Options dialog - Spreadsheet tab

Select this check box to shade alternate bars differently in the spreadsheet, or clear the check box to shade all bars white. If you choose to shade alternate bars differently, select the colour with which to shade alternate bars. Once you have changed the way in which alternate shading is displayed, you must refresh the window for the change to take effect.

A task and all its allocations take the same shading, so you can easily distinguish which allocations are on which task.

Customising bar shading in the spreadsheet

Select this check box to display different images for the high, medium and low priorities in the priority indicator that is displayed when the Priority column is included in the spreadsheet, or clear the check box to display the priority indicator using coloured dots only.

The following images are used:

- high.

- medium.

- low.

Displaying images in the priority indicator as well as - or instead of - colours helps colour-blind users to differentiate between the high, medium and low priorities. It also makes the different priorities more clear if you print to a monochrome printer.

Defining the priority indicator appearance

Select this check box to display the high, medium and low priority colours in the background of the Priority column when it is displayed in the spreadsheet, or clear the check box to display the colours in the priority indicator only.

Defining the priority indicator appearance

Select the foreground colour, background colour and pattern to apply to the Priority column for high priority items.

Note that if you select the Display detailed images check box, these colours are not applied to the priority indicator, but only to the spreadsheet cell background.

Select the foreground colour, background colour and pattern to apply to the Priority column for medium priority items.

Note that if you select the Display detailed images check box, these colours are not applied to the priority indicator, but only to the spreadsheet cell background.

Select the foreground colour, background colour and pattern to apply to the Priority column for low priority items.

Note that if you select the Display detailed images check box, these colours are not applied to the priority indicator, but only to the spreadsheet cell background.

Specify the way in which cell formatting is pasted into the Asta Powerproject spreadsheet when you copy data from another application such as Microsoft Project or Excel, or from the Asta Powerproject spreadsheet:

• 'Keep text only'. When pasting data that has been copied from another application, or from the Asta Powerproject spreadsheet, only the data is pasted. Any formatting of the source cells is ignored. The data takes on the formatting of the destination spreadsheet cells.
• 'Merge formatting'. When pasting data that has been copied from another application, only the data is pasted. Any formatting of the source cells is ignored. The data takes on the formatting of the destination spreadsheet cells.
  
  When pasting data that has been copied from the Asta Powerproject spreadsheet, both the data and the formatting are pasted. Any formatting of the source cells is merged with the formatting of the destination spreadsheet cells: if a source cell has specific formatting applied, this will overwrite the formatting of the destination cell.
• 'Keep source formatting'. When pasting data that has been copied from another application, or from the Asta Powerproject spreadsheet, both the data and the formatting are pasted. Any formatting of the source cells is merged with the formatting of the destination spreadsheet cells: if a source cell has specific formatting applied, this will overwrite the formatting of the destination cell.

If you are going to copy and paste data from other applications into Asta Powerproject and you want to retain the formatting, select 'Keep source formatting'; otherwise, select one of the other two options, as 'Keep source formatting' introduces specific cell formatting into the spreadsheet which can degrade the performance of large projects over time.

Copying and pasting spreadsheet data

Select this check box to delete cost allocations automatically when their value is set to zero, or clear the check box to allow cost allocations to have their value set to zero without being automatically deleted.

Configuring Asta Powerproject to retain cost allocations that have been set to zero may be useful if you compare costs in the live data against costs in baselines, as this means that the corresponding cost allocations in your baselines are not ignored, as they would be if the cost allocation were deleted from the live data.

Select this check box to specify that the Table Definition Properties dialog should appear automatically when you insert a column into the spreadsheet, or clear the check box if you do not want the dialog to appear.

Specifying that the dialog should appear makes it easier to configure new columns to display precisely the information that you want.

Adding columns to the spreadsheet

Select this check box to highlight Start and Finish fields that represent actual dates or dates that are constrained by a start or finish flag. This provides you with a way of seeing which dates are actual dates or constrained dates without having to display the Actual start, Actual finish, Start constraint date and Finish constraint date fields in separate columns in the spreadsheet.

Highlighting actual and constrained dates in the spreadsheet

Select this check box to display code breakdown structure subheadings using the colours that you select in the fields to the right, or clear the check box to display subheadings using the colours that have been assigned to each code. The subheadings in a code breakdown structure identify the name of each code and include a 'fake' summary task that identifies the earliest and latest dates of the items to which each code has been assigned.

Displaying a code breakdown structure