. Suppose
that the task is completed and actually finished at 5:00pm on Wednesday
rather than 5:00pm on Friday. Plan will allow the end time to be set to
the actual end time and will then calculate the work given the start, end
and resource details to be one man day rather than two.

Dependencies may be set between tasks so that the start of one task
depends upon the end of another. If the first task is delayed the second
will also be delayed. Dependencies may be set for a number of reasons,
such as:

   - If one task cannot logically start until another task finishes, for
     example in a software development project the development may be
     dependent upon the requirements phase.

   - Resource limitations may impose dependencies, for example if two
     tasks need to be carried out by one person and the person works on
     the tasks sequentially then a dependency can be used between the
     tasks.

For a set of dependent tasks there will a number of the tasks which are
critical to the end of the project. If any one of these tasks are late
then the end of the project will be delayed. This set of tasks are
described as being on the critical path. It is important to know the
critical path for two reasons. Firstly it is useful in identifying the
tasks which it may be worth adding extra resource to in order to bring
the project in sooner. Secondly it is useful in highlighting those tasks
which will need to be monitored carefully when the project is in progress
in order for the end of the project not to be delayed.  For these reasons
Plan has an option which will calculate the critical path.

INSTALLATION

Copy the Plan application PLAN.OPA into a directory called \APP on any
drive and install from the system screen using the psion-i key. Copy the
PLAN1.OPO file into the same directory as the PLAN.OPA file. Create a new
directory called \APP\PLAN on any drive. Copy any optional plan modules
which are required into this directory. The currently available plan
modules are AGN.OPO, PS.OPO and MPX.OPO. Further modules may become
available at a later date. See the modules section for further details on
what the Plan modules do. A typical installation might be:

     M:\APP\PLAN.OPA
     M:\APP\PLAN1.OPO
     M:\APP\PLAN\AGN.OPO      (optional)
     M:\APP\PLAN\MPX.OPO      (optional)
     M:\APP\PLAN\PS.OPO       (optional)
     M:\PLN\EXAMPLE.PLN       (optional)
     M:\PLN\EXAMPLE.RES       (optional)

The plan and resource files used by Plan should be kept in a top level
directory called \PLN on either the internal disk or an external ram
disk. An example project plan called EXAMPLE.PLN along with a resource
file called EXAMPLE.RES are provided which may optionally be installed
into the \PLN directory.

Plan requires between 46k and 67k of disk space for installation
depending upon whether the optional modules are installed. 45k of run-
time memory is required in order to open a new plan and resource file.

This software is provided as is, without any warranty of any kind. The
author shall not be liable for any loss of data or damage arising from
the use of this software.

SHAREWARE REGISTRATION

Plan is shareware, which means that if you continue to use it you should
register with the author. The software may be freely distributed provided
all files in the package are included. A maximum of 10 tasks may be
entered until the program is registered by entering a special code via
the register menu option.

To register send a 10 UK pounds cheque to:

     Mr A. Clarkson,
     3 Ashmead Drive,
     Hardwick,
     Cambs.
     CB3 7XT.
     UK.

State the version of the program, which is 2.2.2, and where you obtained
the copy. This will ensure that everyone has access to the latest
version.

In return you will receive a password code which may be entered into
plan. This will remove the 10 task limit from Plan enabling up to 99 tasks
to be entered. You will also receive notification of new versions of the
software and you may have a say in how the software is improved in the
future. If you have an email address quote this in order to receive the
registration code via email more quickly.

For users outside the UK the following methods of payment will be
accepted:

     1)   10 UK pounds money order or cheque.

     2)   10 UK pounds in cash.

     3)   The equivalent of 12 UK pounds in local currency. (At the time
          of writing this is about 20 US dollars).

     4)   A non-sterling cheque to the equivalent of 14 UK pounds. (At
          the time of writing this is about 22 US dollars).

The additional charge for methods 3 and 4 is to cover currency exchange
charges.

For any further information I can be contacted via email at
andy@tiamat.demon.co.uk

KEY FEATURES

Plan has the following key features:

   - A separate file for each project plan with either plan specific or a
     shared resource file.

   - Up to 99 tasks may be entered, each having the following details:

        Id,
        description,
        start date and time,
        end date and time,
        work,
        resource,
        rate of work,
        work done,
        costs,
        user floating point value and text.

   - Calculation of end date and time, work or work rate for each task.

   - Task tracking. The actual work done may be input. A task may be
     rescheduled taking into account the work already done and the work
     remaining.

   - The labour costs may be calculated for a task along with the total
     costs for the project.

   - A task may be dependent upon up to four other tasks, with specified
     lag times with each dependency.

