Resource Usage Properties dialog - Appearance tab

To access the Resource Usage Properties dialog, click Properties in the left pane of the resource usage view, or right-click an allocation row in the resource usage view and select Resource Usage View Properties.

The Grouping and display rows grid on this dialog displays the following information about each level of grouping/sorting for which you specify appearance settings; note that the initial row in the grid relates to the rows in the resource usage view that display information about resources or cost centres, rather than grouping/sorting rows:

The dialog displays the following buttons:

The dialog displays the following fields relating to the display of permanent resources' allocation status; these fields apply only when the resource usage view is configured to display information about permanent resource allocations, and have no effect when information about consumable resource, cost or income allocations is displayed:

The dialog displays the following fields relating to the resource usage view display:

In the initial row of the Grouping and display rows grid, click in each column to specify the text colour, background colour and font settings to apply to the rows in the resource usage view that display usage values for resources or cost centres.

1. Click Add to a new row to the Grouping and display rows grid if required.
2. Click in each column of the appropriate row in the Grouping and display rows grid to specify the text colour, background colour and font settings to apply to the rows in the resource usage view that indicate the way in which resources or cost centres are grouped/sorted.
3. Select a row and click Remove to delete it from the grid if required.

If the resource usage view is configured to display information about permanent resource allocations, you can choose to highlight whether the resources are under-allocated, fully-allocated or over-allocated during each day, week, month or quarter. A resource usage view that highlights the allocation status of resources in this way is known as a "heat map". Heat maps give you an instant visual indication of resources' allocation status.

1. Use the Based on radio buttons to specify the way in which you want to measure the allocation status of permanent resources:
• Click the Effort radio button to determine whether resources are over or under-allocated according to the total number of hours for which they are assigned and for which they are available in each period. This type of allocation check works by totalling the assigned hours for the resource (or skill) for each day, week, month or quarter and comparing this to the number of hours for which the resource is available. For example, if the resource usage view is configured to display a column for each month and a resource has 165 hours of availability in a particular month, the resource will appear as follows in the resource usage view: under-allocated if they are assigned for fewer than 165 hours in the month; fully-allocated if they are assigned for exactly 165 hours in the month; over-allocated if they are assigned for more than 165 hours in the month.
• Click the Allocation radio button to determine whether resources are over or under-allocated according to their allocation amounts in each period. This type of allocation check works by examining the resource's (or skill's) allocation amounts for each day, week, month or quarter and comparing this to the number of the resource that is available to be assigned. For example, if the resource usage view is configured to display a column for each week and a resource has an available allocation of 1.00, the resource will appear as follows in the resource usage view: under-allocated if at some point during the week the sum of the allocation values on their permanent resource allocations is less than 1.00; fully-allocated if the sum of the allocation values on their permanent resource allocations is exactly 1.00 for the whole week; over-allocated if they are assigned for more than 165 hours in the month.
• Click the None radio button to display information about permanent resources in the resource usage view without colour-coding to indicate their allocation status.
2. Use the Highlight radio buttons to specify whether you want to indicate allocation status by highlighting the text in each cell of the resource usage view or by highlighting the background of each cell.
3. Use the Colours fields to specify the colours with which to indicate the allocation status of resources.

Click the appropriate radio button in the Display units group to specify whether to display values on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. Click the Auto radio button to specify that the columns in the resource usage view should be set automatically, according to the scale at which the bar chart is set at any one time.

Select the Zero as blank check box to configure the resource usage view to display nothing in the case of a zero value, or clear the check box to configure the resource usage view to display a zero ('0').

Select the Show detail labels check box to specify that an additional column should be displayed in the resource usage view, indicating the type of value that is displayed in each row (Actual, Remaining, Total or Avg. allocation), or clear the check box to omit this column. It is useful to display this column when you select more than one of the Detail styles check boxes on the Allocations tab of the Resource Usage Properties dialog.

Select the Show tool-tip check box to specify that a tooltip should be displayed when you hover the mouse pointer over cells in the resource usage view, displaying further details of the resource or cost centre usage for the period in question, or clear the check box to omit these tooltips.