Format Calendar View dialog - General tab
You use the General tab of the Format Calendar View dialog to specify the way in which tasks are displayed in the active calendar view. You can specify whether to display tasks using the appearance of the codes that have been assigned to them, or using a standard appearance for each type of task. You can also specify which spreadsheet fields you want to display on each task to identify them, and the font in which this information is displayed.
If you click the From task radio button on the Allocations tab of this dialog, the appearance settings that you select on this tab apply to allocations as well as to tasks.
How to access the Format Calendar View dialog
To access the Format Calendar View dialog, on the Format tab, in the Format group, click Format Calendar when the active view is a calendar view.
Explanation of the fields and buttons on the dialog
| Field/Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Code library | Select this check box to colour tasks in the calendar view according to one or more code libraries, which you can select by clicking the Display Libraries button, or clear the check box to display tasks in the calendar view according to their default appearance, as specified in the Default appearance grid on this tab. |
| Display Libraries |
Click this button to display the Multiple Display Libraries dialog, which you can use to specify which code libraries to use to colour tasks in the calendar view. You can use more than one code library at a time to colour tasks. Tasks are coloured according to the codes from the selected libraries that have been assigned to them.
If a task has no code assignments from any of the selected libraries, it is coloured according to the default task appearance, as specified in the Default appearance grid on this tab.
|
| Week start day | Specify the day of the week on which you want weeks to start in the calendar view. Weeks start on Sunday by default, but you may want to change this to another day - Monday, for example. The day you select will appear at the far left of each week in the calendar view. |
| Change Font | Click this button to select the font in which to display the spreadsheet fields that you are displaying on each task. |
| Opacity | Use this slider to specify the transparency of the text in front of the background of each task. If text is difficult to see, moving this slider to the right will improve its visibility. |
| 1 | Select the first spreadsheet field to display on each task. For example, you might want to display each task's name, or unique task ID. |
| 2 | If you want to display more than one spreadsheet field on each task, select the second field here. Otherwise, select Blank. |
| 3 | If you want to display more than one spreadsheet field on each task, select the third field here. Otherwise, select Blank. |
| Default appearance | Use this grid to specify the appearance of different types of task in the calendar view, when tasks are not coloured according to one or more code libraries. For each type of task you can select from the following colouring options in the Option column:
|
How do I...
... specify the day of the week on which weeks start in the calendar view?
Specify the day of the week on which you want weeks to start in the Week start day field. Weeks start on Sunday by default, but you may want to change this to another day - Monday, for example. The day you select will appear at the far left of each week in the calendar view.
... display tasks in the calendar view according to the appearance of the codes that have been assigned to them?
- Select the Code library check box.
- Click Display Libraries. The Multiple Display Libraries dialog appears.
- Select the code libraries that you want to use to colour tasks by adding them to the Show libraries in this order field.
- Determine the order in which code libraries are used to colour tasks by moving the code libraries up or down in the list in the Show libraries in this order field.
Code libraries at the top of the list take priority over those lower down the list. If a task is assigned a code from more than one display library, its appearance is taken from the library that appears nearest the top of this list. - Click OK to return to the Format Calendar View dialog.
- Click Apply.
... display tasks in the calendar view using a standard appearance for each type of task?
- Clear the Code library check box.
- For each type of task, click the Option column in the Default appearance grid and select one of the following colouring options:
- Theme - select this option to colour tasks according to the colour scheme that is currently selected.
- Pattern - select this option to colour tasks according to the foreground and background colours and pattern that you select in the columns to the right.
- Blend - select this option to colour tasks with the foreground and background colours that you select in the columns to the right, with the foreground colour at the top of each task graduating into the background colour at the bottom of each task.
- If you have selected either the Pattern or Blend colouring option, select the foreground and background colours to apply to each type of task in the Foreground and Background columns; if you have selected the Pattern colouring option, select the pattern to apply to each type of task in the Pattern column.
- Click Apply.
... specify which spreadsheet fields to display on each task in the calendar view?
You can display up to three spreadsheet fields on each task in the calendar view, to identify the tasks.
Select the fields you want to display on each task in the Task data display fields.
You can configure the information that some fields display by specifying parameters. For example, if you choose to display certain cost-related fields, you can select a specific cost centre and a specific range of dates. If the field that you select supports parameters, the 
button to the right becomes enabled. Click this button to access the Attributes dialog, in which you can specify the parameters.
Click Change Font to specify the font in which to display the information and use the Opacity slider to specify the transparency of the text in front of the background of each task. If text is difficult to see, moving this slider to the right will improve its visibility.
The text that you display on each task is truncated if necessary to fit within the bounds of the task in the calendar view. If text is truncated in this way, you can view the complete text by hovering the mouse pointer over the task.