   - Any number of resources may be input, (subject to available memory),
     each having the following details:

        name,
        a three year holiday calendar,
        times for the start and end of work for each week day,
        labour charge per hour.

   - A Gantt chart view.

   - A pert chart view.

   - A resource allocation histogram view.

   - Auto layout of tasks in the pert chart.

   - Sorting of tasks by a number of attributes.

   - Calculation of critical path.

   - Export data to the Agenda application.

   - Print Gantt and Pert charts on a postscript printer.

   - Transfer projects between Plan and MS Project.

PROJECT AND RESOURCE FILES 

Plan uses two types of files: resource files, which contain resource
information such as holidays and work hours; and plan files, which
contain task details. Tasks in the plan file reference the resource
information in the resource file. Plan files have a file extension of
PLN, resource files a RES extension. Both of these files should be placed
in a \PLN directory either on the internal drive or external ram drives.
Placing these files onto flash cards is not recommended unless no changes
will be made to the data. The reason for not using flash cards is that
when updating a plan or resource file Plan will delete and recreate each
file when it is saved.

When opening a plan file Plan will look for a resource file with the same
name in the same directory as the plan file but with a RES extension. If
such a resource file exists this will be where Plan retrieves and stores
resource information. If such a file does not exist then Plan will look
for the resource file \PLN\PLAN.RES on the default disk. If this file
does not exist it will be created, indicated by a "Building calendar"
message when starting up Plan.

This scheme allows plan specific resources to be maintained, or shared
resources to be stored in the one common file.

Plan is a type three application, which means that any number of plans
may be opened at any one time. To do this use shift-enter to open
additional plan files from the system screen.

VIEWS

A number of different views are available within Plan. Pressing the
diamond key or shift-diamond keys changes the current display to one of
five views:

   - Task list

   - Gantt chart

   - Pert chart

   - Resource usage

   - Holidays

The first three views show tasks using different display formats. The
resource usage view shows resource working hours and a histogram of %
usage. The holidays view shows resource holidays. A view may be selected
either using the diamond key, from the diamond menu, or using the psion
key shortcuts.

When first starting Plan a task list view will be displayed. In the task
list view each task is shown on a separate line of the display. One of
the tasks on the screen will be highlighted and is referred to as the
current task. Pressing the up and down cursor changes the current task.
If there are more tasks than will fit onto the screen then when at the
top or bottom of the screen pressing the cursor key will scroll the
screen vertically to display the next task off the screen. Combining the
up and down cursor keys with the psion key will have the affect of
scrolling the display a screen-full at a time.

In the first three task views many of the same keys have the same
function, for example the up and down cursor keys change the current task
and the enter key edits the current task. In each of these views the
current task will be highlighted.

TASKS

To create a new task: position the highlighted area to the bottom of the
task list and press enter, or use shift-enter to insert a new task above
the current position. Pressing enter with a current task active allows
the tasks details to be altered. This will display a dialog box for
changing the following items:

Id.                   Each task has a unique four letter identifier used
                      to identify it in the pert chart and when setting
                      up task dependencies. This should be something
                      which is easily recognisable for each task.

Description.          A description of the task, up to 30 characters
                      long.

Task start.           The start date and time for the task. For new tasks
                      this defaults to the current date at 9am. If the
                      task is a new task which will ultimately depend
                      upon the end of another task the value entered
                      within these fields is not important. For an
                      existing task which depends upon other tasks the
                      label will be shown within brackets indicating that
                      the date and time are shown for reference only
                      (they may not be altered).

Task end.             The end date and time for the task. This item may
                      or may not appear according to the calculation
                      method for the task. Three options are available
                      for calculating the schedule for a task; either to
                      calculate the end of the task, the work required or
                      the rate. For new tasks the preference settings
                      control which of the end, work and rate items
                      appear, for existing tasks the task recalculation
                      option controls the items (accessed using psion-r).

Work.                 The work for the task is specified in days, hours,
                      minutes and seconds where the length of one work
                      day is given in the preference settings. This item
                      may or may not appear according to the calculation
                      method for the task.

Resource.             The resource allocated to the task. This should be
                      chosen from a list of existing resources. Pressing
                      tab will display the available resources. Note that
                      if many resources have been created (more than
                      around 28) then an edit box will be used rather
                      than a choice list. In this case the name of the
                      resource should be typed rather than using the tab
                      key.

Rate.                 The rate of work for the resource. This item may or
                      may not appear according to the calculation method
                      for the task. This is a percentage from 1% to
                      10000%. 100% would indicate, for example, one
                      resource working on the task 100% of the time, 200%
                      could indicate a resource consisting of two people
                      each working 100% of the time on the task.

