180 Part 1: Overview and Configuration
Working with Indicators
Indicators are a special type of user-defined field (UDF) that enable you to select color-coded icons as values for display in columns, group and sort, filters, and reports. Indicator UDFs can be used to highlight Activities, Activity Steps, Activity Resource Assignments, Projects, Resources, WBS, Expenses, Issues, Risks, and Work Products & Documents. For example, you could group activities based on priority or status using Indicator UDFs.
Like all other UDFs, you can perform the following functions using
Indicator UDFs:
For more information on defining UDFs, refer to “Working with User-Defined Fields” on page 178.
•display in columns
•group and sort data based on indicators
•filter data based on indicators
•perform global changes
•display as labels on timescale bars
•view indicator data in reports using columns, group and sort, and filters
Defining Indicator UDFs From the Enterprise menu, click User Defined Fields. Click Add, then select the Subject Area to which you want to add the indicator UDF. In the Data Type field, select Indicator. Enter a name (e.g., High Priority) in the Title field and click Close.
Selecting Indicator UDF values Once you create an indicator UDF, you can assign indicator values. You must create columns for indicator UDFs in order to assign values to a particular activity, resource, project, etc.
An indicator UDF can have one of four values: red, yellow, green, or blue. These values, shown in the next figure, are selectable icons in a drop-down list when you click on a UDF field. You must select one of these values whenever you enter a value for an Indicator UDF, whether in columns, group and sort, filters, reports, global change or bars.
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Working With User-Defined Fields 181
Indicator UDF example As an example, assume you want to create an Indicator UDF that signifies status and priority of activities based on the following parameters:
•Red - high priority activities that have not started
•Yellow - high priority activities that have started
•Green - completed activities
•Blue - low priority activities that have started
First, you could create an Indicator UDF in the User Defined Fields dialog called Priority Indicator. Then, in Activities, you would create a column for the Priority Indicator UDF. In the Priority Indicator column, you would identify the activities you want to add an indicator value to, click in the Priority Indicator field, and select the appropriate value. You could then group, sort, and filter data based on the Priority Indicator value. The Activity Table would look similar to the following figure, with Indicators grouped by type.
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182 Part 1: Overview and Configuration
Indicator UDFs in columns, group and sort, filters, bars, global change, and reports Modifying columns, group and sort, filters, bars, global change, and reports to include Indicator UDF data is functionally the same as other types of UDFs.
The values will display as icons in each of these cases, except reports. In reports, Indicator UDF columns show the text value of the icon (i.e., rather than displaying the icon, the value is red, yellow, green, or blue), as shown in the next figure.
Indicator UDF icon values display as text in reports.
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