To delete the current task press the delete key. This will copy the
deleted tasks details into an internal buffer. Pressing the psion-i key
will re-insert the task immediately above the current task. Note that any
tasks which were dependent upon the deleted task will no-longer be
dependent upon the task.

DEPENDENCIES

Making a task dependent upon another task implies the start of the task
is associated with the end of the task which it depends upon. Using a lag
time with the dependency allows the start of the task to be offset from
the end of the task by a given duration.

Pressing psion-d allows the current tasks dependencies settings to be
altered. This will display a dialog allowing up to four task dependencies
to be set. Each dependency implies that the current task should start
after the end of the task which it depends upon. The latest of all the
end dates will be used as the start date for the current task.

With each task dependency there is an option to set the current task to
start before or after the end of the task. In this case when pressing
enter a second dialog box will allow the precise interval before or after
the task to be set in terms of days, hours and minutes. The holidays and
work hours of the resource assigned to the current task will be taken
into consideration when calculating the time between the end of the
previous task and the start of the current task.

Once the current task is dependent upon other tasks the current tasks
start will be tied to the end of the other task(s). It will only then be
possible to manually change the start of the current task once work on
the task actually starts.

TASK LIST VIEW

The task list view is the default view used when first starting Plan. On
the left of the task list view two fields are displayed:

Task            The task id.

Description     The description of the task. If the task is on the
                critical path then this will be followed by an asterix(*).

The right hand side of the task list view will show one of two sets of
fields. To change which fields are displayed use the left and right arrow
keys. An arrow will appear either at the end or middle of the top line to
indicate whether the left or right arrow key should be used to shift the
fields to the left or right.

The first, default, set of fields which are displayed are:

Wrk.            The planned work for the task in man days.

Rate            The % of time the resource spends on the task.

Resource        The name of the resource assigned to the task.

Start           The start date and time for the task.

End             The end date and time for the task.

Calc            If the rate is calculated for the task a letter "R" will
                appear near the end of the line, if the work is
                calculated the letter "W" will appear, otherwise if no
                letter appears then the end date and time for the task
                will be calculated. If the task is underway a left arrow
                will appear at the end of the line, if the task is
                complete a cross appears, otherwise work on the task has
                not yet started.

The other set of fields which are available in the task list view are:

Done            Shows the amount of work done so far on the task as a
                percentage of the work planned.

Labour          Labour costs calculated for the task using the rate for
                the resource multiplied by either the planned work or the
                actual work done, whichever is the greater. The labour
                costs may be ignored for a task, i.e. set to 0 if
                required (see costs and user data section).

Fixed           Fixed cost assigned to the task.

Total           Total of the labour and fixed costs for the task.

Value           A user specified floating point number.

Text            A user specified 20 character text field.

COST AND USER DATA

The second set of items displayed in the task list view may be edited by
selecting the cost & data option from the task menu, or using the psion-b
key shortcut. This will display a dialog allowing the following items to
be set for the current task:

Fixed cost              Fixed cost assigned to the task.

Include labour costs    Either yes or no. If set to yes then the task and
                        plan total costs will include any labour costs
                        associated with the task. If set to no then the
                        labour cost will be shown as 0, regardless of the
                        amount of work or resource charge rate. In this
                        case the task and plan total costs will exclude
                        any labour costs for the task. Use no when a task
                        has no labour cost impact, e.g. for a fixed price
                        task where only the fixed cost field is used.

User value              A user specified floating point number.

User text               A user specified 20 character text field.

Note the currency symbol used throughout Plan is controlled from the
number formats menu option on the Control menu accessed from the Psion
system screen.

GANTT CHART

The Gantt chart shows the task id and description on the left of the
display along with the critical path flag. On the right of the display a
Gantt chart is shown. This chart shows a time axis at the top of the
screen with a bar for each task to indicate the duration of the task. The
current date will be indicated by a vertical line through the Gantt
chart.

The up and down cursor keys may be used as in the task list view to
change the current task and to scroll the screen up or down.

Pressing the psion-z key and the psion-Z key will increase and decrease
(zoom) the scale on the time axis. Depending upon the zoom factor the
time axis may show the month and date for the start of each week or date
for each day. There is a maximum and minimum limit by which the display
can be zoomed in or out in this way.

Pressing the left and right cursor keys will shift the time axis on the
Gantt chart on the right of the display by half a screen in the
appropriate direction. Holding down the psion key whilst pressing the
left and right cursor keys will shift the axis by a full screen in each
direction. Holding the shift key whilst pressing the left and right
cursor keys will shift the axis by a quarter of the screen at a time.
Note that there are limits to the amount by which the screen may be
shifted to the left or right according to the earliest and latest date in
the project.

Depending upon the preference setting "Holidays in Gantt", the holidays
associated with each resource may or may not be shown on the Gantt
chart.

PERT CHART

Within the pert chart view each task is represented as a box with the id
of the task inside. Dependencies between tasks are shown by lines between
the tasks. Any lag time will appear half way along the dependency line.
The critical path tasks are identified using thicker boxes (press psion-*
to see the critical path). Various task attributes may be shown above and
below each task box. The values which appear in these locations depend
upon the preference settings. Typically the start date for the task will
be shown above the task box and the end date below the box.

When first entering tasks, perhaps using the task list view, each new
task will not have an associated x and y co-ordinate position in the pert
chart. This position must be set before the task will appear on the pert
chart. There are various methods of accomplishing this:

   - The quickest option is to let Plan layout the pert chart
     automatically.

   - You can dynamically position the task using the cursor keys whilst
     in a dynamic move mode.

   - You can manually set the x, y co-ordinates for a task using a dialog.

To automatically layout the pert chart use the psion-l key. This will
display a dialog with two options: x mag and y shift. The x mag allows
the tasks to be spread out more horizontally. The y shift enables the
layout to be moved vertically up or down. When using this option for the
first time it is simplest to leave the values set at 1 and 0 respectively
and to press the enter key to layout the pert chart. This action will
automatically set the x, y co-ordinates for each task in the pert chart.
Generally each tasks x co-ordinate should be set according to its start
time. Due to space limits and dependency settings this may not be
possible for all tasks. In this case Plan will try to fit the tasks in as
best as it can.

Once the results of the layout option have been viewed the layout option
may be used again with the x mag and y shift values set to more
appropriate values to produce a better layout. If for example most of the
tasks appear at the top of the display, setting the y shift to a positive
value will generally move all the tasks towards the bottom of the
display. The y shift may be set to a value between -7 and +7. The x mag
value may be used to spread the tasks out more along the x axis. A value
of 1 will force Plan to try to fit all tasks onto one screen, a value of
2 would force Plan to use 2 full screens and so on.

The psion-y option switches Plan into a dynamic move mode where the
cursor keys will dynamically move the current task in the appropriate
direction. Combining the cursor keys with the psion key will move the
task more rapidly. Pressing any key other than the cursor keys will take
Plan out the dynamic move mode.

The current tasks x and y co-ordinates may also be manually set using the
psion-Y key.

Pressing the left and right cursor keys whilst in the normal pert chart
mode will shift the display to the left or right by half a screen. The
psion and shift key may be used in conjunction with the cursor keys to
shift the display by a full screen or a quarter screen at a time.
Allowing tasks to be placed off-screen enables pert charts to be
constructed for plans with a large number of tasks.

RESOURCES

Plan allows any number of resources to be created subject to memory
limitations. Each resource has a record of the work hours for each day of
the week in the form of a start time and end time. Each resource also has
a three year calendar which indicates specific days of the year which are
marked as work or non-work days.

By default when first using Plan only one resource will be available
called "General". This will be constructed using the following rules:

   - The current year will be used as the start of the three year
     calendar period.

   - The work/non-work days for the three year calendar will be set
     according to the work days which have been set in the time
     application.

   - The start and end time for each work day will default to 9:00am and
     5:00pm respectively.

When creating additional resources the work hours and holiday settings
are copied from the General resource. Consequently it will save time by
setting common work hours and public holidays in the General resource
before creating any additional resources.

To create a new resource use the psion-m key. This will prompt for a
resource name which must be unique. To delete a resource select the
psion-k option. This will display a dialog prompting for the name of the
resource to delete. Any existing tasks which use the resource will then
be switched to use the General resource.

There is a concept of a current resource in the same way that there is a
current task. The current resource is the resource which is displayed in
the resource holiday and resource usage views. To change the current
resource use the psion-w option.

WORK HOURS AND RESOURCE USAGE

The resource usage view shows when the current resource starts and ends
work for the seven days of the week along with a histogram indicating the
allocation of the resource to tasks.

The start and end times may be edited using the psion-U option. This will
display a dialog allowing the start times for each day of the week to be
edited. Select the appropriate times and press enter. A second dialog
will appear allowing the end times to be changed.

Note that for non-work days (usually Saturday and Sunday) it is best to
set the start and end time to the start and end time of a normal working
day. The resources holidays should be used to control non-working days
rather than the start and end times. This then allows specific non-
working days to be overridden in the resource holiday view if the
resource works the occasional non-work day.

The histogram on the right of the resource usage view indicates the total
percentage the resource is occupied over a given time period. The display
is similar to the Gantt chart in that it shows a time axis at the top of
the display. The left and right cursor keys and zoom keys affect the
display in the same way.

If a resource is assigned to two tasks 100% of the time for each task
over a given time period then this would be shown on the histogram as a
total of 200% over the given period. This enables over-allocated
resources to be pin-pointed.

There are various ways of resolving the problem of an over-allocated
resource, for example:

   - Reschedule one of the tasks, usually by making it dependent upon the
     other.

   - Assign another unused resource to one of the tasks.

   - Change the rates on one or both tasks.

If for example you have a task which takes 10 days at a rate of 100% and
another short task has to carried out for one day in the middle of the
task then either divide the long task into two separate tasks separated
by the short task or set the rate for the first task to 90% which would
extend it by the one extra day taken up by the short task. The
disadvantage in this latter case is that the resource usage histogram
would still indicate that the resource was over-allocated at 190% for the
one day. The advantage is however that the long task would not need to be
broken up.

Pressing the up and down cursor keys will scale the y-axis in increments
and can be used if the maximum percentage exceeds the top of the display.

Note that if a resources work hours and/or holidays are changed then the
Tab or psion-F key should be used to force a recalculation of all tasks.
Plan will not automatically recalculate tasks if any changes are made to
resource holidays or work hours even if automatic calculation is enabled
in the preference settings.

HOLIDAYS

The resource holiday view will display a full year view indicating the
holidays for the current resource. The view is similar to the year view
in the agenda application. Holidays are indicated by a black filled
square.

The cursor keys may be used to move the cursor from one day to the next.
Combining the left and right cursor keys with the psion key will move the
cursor to the start and end of the month respectively. Combining the up
and down cursor keys with the psion key will move to the previous or next
year.

Pressing the enter key will toggle the day on which the cursor is
positioned from a holiday to a work day and vice versa.

A three year calendar is available for each resource, within which
holidays may be set. When calculating task end times or work a resources
holidays will be taken into consideration. If a task falls outside a
resources three year calendar the resources holidays will be assumed to
match the rest days set in the time application.

The start year for the three year calendar period for all resources will
be the same. It may be changed for all resources using the psion-H
option. This will prompt for a new start year. All the resource calendars
will be reconstructed to start on the specified year. Existing holidays
will be copied if the new three year calendar range overlaps the old
calendar range. For years outside the old calendar range default holidays
will be set according to the settings in the time application. If a large
number of resources have been created this operation may take a few
minutes.

The start year for the calendars should not be changed unless all tasks
in all plans which reference the resource file within the period of the
calendar which is to be removed have been marked as complete. If this is
not true then the given tasks may subsequently be incorrectly calculated
if the resource had non-standard holidays in the given period.

TASK RECALCULATION AND TRACKING

For each task one of three values may be initially calculated: end, work
or rate. To control which is calculated for the current task use the
recalculation & tracking option on the task menu (psion-r). Set the
calculate option at the top of the dialog to the required value. The
calculation setting controls whether the work, rate or the end date and
time are calculated for a task. If the work is to be calculated then the
rate and end will need to be specified, and so on. Note that this setting
only controls the initial calculation for the task, if the task depends
upon other tasks which subsequently move then the task may shift along
with the other tasks. So even if the end date is specified in order to
calculate the rate initially this does not mean the end date is
permanently tied to this value, if the task is dependent upon other tasks
which change the end date may change.

When new tasks are created the initial calculation setting is governed by
the preferences setting.

The recalculation & tracking option also allows the progress for the
current task to be recorded and if necessary the schedule for the task to
be recalculated taking into consideration the work done so far.

On the recalculation and tracking dialog three options are available to
record actual work done:

Set work done (%)...        Selecting this option and pressing enter will
                            display a dialog which allows the work done
                            to be set to a value indicating the actual
                            work done as a percentage of work planned.

Set work done (time)...     Selecting this option and pressing enter will
                            display a dialog which allows the work done
                            to be set to a specific value in terms of
                            days, hours, minutes and seconds.

Add to work done (time)...  Selecting this option and pressing enter will
                            display a dialog which allows the work done
                            to be set by adding a time in days, hours,
                            minutes and seconds to the existing work done
                            value. This is useful when periodically
                            updating the work done, for example with the
                            previous weeks work.

When setting work done a date is shown which indicates when the date up
to which work done was last recorded. So if work done includes all work
done on the 1 Jan 94 then this date should be set to 2 Jan 94. If the

work done is changed then before pressing enter set the value to the date
which indicates the date up to which work done has been recorded. If the
date is left unchanged the date will be set to the current date
automatically. This date is important when calculating how much work is
left to do.

To assist with the setting of work done the dialogs will show the
targeted work done. This indicates how much work should have been done to
the current date and time if the task is to be completed on schedule.

Setting the work done for a task to a value greater than 0 will fix the
start of the task to its current value, regardless of how other tasks
change which it is dependent upon. It also allows the start to be
manually set to the actual start.

A task is assumed to be complete if the work done is greater than or
equal to the planned work. In the Gantt chart view tasks which are
complete are shown using a solid black bar. Tasks currently underway are
shown with a grey bar indicating the percentage completed so far, whilst
planned tasks are shown with a clear bar.

If a task is underway and work done has been recorded then this may be
used to assist with the recalculation of the tasks schedule. To do this
select the final option on the recalculation & tracking dialog:
recalculate using work done... This option allows the end, work or rate,
as indicated by the calculate option to be recalculated. It is similar to
using enter to change the current task details which also recalculates
the tasks schedule. The difference is that the recalculate using work
done allows the work done so far to be taken into consideration. The
dialog which appears when selecting this option will show the work
planned and done for comparison along with the date the work done was
recorded up to. These values may not be changed here. It is important for
the calculation that the work done and date are accurate. The remaining
options which may be updated on the recalculate using work done dialog
depend upon what is being calculated:

End                         The remaining work and work rate are
                            displayed. The remaining work shows how much
                            work is left to do to complete the task
                            (equals work planned minus the work done).
                            The remaining work rate shows the rate of
                            work required to complete the given amount of
                            remaining work in the remaining time left.
                            Updating either the remaining work and/or
                            rate will set the work equal to the work done
                            plus the remaining work, will recalculate the
                            end of the task and will set the rate for the
                            task to be the average work rate taking into
                            account the start, end and total planned
                            work.

Work                        The end date and time and remaining work rate
                            are displayed. The remaining rate shows the
                            rate of work required to complete the given
                            amount of remaining work in the remaining
                            time left. Updating either the end date
                            and/or rate will set the work equal to the
                            work done plus the remaining work and will
                            set the rate to be the average work rate
                            taking into account the start, end and newly
                            calculated planned work. The remaining work
                            is calculated by looking at the duration
                            between the date indicated as being when the
                            work done was recorded up to and the end
                            date, taking into account the remaining work
                            rate.

Rate                        The remaining work and end date and time are
                            displayed. The remaining work shows how much
                            work is left to do to complete the task
                            (equals work planned minus the work done).
                            Updating either the remaining work and/or end
                            will set the work equal to the work done plus
                            the remaining work and will set the rate for
                            the task to be the average work rate.

PREFERENCES

The following preferences may be set using the psion-q key or menu item:

                                  Plan

Font                  Small or Large

Pert top text         None, Start, End, Work, Rate, Resource, Done,
                      Labour, Fixed, Total, Value, Text

Pert bottom text      None, Start, End, Work, Rate, Resource, Done,
                      Labour, Fixed, Total, Value, Text

Holidays in Gantt     No shading, Day zoom, Week zoom, Month zoom

New Task Calculation  End, Work or Rate

Calculation           Automatic or Manual

                                Resource

Average work day      Time in hours and minutes

If the font size is set to large then double height characters will be
used in most of the views.

The pert top text and bottom text options control which items are drawn
above and below the task boxes in the pert chart.

The holidays in Gantt option controls the shading of holidays in the
Gantt chart. Any non-working days will be shaded grey for the particular
resource the task is allocated to. Note that shading can be time
consuming when zoomed out hence the options turn it off at larger scales.
The preference option allows the shading to be activated below a given
zoom level.

The new task calculation item controls whether for new tasks the end,
work or rate of work for a new tasks is calculated. For existing tasks
this may be controlled individually using the psion-r option.

If the calculation option is set to automatic then if any task changes
then any tasks which are dependent upon the task will also be
recalculated. This implies that it should never be necessary to force a
recalculation unless resource details change. When set to manual only the
task which is edited will be recalculated, in this case the Tab or psion-
F keys should be used to manually recalculate all tasks when required.
Note that the critical path is not automatically updated even if the
calculation option is set to automatic. The recalculate (Tab or psion-F)
or the critical path (psion-*) option should be used to update the
critical path.

The average work day option defines the duration of one normal work day.
This unit of work is used in the task list view. Typically this should be
set to the length of an average working day, including any breaks.

The preference settings are saved in the plan and resource file and so
will be used the next time the files are opened by Plan.

MODULES

Plan allows additional plug in modules to be installed. These modules
consist of OPO files which should be installed into a directory called
\APP\PLAN on any drive. When these modules are installed and the plan
application restarted an additional menu will appear at the end of the
main menu labelled "Modules". Each additional plan module will appear as
a separate item within the Modules menu. To access a module select the
corresponding item in the menu.

The currently available modules are:

   AGN.OPO     Allows tasks to be exported to an Agenda file.

   PS.OPO      Provides a postscript print facility for the Gantt and
               Pert charts.

   MPX.OPO     Allows projects to be transferred between the Psion Plan
               application and Microsoft Project.

Agenda module

The Agenda module provides a mechanism for transferring task details to
the Psion Agenda application. Plan will create a new agenda file which
contains a dated to-do entry for each task in the current open project.
The due date of each to-do item will be the end date for the
corresponding task. The start date of the task will be used as the date
from which the to-do will be displayed in the day/week view of Agenda.
The interface also provides a facility to set an alarm for each to-do
entry which will activate at the given time on the end date for the task.

Once the agenda file has been created there are two possible techniques
for using the file:

   - Maintain the file as a separate Agenda file and open it as a
     separate Agenda process.

   - Merge the file into an existing Agenda file. If this option is
     chosen then it may be best to rename the to-do list first to keep it
     separate from any to-do items in the main Agenda file. This is
     important since if the project plan is updated it will be necessary
     to remove the to-do items from Agenda before recreating them using
     the interface.

Postscript module

The postscript module may be used to print the Gantt or Pert chart on a
postscript printer. Selecting the print postscript menu option will
display a dialog which controls which chart to print along with the page
size and orientation. The custom width and height apply only if the page
size is set to custom. These give the smallest and largest measurements
respectively of the paper in centimetres.

When printing the Gantt chart a second dialog will appear which allows
the date range to be specified. This may be either the entire project,
derived from the current Gantt view, the remaining part of the project,
or a user specified date range. The custom start and end dates are used
only when the range item is set to "custom dates". The Gantt chart will
be paginated if necessary, the pert chart will always be printed on one
page.

The task list may be printed on most printers using the print option
included in the main Plan application. Although in theory it is possible
using the print option to print directly to a printer via the serial or
parallel port, better results may be obtained printing via a file. This
file may then be read into the Psion Word application and printed from
there using the appropriate printer driver and page settings.

The output from the postscript module and the standard print option is
sent to the device specified using the printer option on the control
menu from the Psion system screen.

Note that prints may be sent to a printer connected to a PC via the
RPRINT utility and a 3Link cable. RPRINT is included in the freely
available RCOM package developed by Psion, check your local source of
Psion PD software.

MPX module

The MPX module allows task and resource data to be exchanged with
Microsoft Project. To transfer a Plan project plan into a Microsoft
Project plan:

   - Ensure that the MPX.OPO module is installed in a directory called
     \APP\PLAN on any drive.

   - Restart Plan if the option "MPX transfer" does not appear in the
     Module menu.

   - Ensure the plan to be transferred is open.

   - Select the "MPX transfer" option in Plan.

   - Select "Export".

   - Enter the name of the MPX export file which is to be created.

   - The file will now be created. Press any key when complete to
     continue in Plan.

   - Transfer the MPX file to the relevant host machine.

   - Start up Microsoft Project and select the open file option. Choose
     the "MPX 1.0" file type rather than Project file type.

   - If asked whether the file should be merged into the current project
     choose "No". It is not possible to merge a plan into an existing
     Microsoft Project plan.

To transfer a Microsoft Project plan into Psion Plan:

   - Do a full recalculation in Microsoft Project.

   - Save the file as an "MPX 1.0" file and transfer it to the Psion.

   - Create a new Psion plan and resource file. The data may be merged
     into an existing plan and resource file provided the incoming task
     ID and resource initials are equivalent to any old ones.

   - Select the "MPX transfer" option in Plan.

   - Select "Import".

   - Enter the name of the MPX import file which is to be read.

   - The file will now be read. Look for any warning or error messages in
     the output. Press any key when complete to continue in Plan.

   - Make sure the length of an average work day is correct using the
     Psion Plan preferences setting otherwise the work values may appear
     at first sight to be incorrect.

Note the following points when importing data into plan:

   - Avoid modifying the standard Export tables in Microsoft Project.
     Plan requires the following task fields: ID, Name, Predecessors,
     Scheduled start, Scheduled finish, % Complete, Work, Fixed Cost,
     Number 1, Text 1. Plan also requires the following resource fields:
     ID, Initials, Standard Rate.

   - Plan expects a date format of the form "31/12/92 5:32pm" or
     "31/12/92 17:32". The date order is not important, e.g. 92/12/31 may
     also be used. Ensure the date format is set correctly in Microsoft
     Project preferences before creating the MPX file.

   - Plan uses the resource initials field for the resource name, this
     should be set in Microsoft Project.

   - Plan ignores dependencies of the type Finish-Finish and Start-
     Finish.

   - Plan will convert multiple resource assignments for one task to use
     the General resource.

   - Plan assumes a holiday lasts all day so avoid holidays which are
     less than a full day in Microsoft Project.

CHANGES

Version Date        Notes

1.0.1   May '94     Restricted alpha 1 release for evaluation purposes
                    only.

1.1.1   July '94    Restricted alpha 2 release for evaluation purposes
                    only.
                    Minor bug fix to dependency dialog.

1.2.1   Sep '94     Restricted alpha 3 release for evaluation purposes
                    only.
                    Added critical path option.
                    Enhanced pert task display to allow text above and
                    below task boxes to be set independently. Also added
                    resource, rate and status to list of options for PERT
                    task texts.
                    Adjusted positioning of tasks with auto pert layout
                    and position of texts above task boxes.
                    Increased maximum number of tasks from 74 to 99.
                    Increased maximum x-shift on pert chart.

1.3.1   Sep '94     Bug fix to zoom option in Gantt view when using new
                    project.
                    Changed duration to work.
                    Made building of default calendar faster.
                    Added optional modules menu.
                    Created MPX transfer module.

2.0.2   Oct '94     First public release.
                    Change in file formats.
                    Added extra task fields for work done, costs and user
                    data.
                    Renamed some of the menus and rearranged some of the
                    menu key activations.
                    Added recalculation and tracking options.
                    Amended MPX module to work with extra fields.
                    Added border to all views.
                    Changed print option to use system screen print
                    setup.
                    Added shareware registration.

2.1.2   Nov '94     Minor bug-fix, check for \PLN directory failed.

2.2.2   Jan '95     Added options to shade holidays in Gantt chart,
                    (enabled from the preferences setting).
                    Milestones now drawn differently in Gantt chart.
                    Shift-diamond works in opposite direction to diamond
                    key. Refresh can now be interrupted by diamond key.
                    Tasks can now be sorted by a number of fields.
                    New postscript printer module.
                    New module providing interface to Agenda.
                    A few other minor changes.
                    Fixed a few bugs.

COMMAND SUMMARY

The following keys/menu options are available:

Menu    Name                Key         Purpose

File    New                 psion-n     Create new plan file

        Open                psion-o     Open existing plan file

        Save as             psion-a     Save plan under a new name

        Save                psion-s     Save plan and resource file

        Revert              psion-v     Revert plan and resource files to
                                        latest saved versions

        Print               psion-p     Print task list to the serial or
                                        parallel port or a text file. Use
                                        the system screen printer control
                                        option to setup the print
                                        destination and parameters.

Task    Copy                psion-c     Copy current task into a buffer

        Insert              psion-i     Reinsert task from buffer

        Recalculate & track psion-r     Change current task calculation
                                        to end, work or rate plus access
                                        to tracking options

        Dependencies        psion-d     Change current task dependencies

        Cost & data         psion-b     Change cost and user data

        Pert Move           psion-y     Move current task in pert chart
                                        dynamically using cursor keys,
                                        any key exits mode

        Pert X/Y            psion-Y     Set current tasks x, y pert
                                        position

Resource Make               psion-m     Make a new resource

        Kill                psion-k     Delete a resource

        Rename              psion-j     Rename a resource

        Switch to           psion-w     Change current resource and
                                        display resource histogram
                                        display

        Set work hours      psion-U     Set work hours for current
                                        resource

        Pounds/hour         psion-W     Set labour costs for current
                                        resource

        Calendar start      psion-H     Set year for start of three
                                        holiday calendar for all
                                        resources

View    Zoom in             psion-z     Zoom in when within pert, Gantt
                                        or resource histogram views

        Zoom out            psion-Z     Zoom out when within pert, Gantt
                                        or resource histogram views

        Refresh             psion-f     Refresh screen

        Cursor off          psion-C     Turn cursor off until any key
                                        pressed (useful in combination
                                        with psion-control-shift-s which
                                        saves current screen to a file)

        Plan totals         psion-T     View plan totals for work, user
                                        value and costs

Special Set preferences     psion-q     Set preferences

        Critical Path       psion-*     Recalculate critical path

        Recalculate all     psion-F     Force recalculation of tasks (see
                                        also tab)

        Sort                psion-L     Sort tasks

        Layout pert         psion-l     Automatically layout tasks in
                                        pert chart

        Exit                psion-x     Exit plan

Modules -                   -           Optional modules (may vary)

Diamond Task list           psion-t     Switch to task list view

        Gantt chart         psion-g     Switch to Gantt chart view

        Pert chart          psion-e     Switch to pert chart view

        Resource usage      psion-u     Switch to resource usage view

        Holidays            psion-h     Switch to holiday view

(Keys)                      Tab         Force recalculation of all tasks

                            Enter       Edit current task details

                            Shift-Enter Insert a new task above current
                                        task

                            Delete      Delete current task

                            Help        Help system

                            Esc         Abort recalculate all

